I am DONE subsidizing other people's GOOD DEALS!!!
bobbyw8469
Posts: 7,144 ✭✭✭
Someone else said this in one of the threads, and I couldn't agree with it more! I am through running auctions!! After my current auctions end, I am shutting them done and switching to BINs only!!!
This was a card I recently sold! $30 lower than VCP average!
My Musial
Less than two weeks later!! (And $50 higher!)
Musial I sold less than two weeks later!
Where was this buyer when I was auctioning mine off?!?!?!?! I am done subsidizing other people's good deals!
This was a card I recently sold! $30 lower than VCP average!
My Musial
Less than two weeks later!! (And $50 higher!)
Musial I sold less than two weeks later!
Where was this buyer when I was auctioning mine off?!?!?!?! I am done subsidizing other people's good deals!
0
Comments
I feel for you
Doug
Doug
You're going to stop listing auctions because someone made a whole $30 after fees selling a card they bought from you?
Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
You said it right there.....VCP is an average which means prices could be higher and prices could be lower. That is the risk you take with auctions. I have found it better to sell to members on the various forums I am a part than to sell on Ebay. It saves on fees even if I can give a better deal than what I would get on Ebay and it is less hassle as well. I also do my best not to tick said members off with my posts which will generate additional sales for me if members feel I am not a tool. Ticking fellow board members off is detrimental to any sales onemight receive on the boards.
http://www.unisquare.com/store/brick/
Ralph
<< <i>Straight auctions work out in the end if you care about turning over parts of your collection you'd rather not have anymore. >>
Point taken. I may run them in auctions after I have had them listed for 3 straight months via BIN format.
<< <i>You're going to stop listing auctions because someone made a whole $30 after fees selling a card they bought from you? >>
I look at it in terms of percentages. $30 on a $100 card is 30%. I know of no banks that pay that high of a percentage.
<< <i>You're going to stop listing auctions because someone made a whole $30 after fees selling a card they bought from you? >>
I look at it in terms of percentages. $30 on a $100 card is 30%. I know of no banks that pay that high of a percentage. >>
Yes, but for every auction where a buyer might make $30, there's another one where he might lose $30, too. The bank analogy is completely irrelevant. If you don't want to risk selling cards for less than VCP, then start them off at VCP or a BIN. Of course, you might cost yourself money doing that, too. VCP is just an average anyway, and is often inaccurate in terms of real time value.
Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
<< <i>I look at it in terms of percentages. $30 on a $100 card is 30%. I know of no banks that pay that high of a percentage. >>
You are right Bobby ... and it sucks that you didn't get as much as the next guy. HOWEVER, your buyer took a risk ... should be compared more to the stock market than a guaranteed payment from a bank. If you played the market this past year you could have made 30%.
Doug
Liquidating my collection for the 3rd and final time. Time for others to enjoy what I have enjoyed over the last several decades. Money could be put to better use.
Jason
<< <i>There is also something strange going on with eBay. I ran an experiment this week and confirmed this. Items are being lost in search and not able to be viewed. When a high profile card gets 15 views there is something wrong. Having 7000 listings and owner of an anchor stor ($200 per month), I should not have an issue, but I went to remove some items from the store this week and could not even find my own items in my store. I could not edit. They were there and I could find them under advanced search, but going this route you cannot end them. I think more ebay shananigans to keep that monthly cash flow rolling. Your items just simply are not being seen hardly at all anymore. I called and called customer service and got some real tools on the phone and no help. She even said that they have had the same complaints flooded in past couple of days, but showing no glich in the system. I am considering Amazon and my own website now. There just is not any customer service with ebay and I think it is a sinking ship. The big consigners are flourishing because of this, but that train will run its course eventually as well. Must diverify and try private sales, your own site and perhaps Amazon. I have not moved over but am considering it. Just use feebay to buy maybe.
Jason >>
Ghost listings and Blacklistings. Craiglists and ebay have it. Ebay and craigslist will deny it. but it has been proven. do a google on ghost listings.
Again, honest question.
Dodgers collection scans | Brett Butler registry | 1978 Dodgers - straight 9s, homie
Edit: guess that's not it. Just looked again- looks like the cards were both sold in December.
Jeff
Card Country
Graded stars 1950's-1980
<< <i>How many cards have you sold over VCP? >>
Not many. If the card sold over VCP, it usually looked EXTREMELY good for the grade, and it really wouldn't me at all if the card was cracked out and wound up in a higher grade holder.
Looking for 1970 MLB Photostamps
- uncut
Positive Transactions - tennesseebanker, Ahmanfan, Donruss, Colebear, CDsNuts, rbdjr1, Downtown1974, yankeeno7, drewsef, mnolan, mrbud60, msassin, RipublicaninMass, AkbarClone, rustywilly, lsutigers1973, julen23 and nam812, plus many others...
<< <i>Where was this buyer when I was auctioning mine off?!?!?!?! >>
getting a life? chopping broccoli? searching other Buy It Nows???
<< <i>I am done subsidizing other people's good deals! >>
ah, the battle cry of last year has carried over to this one. do you ever do any research to find out how many of your sales have resulted in other seller's stale, unsold inventory?
Maybe I should suggest that maybe this is not the hobby/business for you.
<< <i>Maybe I should suggest that maybe this is not the hobby/business for you. >>
That's ironic. I was thinking the same thing about you.
My first way of listing was to list an item slightly below what it had been selling for, and many times item would not even get a bid. Similar (often not as nice) items that started at .99 often would shoot right past my opening bid and sell for significantly MORE. Now, like many of you I have seen lots and lots of BIN's, some with just silly pricing. I am also the seeing the SAME items selling as a BIN for more than they end up with at auction.
