Sports Card Sellers…..Read Please!!

[mikeskards]

Most eBay veterans already know this. There are WAY too many sellers out there for every single one of you to be selling the same card as an ‘Auction’ the first couple of cards sold go for a legit price, but then 200 other people do an auction for the same card and $100 card turns into a $.99 card. Don’t use auction unless you have a BOSS card. Use ‘Buy it Now’. In my opinion all of these auctions are killing the hobby way too many sellers and not enough buyers. Maybe I’m just venting. It’s just kind of frustrating to pull a really nice card and go see 50 other people auctioning the same card. Anyway, I just love this hobby always have always will but it’s starting to feel like 1987 again. I hope everybody has a great and safe holiday. God bless God is good all the time.

[murphy71605]

I think it's more like the first couple of cards go for crazy prices, the market gets flooded and prices plunge. I don't disagree with how you feel because there is nothing worse than pulling a nice card only to see it going for next to nothing. Much of the modern stuff is being overproduced and prices are too high on boxes. They are walking a fine line between keeping interest up and sticking it to us at the same time.

[cardclubhousecollectibles]

Totally agree. In my opinion, it's resellers with not much commitment to the hobby who auctions everything immediately for the quick cash. They're not willing to wait for the right buyer. I have quite a few lower numbered cards listed. I hate the low ball offers and the "the last one sold at auction 3 weeks ago for x".  My answer is usually, "it's too bad we both missed that auction. if I had known of that auction, I would purchased it. his one will cost you x". I buy significantly more than I sell. I never use auctions as the market price. There are over 120K trading card sales DAILY on eBay alone. Know way we can track, or care for, all open auctions.

[kwnsales]

I think you bring up a good point. Personally I've started to up my starting bid pricing  to close to where I want to be on my cards but I'm not seeing the views now so once the actions end I'm going fixed pricing on all my low/mid-level cards. I've gotten some bang up deals here lately in auctions being the only bidder so there is an upside to it I guess, but I'd rather sell my cards for more and pay a bit more for the ones I buy. But, you'll never get everyone to agree so for now it's just the way it is.

[cardsforauction]

Nothing we can do, it's a free market.  I agree with the annoyance that when you have let's say a nice $10 card and then when you go to list it you find out everyone is selling that card for 99 cents.  Some people are desperate to sell I guess.  Of course, you could always go on a buying spree and then try to flip them if your lucky at it. 

[goldenjet16]

I don’t collect anything older than rookies from the ‘85 and older in all sports. Most of my collection is fro 50’s and 60’s.. I figured this out in the 80’s when nothing was rare.. the only rare 80’s and 90’s cards have the magic PSA 10.. not to say Jeter, Brady, etc etc are nice cards to have but.. this is what it is these days.

[dh46815]

I agree. All my listings are buy it now.

[itissold123]

I’ve been collecting cards for a long time but never looked into selling them until recently.  I’ve been a eBay seller for a long time and have sold many authentic one if a kind items.  I am  shocked that so many sellers are actually allowed to down right falsify, over-inflate prices and when I contact them asking a specific question they do not even know what they are are talking about.   It’s sellers like that, that ruin sellers like us.  Too bad 

[kelgu9189]

I agree, It really p***** me off when they flood it with auctions and now my $50 card is not going to fetch me more than $2 or $3 The majority of mt listings are BIN very few auctions unless like you said earlier that it's a boss card.

[tobaccocardyahoo]

It is mighty tough to maintain any level of pricing on baseball cards when one can buy near sets of many years for $10-$25 at in person auctions. And I am not just talking about recent years.

Dealers in baseball cards have a lot in common with stamp and coin dealers and these dealers and the collectors are becoming rarer.

Many Ebay sellers are unwilling or unable to hold on the inventory for longer than a week or two. They may never see the same inventory again, so the destruction of pricing the cause does not matter to them in the least. And the destruction in pricing deters other sellers from offering them.

My sympathy to those who lover baseball cards  and sell them because they love them.

[unclebookiesportscardsandcollectibles]

I know this is an old posting but there is something that is really bothering me about specific card dealers out there, claiming something to be "rare" and there was 100 plus listings for the same card all at uber crazy prices. Or people that have for instance a 15th year card of a player that is from a base set, and are charging 500% over the actual value of the card because they are attracting the novice collectors or not in touch moms and dad's that will pay their price cause they don't know any better, this is not only on Ebay but on other selling platforms. This makes our business look bad once the buyer finds out that that UNGRADED   2020 Tom Brady Score base card is not worth $75 because his name is Tom Brady and he's the GOAT, or the 2018  base Leaf Shohei Otahni card is not worth $1000 or that 1989 Topps Jose Canseco isn't as rare as the 3k prices makes it out to be once you notice that there are well over 7 thousand listings for the same card across the platforms.  Just venting ... but this hobby is not for those sellers to screw these not as informed people over but bring joy to the buyers at a fair price and not a made up price because that seller demands you buy it because of the players name. to Quote Peter Griffin, that's what really grinds my gears....

[wkr4998]

Glad someone finally brought that up. It's people like that that drive away the novice collector. I was fortunate to have a guy in Houston who really had a passion for what he did and he never tried to get over on me. This is back in the 80s when whatever Beckett price guide said was pretty much scripture. And that was great because that's just the way it was back then. Collecting was so much simpler back than. You had Topps,  Fleer, and Donruss. My how times have changed. There were a couple of cards of each player with no autos or memorabilia. I'm 54 years old and I'm understanding about 50% of what's going on with new cards. Even at my age I still like busting open a few hobby boxes and looking for that one diamond in the rough. Sorry for the book I just wrote I just couldn't stop typing. Having said all that, anyone out there who is taking advantage or scamming the novice or uneducated collectors. Quit doing it because your hurting one of the purest sports passions off all time. 

[witkowski_cards_and_music]

If others are selling for 99 cents it isn’t a $10 card it is a 99 cent card. Get over it, the pandemic is over.

[cardsforauction]

I was providing an example of a card that is listed in a price guide for $10 or sells when it first comes to market at $10.  Maybe the first few months it sells for $6 or $5 here on eBay then it plunges because as the OP noted the market gets flooded with this card.  Now the price is 99 cents as you say, but the value is maybe more.  If it was a pandemic card then a 99 cents card probably would have fetched $2 to $3 back then, sometimes more. 

[bandailey1208]

100%. I always start a listing high anyway cause that's just how I sell cards I don't particularly want to part with but will for the right price but if I hear "the last one sold for $3" one more time I'm gonna snap. I don't care if some idiot let it go in auction for dirt cheap, THIS card is $100. I'd rather keep it forever than do that. 

Auctions destroy card value (if there's only (ex:) 20 of a card how can you justify a couple dollars?) And they're destroying the hobby. 

I can get a Roger Maris auto for $80 but some kid no one has ever heard of sells for 2k? Nuts. I don't recognize the world anymore.