707 Sportscards and Scans

[mintacular]

As great of an inventory Levi has he still can't make a decent scan of his stuff and his website is still in the very early ages of the Intranet revolution...For example his Aaron RC and all his scans suffer from a bad exposure/light issue...

http://cgi.ebay.com/1954-Topps-128-R...item483e48a40b

You would think with his sales he could buy a $50 scanner at Best Buy and hire a 9th grader to do his scans...

[doug.goodman]

I can think of at least one large card dealer who uses "stock" photos of cards on his Beckett website store.

Doug

[timzcardz]

And yet he seems to be rather successful when so many others have fallen by the wayside.

You can't argue with success.

[D. Bergin]

They could be better, but I've seen much worse on a regular basis on Ebay.

Looks like it's possibly being scanned in a document setting instead of a photo setting, maybe to save on time.

[Chris Counts]

I agree 707s scans are not worthy of his extraordinary inventory. What drives me crazy is that so many eBay sellers scan their cards against a white background, making it difficult to examine the edges and corners. The edges and corners always look better against a black background. Check out Mike Wheat's website. Wayne Varner also does a nice job ...

The worst sellers, though, are the ones the crop off an edge or two of a card when they scan it. It's amazing how many do this ...

[mintacular]

Yes, you can't argue with sucess not trying to do so just sayin'...I wonder what would happen if Levi one day wanted to get out of the business and changed all his BINS to penny auctions and just let 'er rip...

[WillBBC]

Originally Posted by mintacular

Yes, you can't argue with sucess not trying to do so just sayin'...I wonder what would happen if Levi one day wanted to get out of the business and changed all his BINS to penny auctions and just let 'er rip...

I'd pay 50 bucks to see that happen. I'd finally be able to snag a few cards in his inventory that I've been eyeballing forever.

My favorite scan mishap is when a seller posts the entire scan bed as a thumbnail with the actual card being 20 x 20 pixels. Nice job there.

[HRBAKER]

Originally Posted by mintacular

Yes, you can't argue with sucess not trying to do so just sayin'...I wonder what would happen if Levi one day wanted to get out of the business and changed all his BINS to penny auctions and just let 'er rip...

Well for one thing his listings would show up on my ebay searches.
Hey, you can't argue with success. Works for him so no incentive to change. He has made a go of it when many have dropped off. Very impressive inventory.

[Griffins]

And equally impressive service.

[Big Six]

Originally Posted by Chris Counts

I agree 707s scans are not worthy of his extraordinary inventory. What drives me crazy is that so many eBay sellers scan their cards against a white background, making it difficult to examine the edges and corners. The edges and corners always look better against a black background. Check out Mike Wheat's website. Wayne Varner also does a nice job ...

The worst sellers, though, are the ones the crop off an edge or two of a card when they scan it. It's amazing how many do this ...

Most printer/scanners I've seen have a white backdrop so most folks don't know any better...now that I think of it, might tape a piece of black construction paper to the backdrop and see if that noticeably improves the image contrast...

[mintacular]

Well for one thing his listings would show up on my ebay searches. -How can I exclude his listings? I went to advanced search and I see that you can "exclude" a seller but I think it only does this for one search--how do I permanently exclude 707?

[Section103]

Originally Posted by mintacular

Yes, you can't argue with sucess not trying to do so just sayin'...I wonder what would happen if Levi one day wanted to get out of the business and changed all his BINS to penny auctions and just let 'er rip...

An unintended consequence would be my wife filing for divorce.

[HRBAKER]

Originally Posted by mintacular

Well for one thing his listings would show up on my ebay searches. -How can I exclude his listings? I went to advanced search and I see that you can "exclude" a seller but I think it only does this for one search--how do I permanently exclude 707?

I was referring to the fact that most of my saved searches are "Auctions Only."

[hangman62]

Yes,
Levi has a great inventory, I just wish he was a bit more flexible on prices of his vintage off cond stuff. He is prefectly willing to sit on a 52T high # in G, for years and years...???

[bobbyw8469]

Hey - I am sure he has a following because his feedback is pretty high! Alot of people like the fact he has what they need in stock, and don't mind paying the huge price premium he charges......

[Robextend]

I sent him an offer for an M116 Waddell that was substantially lower then the BIN price and he accepted. Maybe he was in a good mood that day

Edited to add: The BIN price wasn't too out of hand

[steve B]

On some scanners you can just leave the lid open. My scanner creates a nice black background that way.
(Epson perfection 2400 photo. Old, so probably unavailable. )

If I leave the lamp on that's rear it it gets a nice red/black fade and sometimes an image of the lamp which is a couple feet to the side of the scanner. Someday I'm going to try pointing it out the window to see what sort of picture I get.

Steve B

Originally Posted by Big Six

Most printer/scanners I've seen have a white backdrop so most folks don't know any better...now that I think of it, might tape a piece of black construction paper to the backdrop and see if that noticeably improves the image contrast...