Personally, I think there is a segment of the bidders on ebay who have for some reason (become lazy?) decided to use BIN instead of bidding on the same EXACT item, even if the BIN is higher.
I have been more than a little surprised. Are people so sick of shillers that they would rather pay MORE on a BIN and just be done with it?
Anyone else seen this?
<< <i>Another way to phrase this thread would be, "Why the .99 cent auction has slowly been diminishing". Like the other thread pointed out, the true 99 cent auction has gone the way of the dinosaur. Ebay has run amok with BIN/OBOs with the deals being few and far between. With the buyers not supporting the 99 cent auctions and the items selling cheaply, you are going to see more and more sellers selling cards via the BIN format. Ebay wanted sellers to sell items that way - looks like they got what they wanted! >>
Why does ebay prefer bin/ obo over auctions?
There are way too many bin listings to go through. There aren't many good items being auctioned...........so now I only look at PWCC's and pro stein listings - quality items that sell at market value.
to be honest when Im looking to buy something on ebay I filter out auctions and only do bin. So that can tell you something about todays ecommerce buyers.
things evolve and you must evolve with it.
You will surely have more success than bin for roi.
I wish you luck and why do people always give you poop in your threads, must have no lives.
<< <i>
<< <i>Maybe I should suggest that maybe this is not the hobby/business for you. >>
That's ironic. I was thinking the same thing about you. >>
How so? Im doing just fine. I have no complaints.
<< <i>I feel for you bobby but 99 cent auction days are over.
to be honest when Im looking to buy something on ebay I filter out auctions and only do bin. So that can tell you something about todays ecommerce buyers.
things evolve and you must evolve with it.
You will surely have more success than bin for roi.
I wish you luck and why do people always give you poop in your threads, must have no lives. >>
Why do you filter out auctions?
"Common sense is the best distributed commodity in the world, for every man is convinced that he is well supplied with it"
Even better move to BINs and in 3 months start a thread detailing how much better/worse the experience was for you. That would be useful to the other people on this forum as I am sure several folks are in a similar boat to you.
However I think you have claimed you were going to do something different with you selling quite a few times on here so seems unlikely that you will actually follow through for an extended period of time. Most likely when you see an auction that closes higher than one of your future BINs you will re-think your approach.
Robb
he claimed that sometimes losing on a card was just a part of the game and he didn't mind that because he would just buy and sell some more and maybe absorb an occasional loss.
when did it stop being just for fun Bobby? you've always known the nature of this game we play. you were subsidizing great deals, WILLINGLY, and then reporting back to us with your experiences.
i'm bustin' your balls over this, but what i really want to know from you is simple: Are you still having any fun buying and selling on eBay?!?
Bobby maybe you should give this strategy a try. It definitely would drive some traffic to your listings.
EBAY Profile
I can't remember the card but i was on VCP the other day and saw the PSA 10 had sold for $370 about 4 years ago on ebay. That buyer then flipped it 2 years later on ebay for $180. It works both ways.
I enjoy building sets and of the thousands of cards I've purchased less than ten have been through BIN because the prices are ridiculous. Most BINs I've looked at are basically the leftovers; fuzzy corners, off centered stuff called EX and NICE CARD, with prices 3 to 4 times that of a well centered NM card sold by auction. If the cards were priced with an actual sale in mind then I'd fill my sets a whole lot faster.
"Molon Labe"
~WalterSobchak
<< <i>I still do auctions starting at $.99 and have few complaints. Do I sell cards for below VCP prices? Yes, but sell more that go above those levels. Over the last two years I've averaged 116% of VCP of my graded card set breaks. >>
your format and presentation are easy to understand. i assume some of your buyers like to come back repeatedly to an environment they enjoy without disruption. the quality is usually quite dependable.
what makes me curious is what it costs you to get that 116% of VCP average, although i don't expect you to disclose such information. but is it as profitable now as it was in the "good old days"? or does it require substantially more volume to reach the same bottom line?
While I do not sell a lot on eBay, my general approach is to use BIN with items that I believe are thinly followed or unique/scarce, and to use auctions for everything else. In Bobby's case, I too would have gone the auction route on this card. Sometimes I lose but sometimes I win. I feel as though I win more often or, obviously, I would just go with all BINs.
One thing to keep in mind with VCP is that it can get skewed when there are a few people chasing a card at a particular point in time. There will be a temporary price jump until they obtain their cards. Also, as we know all PSA (chose your number) are not the same, which can cause a significant price difference. I honestly can't say I have ever looked at VCP when selling an item at auction. The few times I have purchased graded cards, I have used it as a general guide.
<< <i>but is it as profitable now as it was in the "good old days"? >>
Not even close. Although I'm usually very happy with my sales, eBay fees have risen and finding quality sets to break are scarcer and more costly when I find them. The other issue is I've seen some sets on eBay that look like high grade, they usually get listed at a BIN price that's 50% over what I might be able to break it for.
~WalterSobchak
That's not a flip, that's a flop.
So better luck next time I guess.
Loth
<< <i>this is one of my favorite ebay searches...
auctions, with greater than 1 bid, sorted by highest price, exclusive of probstein123 and prewarcardcollector
always interesting to see what high dollar cards are actually being sold...
and the reality is, there aren't that many ... >>
Interesting how many of those cards are basketball. Interesting to see if the next generation of collectors pushes basketball card values up as that sport has arguably had the most marketable stars over the last 20+ years.
<< <i>Are you not bidding your cards up enough, Bobby? Or did you set your snipe too low? >>
I don't do that. That is unethical.
As a buyer of some of the higher dollar football, I've noticed this as well and also a trend of auction houses getting more of these tougher 10's. Didn't used to be the case, especially with 70's and 80's football but seems to be where some of them are heading.
Al