Sometimes ebay sellers are just plain dumb

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Posted By: TBob

There was a lot of about 40 T207s on ebay which went off Sunday night. Of the 40 were about 30-35 of the "tough" cards and several of the very high price scarcities. The seller did not bother mentioning nor showinf the conditions of the backs. I am sure that many were Red Cycles which would have really jacked up the price. I sent him 3 emails and even tried calling (ebay supplied his number) twice just to have him tell me if the backs had any damage. (He also had a large lot of T205s on ebay and on those he gave the fronts conditions and told about the backs which had a little damage). Nada. The phone was an announcement only, not an answering machine, and said this was "Discount Sportscards." The handle on ebay is dslsports. Had it not been for a belated bid by Scott B., they would have gone for about $10 a card, as it was, they went for about $20 a card. If there were no back damage, and the guy was either oblivious, didn't give a damn or dumb, I would have bid about $1500.00 for the lot (which went for $791). No doubt others would have bid a lot too because the breakup on the lot was incredible.
This whole thing was too bizarre for me. I know the winner and am keeping my fingers crossed that the backs are o.k. because he got a helluva bargain and he is a good guy, but the way this seller does business is just too, well, bizarre!

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Posted By: mrc32

If you are talking about DSLsports, then the cards are prob. legit. I have bought several things from them. They are like simsclassicsports on ebay. Both sell HUGE amounts of cards and are generally very good.

I personally hate it when sellers don't respond to emails. I typically NEVER bid on the items if my email is not returned. If I were to go into any shop and needed help with an item only be to find that I am being ignored by the sales people I would walk out.

If you missed a good buy on the lot, that is a shame, but sometimes you have to show sellers that if they treat thier customers that way then they will reap what they sow.

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Posted By: Nick

I was one of the nearly 600 people that viewed the auction. As a seller you are correct the break up would have been great if the backs were not damaged. I think the backs were damaged beacuse the cards were described as fair to good; and the picture of the fronts appeared VG-Ex.

I bought a large lot a 52' topps from this seller under simular circumstance. I only paid about $6 a card for 132 cards discribed roughly the same as the T207's in this auction. I asked several times about the backs without any response. When I got the cards there were several with damage but there was still enough value there for me to say I was satisfied.

Many sellers just don't think the backs are important enough to talk about. I have greater success when I post a picture and brief description of the backs.

Nick

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Posted By: Marc S.

The seller is one of the largest dealers out on the West Coast. I have been pleased with every transaction I have had with them -- but 99% of that encompasses modern cards.

All that being said -- they are about at zero on communication and often take som etime in shipping. Am very happy with them overall -- but I understand going into any of their auctions that all I have to work with is the scan -- and will not be able to obtain additional information.

Darrel runs a good business model overall -- and seems to have been very successful in doing so. His business model is often more appropriate for the graded modern and raw cards that he often sells, leading to some inefficient auctions, like the one described above.

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Posted By: jay behrens

poor and/or non existant communication with current or potential customers is NOT a good business model. This is evidenced by the results of the t207 lot. Imagine what he could have realized for a price if he had simply responded to emails.

Ingorning potential customers is no way to run a business. The business world is far to competative to ignore something as basic as customer relations.

Jay

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Posted By: Marc S.

<<This is evidenced by the results of the t207 lot. Imagine what he could have realized for a price if he had simply responded to emails.>>

At the end of the day -- this is a seller who has about 500 Ebay auctions running on any given day. This seller has probably had close to 100,000 auctions run on Ebay over the past four years. The seller does this as a FULL-TIME business.

The seller probably looked at the situation like this: In his zip code in California, a full-time administrative person might cost in excess of $50,000 (before benefits, taxes, etc.). Seller decides to put a good amount of information on all auctions, thus hopefully limiting any potential questions and queries from potential customers that would cause a need for an administrative assistant. Seller realizes he will lose bids from some because of this -- but imagines the saved costs outweigh the benefits of the assistant.

This is a major seller in the hobby -- and one of the major buyers as well. Darrell runs a very good business model; I do not know exactly how long he has been in business. Indications are that he makes a ton of money at what he does -- and he has been doing this for at least five years -- probably much longer.

Though we as armchair analysts can dispute his methodologies for running his business -- at the end of the day, he has made himself rich through his business over a number of year -- something that 90% of entrepreneurs cannot say.

If you feel that you can run your own profitable business because of either a) the large lots, b) the inefficient scanning or c) any other aspect of the seller's practices, please go ahead. I'll keep my day job, and still patronize this seller in the meantime.

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Posted By: jay berhens

Let's say he has run 100k auctions in the past 4 years and that said extra person makes $50k/yr (I used to live in SF, a very expensive city, and can't imagine that a position answering email inquiries would merit this type of pay. Hell, I'd do that job for less than $50k). This means that each auction would have to generate an extra $2 per auction to pay this person. This doesn't seem too unrealistic given that this person seems to have a propensity for not providing back scans and not answering emails.

He's obviously doing something right to stick around in the business, but that doesn't mean that he is running a perfect business.

I will say this again, anything that a business does that does not assist, help or impress potential or current customers is costing that business money. And in terms of potential customers, a lot of potential future revenue. Talk to any major business and they will tell the customer relations is the single most important thing and this not a good example of customer relations.

Jay

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Posted By: Marc S.

Your point is well taken.

For what it is worth, it is perhaps somewhat amusing to consider at least one of dslsports main competitors. As dslsports primarily sells modern graded cards (read: garbage?), one of their competitors, then, is thepit.com. That is an outfit that sells inventories of card, based solely on the grade. Scans are never available -- and you have to lock into a price solely based on the card's grade. And hope that you get a strong example in an uncracked holder -- that has not been WIWAG'ed.

You are very correct in your assessment, though.

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Posted By: Art M

Check out this Ebay auction:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2721814064

Then, check out the gfg.com website for the SAME IMAGES!

http://gfg.com/baseball/viewhofb.shtml#group8

This Ebay seller stephisblonde was even too lazy to crop the jpg file. I seriously doubt that this Ebay seller has these cards in his/her possession. Buyer beware.