What Should A Dealer Do?

[Bored5000]

Originally Posted by ibuysportsephemera

For those posting that they think that the dealer has an obligation to inform...I call BS. If you are "stupid" enough to take a card that you know nothing about to a card show and sell it to the first dealer you approach, you deserve to be low balled.

Sorry to be so "rude" about this, but in today's age of information (on your phone, computer, tv, etc.) there is no excuse other than laziness for not being informed.

Jeff

I don't think it is "laziness" or "stupid" not to find information on a print freak like shown in this thread. Obviously, someone posting on a vintage baseball card site will know that such print freaks have been in demand in recent years. The card shown in the original post is a lot different from, say, a Cracker Jack Joe Jackson or a T206 Plank, where the value will instantly pop up with any number of search terms.

I could easily see how someone would try to research the value of the card shown in the original post and still not have any idea of the value. Putting terms like "John McGraw baseball card" or "John McGraw T206" into Google generates result after result that give no indication of the value of the card shown. The "no excuse" for not being informed on something obscure like a print freak seems really off the mark, IMO.

Some of the posts in this thread just seem like a rationalization to fleece someone.

[T206Collector]

Originally Posted by Bored5000

The "no excuse" for not being informed on something obscure like a print freak seems really off the mark, IMO.

Exactly, which is why I chose it for the poll. This card looks like a mess and is not easy to find with Google unless you already know what you're looking for.

[pokerplyr80]

My thought is it would depend on the situation. Is this some old lady trying to sell her husband's collection? Did the person ask what the dealer feels the card is worth or what is a fair price?

If someone walked up and said I'm trying to get $50 bucks for this card are you interested, I don't necessarily see a problem with paying the asking price. If someone is asking for help because they don't know what they have the right thing to do would be to offer a fair price that leaves the dealer to make a fair profit.

[Rich Klein]

And some peopel don't want to know or care.

This is a real life situation which came up. One of the dealer4s at the show I run also runs a local show. He wanted to buy all pre-1980 non basebal cards and I offered him a very fair price (and would have kicked in some other stuff as well; the post-1980 non BB cards I carry)


One of the cards I had (and tried to explain to him just how well he'd do with the deal was a slate 1948B Arnie Risen card. Tried to explain what it was and how much was it worth. His answer to me was something to the effect he did not really want the education to have to explain that to a customer.

Long story short, friend of mine comes to my show about 2 months later. Looks at that card, buys it immediately (Gave him a very deep discount since he has helped me get guests for our show AND went to the same college I did AND sends out promotions for our show)

He was beaming with his purchase and I said we're probably hte only 1 pwoplw whol knew what that card really was

Sometimes the customer does not care. Just because "WE" know the card is expensive does not mean the average collector might think its anything more than a messed up flluke.

Me, if something like that came in, I'd call LEON and tell him to get his butt down to my show - as I've seen him do for other collectors

Rich