I am interested in the psychology behind our members' decisions when buying cards from Ebay sellers.
Let's say there is a set of non common cards (promos, inserts, costume, prop, autograph etc..) that requires 10 to 30+ cards to complete. You have been looking to finish this set for a long time but you are still missing several. You've determined that these cards are hard to find due to their age; low print run; universal desirability or whatever other criterion you wish to use. Then,you find a BUY IT NOW (no best offer available)auction, for example, that has 5 cards from the set you have been trying to finish. Unfortunately, you already have 2 of them in your collection but you don't have the other 3. What do you do? Please pick the choice that best applies to your decision making process.

Question:
HOW DO YOU PREFER BUYING CARDS YOU NEED ON EBAY?

Choices:
I DON'T BUY CARDS FROM EBAY
I DON'T WISH TO SHARE MY OPINION
I WOULD BUY THE 5 CARDS AND WORRY LATER ABOUT WHAT TO DO WITH THE OTHERS I ALREADY HAVE
I WOULD CONTACT THE SELLER TO SEE IF HE WOULD SELL ME ONLY THE CARDS I NEEDED
I WOULD RATHER WAIT AND FIND EACH CARD I NEEDED LISTED INDIVIDUALLY EVEN IF I HAVE TO PAY MORE PER CARD
IT DEPENDS ON HOW MANY CARDS I ALREADY HAVE IN MY COLLECTION TO COMPLETE THE SET

 

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

My process :
1 contact the seller if he's ok end if he's not then
2 if the ratio left cards need cards was in my favor buy all the cards and see afterwhat to do.
3 if the ratio wasn't in my favor i would consider the rarity. If it's too rare i'd buy the cards. If not i would let them.
If the seller don't sell the cards at the end of the auction contact him again, his mind could change

Sorry, but I don't have enough information in your hypothetical situation to render my own decision. The key component missing for me is the price of the BIN.

If I only needed 3 of the 5 cards I would have to figure out whether or not the total amount I would be paying is worth it for those 3 cards alone. It could be that the 2 cards that I don't actually need are the most expensive in the lot. I would therefore be paying a much higher price for the 3 cards I actually want.

Now if the intention was to turn around and sell or trade those 2 unwanted cards yourself, then maybe it would be less of an issue. I don't sell cards, so I would not be interested in buying this lot unless I thought the overall price was what I would be willing to spend upon finding those 3 cards only.

I intially would pick them all up, keep the 3 I need and I'd list the other 2 to recoup some of the money.

IF I though the BIN wouldn't sell I'd contact the seller and ask "If it doesn't sell would you consider selling just the 3 in a BIN"? And go from there.

. . . for me it all depends on price, but if it's a better price per card to buy in lots I'll usually go that route regardless if I need all the cards in the lot. . . If it's the same price then I'll go for individual cards. . .

I don't think I would contact a seller to break up a lot, I'd probably just let it go.

Since shipping is always a pain (the seller is always in a different country than me), I would definitely buy the lot and try and sell/trade later. I have bought master sets to get a few hard to find items (eg Stargate movie mail in set, Stargate autos) so this is a pretty regular occurrence for me.

In fact, this is part of the reason I have so much spare stuff hanging around, I never seem to organise selling off the extras.

As long as the price was reasonable I would buy the lot also and sell the duplicates. Trying to find the specific ones you need individually could take years.

As buyer, I prefer to get packs and boxes to complete base or insert sets. My experience buying specific cards is a mix. A lot of sellers and even traders can't understand the difference between Near Mint or Mint from Excellent or Very Good.