Collection and Price Tracking/Changes

[hayden284]

Good afternoon, 

I have A TON of sports trading cards and am just now getting to it on eBay. I see the Collection feature which is so helpful, especially as it lets me create a listing from my collection. However, how do I know when/as prices change within each card, to somehow keep up and make sure to update the listing prices and/or auction minimum bids to keep up with the trends?

Thanks so much in advance!

[714ricki · Accepted solution]

Adjusting the prices for the price trends on any sports card will have to fall on your due dilligence. It's just like having a physical store where you tag the cards with a price.....you must adjust accordingly. You just need to be very focused with the industry & trends!

Good luck!

[hayden284]

Phew - That's what I was afraid, but also excited about! Wasn't sure if I was missing a tool for this. Thank you so much and happy selling to you!

[714ricki]

If you ever get into s scenario when some of your cards are selling really quickly, then definitely do some quick research because very likely your prices are low due to the pricing going up due to a trending player. The same is true if a player has negative publicity.....the price can also go in the opposite direction.

[onefootflipper]

I sell cards but I really hate sports cards because everything other than classic era ones and common popular rookies tend to swing wildly in price from one sale to the next and not really have any sort of going rate, often being serial numbered to a relatively low number and only a couple of them ever even come to market. 

I always price my sports cards of any value lowest on the site having checked solds as well to see what is possible and almost none of them ever sell at the initial price I set. 

[hayden284]

Thanks for this! Good to know.. but do you price them at a "buy now" correct? or you're talking auction pricing?

[onefootflipper]

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@hayden284 wrote:

Thanks for this! Good to know.. but do you price them at a "buy now" correct? or you're talking auction pricing?

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I absolutely never run auctions. Research data shows that anything easily tracked sold at auction tends to sell 30 percent cheaper on average than buy it now listings. And the cheapest buy it now on the website is usually going to be your absolute ceiling for an auction result. If you can't beat that price then why not just put it $1 cheaper than that buy it now instead and lower the price from there if it doesn't sell instead of seeing if you can work your way up to that same price point from nothing in 7 days.

I don't even think auctions are good for sports cards unless you are running tons of them so your auctions will get traffic driven to them from your other auction listings. 

[hayden284]

Interesting. I'll definitely take you up on your advice and shift it up to buy it now and look forward to seeing the changes. Yeah, most of them aren't super rare or anything but still profit on my end since they were practically free so it'll be interesting to see and track any changes from auction to buy it now. I really appreciate it - thanks!