Eh mostly I agree but the sticker is limiting to the way many celebrities sign. Therefore I can blame the sticker to some point.

Just because the named brand and the generic have the same ingredients, it doesn't necessarily mean they were put together the same way. Which is how I would compare a Sam Jackson Star Wars sig to the high flying crap of Pop Century. Which is selling for much more than when I bought mine back in the day.

Unfortunately Pop Century owns all of the autographs that don't appear anywhere else. Also in the case of celebs like J Alba and S Hayek they add to cards that have long since dried up. Unfortunately out of the gate some sellers think the prices are comparable.

Yep, you are right on both points, but the bottom line is in the autograph quality and cost comparison, when there are other certified autograph cards in titled product.

The sticker does negatively impact some signers. If it alters the signature to create a shorter or sloppier autograph, it might be better to just leave it. It's a judgment call and I almost always leave it. But if it is a good example of the normal autograph, then go to the price. Pop Century must be way cheaper than the "best" autograph card, unless there is no other brand.

That's where I feel Pop Century is pushing it with $200+ boxes. It's turning it's big selling point, affordable autograph cards, into a weakness. Collectors will wait for someone else to take the chance of busting the box.

If you notice, a majority of the Pop autograph cards up on eBay now are being sold by outlets that do sports cards almost exclusively. That's a sign that what people have been saying is true. The non-sport market is being driven by sports card dealers. They ruined their own, so let's find new blood.

quote:

Originally posted by wolfie:
I love the idea that there is a Jane Fonda autograph card but hate the fact that it is a sticker.

So you like autographed Jane Fonda cards, hmm?

well it's better than a sticker but amazingly i don't think i would want that one either.

Boy am i hard to please.

quote:

Originally posted by wolfie:

Boy am i hard to please.

Some would just call it a "refined personal taste in trading cards".

Wow, if you act real fast you can get both the Mama June autograph card and the Honey Boo Boo autograph card for under $50.

How'd you like to pull that out of your $200+ box? Brian Gray must be so proud.

Apparently there are no standards on shoving a cut sig into a pop century frame either. All of the Jamie Foxx sigs are chopped up really bad. I think I can use the John Cena card as a compass to find true North. The Suzanne Somers cuts aren't too bad. Dropping fast enough for me to complete my 3's company OG's.

The Pop 2023 cut signature cards that I have viewed so far have been awful looking in just about every case. They must do it on purpose.

So with the boxes, looks like 3 autos and one swatch card or ticket card for the 4th hit. I have zero interest in those tickets and judging by the $15 price on most of them, few others do either. The material swatch cards are often one-color pieces of nothing and that is boring and cheap too.

Many of the first-time signers like Cryer and Bracco and some of the Rappers have been going lower than I expected. So there are good buys now, but all of that just undermines the box price even more because the average box with 2 average autographs and one better one is going to have an even greater gap between price and content value. You must pull a big auto.

An Eastwood is up for auction. He is old school. He has a fine readable signature, especially for a 90 year old man.

And I wish they would just put the whole backstage pass into the box instead of chopping it up.

quote:

Originally posted by mykdude:
Apparently there are no standards on shoving a cut sig into a pop century frame either. All of the Jamie Foxx sigs are chopped up really bad. I think I can use the John Cena card as a compass to find true North. The Suzanne Somers cuts aren't too bad. Dropping fast enough for me to complete my 3's company OG's.

Need a Somers for my "American Grafitti" set, but I'm still holding out for a regular card. Still, those aren't bad. I'm sure she's been approached to sign stickers at least. I wonder why the holdout.

I also wish they'd get signatures from Charles Martin Smith who played Toad in the movie. It's hard to think of a better subject for a "Perfectly Cast" card.

This has been an interesting release for me. . . I haven't followed and tried purchasing cards like this on eBay in several years. . . After a few days of bidding I have some observations.

First -- I'm not really having much fun. Putting in all of these bids is really time consuming.

I'm losing a huge percentage of the auctions I'm bidding on, but prices are dropping and now all the sudden I've won several Rob Riggle autographs. . . which is kind of annoying.

