I've always thought that telling me how much you want the card for your PC is a good reason for me to hang tough or even raise the price there, Smeagol.

https://photos.imageevent.com/exhibi...us%20cards.jpg

Personally, the only time I've sold cards that aren't dupes is when another hobbyist does the "I need it for my collection" angle (of course doing due diligence and be sure of its truth). If the card will mean more to them than me, I let them have it. As often as not, I don't even charge and just mail them the card for nothing. I'd like to think we reap what we sow, and I know I've been the beneficiary of this many times, securing cards not really on the market for a fair price (or sometimes even less than fair) because the seller knows I am passionate about that set and the card has great significance to me. Treating this hobby as a vehicle for money is, I think, not fun and ruins the magic. I prefer to try and enjoy it as a hobby and pay it forward and help fellow hobbyists when I can. It's been more than repaid in kind, and I think this type of approach to selling and trading and giving is much preferable to trying to shake loose every penny I could get from another collector. It's a much happier place when true collectors are helping each other and rooting for each other rather than trying to exploit every dollar. I'd rather leave bucks on the table and collect happy than take every scrap off the table and worry about how much my collection is worth.

But then again, I guess I'm old school and I haven't made a penny off this hobby (quite the opposite, in fact).

Great perspective

I don’t see anything wrong with flipping and am sure I’ve sold one or two items I’ve purchased here on impulse and later realized I don’t really need. That said, I’m transparent in my transactions—if I express an interest in a piece because of a personal connection to it or because it fills a while in my collection I’ve been trying to fill for years, that piece is staying in my collection. Integrity matters.

That said, if someone lists something for a fair price and someone buys and flips it, I’d say that’s great for both the buyer and seller.

This. I don't sell things unless they are doubles as I'm more of a hoarder than a collector at this point, LOL. But when I do sell something, it's only to someone who has expressed interest in something I have that they need for their collection. A few times such a person has turned around and sold the item pretty quickly.

I agree that once I sell it, it is theirs. But that doesn't mean I have to ever sell to them again which I don't.

jeff

I’ve done some deliveries but I’m not an ObGyn.

I do not live in Palm Springs but I’ve been there.

I am retired though and I am living.

That said I would say $7.00/shot.

That price was determined by a snowman algorithm regressed to the mean and differentiated to account for viscosity variations, before multiplying by pi and dividing by the lowest common denominator of 2562 and 7833.

I can also reassure you that a Koufax curve ball does not drop faster than a sine wave.

Oh and I do have an Ivy League degree in Mathematics. There was no one in our program who knew Snowman.

I sell infrequently but have always set what I thought was a fair price and stuck to it. I hope you make money if you are flipping it, as maybe you come back and buy more. I have never done the “friends” discount where an item has different prices depending on our perceived level of friendship.

When I buy I stick to the same thing. I don’t ask for friendship discounts and will payup if I need a particular item.

Handling it this way I have never had hurt feelings on the friend discount topic or getting mad if someone made money off buying from me.

My two cents.

Something tells me a lot of flippers will be going by the wayside once they start hearing from the IRS next year.

+1 Jeff well said

271. Flipclipper
Stopping someone dead in his tracks who’s trying to sweet-talk you out of a card for next to nothing, because you know full well he’s only looking to grab it to immediately resell it at a big profit.

Thanks for clarifying. I thought that was a crock-blocker. :D

This is why it isn't a good idea to sell cards to a friend. :D

I hate when someone resuscitates a thread of something I was bitching about 8 months ago and can no longer remember the point or what set me off. :D

LOL...it happens frequently, it seems. It's like WTF...that is old.
We have had 18+/- yrs old threads posted to the top before...
.

Flippers
 

It has been a good discussion. Glad somebody resuscitated it!

Flipping
 

I'm not a dealer, I'm a collector. I have flipped many items that I have bought on eBay. If I see something that is worth more than the listed BIN or the highest bid, I am very likely to buy it and flip it or trade it later. It's like finding money in the street. Will you pick the money up, or will you pass it by ?
I would say by no means could I be described as rich or well-off. I'm just a working class guy. It is a way to pick up extra money to help finance my collection. It helps.
Now, to flip on net 54, that is a more touchy matter. Once I bought an item on net 54 that the other member priced way too low. I felt I should have given a heads up to him, but I didn't. It did make me feel a bit guilty. I didn't flip the item on net 54, but I did trade It to one of my trading partners. It was a very good trade for both of us.
As far as someone flipping something I sell, it doesn't bother me. Now if someone lied to me and said how much they needed it for their personal collection, and could I give them a break on the price, and then they flipped it, that would definitely leave a bad taste.

The problem with flippers right now is there are wayyyy more sellers than buyers. This will continue in 2022.

Things are not going to be as easy as they were in 2020/21 for the flash sellers.

It's almost comical over on facebook card groups...People are routinely posting cards from the junk wax era looking for advice on selling...grading, etc...thinking these cards have significant value. The pandemic may have given these cards a life...but now they appear to be back to junk status where they belong!!!

They may be junk and almost completely worthless but they are by far my favorites. It is like throwing cash out the window of a moving vehicle but opening junk wax is the most fun in collecting cards. I used to love going to games and watching those guys play baseball.:D

No doubt they are fun…overproduction of the cards to go along with the overinflated steroid stats. A bloated era indeed!!

Not for the cards I'm looking for unfortunately.

As for the issue, I've always thought that flipping cards here you just bought elsewhere, or buying a card here just to send to an AH is in bad form and goes against the spirit of this site. But as others have mentioned many dealers are members and all are free to do as they please with cards they bought. I don't like it, but it is what it is.

