t206 bulk question

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Posted By: sesop

Hello.
Another question- sorry to be a pest- when i see t206 cards in bulk (more than 10) on ebay with a few poor and a few great and most in the middle- and none are superstars/rare/sl, etc, etc, is there any sort of guide as far as how much i should pay? i have checked out t206.net and have a database set up and am familiar with individual card grading and pricing, but wonder what sort of "bulk discount" people look for when considering such a purchase- ie- what do the dealers pay when they buy in bulk? has to be less than the sum of the cards retail- i just wonder if there's a percentage guide or something- thanks.

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Posted By: jay behrens

don't expect any bulk discount when trying to win a lot of t206s on eBay. I am checking groups of cards all the time and it has almost gotten to the point where small groups of t206s are selling for more than if you won the cards individually, not figuring in shipping costs.

Jay

A good friend will come bail you out of jail. A true friend will be sitting next to you saying, "Damn, that was fun."

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Posted By: Ray Piskadlo

I totally agree w/ Jay on this one. I have gotten T206 cards at much better prices individually than what I have seen lots go for on eBay over the past few months. It hasn't always been like this, but over the past 6 months or so, this is definitely the case.

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Posted By: sesop

interesting- that certainly seems to be the case. i've been buying individually- got one lot (poor to fair)- 6 for $67- that was my first t206 purchase. i have since bought from mike wheat- for the equivalent prices of the 6 for 67 deal, i got some cards in way better condition. it's funny- i always wanted t206s when i was a kid and only in the past 2 months or so, i have been obsessed, and based on what i see on ebay, i'm not alone- i have 100% feedback on 4 purchases, and most of the stuff i bid on has people with low numbers also. why is this?

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Posted By: Chad

I think a lot of people just don't have the energy to pick these cards off one at a time. There's a premium for buying a large lot, but if you're just starting the set, it may be worth it in terms of saving time and getting a head start on the set. I'm a poor bastard, so I'd rather spend time than money, but for a lot of people the opposite is true. Also, I would imgaine some people are speculating that they can pull a decent grade card from the lot. In some cases, if you get lucky and find one 5, that can almost pay for all the other cards.

--Chad

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Posted By: sesop

my best bet is probably to find a reputable dealer or dealers and buy through them- save on shipping by getting 10-20 cards per month. i am not interested in graded cards. this may go completely against the notion of t206 as investment, but i like being able to touch the cards and put them into an album and want to be able to flip the pages and look at them, and when i have all but the big 4 or 6, get them all graded and enjoy the monster. anybody know any good ungraded shop? mike wheat is the best i found so far.

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Posted By: sesop

i should also mention that a few nights ago i bought 4 polar back cards on ebay- two i got for $10.51, the others $14.51 and $20.50. even with shipping, that IS less than if i bought a bulk lot, which speaks to your notion of buying separately.

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Posted By: bob donaldson

I used to always by group lots of F-P T206s on ebay and often could get cards in the $5 range, sometimes less. In the past year or so it has gotten more expnesive to by in group lots as opposed to individual cards.

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Posted By: jP

I too agree with Jay. bulk lots are going for alot these days. little by little i guess it will have to be.

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Posted By: Jason

if it has actually become cheaper to buy individual cards than group lots (as many are saying here), then I would volunteer that perhaps we are seeing alot of speculative buying by inexperienced ("fast money") folks who want to collect sets fast, and are less sensitive to per-card costs....perhaps with a housing market in decline, all that equity withdrawal has to go somewhere else after the house renovations are all done !!!

just Friday ramblings...

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Posted By: T206Collector

I agree that bulk lots of 6-10 or so cards does not get you much of a discount and will often lead to paying more per card than if you bought cards individually. But I believe that once the number of cards in the lot increases substantially to, say, 100 T206 beaters, that you might get a better rate.

I got burned once selling a lot of 101 T206 cards on ebay for about $6/card. That was a couple of years ago, but even in that market they were way undervalued. Ever since then I always try to sell individually, or in small lots of no more than 5 or 6 cards at a time.