.........when you see their ebay auctions. LOL, but not exactly funny.

Are you referring to someone or something in particular?
It just seems like a pretty vague thing to start a thread about. In other words you got my attention, now I'm curious

Just the outrages prices some people ask for promo cards. It irks me.

quote:

Originally posted by Tattoox:
Just the outrages prices some people ask for promo cards. It irks me.

Ahh yes, I do agree with you there.

When I see sellers that post way too high on cards, promos or anything else, I just don't buy from them, ever. I take it as meaning that this person is trying to mislead buyers that may not know what they are doing. If that's the case he/she is being less than honest and I won't do business with someone I know is playing games because sooner or later they will try to pull one on me.

quote:

Originally posted by Raven:
When I see sellers that post way too high on cards, promos or anything else, I just don't buy from them, ever. I take it as meaning that this person is trying to mislead buyers that may not know what they are doing. If that's the case he/she is being less than honest and I won't do business with someone I know is playing games because sooner or later they will try to pull one on me.

Same here. I don't do much card buying on Ebay that much these days anyway, but I usually stay clear of the crazy high priced sellers.

...when someone posts a card they've pulled or traded, gushes about how they really wanted it, and then sells it on ebay straight away

quote:

Originally posted by Graham:
...when someone posts a card they've pulled or traded, gushes about how they really wanted it, and then sells it on ebay straight away

That winds me up every time!

However if you decided to part with your Classic Mythology Hetrick AP I might change my mind.

I can't see buying promo cards for high prices as well esp when you consider the high postage on top of it. $3 USD+ for one card is outragious!

Since I was there from pretty much the start I can tell you EBay has completely mutated from what it was for both the buyer and seller, one of the results being this influx of super high priced items which you would rarely see even five years ago. The once constant risk of listing an item with a price so high to begin with that it didn't sell has been removed by the massive amount of free listings sellers are given these days.

In the late 1990s, I was exclusively a buyer on EBay adding to my various collections, but we soon discovered we could buy old movies on video (another of my interests) and sell them for a tidy profit. We'd pay 5 bucks or so per tape from the then rapidly vanishing (now gone) mom and pop video stores and then list them for 6.99 and hope for the best. If you did your homework and the legwork to get the tapes, 30 dollars was the average selling price back then, so not too shabby.

Anyway, we knew some of the tapes were worth 50 dollars or more but we'd still list them for 6 dollars to start. In fact, the really good ones we'd list for a penny and have zero worries it'd sell for that, as there were just too many buyers for certain titles in those days.

Now we could have listed the $30 tapes for $50 to start, and we probably would've gotten that once in a while from the people who didn't check to see the tape could be had for 30 usually with bids, and that another would surely be along for sale soon. Or maybe we get the 50 from those who didn't want to wait. We never found out. Through the boom, which lasted 5+ years, we never listed a video for more than $7.

I'd like to say that reason we didn't list stuff with the inflated opening bid price, and certainly, higher than we knew the tape to be usually worth, was because, hey, 30 bucks for a 6 dollar tape was fine with us. It truly was, but we weren't so noble.

I'd like to say the reason we didn't list with the inflated opening bid price was because we wanted every person who saw our listings to feel like they had a chance of winning the auction even if they had only limited funds. The truth is, we did like that aspect of listing with low minimums, but again, we'd done our homework, so most of those buyers with less than say, $20 to bid, really didn't have a shot.

But no, the reason the vast majority of sellers up until a few years ago listed pretty much everything, and cards certainly, with low opening bids was because of the auction listings fees sellers had to pay back then, fees which have been recently eliminated for the majority of EBay sellers who are all given 50 free listings per month and lately a slew of additional free listings, literally 50,000+ for many sellers just a few days ago.

eBay now makes the vast majority of its profits off the selling price of sold items whereas in the past those percentages were much lower since they made huge profits with the listing fees alone. But with sellers losing money every time an item went unsold, the result was sellers learned to be very careful with what they listed and for how much. This resulted in fewer listings and lower prices, opening bids anyway, neither of which is good for a company that, even then, made massive profits off the final value fees.

But after what I'm sure was massive internal struggles with what direction EBay would go in, it now seems the method of giving sellers essentially unlimited risk free listings (with a higher percentage taken off the back end) has won out.

Two direct results:
1) a lot more listings, most of which don't sell
2) higher opening prices on items, in some cases exhorbitant ones, and those items repeatedly re-listed with the same price on it each time it goes unsold.

In the old days, it wouldn't have taken long for a seller routinely doing either of the above to lose their shirts in fees. But now, listing in what was once a reckless fashion is essentially encouraged. Things change.

