Looking on the auction sites for the going price for some of my older random cards (Supper Man II, Sgt. Peppers, Threes Company, ..). See a wide range of prices for non-graded single cards and sealed boxes. When you see one unopened sealed box offered at $35.00 and another of the same product offered at $150.00 why anybody would pay the higher price. I could see going with a higher ranked seller for a single card at $2.00 compared to $1.50, but when the cost difference is high ($2.00 compared to $20.00) it makes no sense to me to pay the higher cost. I know you need to be careful about things like shipping cost, return policy, and exchange rates, but still what is that worth

On another note, I notice that the auction sites are mostly Buy It Now as opposed to auctions. Are people just impatient now and don't want to deal with bidding and time, and just want to look and buy what they want right away. Do they think the auctions are rigged and that friends and bots will bid the price up to the same as BIN any way so why bother

Andy

PS - While looking through my old card, I have yet to come across one that for some reason is worth hundred or thousands of dollars. I still have some more to look through so maybe, just maybe there is a diamond in the rough

I think in general price is the most important thing -- lots of buyers know are putting a significant premium on condition so that may play a factor.

As for the number of auctions vs BINs -- in the last several years a lot of sellers have moved away from auctions and moved towards BINs to maximize their selling price, and eliminate the risk of stuff selling too low. I rarely look at eBay auctions anymore -- with the exception of a couple of sellers.

quote:

Originally posted by AWR:

Do they think the auctions are rigged and that friends and bots will bid the price up to the same as BIN any way so why bother

For many years a lot of so called auctions have been exactly this, not all, but a lot. At least with a BIN you know where you are but of course you will do well to find cheap BIN's.

As a buyer who is not much of a haggler, I prefer a solid BIN. Many eBay auctions do become suspect when you set your high price and watch a bidder run you up in increments. Maybe its not schilling, but it sure feels like it, especially when you don't know the seller well.

Of course price impacts all eBay sales, but the same price can get you a better or worse deal, just as a higher price doesn't necessarily get you a better item. There are other considerations that matter, but they don't matter to everyone equally.

I don't know what you mean by a sealed box offered for $35 and the same one offered for $150? On eBay sellers mimic each other, especially for unopened items. I could see a small difference in price for those wanting to undercut the competition, but a $115 is too much of a difference. Either they are not the same thing, which is more likely, or you should buy that $35 box immediately. Maybe one was a starting bid and the other a BIN, but one of them is playing games.

quote:

I don't know what you mean by a sealed box offered for $35 and the same one offered for $150? On eBay sellers mimic each other, especially for unopened items. I could see a small difference in price for those wanting to undercut the competition, but a $115 is too much of a difference. Either they are not the same thing, which is more likely, or you should buy that $35 box immediately. Maybe one was a starting bid and the other a BIN, but one of them is playing games.

This was part of my point. Are people not looking at what others are selling for and just putting ridiculous prices on things and trying to cash in the whole crazy card market. I guess they figure if it sells great, and if not no big deal

Maybe I will put a common card from one of my sets up for sale just for fun with a BIN of $100,000.00 and see if somebody bites. I can write a little blurb on how this is a must have for serious collectors

quote:

Originally posted by AWR:

This was part of my point. Are people not looking at what others are selling

I see this a lot. If i am selling something i look at all the other auctions selling it and then undercut them all on price but i notice many times a seller will put a card up at say $50 when there has been the same card from somebody else on there for months at $30 and it has never had a bid.
On the other side of the coin somebody will buy a card for $50 when exactly the same card is on ebay at $30. As you say i think a lot of people just do not look.

eBay is promoting BIN's over auctions.

As a Store Subscriber, I get 10,000 'free' BIN listings in collectibles, which includes cards. Not that I've ever had near that many listings going at once.

I know eBay is trying to reduce the up-front cost of listing, but little of this effort is going towards actual auctions IMO.

Ed

I think that I put up a post on this sort of buying last year
There was the same seller had a card on auction for start bid 99c He also had the same card in his for sale or E Bay shop for $3.25
Guess what a bidder won the auction for $13.00 when they could of purchased it for the $3.25
There is no reason for this it is unexplainable either they have not done their homework / Or they dont know anything about cards
This also goes for the quiet large ammount of personally signed Buffy base cards on the bay lately there are eye watering prices being asked for some of them under the guise of benefiting charity
another seller has thenm also not so high prices but offering them and getting good money for them even without COA do these people actually know what they are buying
I think it is people coming into the hobby with the Sports Card mentality and hoping to clean up
To sum it up they dont know what they are doing
Ignore them

quote:

Originally posted by piko:

This also goes for the quiet large amount of personally signed Buffy base cards on the bay lately there are eye watering prices being asked for some of them under the guise of benefiting charity another seller has them also not so high prices but offering them and getting good money for them even without COA do these people actually know what they are buying.

