Less T206 eBay Auctions?

[Bocabirdman]

Anybody have an opinion or an answer as to why the number of eBay T206 auctions have fallen off as of late? It seems when I do a search, a single page of 200 listings takes me almost a week down the road

Is it a result of the increase in other Auction venues? (I know that Leon has 800 cards to be included in his next auction.)

Is it because of eBay squeezing out some of the smaller sellers?

Are we running out of available cards? Are they all sitting in collections already?

Is it just a mid-winter dry spell?

Is it just my imagination coupled with the fact that I just passed the halfway point in my Monster Quest?

[Jlighter]

I've been thinking the same thing.

I think it's because of the monthly auctions, like Sterling, Joes and Sportscard Link. It's a lot easier to send someone your cards and have someone else sell them.

[GoldenAge50s]

I would think it primarily has to do w/ the Dec 31st end of "free Listings" in the Sportscard & Memorabilia category.

[familytoad]

I think it's probably because t206 cards are rare.

[Bocabirdman]

Originally Posted by familytoad

I think it's probably because t206 cards are rare.

[lharri3600]

After speaking to a few ebay sellers I've come to to the grim fact that because of the increase from the post office and the ebay fees, some have said forget it!

[lharri3600]

Originally Posted by GoldenAge50s

I would think it primarily has to do w/ the Dec 31st end of "free Listings" in the Sportscard & Memorabilia category.

that too Fred

[Bocabirdman]

Originally Posted by GoldenAge50s

I would think it primarily has to do w/ the Dec 31st end of "free Listings" in the Sportscard & Memorabilia category.

I actually hope that is the main reason. That would mean a possible increase in listings whenever they run a similar special

[t206blogcom]

I'm hoarding them all.

[sdkammeyer]

I think it is a little bit of everything above. Not sure if it's because credit card bills from Christmas are coming in, or the winter weather that most of the country is just now finally getting, or what ........ but my sales have fallen off across the board over the past couple weeks. Even sales that are not sports related (which are my "bread and butter" when it comes to ebay) have fallen way off. I guess if there isn't anybody buying ...... people aren't selling either.

I'm sure the post office thing has people ticked off (im one of them) but Fed-ex is picking up the slack nicely and offering a pretty steep discount right now. Most cards either get sent "First Class" or "Priority" and neither of those shipping methods have been affected .... well except for the slight cost increases. I'm sure Fed-ex is trying to pick up on the USPS Parcel Post products (mostly what i ship) and they are doing a pretty good job of snagging up the extra business right now.

[AMBST95]

Im noticing the drop in listings with the 33 Goudeys as well. Card listings are much like the tides. After a high ride, a low tide will follow. People have bought and traded T206s for 100 years, there are plenty on the market if you are patient enough to wait. They don't call it "The Monster" for nothing.

[Hankphenom]

I can tell you that eBay listings of quality sports memorabilia has gone WAYYYY down in the past several months, I would say starting around last September. I figured it was because of the promotion, which precipitated a tremendous increase in junk listings. My theory was that dealers of quality material didn't want their stuff getting lost amongst the drek and falling through the cracks, so they held back. However, I haven't seen much uptick since the first of the year, and I'm starting to think that perhaps America's attics are getting sucked dry of the good stuff. Having for many years now depended on eBay to provide a certain amount of my income, I'm thinking that if this continues much longer it might be a good time to think about retiring. That's how bad it's gotten.

[bbcard1]

I have had a few less than I once did as my upgrading has slowed down, but I used to list about ten a week...I have found that they sell fine on BST, without the fees. I sometimes leave a few dollars on the table, but in the long run I think it works out better for me.

[kateighty]

I definitely agree that the holiday bills rolling in impact the overall flow of sales. And as one of the only ladies here from a female point of view, maybe the Valentines Day (albeit silly unless you're getting your girl a T206) ridiculousness could be a factor? I know it's totally a girly thing to think of but maybe it has something to do with supply and demand?

Also, I try to put up what I'm selling in batches (I also do rare books @BMTbaseballandbooks) and with the USPS uncertainties and changes it's making me less inclined to list items individually outside of a batch instead of all at once. When finishing up my last batch, every day at the post office I heard the workers saying things like "do those new rates apply to this yet?" which was kind of discouraging. Several times I even heard them mumbling about changes that neither I or ebay (at least publicly) were aware of and when those changes were to be implemented. Definitely weirded me out and made me hesitant about what might come next (unless it has to do with the Johnny Cash forever stamp which they knew nothing about). The workers were literally talking about updates to the system whenever I made a visit. Anyways, I'd be more than willing to put up some raw T206s for everyone before I put up my next batch...especially if they're going to be a Valentines present