Agreed. I think we're seeing a glut of many modern cards probably due in part to the PSA backlog getting cleared and huge numbers coming to market, but like Jesse, not noticing any declines in the cards I mostly look for.

Back to the original premise.

This happened to me on a recent sale. Two weeks after the sale, the card was listed in a Sterling Auction. I considered buying the card back for less than I sold it for.

And in fact the card sold the second time for less than I received in the initial sale.

So I guess I did okay. The odd part was that when I inquired about the listing in Sterling, the original buyer claimed that his collecting focus had changed. Plausible deniability I suppose, but the timing is still suspect.

One of my favorites
 

Seller.... Im selling this because my collecting interests have changed.
Me..... I will take it!
Seller..... Okay I will ship it as soon as it arrives from the auction house where I just bought it!!!! ( Wow your collecting interests sure changed quickly!!!)

I guess the bottom line is if you buy something on BST and offer up a song and dance about how its your dream card you've been searching the 4 corners of the globe for, can't believe this is really available, and, hell, appreciate a nice discount among friends, its really not cool to put it up for sale next month. Gaming the system. No one's "collecting interests" change that fast.

Other than representations like that, you are free to buy a card and save it, burn it, put it in some one's vault, or list if for immediate sale, just like any other buyer.

Purchased a 14-card t206 lot not long ago on B-S-T. So as not to burn any bridges, made it known to the seller I only needed a few of the cards for my set-build and would be relisting the rest. He said he was cool with it. Could be wrong, but I feel like honesty has the potential to go a long way, even if it is, "hey, I'm probably going to try and resale this thing."

I've probably said this before, but unless you are using a sob story (anything from "My hamster died and he wanted me to have this card" to "I need it for my set and have been looking for 742 years") I don't really care what you do with a card that I sell privately. I got a price I was happy with, godspeed.

I am the same way and most I know feel the same way. Do what every you want with the card after you buy it, just don't lie to me to get a better price so you can instantly resell it for more.

Who has bigger tall tales, collectors or fisherman? :D

This one is quite similar...

566. Crock and Pull Story
Someone joyously posting a card in the new pickups thread with a story about how excited he is to finally have one and it took forever to finally pull the trigger, etc...then a few scant days go by and you see he has the card for sale in the B/S/T section.

Qualifiers
 

I simply do not understand why others care what is done with cards after they are sold. Clearly, they are not giving the cards away for free and have reached what they consider to be a fair deal. What is the accepted timeframe for holding a card before the person you bought if from being "ok" with you letting it go? This mentality seems ridiculous to me. With all of the knowledge and positivity that I get out of this site, there is some judgement and negativity here that sours things.

Everyone has their reasons for what they collect, move, trade etc....If you are going to assume you know my motivations and pass judgement after selling a card, please list that as a qualifier on BST. I don't want to buy from you. I love this site want to believe that most enjoy the hobby and are not out to make a quick dollar off of someone else here.

Isn't it hypocritical to actively sell on this site and then judge someone else for what they do with the card that you just sold. It doesn't really matter if it is 5 days or 5 years since you sold them the card. Once it changes hands, then be happy with your sale and wish the other person well.

My 2 cents....

Seller: Let me figure out what I have into it
Buyer: I don't care what the hell you have into it
Attachment 520377

I don't disagree to an extent, where I see the difference is in acquiring cards for your PC from another selling from his PC in a private sale or trade. These types of transactions come with trust, respect, and integrity that is established over a period of time and if you turn around and sell it the next week after stating it's for your PC will not sit well and you'll probably burn the relationship because you lied. Is there a time period to wait before you move the card in that context? Yes, for me it's 12-18 months. I'm always transparent in my dealings like this, if I'm working a 3 way trade I'll let everybody know who is involved and what the goal is. If acquiring for a friend, I'll state that. There's a strata of collectors, many of them here that do business this way and its very rewarding and fun dealing with them.

If the exchange was purely transactional in nature, sure. If the other party lied about getting the card for their PC and then quickly sold it for a profit, that would bother me.

The lie would bother me.

This community is better than that.

Agree. It's not the flipping after the transaction, it's the lie during the negotiation.

To be fair, the seller doesn't care that you don't care. It's important to him.

Both Are Ploys To Get Sympathy and a Psychological Advantage.


It’s basic poppycock lol it’s all good either :-)

I think it makes sense for people to want to sell things for more than what they paid. If I buy something for $800, and later am able to get another one that's an upgrade, I'll probably sell that first one for $900 and be left with a good feeling. Making a (small) profit is good, and it means buying it in the first place wasn't a mistake.

But selling it for $700 means I'm going in the wrong direction, I made a poor original purchase, and I do not have a good feeling. So instead, I'll keep it for now and hopefully sell later for at least $900.

So, yes, it's psychological for sure, but selling things for more than you pay is also basic Econ 101.

Sometimes people make mistakes and pay to much for an item they’re trying to resell. Yes ECO 101 is relevant to the seller and buyer, making a profit for the seller is nice. That being said just because seller maybe have paid more than he should have for an item doesn’t mean that mistake be passed on to the next buyer who maybe a little more shrewd in it’s value.

It’s all psychological, some people Can’t take a 10-25% loss. They always have to make a profit. I’d rather sell it move on and learn. You win some you lose some.

YES!!! You can’t win em all!!

This is one approach. Lose a few dollars here, but make it up on a different transaction elsewhere.

But the way baseball cards and memorabilia has been trending, another way is to just hold onto it for a while until the market rises to your price.

Agree :-)

If I decide to sell something, I'll take what I can reasonably get for it, what I paid is pretty much irrelevant if I overpaid and can't recoup it.

That’s the way I feel about it.