This stuff about some proceeds going to charity came up in a couple of other weird sales we were discussing on a different subject. eBay has certified some of these sellers as charity participates, but I don't get it as an incentive. Some of the pledges are only for a fraction of the amount and, if you want to donate to a cause, you can do that easily enough without buying anything.

As for those signed Buffy base cards, which are usually SMG, I haven't looked on eBay recently, so I'm not singling out any current listing. I'm just saying that I have seen many of them in the past. Usually starting around $7 for bottom at the time, probably went up now. I have never seen one Geller personally signed Buffy base card that I thought was authentic.

quote:

Originally posted by wolfie:

quote:

Originally posted by AWR:

This was part of my point. Are people not looking at what others are selling

I see this a lot. If i am selling something i look at all the other auctions selling it and then undercut them all on price but i notice many times a seller will put a card up at say $50 when there has been the same card from somebody else on there for months at $30 and it has never had a bid.
On the other side of the coin somebody will buy a card for $50 when exactly the same card is on ebay at $30. As you say i think a lot of people just do not look.

I've thought of a couple of other things that sometimes make me swerve a cheaper listing I might otherwise buy...

- Bad, or questionable feedback from the lower priced seller.
- Poor/blurry images that don't show condition of the card.
- If an autograph card, fading or smudging to the signature.
- Vague condition descriptions. A card in "good shape" doesn't tell me anything.
- Condition issues that are not disclosed and can only be seen under close scrutiny.

Finally, and this is a big one for me, is 'cleanliness/presentation' of the image. Having looked at thousands of listings over the years I think you can get a good 'feel' for a seller/how they look after what they are trying to sell, i.e. whether these are people who just happen to have stumbled into owning a few cool items or are people who know and respect what they have.

...Most scanners are not spotless, but come on, clean the debris so I can see what I am looking at.
...I'm not interested in items photographed on the carpet where I can see dirt and hairs either. Who does not have a flat surface in their home that could accommodate a trading card?!

I remember buying a Sean Bean LOTR auto a couple years back, tipped the card out of the envelope and a load of black bits came with it. Card had a smokey smell too. Nice.

Or there was an auction for some rare vintage Bond OHMSS gum cards last year, full set, looked to be in bright, EX-NM condition for 50+ year old cards, except they were photographed in 9-pocket pages resting on a foot stool in someone's living room. Not a deal breaker until I saw the morbidly obese feet in the images, that had talons for toenails, and which no-doubt rested upon the aforementioed footstool that was absolutely covered in moisture stains of god-knows what. Sat that auction out very easily although would have loved those cards.

Digressing slightly, I occasionally buy original movie posters, and the amount of times I have seen eBay sellers weighing down the corners with their SHOES to take a photo of the item boggles my mind. Why not just have the pet dog pin it down with it's arse instead?

But back to cards... lack of soft sleeves or toploaders in images, combined with variations in the above, can be good red-flags for sellers who don't care to be too specific on condition and have no idea how to package cards safely (I find UK sellers far worse than US sellers for this as well). I have received cards protected by little more than a piece of cut up cereal box, or even just in a plain envelope with zero reinforcement, more times than I care to remember.


I rarely waste my time with follow-up questions where condition, images, and packaging may be concerned. If a seller can't be bothered to put up a half-decent image or description, it should not be on me to tweeze out more info. that should be there anyway. Besides, these types of sellers usually either don't have the answer or will just tell you what they think you want to hear so you're back to square one anyway.

Don't get me wrong, sometimes a great price is worth taking a punt, and you can come up trumps, but I usually avoid transactions I feel I may have to worry about.

quote:

Originally posted by X:

I've thought of a couple of other things that sometimes make me swerve a cheaper listing I might otherwise buy...

- Bad, or questionable feedback from the lower priced seller.
- Poor/blurry images that don't show condition of the card.
- If an autograph card, fading or smudging to the signature.
- Vague condition descriptions. A card in "good shape" doesn't tell me anything.
- Condition issues that are not disclosed and can only be seen under close scrutiny.

