I would like a sketch card from a particular series, but I'm not willing to pay the going price. I've set a limit, which is alot higher than my wife would like.

I've seen a few close at or a little below that price, but didn't have the funds at the time.

Most sell for twice my limit.

I can understand that since they are quite limited, and it's a hot franchise.

What I don't understand is sellers on ebay asking extremely high prices for....
1) IMO, an okay piece of art
2) Not a main character

.....and yet they keep relisting it.

I don't sell on ebay, but after nearly a year, don't the fees start to eat into your profit margin?

I'm seeing this quite a bit on various releases.

I don't know much about selling on ebay but I thought if your item did not sell there were no fees.

Some sellers are stubborn. They believe that if a sketch card comes from a premium product or is from a product that has extremely limited sketches it is automatically worth a huge price.

I judge sketches by their quality, the subject and also the artist, but don't really care what product they come from. I think most collectors feel the same. If a sketch strikes me as being worth $30 it doesn't matter if the ratio was 1:24 packs or 1:320 packs, its still worth $30 to me. However a dealer/seller who pulled it might feel that it should be worth at least $200 because its only 1 in 2 cases, and also in order to make up the money he spent on the product.

So even though no one is interested, they keep re-listing in the hope that someone who really wants any sketch to complete may eventually buy it.

As to the cost, I don't sell, but I think it can't be too much to hold something in your online store because I have seen some items held for long periods without any activity.

I can understand prices being high during the initial release, but at some time, it must be worth cash in your pocket rather that gathering dust. I've had my eye on a couple of Marvel 70th sketches that have been up since day 1. If the asking price was halved, I may be swayed, but that's all they're worth.

Ebay runs so many specials now that listing fees are almost non existent. I've been eligible for around 40,000 free listings in the last 6 months.

It cost very little for business sellers to relist an item. You can also auto relist which cuts out any effort, again at very little cost. On a high end item that is a drop in the ocean for an Ebay seller. As what was said aboce, it is not the listing that costs the money, it is the final value fee (and Paypal fees) that really do the damage.

If a seller is willing to sit on an item until they get there price then that is how they choose to run there business model (assuming they are business seller of course). Stick to your guns if you can only afford or want to pay up to a certain price, at the end of the day the market dictates.

quote:

Originally posted by Chrisahend:
Ebay runs so many specials now that listing fees are almost non existent. I've been eligible for around 40,000 free listings in the last 6 months.

This is totally accurate and the reason for the high prices from the get-go, particularly on unique items like sketches. In the old days, I very rarely listed anything for more than $9.99, and would let the market decide what the item was worth.
If I had something that I knew was decent and would generate some bids, I would usually list things for one penny, same deal, wherever the bidding ended, that's what it was worth. Instead of paying the 25 cents to list an item for $9.99, you could pay just a dime by listing is for 99 cents or less to start.

The almost endless free listings given to sellers over these past few years (to soothe the fact that the Ebay final value fee on items had gradually increased to 10% from the early days when it was around 3%) has completely altered the selling strategies of most sellers.

It used to be risky to list something for more than it was "worth" since if it didn't sell, you were out the listing fees, which could be substantial if it was a more expensive item, especially if the auctions were run through multiple times without a sale made.

That risk of that has now been effectively removed. Where before, you needed two or more bidders to get decent money for an item (with their competing bids increasing the price from the low opening bid), you now can list an item as high as you'd like and you just need one person to be willing to pay that.

It's hard to say if that's good or bad, it's just kind of what it is.

I believe what Raven said is correct.

I daily check sketch cards under Newly Listed, and am appalled by the re-listings of some godawful cards that should never have been inserted in the pack in the first place and by the personal sketch cards that look like a 3 year old with a box of crayons drew them.

If you have a store, items are .10 a month to do a good til cancelled listing (GTC). You get a certain amount for free.

A couple of other things to consider.

1. The person may really like the card, has it in their collection and has put it out there for a 'make me sell it price'. They don't really want to part with it, but if someone offers them stupid money, they sell it.

2. If someone has a large amount of inventory, once the item goes out there, it is time consuming to go back to re-evaluate market prices and inventory. They might have done that initially and set the price because some were selling at that price on release, listed it and put it in storage and haven't gone back and there it sits. (I wish Ebay would have a automated process to drop your item every selected time period by a set amount/percent to assist sellers in this)

I just got an email today offering me 50,000 free listings for December 9th through the 13th. I'll probably get another starting the 14th.