SportsCard Websites...

ArnyVee

I've been searching quite a few sportscard websites today and boy are the prices out of this world! I mean, they are asking for more than SMR or full SMR for just about everything that I've been looking at. Does anyone know of any reasonably priced websites out there?

duner

there's no such thing....all the websites are fishing. most of them will negotiate stated prices if you contact them

iamthegreatcornholio

It really depends on the site and type of card. I've found that graded commons are often reasonable, but star cards are usually ridculously priced. I don't like to play games so I mostly buy from ebay.

Brian

wolfbear

Here's a few good ones to try :

Cavalcade of Sports

Marty's Stuff

Rusty Willy's

Griffins

Wolfbears are all good dealers, as is this one
Joe's Vintage Cards

ArnyVee

Thanks for those links. Some better prices on those, although they are still high. I guess that I can always make an offer to some.

acowa

Here are a couple of good ones

Mickeys

Natex


Please keep in mind, these are dealers. By definition, they are trying to make a living selling cards. EBAY is a wholesale outlet.

Many (most) of the dealers buy off of EBAY to stock their own inventories.


Regards,


Alan

jrdolan

I agree with acowa. The online and bricks-and-mortar dealers, part of their livelihood is searching eBay for cards to resell. Yes, they buy entire sets and collections to break up, but they are also looking out for high-demand singles and spec cards that they believe will increase in value. They know what they can sell them for, and the profit margin they need, so they set their snipes based on that and don't think about it again unless they get that e-mail saying they won.

I've had some of the dealers listed above and others win my auctions. They sure didn't buy those cards to resell them at eBay prices or even a few dollars more.

That said, I think some dealers do price their wares too high even for their own market. Clearly I'm wrong, because those dealers are still in business and have been for years. Maybe the security of buying from someone who actually has something to lose if he screws his customers is worth that kind of premium. Maybe most of their customers don't track the market and only know dealer vs. dealer prices. Many, many prices in SMR make you scratch your head when you compare only to eBay sales, but if you factor in the prices charged by dealers they make more sense.

I'd pay good money for an accurate, frequently updated eBay sportscard price guide! I know there are subscription services like Andale that let you look at a larger sampling of completed sales than eBay does (what's the eBay limit, the last 2 weeks?) But I'm not sure if those let you set up a portfolio of items you want to track, say particular cards in a particular grade, and it automatically keeps a running tally that gives you average winning bids.

ydsotter

I deal with three or four websites outside of ebay... I have almost always paid $10-$100 more than what I would have gotten it on ebay... but sometimes it's worth it when you factor in some of the things other folks mentioned... like 1- trust... 2- a higher end 8 or 9, 3- payment plans... like 25% down now... and pay the rest off over a couple months etc... 4- trade ins...

the football card store, kurtz Kards, Mintstate, Peter Lalos (champs and bums), marty's and Natex have all been very good to me...

ydsotter

you also have to consider that some of these dealers cosign cards... one of the dealers I buy from has a few items ridiculously priced and others fairly priced... his answer to me was that the more ridiculously priced items were his cosinor cards...

thefootballcardstore

ydsotter - Thank you sir may I have another. I appreciate you and the others I sell to as well.

I take pride that my prices are very competitive.
I have a ton of cards where there are other dealers’ price tags on the back that are 25%-200% higher than my current price.