[BCauley]

Originally Posted by Big Six

Most printer/scanners I've seen have a white backdrop so most folks don't know any better...now that I think of it, might tape a piece of black construction paper to the backdrop and see if that noticeably improves the image contrast...

When I do sell, this is pretty much what I do. I lay the card(s) on the bed and then lay the piece of black construction paper over them. I do front/back scans of each card. I have to spend some additional time to crop over and over but I don't sell a whole lot and I want any potential bidder to have the best photo possible instead of running into a possible problem down the road.

[insidethewrapper]

Some of these guys would have Millions of $$$$ if they just sold their great inventory. They will die with it and their wives will sell it for pennies on the dollar. Seems better to enjoy the money now. The most successful business people turn over inventory as fast as possible for cash flow so they have the money when the next great offer rolls around. Never made much sense (cents) to me to have a large inventory.

[philliesphan]

Originally Posted by insidethewrapper

Some of these guys would have Millions of $$$$ if they just sold their great inventory. They will die with it and their wives will sell it for pennies on the dollar. Seems better to enjoy the money now. The most successful business people turn over inventory as fast as possible for cash flow so they have the money when the next great offer rolls around. Never made much sense (cents) to me to have a large inventory.

A) Levi's wife will not sell his collection for pennies on the dollar. At worst, it would go to an auction house for 0% consignment fee.

B) Levi is not hurting for cash flow. You seem to think that there is always trade-offs between inventory and cash flow. You can have both -- as Levi does.

C) A smaller inventory may maximize working capital and cash flow -- but a large inventory makes you a popular seller. Many hear demoan Levi's business model. The reality is that it has been very successful for Mr. Bleam, and that he turns over a lot of inventory on a regular basis (just check closed sales on Ebay). All those sales are a small dent in a formidable inventory.

Not sure why all the vitriol against Mr. Bleam, insidethewrapper. It is not a traditional dealer sales model, but it nonetheless works quite well for Levi & Co.

M

[dstudeba]

Originally Posted by insidethewrapper

The most successful business people turn over inventory as fast as possible for cash flow so they have the money when the next great offer rolls around. Never made much sense (cents) to me to have a large inventory.

I am sure Levi does not have a capital or cash flow problem, and remember inventory cannot be replaced by a call to a warehouse so it does not fit easily into a traditional business model.

[4815162342]

Originally Posted by philliesphan

A) Levi's wife will not sell his collection for pennies on the dollar. At worst, it would go to an auction house for 0% consignment fee.

B) Levi is not hurting for cash flow. You seem to think that there is always trade-offs between inventory and cash flow. You can have both -- as Levi does.

C) A smaller inventory may maximize working capital and cash flow -- but a large inventory makes you a popular seller. Many hear demoan Levi's business model. The reality is that it has been very successful for Mr. Bleam, and that he turns over a lot of inventory on a regular basis (just check closed sales on Ebay). All those sales are a small dent in a formidable inventory.

Not sure why all the vitriol against Mr. Bleam, insidethewrapper. It is not a traditional dealer sales model, but it nonetheless works quite well for Levi & Co.

M

Originally Posted by dstudeba

I am sure Levi does not have a capital or cash flow problem, and remember inventory cannot be replaced by a call to a warehouse so it does not fit easily into a traditional business model.

+1

[Jim VB]

Originally Posted by philliesphan

Many hear demoan Levi's business model.

Marc,

As you well know, many here complain about Levi's business model simply because he has cards they want at prices higher than they want to pay. The easy solution would be for them (me included, sometimes) to go buy those cards elsewhere. If only his inventory wasn't so damn deep!

[autograf]

As someone else said, apparently he'll take less than his BIN's. I've never bought anything from him because he's primarily 1950's/1960's Topps. I know people who know him well and he is CLEARLY not hurting for cash flow.

[mark evans]

I've bought two cards from Levi (I think) -- '52 Topps Minoso and Pitler. Both transactions went smoothly although I may have paid more than 'market value,' at least as reflected by eBay auctions.

I don't see how anyone can criticize a seller for the price he asks for his product. After all, they're Levi's cards. Good friend Dan McKee is asking very serious money for his unique Guy Zinn, and all I know is that I keep buying lottery tickets.

Mark

[Doug]

Originally Posted by autograf

As someone else said, apparently he'll take less than his BIN's. I've never bought anything from him because he's primarily 1950's/1960's Topps. I know people who know him well and he is CLEARLY not hurting for cash flow.

I'm not even sure why they have the best offer option on the BINs. Obviously they are his cards and he can ask whatever he wants, but any time I've made a best offer I get a counter offer that's under 2% less than the BIN price when the card is usually priced about 30% higher than what it would actually sell for.

[jbbama]

+1

[bobbyw8469]

I'm not even sure why they have the best offer option on the BINs. Obviously they are his cards and he can ask whatever he wants, but any time I've made a best offer I get a counter offer that's under 2% less than the BIN price when the card is usually priced about 30% higher than what it would actually sell for.

+2