Condition of new(ish) cards bought off ebay?

SDavid

For the modern collectors on here, I'm just curious what percentage of the new cards (say, from the last 3 years or so) you've bought off ebay were actually in mint condition when you received them.

I haven't bought a ton of new cards off ebay, but I've been surprised how many of them had scratches, dinged corners, etc.

When I've bought packs, the cards have rarely come out in that bad of shape. It makes me wonder what these people are doing with their cards!

Again, I'm just curious if others have had similar experiences or if I've just had a bad run.

goodriddance189

for Chrome cards, usually about 80% as long as you see the centering in the auction description

for other cards, kind of a crapshoot. about 50/50

MrRookie

I run into a lot of 2000-2004 raw cards from ebay coming with chipped borders and dinged corners, especially autos and game used cards. I have seen dealers at shows with $10-$50 autos and game used cards that they have completely loose, no sleeves even, in a cardboard box or stack that they let everyone dig through so I'm assuming I'm getting some of these cards that the seller just put into a top loader before he mailed them to me.

pandrews

ive noticed alot of game used cards have bad corners, probably due to somebody trying to get them in a sleeve..

pandrews

<< <i>I run into a lot of 2000-2004 raw cards from ebay coming with chipped borders and dinged corners, especially autos and game used cards. I have seen dealers at shows with $10-$50 autos and game used cards that they have completely loose, no sleeves even, in a cardboard box or stack that they let everyone dig through so I'm assuming I'm getting some of these cards that the seller just put into a top loader before he mailed them to me. >>



yeah.. and they do that because they're too cheap to buy appropriate protection for their cards.

Vincecarder

I've got Gem Mint cards....and I've also got cards with scratches (with some cards having fingernail scratches to prevent from grading high)

Basically look at the scans (ask for larger scans if you can) and look at the dealers reputation. If he is selling 100's of graded cards and your buying some raw cards chances are that card graded low and they cracked it out to sell raw.

SDavid

I've been trying to buy from people in the 100-200 feedback range who have sold few if any graded cards. A lot of the cards I bought were also chrome, but they had horrendous surfaces - tough to see that in a scan. Also, I haven't bought highly valuable cards...I figure there's a reason why a lot of them aren't slabbed...I've been buying cards in the $15-30 range that many sellers (particularly those who don't sell a lot) don't get graded because the value is too low.

envoy98

Exactly what Vincecarder said. ALWAYS look at that. There is a reason someone is selling an ungraded card. Either it already graded poorly or they know it will grade poorly. I usually sell my raw stuff if I'm convinced it's no better than an 8. Modern stuff that is. But I label it appropriately as NM usually. I have another dealer at one of the shows I do that will buy my PSA 8/BGS8 stuff at 50-60% of High Beckett all day long. So I don't have to worry about cracking it. I don't know what he does with it, maybe I don't want to know. But I do know he pays cash and takes just about anything. Makes some sense though as high beckett is a general representation of NM-MT (8) anyway. If it was cracked that's all it would sell for anyway.

I have received a few 10's from ebay. In fact, I rec'd a drew brees gold SOTT #/10 once from a guy in Alaska. He sent it in a toploader and regular envelope and POSTAGE DUE none the less! The card was half hanging out of the toploader when I got it but it still looked sharp, so I sent it in. Voila! PSA 10. Paid $8 for the card sold it for $65 BIN on the bay. I still chewed his a$$ for not putting it in a team bag or taping the top and the postage due thing too, that sucked since I paid $3 for shipping.

SDavid

I've gotten psa 10's from ebay as well, but, strangely, they were valuable '80's cards. I sort of figured the types of cards I've been buying lately would be in better condition than the 80's stuff. It sounds like I've just had some bad luck as of late. Obviously, I'll seek out different sellers.

ctsoxfan

Great question. But, tough to answer...I have gotten cards all over the grading scale, from NM-MT to Gem MT. And, it doesn't seem to be seller specific. I do know one thing, I buy a lot of graded cards from DSL, and when I see them selling raw (which they do often, sometimes in lots), I stay away.

SDavid

This is OT, but, speaking of graded card dealers, see this bccg card from a prominent psa dealer.
sp jeter bccg 10

I know he was selling a different sp jeter bccg 10 last week, but does this guy usually sell BCCG cards? The reason I ask is that whoever submitted the cards from this invoice took a MAJOR beating.
You can look up the serial numbers here. I checked them out just to see how successful he was since I knew he regularly submitted to psa.

Now, starting with serial number 662817, notice how many 0.0's there are. Most likely, the 0.0's indicate the card didn't meet his minimum grade, meaning the card is not slabbed, although the submitter is still charged the grading fee. That's a common practice with that grading company. Think Joe presumed he would get a large percentage of 10's for his psa 8's or 8 equivalents? Obviously, I don't know who submitted the cards, but whoever it was, they probably believed a little too much of what they had heard. The last invoice number for the 0.0's was 662965. Out of about 161 cards, that's 148 Jeter rookie cards that didn't grade! I hope those 10's sell well!

How the heck does someone get that many jeter rookies in the first place?