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Posted By: warshawlaw

Net: If an auctioneer charges you 15% and a bidder 15%, that is a 30% hit on the sale price. Ebay charges are well under 10%. So, the question is whether the auction house can deliver value in excess of the differential. IMHO on most items the answer is "no" for established sellers, "maybe" for unknown sellers. Everyone here devours ebay listings; it is rare for anything of real value to escape our attention unless it is misidentified, mislisted or hidden. Ebay has had many high-end card sales, so I would not hesitate to place individual cards there rather than in an auction. However, ebay is hit and miss, especially in crowded categories. I've had stuff I did not think would sell go for big bucks and stuff I thought would sell in a heartbeat sit there untouched.

Control: I am a control freak. I do not like handing my stuff over to a third party and ceding control to them. I like the control of setting my own timing, price, reserve and terms.

Time: Ebay is a do-it-yourself operation; you list it, monitor it, collect the money, send the card, deal with all the risks, etc. If you have a lot to sell, Ebay is a tedious process. What's your time worth to you?