Agreed, the GSP and import costs are killing the overseas market, I will definitely pay more for a local card than an overseas one.

Shipping and cost have always been a balancing act. Lately the separation has been significant. Not sure what you mean by ebay's shipping charges. When I sold stuff (it's been awhile) I always set the shipping charge.

Then when they started taking taxes out it made things even worse.

Re: EBay’s shipping charges…

As you said, I said the cost of shipping within the UK. I sold internationally using eBay’s Global Shipping Programme. I ship to their UK centre and they forward it on. They set the price for the international part of the shipping cost and it’s on the higher side of average. The plus for me is that they deal with the customs paperwork, and absorb the cost of the parcel is lost (only happened once). The downside is that the cost puts people off bidding.

Was looking up my Danny Elfman card on ebay. One sold in May for $133. Same card is now up for sale by some sports seller at $888.88.

Make things worse, compared to mine the sig looks like the pen was running dry.

Beware of the flippers folks!

Here's mine for more comparison:

quote:

Originally posted by simon1978:
I’ve spent the last 12 months clearing out my collection (thanks if you’ve bought) and it’s been odd seeing some of the prices given the BIN availability on eBay.

One thing that’s struck me though has been the location of the cards - I’m in the UK and some of mine (low level value, I’d say) have gone for significantly more at auction than they’re available elsewhere on BIN but it looks like all of those are overseas - so maybe it looks like the cards have gone for a higher value but really it’s a UK bidder wanting to avoid overseas shipping and taxes. They’ve paid more for the card to avoid more on those.

On the other side, I know (from some less-than-pleasant messages) that some overseas bidders have been put off bidding due to eBay’s international shipping charges (I’ve used GSP throughout) so I know that some cards, including ones people have quoted on here at times, will have sold for less because international bidders have been put off by those same shipping costs and taxes.

Having just realised I have bought some of your Trek cards over the last couple of months, I can absolutely confirm this.

To use the Kelsey Grammer as an example (been looking for one for YEARS, big Fraiser fan, THANK YOU for selling )

US BIN available at same time for £62/$75
Bid and won yours for £74/$90

UK postage £7/$8.50
US postage £37/$45 ($21 postage + $24 import charges via the GSP)

So £81 to buy locally vs. £99 overseas, saving a solid 20 quid.

Then when decent sellers such as yourself pack well and combine shipping, I was incentivised to buy more cards and save more money by avoiding more overseas shipping charges.


I understand overseas buyers being frustrated by the GSP fees, and its unfortunate people sent you rude messages, but I do use it when I sell. Some buyers don't care, some do, but overall the protection can be useful...

When I sold some Bond cards a few years back, a buyer in Australia went on a bit of a spree and bought about 20 autos in 3 bulk lots. All to be sent via GSP.
One of those lots was not received by the buyer and was deemed "missing in transit" and £600 was frozen in my PayPal account. But because I sent the cards Special Delivery to the UK GSP shipping centre, the tracking number/delivery confirmation was enough for eBay to automatically designate the loss as the fault of the shipping centre and both myself and the buyer got our money back with minimal fuss.
I dread to think how more difficult it would have been dealing with overseas postal services if posting the good old fashioned way.

Strangely enough, when doing my usual eBay trawling, all of the missing cards turned up together on eBay a year or so later. Having been part of my collection for such a long time I recognised the signatures and I still had the original images to confirm the signatures were indeed those EXACT cards. They were even still in the toploaders sealed with the tape in the same way as I had sent them to the GSP centre.
As first I thought they were stolen, however the seller clearly didn't know what they were (they were listed so terribly), a long time had passed for it to be opportunistic, and looking into their account and business address, they dealt in sales of lost mail.

Was it genuinely lost? Stolen? I'll never know and I'm not terribly reassured of the copetency of the GSP centre, or the trustworthines of its employees.
I did leave a sour taste but myself and the buyer were OK and the re-seller sold for far less than I did originally. Although IMO, not their money to make.


I do miss the 'good old days' (around 2007) when it was $2 to the £1 and sellers would ship to the UK from anywhere in the world for $3-$15. I bought some truly great cards for what would be obscene bargains these days.
Options to purcahse within the UK are too limited now (you have to jump on auctions such as Simon's where longtime collectors sell up, which does not happen often), otherwise it's too much hard work buying cards from overseas because and postage is ridiculous compared to the cost of the item itself.

I still really want lots of cards but I won't pay the crazy prices post-Covid, and I won't pay another 50% of the purchase price in postage.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: X,

quote:

Originally posted by X:

I do miss the 'good old days' (around 2007) when it was $2 to the £1 and sellers would ship to the UK from anywhere in the world for $3-$15.

We all miss those days. From the late 90's and on for another 10 years everything was great. It's all been downhill from there.

I loved those $2 to £1 days too. I bought no end of things from the US. And because it was so cheap, I didn't even mind getting the odd thing caught for customs charges. Everything bought outside the UK now, has to be a very considered purchase. I guess that means I stick to quality rather than quantity, so I can't be so spontaneous.

2013 Nimoy/Shatner combo sig just sold for $996
35th Ann combo $950

both unslabbed

Nimoy single sig cards have been shooting up.