That's exactly how I view things. Sometimes I've hovered over buying a cheaper item and there will be just a feeling that probably all those points above give me, that just wonders if it's worth the likely hassle or gamble. If the other more safe one is too much money, then I'll just move on, if it's only a few quid extra then I'll opt for the 'safer' seller nearly every time.

In my own sporadic listings which span lots of various collectables from cards and militaria to teddy bears, I always without fail list faults, even if they're small things. Anything a little bigger I'll point them out on the photos. You might think I'd be shooting myself in the foot a little, but even some repaired things I've sold did really well, because the truth was there in front of everyone and there were no nasty surprises for anyone.

Oddly, a sometimes non-perfect item of mine, even without a box has sold better than a stock photo listing brand new elsewhere. Honesty is the best policy, for me anyway.
I tend to opt for auction because with BIN some people will watch your item forever and I just want to move the stuff, so at least an auction gets people to make their mind up on my schedule, not theirs.

I'm a bit OTT with packing in selling cards. Penny sleeve, top loader, team bag, two stiff bits of card, taped together around it, then taped to a thinner bit of card the size of the envelope so it doesn't slide around in transit and stays in the middle of the envelope, then into an A5 board-backed envelope.
Overkill it might be, but the extra packing has always been appreciated, especially on higher value cards, but I'll take the same care on a lower value ones too.
I suppose if I was a business instead of a collector selling some junk to fund other junk I wouldn't have the time to do that all the while.

quote:

Originally posted by Hedgehog Witch:
In my own sporadic listings which span lots of various collectables from cards and militaria to teddy bears, I always without fail list faults, even if they're small things. Anything a little bigger I'll point them out on the photos. You might think I'd be shooting myself in the foot a little, but even some repaired things I've sold did really well, because the truth was there in front of everyone and there were no nasty surprises for anyone.

Oddly, a sometimes non-perfect item of mine, even without a box has sold better than a stock photo listing brand new elsewhere. Honesty is the best policy, for me anyway.

I haven't been selling cards very long, but so far I've been pleasantly surprised in this regard. I've been careful to describe any flaws, very much erring on overdescribing and trying to price a bit lower accordingly. So far, so good.

Also, stock photos are the worst. I will absolutely pay more to see the card I'm getting.

Nope! Hate babysitting an auction, will pay a little more for a BIN as long as it is in the ballpark.

Will pay more for a nicer autograph as well.

X,

I must admit a few U.S. sellers are just as careless as any you've dealt with in the UK. One seller just stuck the card in the slot between the folded flaps of a cardboard box that was way too big for the card. He must have paid more than he charged me for shipping. Miraculously, the card did not slip out of the slot. Another seller just had the card loose in an envelope - no sleeve. It wasn't in near-mint condition in the scan and it didn't appear to arrive much worse so I kept it.

And yeah, you would think if people were trying to sell something, they would describe it fully to the best of their recollection with a clear photo/scan. I used to sell on Ebay and I always pointed out any flaw. You will always sell more when you provide all the info you have about an item. People will quickly click away from a blurry image and near non-existent description but they will pause to read a short paragraph and look over a nice scan of something that caught their interest. They will buy an imperfect item if they know exactly what's wrong with it and it might be good enough for the price. I try to link clean scans just on this forum and I'm just offering examples to provide information.

Sometimes, I buy a poster too but haven't seen anyone try to sell one weighted down with shoes yet. That is sadly hilarious.

Jess

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

quote:

Originally posted by X:

I've thought of a couple of other things that sometimes make me swerve a cheaper listing I might otherwise buy...

- Bad, or questionable feedback from the lower priced seller.
- Poor/blurry images that don't show condition of the card.
- If an autograph card, fading or smudging to the signature.
- Vague condition descriptions. A card in "good shape" doesn't tell me anything.
- Condition issues that are not disclosed and can only be seen under close scrutiny.

Finally, and this is a big one for me, is 'cleanliness/presentation' of the image. Having looked at thousands of listings over the years I think you can get a good 'feel' for a seller/how they look after what they are trying to sell,

I mostly agree, I also have a big problem with sellers too lazy to post a picture of the back of the card.

Then there is the exception when it looks like I am dealing with someone who is not a card collector or seller. They just sell stuff on ebay and came across a card to sell. Generally in this situation the price is low enough to take a chance. Can't think of anytime I have been burned. The packaging does get creative.