Superior/Mastronet vs. eBay for selling

ChrisKK

I'm curious of everyone’s opinion on this question. IF i wanted to sell my 1970 Baseball set (47% complete all in PSA9) what would be the best way?

Superior / Mastronet –
- Large auction house.
- Most likely sell as one lot.
- Greater audience for the larger pieces.
- 15% (give or take) sellers fee

eBay –
- 340 auctions
- 340 (or minus) parcels to be sent out.
- Auction fees, delivery fees, PayPal fees

For a 1970 set, with 340 cards, would eBay really be more profitable? Enough to offset the headaches and time invested?


Chris

pc

for a 1970 set i recommend superior.

1954

Superior or Brian Drent

qualitycards

CKK - Your comparison is not equal.
You suggest a large auction house to sell all 340 cards as 1 lot OR eBay to sell off 340 lots.
Why can't you eBay all 340 lots together as the auction houses would do? Many of the heavy hitters at Mastro/Superior/LeLands etc..
also view eBay. Plus the buyer will win the lot at his bid price, not for 15% higher, and you will retrieve about 95% of this bid, not 85%.
Also w/ eBay you can set a reserve, so it wont sell for under your amount. With the auction houses, you must take what is given.
Don't get me wrong, I like the auction houses and have won lots from most of them. I'm just pointing out that your comparison wasn't equal. Good luck with your decision...jay

ChrisKK

Jay,
Good point. I could eBay the group in one auction.

From many of the past threads on this subject it was pointed out that the purpose of using eBay would be to sell the group one card at a time, thus maximizing profits. An auction house would not be as open to listing each card separately.

My question is to gather information on the advantages and disadvantages for selling a set that was not really old but large enough to be a handful.

Thank you
Chris

Basilone

After the buyers fee and the sellers commission...you would net about 30% less than what the high bid is (including buyers premimum). Not to mention any tax exposure you might might have from the auction house.

With eBay.....paypal, commission and listing fees would be approx 10% reduction in your net intake.

pc

not so John.not so Jay.
1970 topps has a smaller group of buyers
and has been DOA on ebay.Superior would
provide a better fee than 15% for a set the size
of CKK's.the seller could negotiate down to potentially
zero on the sell side and easily less than 15% due
to the size of the lot/$$$ value.remember the question
was for a 1970 set

Vargha

If eBay is dead on these, go with Chris and Superior. He will negotiate on the seller's fees and will be willing to pull out certain cards to sell individually while listing the others in lots.

Basilone

Here is a post Crazy SC made in June 2002:

Sunday June 23, 2002 7:37 AM



I always wonder why people consider the buyers & sellers premium to be different fees. They're both consignment fees, just split up so people don't feel like they're paying the full 20-25% they actually are. Take the case of a 10% sellers & 15% buyers. It comes out that the seller is going to receive 78.26% of the final selling price (excluding sales tax & shipping). I think (despite the auction houses claims) that most people who bid are educated enough to add the total costs to their bid.

Is there anyone who doesn't have that 15% on their mind when they bid on an item? Of course, prices are always reported that INCLUDE the buyers premium. It just sounds more palaptable to charge the seller 5-10% than 21%.

Having said that, I think many people will pay a premium to buy an item out of a major auction house. In part because you know you're going to receive the item, and I know some people just like the idea of bidding and winning an item in the big auctions. The catalogs are certainly gorgeous.

If you take an average 20% commission at a major auction house, and 5% on ebay with all fees (which includes paypal/credit cards, etc.). Then add the fact that you'll probably wait 3-4 months to get paid from the major auction house (min 2 months needed before the auction, and 45 days after it), but you do have a much better chance of getting paid from a major house.

Will you, on average, get at least two more bids from a major auction house than on ebay (at 10% increments)? That's what you'll need minimum to make up the difference in consignment fees. I don't think you'll get that 20% on average. But there are certainly items that are better suited to ebay, and others to major auction houses. Knowing which belong where is part of hobby savvy...






Here is a post I made on the same thread:

Sunday June 23, 2002 8:38 PM



Aconte-

My argument revolves around the bottom line realized by the seller. For example, lets say a buyer is willing to pay $11,500 for a vintage card. So he includes the buyers premium in his bidding and bids $10,000. His total outlay for the card is $11,500. Now lets look at what the seller's bottom line from the sale. Yes...the card sold for $11,500 but after consignment fees taken off the high bid of $10,000 he only nets $8,500-$9000. As a seller I could care less how much the card high bidder actually pays for the card....my concern is the actual dollars Im getting from the sale. In this example the seller walks away with say $8,500 and the auction house takes in $3,000.

Lets say again, the same card is sold on ebay...and only gets a high bid of $10,000...which is less than what it sold for at the auction house. The seller of the card will actually pocket $9,500 after say 5% ebay fees (a $1,000 more than the auction house example). The buyer is happy because he only had to pay $10,000 for the card rather than $11,500 (a savings of $1,500).

I call that a win/win situation.

John

aconte

<< <i>But there are certainly items that are better suited to ebay, and others to major auction houses. Knowing which belong where is part of hobby savvy... >>



Basilone,

Good post. Funny you retrieve and old reply and I was just getting ready to respond to this thread.

Here's an example of a card suited for the auction house. The seven day listing on ebay about
a year ago did not draw too well on this card. Now on the auction house the seller got a bid
over $2,000. Tough to say if ebay would of hit that sooner than later. But it may of had a low
ebay bid for other reasons at the time.

Erskine Psa 9

And note the strong price even with murcerfan's comments!

edited in support of murcerfan!

aconte

aconte

ChrisKK,

I would try ebay first. I would try it as one item or lot and start at an acceptable number that you
could live with as a sell price. The cost and time to do this should be minimal. A set like that
could achieve a better profit for you there. The next bet might then be Chris Porter if that does
not work out for you. Good luck!

aconte

rbeaton

For what it's worth, a 1970 Topps Baseball PSA 9 Partial Set sold at Superior for $10,350 in November 2003. This set had 274 PSA 9's.

Robert