Kim Kardashian Spectrum of the Stars auto has been selling for $1000+. $4K for the die cut version.

quote:

Originally posted by webjon:
Kim Kardashian Spectrum of the Stars auto has been selling for $1000+. $4K for the die cut version.

Gotta admit, I will never understand it. Difficult to believe that Kardashian fans are card collectors.

quote:

Originally posted by mykdude:
Difficult to believe that Kardashian fans are card collectors.

Difficult to believe that there are millions and millions of Kardashian fans. I wouldn't give a dime to anyone in that family.

While most of the rises revolve around Signature cards there are more than just Signature cards EG Sets Insert Promos etc. Also there are now other platforms that cards are sold and traded on these are not included in the mix also there are a lot of collectors that no one knows about who silently go about procuring cards for their collection that no one hears about. Recently some of the earlier Sets that have been issued by my interest producer have had price rises being asked for earlier issued sets .
Although not large priced being asked there is up to 1000% rise in base and insert cards within these sets
So the rises in price or being asked are just not in the signature card world they are all over ( But the Sports Card world takes the cake )
Here are a couple of cards that have sold over the last month I dont know wether they have risen or not
Serenity SSD-2004 Promo Card sold for GB 150 Pound
I do not know wether the Vendor has any more available but he dose not have any more listed in his Inventory
Buffy 7 B7UK with Gold Seal no Embossing as Case Loader sold for GB 100 Pound
Both from the same vendor not by auction but bin no offers
Most of these rises are not doing any new collectors any favours as they do not have the ability to be able to procure good cards for their collections thus putting them off the hobby .

quote:

Originally posted by piko:

Buffy 7 B7UK with Gold Seal no Embossing as Case Loader sold for GB 100 Pound

well that's about £1 for the card and £99 for a little sticker, i'm sure i have some little stickers around here somewhere,

James Cameron went for $5k in July.

quote:

Originally posted by mykdude:
James Cameron went for $5k in July.

Wow.

This has to be investor/sports guy money, right?

quote:

Originally posted by webjon:

quote:

Originally posted by mykdude:
James Cameron went for $5k in July.

Wow.

This has to be investor/sports guy money, right?

I have no idea.....just happy I have one that I didn't pay that price for.

quote:

Originally posted by Raven:

quote:

Originally posted by mykdude:
Difficult to believe that Kardashian fans are card collectors.

Difficult to believe that there are millions and millions of Kardashian fans. I wouldn't give a dime to anyone in that family.

Nor would I.

quote:

Originally posted by mykdude:

quote:

Originally posted by webjon:

quote:

Originally posted by mykdude:
James Cameron went for $5k in July.

Wow.

This has to be investor/sports guy money, right?

I have no idea.....just happy I have one that I didn't pay that price for.

I get that. . .

There are certainly 2 sides to what is happening/has happened. . . On one hand it is great -- for the reason you just mentioned, on the other hand this blocks out nearly all traditional non-sport card collectors from that card and a pile of others.

More important to me though is kind of understanding where the hobby is heading -- or at least trying to understand. This is probably best for another topic, but. . .

I see stuff like this, and I see sports card guys creating youtube videos about how Stranger Things cards are about to EXPLODE!! -- among lots of other things and it seems to be there may be another bubble building (or already popping depending on where you sit).

I only pay attention to the cards I follow -- so in that regard my scope is pretty narrow.

I followed quite a few Fleer Ultra Spider-Man cards on ePack and have seen the prices on a lot of those cards drop like 60-90% from the peak. There are rumblings on Blowout about the Marvel bubble bursting, but a lot of people including some dealers get very testy when you point out a card that has dropped in price significantly -- despite the objections there are more and more people noting the crash.

Harry Potter cards were majorly pumped, but already seem to be coming back down for many of the cards. I am not sure the Harry Potter pump caught on with many actual collectors -- it seems most of those buyers were in it for the flip or for their social media content.

As a one-off the Cameron card is different. . . doesn't seem to be organic growth, also doesn't seem to be a pump. Could be a deep pocketed investor, or someone with FOMO. I would be curious to see if the price is sustained.

One other very interesting thing to me is that the Marvel pump seems to be focused on low numbered inserts -- the Potter pump seems focused on autographs/rare relic/prop/memorabilia cards. A few Marvel autograph have jumped in price, but many if not most haven't budged with the pump and seem more organic.

Jack@ss is interesting to me due to it's release. . . I'm guessing there is still A LOT of sealed product out there. I was surprised recently to do a search and see the autograph prices really coming down.

In the end sports card collecting and entertainment card collecting have always been 2 different things -- entertainment card collectors get that, but it seems most sports card collectors refuse to see a difference. Things may be changing with what is happening with Zerocool/Fanatics/Lids/GTS/Topps as well as these influencers jumping in. . . but I really don't think it is sustainable. Maybe I'm wrong and our hobby has changed forever, but given how quickly the FUSM and Potter bubbles have reversed I don't think so.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: webjon,

You can get excited when your cards are jumping in value in big chunks but you also have to get real when the trend reverses. Some dealers/collectors want to keep saying they're riding a rocket but it's a boomerang now. If I had a card that had just sold for $5000, I'd sell mine now because I'm going to be able to pick it up again for around what it went for three years ago maybe next year or the year after that when other things are the hot. I get it, though. If you really like the card, you're not going to sell. It's not going to bother you too much (maybe) when it comes back to earth.