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

I don't mind paying $3.00 shipping for a single card. I think that's a fair price to cover shipping, the seller's time and packing supplies. I do expect a reasonable combined shipping rate for buying multiple items though. One of the things I don't like about Ebay pushing free shipping is that some sellers have gotten real cheap on packaging.

I agree with the free listings. I don't mind occasional free listings but by giving out free listings all the time sellers don't have to put any thought into what they are doing.

For my personal artwork I ship free. But when I sell other cards I charge $3.50 - postage with confirmation costs $2.80, then with the bubble mailer, top loader and whatever other supplies are needed and driving to the post office and standing in line, I think $3.50 is more than fair, I'm certainly not making any money there. And I've even gotten a few low ratings from this. If I'm doing something wrong please tell me.

quote:

Originally posted by Ted Dastick Jr.:
For my personal artwork I ship free. But when I sell other cards I charge $3.50 - postage with confirmation costs $2.80, then with the bubble mailer, top loader and whatever other supplies are needed and driving to the post office and standing in line, I think $3.50 is more than fair, I'm certainly not making any money there. And I've even gotten a few low ratings from this. If I'm doing something wrong please tell me.

You're doing nothing wrong Ted, it's just depressing to see how many buyers think anything more than the cost of the stamp is a major rip off

high prices on promo cards by whose standards? There's no accurate CURRENT guide to go by for the harder to find promos old and new.

I have a Tarzan P6 promo, and I'm considering selling it. I've never found 1 on ebay to use as a reference. So should I just put it in my store at $3 cause that's what most promos get listed at? Or should I go higher since I know it's a harder promo to get ahold of? Damn straight I'm going higher.

A person's opinion on what is too high or not on a promo card(s) prices are too subjective.

As for ebay and their fees, they're outrageous these days. I've gone from having over 1500 listings in my store to just over 140 because their fees we're quite drowning

quote:

Originally posted by Ted Dastick Jr.:
For my personal artwork I ship free. But when I sell other cards I charge $3.50 - postage with confirmation costs $2.80, then with the bubble mailer, top loader and whatever other supplies are needed and driving to the post office and standing in line, I think $3.50 is more than fair, I'm certainly not making any money there. And I've even gotten a few low ratings from this. If I'm doing something wrong please tell me.

Problem is that if you use ebay/paypal shipping, postage with DC would only be $1.64 for 3 oz. So, people feel that is the going rate, regardless how much it costs you. I have gotten low ratings even at charging $2.50. Now I either ship for $2 or do free shipping and factor the shipping into the cost of the item.

quote:

Originally posted by glim:

quote:

Originally posted by Ted Dastick Jr.:
For my personal artwork I ship free. But when I sell other cards I charge $3.50 - postage with confirmation costs $2.80, then with the bubble mailer, top loader and whatever other supplies are needed and driving to the post office and standing in line, I think $3.50 is more than fair, I'm certainly not making any money there. And I've even gotten a few low ratings from this. If I'm doing something wrong please tell me.

Problem is that if you use ebay/paypal shipping, postage with DC would only be $1.64 for 3 oz. So, people feel that is the going rate, regardless how much it costs you. I have gotten low ratings even at charging $2.50. Now I either ship for $2 or do free shipping and factor the shipping into the cost of the item.

Well the cost of the shipping is right on the label for everyone to see. The bidder can clearly see I'm not ripping them off. If they expect to only pay the $1.64, they shouldn't bid, especially when the cost of shipping is right there even before they even click on the auction. So I get dinged because they choose not to read.

I'm not a fan of promo cards, but it is fun see somebody ask $10 plus S&H for a card and they have more than 50 of the same to sell.

Ted Dastick Jr. if you are showing your S&H clearly in your items and you aren't or want to be Top Seller. Never feel bad to ask a high S&H for a good shipping package. Some months ago, I have a US buyer surprised that the card has Delivery Confirmation. Obviously he found a lot of high S&H white envelopes sellers.

glim or anyone that believe can ship a card in a bubble envelope, top loader, and other package/security measures for free or just the standard shipping cost. Please tell me your secret to avoid loosing time, money in packaging supplies, and any sale fee (PayPal, eBay, Google Checkout, Skrill, etc.)

For S&H, if you pay or ask $3 to ship the cards in a white envelope with the final result of bend cards. There is a problem.

For the shipping prices. Be ready for January 2013. The USPS will increase prices one more time and the International 1rst Class will be higher. So you will pay big penalty to ship light weight items outside the USA.

quote:

Originally posted by kane1:

For S&H, if you pay or ask $3 to ship the cards in a white envelope with the final result of bend cards. There is a problem.

I don't like getting cards shipped in just a white envelope no matter what they charge for shipping. The seller is responsible for securely packing their items even if the shipping is free.