Riggle's autographs from previous sets were in the $30 range, they are well under that here.

Why don't more sellers use eBay's cheap shipping option for cards? -- I can't believe that most sellers are now charging about $5 for a card -- really stupid when eBay offers a much cheaper option. One seller I bought from refuses to combine shipping . . . how does eBay even allow that at this point? I mean sure -- if they shipped them separately fine, but they didn't.

I hate the swatches, ticket stubs and backstage passes. The cuts too leave something to be desired -- I think a bunch of the autographs on the cuts just look terrible, there are too many cuts, and too many of the same cut.

There are too many short printed autographs.

The low end autographs are dropping in price like a stone, the mid range are starting to fall, but the higher end remain pretty stable. We'll see what happens -- I suspect some of the higher end that are popping up in good quantities will fall like the mid range are.

I feel like there are some deals -- some autographs I thought would be higher are selling for very cheap -- Tiffany Haddish for example -- picked up a nice example of her autograph for under $15. Some, like Jim Belushi are staying higher than I expected.

As a buyer, my problem with Ebay's cheap shipping option is that four different sellers have sent me card packs/multiple singles that way and then I came home to a USPS notice to pay and pick up a package with postage due. I refused two of them and the sellers blamed it on the post office while the post office told me it was a case of a seller trying to squeeze too much into an envelope meant for a single item the thickness of a single card.

I wouldn't mind a ticket stub of a band I like. That seems like a cool extra but I wouldn't want it to be the best the thing I got in the box.

quote:

Originally posted by webjon:

Why don't more sellers use eBay's cheap shipping option for cards? -- I can't believe that most sellers are now charging about $5 for a card -- really stupid when eBay offers a much cheaper option. One seller I bought from refuses to combine shipping . . . how does eBay even allow that at this point? I mean sure -- if they shipped them separately fine, but they didn't.

I hate the swatches, ticket stubs and backstage passes. The cuts too leave something to be desired -- I think a bunch of the autographs on the cuts just look terrible, there are too many cuts, and too many of the same cut.



The low end autographs are dropping in price like a stone, the mid range are starting to fall, but the higher end remain pretty stable. We'll see what happens -- I suspect some of the higher end that are popping up in good quantities will fall like the mid range are.

I feel like there are some deals -- some autographs I thought would be higher are selling for very cheap -- Tiffany Haddish for example -- picked up a nice example of her autograph for under $15. Some, like Jim Belushi are staying higher than I expected.

In my view it is not unusual to find the same card being sold by different sellers for the same price but with widely different shipping charges. My pet hate are those sellers that refuse to combine shipping on multiple purchases but do so after you have paid for the separate shipping they insist on.

quote:

Why don't more sellers use eBay's cheap shipping option for cards? -- I can't believe that most sellers are now charging about $5 for a card -- really stupid when eBay offers a much cheaper option. One seller I bought from refuses to combine shipping . . . how does eBay even allow that at this point? I mean sure -- if they shipped them separately fine, but they didn't.

Jon,

A eBay dealer's experience here...

First, the tracking does not work well. I've yet to have that be a refundable issue, but I imagine that's a matter of time.

Some Post Offices don't know anything about the eBay deal, and thus either refuse them or Postage Due them to the recipient. I've had good luck with calling anything 2 ounces, if you legitimately use the 1 ounce rate, the refusal rate goes up exponentially.

It does not take much of a card with a topload to come to 1/4 of an inch with a sturdy mailer. Anything over 55 point is probably not going to work. Card Savers help, but provide less protection and it's another item to stock in the shipping supply arsenal.

And lastly, if someone buys 4 cards that have eBay Envelope Shipping, it lets them choose that and pay for it. Even if it's too heavy or thick or over $20. This is a big issue as I've lost a fair amount to this error and eBay has not even acknowledged that the problem exists.

As for combining shipping. It's a problem especially when a seller selects pay immediately. It just won't let you do it.

Now, I don't understand the sellers who won't combine shipping and then combine the shipments. I deal with it through feedback. Either a backhand positive if it wasn't too bad or neutral if it was egregious. That assumes the cards were as described, if they messed that up too then it's negative time.

Ed

Thanks for the insight on the eBay shipping program, Ed. It now makes sense why certain cards aren't being shipping that way.

I still can't fathom that I am getting charged $5 to ship a single card in some instances. I realize most of that must be the Post Office, but wow.

I've gotten more selective in my bidding, which is good. I still cringe every time I see that I won something -- that seems like a problem. Thankfully I don't think I've won anything for a couple of days.

There are quite a few low end autographs I'd like to pick up, but I'm really watching the shipping prices now. I forgot how annoying it is that all the sellers make up their own shipping rules and pricing. . . even more annoying I don't find information about combining shipping consistent in the listings.

Ed, Jon, I'd like to give some insight on the USPS side of things. I tried to help a few peeps over on Blowout, but was mostly received with negative and ill informed responses.

First off, USPS has not trained the clerks like they should on this matter. Many Postmasters, station managers and supervisors have either refused, or just didn't give a stand up talk about the ESE system.

Second, the worst thing you can do with a ESE is to hand it to a clerk at the counter. Either drop it off in one of the collection boxes at the Post Office or hand it to your carrier. This way the ESE goes directly into the mail stream. Nobody at your local Post Office looks at what the carrier brings back, nor do they check the letters in the collection boxes in front of the Post Office. They are simply dumped into hampers and put on the trucks that head to the nearest distribution center.

Third, a ESE does not get scanned like a package would. Carriers & CPU's (Contract Postal Units) are not capable of scanning a ESE barcode. Many times, the first scan is at the local distribution center. Also, at time of delivery, no carrier scans the ESE as delivered. The delivery scan is done so through an algorithm. When the last scan is made at the last distribution center, the ESE is shipped down to the local station. Based on the carriers route evaluation and the time they leave for the route, a delivery scan is calculated and generated. This is why the last scan just says delivered, whereas a package shows where the item was delivered (Mailbox/Door etc.)

Lastly, and this one most sellers don't like to hear, but it is USPS regulations, is that some ESE are requiring postage due or are being returned. That's because, even if 1/4 thick or less, the item might be too rigid and and will be charged at the non-machinable rate. The non-machinable rate is an additional $.40. Too rigid, and the ESE needs to be taken out of the system to be handled by hand, thus the surcharge. A card saver will get through the system just fine and standard card stock. Once a card is as thick as many game used cards, you can bet, the more senior employees will pull ESE's out of the system if they do not have the correct postage.

A lot of times, if you pay for an additional ounce, you will be fine. Right now, that's $.87 for a ESE at the 2 ounce rate (even though your ESE weighs 1 ounce). $1.03 at the non-machinable rate for 1 ounce. I just won an Allure Orange Slice and it was delivered with $1.03 postage. I don't know why sellers can't simply do this. I think most just don't understand what they can actually do as far as shipping goes. If they did, I would suspect a lot more Ebay sellers would use the ESE option. No sense in charging $5.00 for shipping on a card that sold for $10.00. Plus, the ESE does have some protection for sales under $20.00.

Hope I don't offend anyone like I did over on Blowout. Just trying to educate buyers/sellers on USPS regulations that are pretty tough to locate on the website, pertaining to this ESE issue.

Bill

Hey Bill-

Thanks for the insight -- it definitely sounds like there is a place for this type of shipping. I much better understand the limitations now -- thank you!

Jon

Whatever happened to just putting a stamp on your item and putting it in the box on the corner of the street?

Ah those were the days and the item would always get to where it was going no problem.

quote:

Originally posted by wolfie:
Whatever happened to just putting a stamp on your item and putting it in the box on the corner of the street?

Ah those were the days and the item would always get to where it was going no problem.

Sadly, it has become almost essential for sellers that they obtain proof of posting at the very least when they put stuff into the postal system. That is certainly the case here in the UK. If you don't, then there is no way you can make any kind of claim if the item does not reach its destination.

So far the biggest names (Eastwood, Pesci, Culkin and Pratt) are all 1/1's.

Nice little scam to crank up case prices I do believe.

So far I have pulled in 5 and a cut for a bit more than the price of a single box. That includes tax and shipping