Is there a secret to getting traction on BST posts?
 

Just curious if there's any tricks as my posts never get comments or any responses. I'm talking a variety of posts (buying posts, posts to move cards like what I just posted). Stuff like that. So, is there a secret? I was told by someone at a card show that it's hard to BST on here unless you're a long-time member, sort of a like a buyer's group. But that's just what I was told. So I am just curious. What is everyone's thoughts?

Again, it happens whenever I make a post to buy or a post to move (sell/trade). I know my cards aren't most popular (Mantles, etc), and I'm not looking for thousand dollar cards. And maybe people don't move cheap cards (like $100 or less). So that could be it too. But I'm just curious.

Never mention "book value" again as it is completely worthless. Everyone can look at eBay sold auctions and see what they really sell for. Posts need good pics and a good price and they will sell as there is no "buyers group" in the BST section. If it is priced properly it will sell and if you can take a little less than eBay it will sell very quickly.

Oh, I don't mention it. I know people here go by VCP. I've now joined VCP, so I can find pricing. However, along those lines, I know people on SCF and The Bench still use book value. As do lots of vintage guys at shows. I can't tell you how many times I've found a card at a show, asked the price and the guy brings out a Beckett to look it up.

Gotcha as far as prices. I usually do 20% below eBay averages (not last sold, but average of last 4-5 sold). So I believe pricing is decent. Not really sure. But thank you for the tips and advice.

A lot will also depend on what you are selling, and the relative price range. Popular stuff from stars selling for 2 figures or low 3 figures will move fast. Stuff selling for high 4 or 5 figures is going to sit, even if your asking price is reasonable.

Selling obscure postwar stuff can be a real slog sometimes, unless it’s something in high demand.

For better or worse, there’s only so many eyeballs here, and most of them are focused on prewar.

Thanks for the tips. I'm a very low-end collector. I can't afford the high dollar stuff. Everything I Have is going to be like $150 and under, lol. It's just basic Topps from the 60s (Mantle, Banks, Rose, that type stuff). And it's pretty much all graded. That's all I have.

And I hear that about pre-war. I just wasn't around when any of those guys played. So I have no idea of most of them. But I do know some of the big names. As I said, though, I'll never own those as I'm a very small-time dealer.

I looked and you did quit using book value in your listings. I honestly haven't looked at any of your listing for a very long time because you used to use it all the time and it was always way higher than you could buy on eBay. I will start checking them out again.

I think part of the fun is also that fixed price listings aren't going to get anyone's animal spirits going. There's just no trigger to get people to act quickly. If I can buy it here for $100 today or tomorrow on eBay for $100, then the odds are low that you're going to get a sale today.

In many ways, you might need to be willing to list it for a bit of a discount to eBay, such that it motivates buyers to move on it before someone else gets it. My guess is that if you're saving the eBay selling fees then maybe you break even or come out slightly ahead, depending on the amount of discount to eBay. Either that or it had better be nice, with better centering, which always seems to get the centering savants to click the "buy now" button.

I think too in general that selling with fixed price listings means you have to be patient. Someone could come along today and want it, so it sells today. Or it might sit for months or even years. Like I tell my son, you don't have to fool all of the ladies, you just have to fool one. And in your case, you just need to get one buyer to decide to bite, but it tends to be a bit random when that buyer will come along, particularly with the smaller pool of eyeballs here.

Thanks everyone. Got a follow up question. Seems no one trades here anymore. Why is that? I guess everyone has now gone to buying, selling and flipping and no one truly collects/trades anymore?

Again it could just just be me. Not sure.

Trades can be complicated, particularly because now you have to argue about valuing twice as much. Cash is pretty simple.

I do think that trades still happen, albeit on a lesser level. My experience is that they are still alive and well when it comes to impossible to find stuff that is difficult to value. I might have something that you really want, and you might have something that I really want. They’re impossible to find and difficult to price, so we agree to trade, maybe with a little cash to even things out.

I’ve done a handful of trades over the last few years, sometimes including some 3-way or 4-way trades when our cards don’t align perfectly, but another party does have stuff that aligns.

Not sure what you mean by "no one truly collects/trades anymore". Are you saying you have to trade instead of buy to be a true collector? I don't trade for the simple reason that I usually don't have anything I want to part with. I try to only buy cards I am happy with so I don't have to upgrade them later. I also usually don't buy large lots just to get a single or a few cards.

Here's some genuine feedback:

Improve the quality of your photos and/or scans. A photo with 4-6 cards, using a carpet as a backdrop is objectively awful. A scanner, with quality settings, and repeatable technique will yield improved sales results for you.

Selling low-dollar items is hard. When you're selling an item for $50, that means the costs of the transaction (payment fees, shipping, packaging, etc) are likely to make up at least 10% of the cost.

Low-mid grade (2-4.5) cards from the vintage era are tough to sell right now, unless it's a high-dollar, well-centered card (think: 1954 Mays)

This falls more under my own personal preference and strategy, but I've seen better results by either (a) listing individuals cards for sale or (b) being more strategic about how you group cards together in your post. "For Sale: 1962 Topps Manager's Dream SGC 4.5" is more likely to get a click from me than "PSA & SGC grade Mantles Roses and Banks" (I realize that this would require more time and effort to make separate threads)

Trading is difficult for the reasons mentioned above, but it is possible. I've had 30-40 deals on net54, including one awesome trade.

Hope that helps!

Touching on Ian's point, I'll add this:

236. Deceiviation
When someone is touting a major Hall of Famer card for sale, but when you look at the listing, you find it’s not the player’s ‘regular’ card, but a much-less-desirable combination card, World Series or league leaders card, a checklist or even a 1975 Topps MVP card.

An example of your thread titles is, "Who is looking for 1960T and 1962T Mantle? Moving with a pair of Banks too."
The title clearly says ('suggests') you have both a 1960 Topps #350 and a 1962 Topps #200 Mantle available (which 99% of Net54ers are interested in), but opening the thread shows the Mantles to be 'lesser' multi-player cards...and it's disappointing to anyone who decided to click on it.

Take it for what it's worth. Be specific with what you have to offer. :)

Bst
 

Also helps when a person is somewhat prompt on answering messages regarding a possible trade

Agree with the above. Ben gives good advice.

Yes, I learned BV is irrelevant years ago, lol. Only a few people still use it (my LCS being one of them). But people on other sites, TBT and SCF, still use it. As do some guys at shows. Was at a show a few weeks ago, and I found several cards I was interested in. I asked how much, and the vendor said to give him a few minutes and proceeded to pull out his Beckett vintage book. I was like I'll come back.

Thank you for this. I would think being specified would mean fewer eyes would actually see the post because it's only targeting people looking for that specific card. But I tried it yesterday on a new post. We will see how it goes.

Thanks for this input. I don't have a fancy scanner or anything. I've got one I've had for like 15 years. But I know I have to do coind photos on other sites, and so I just crop out the coin and use that photo. And you can't do coined shots on the scanner. So that's why they're like that. Not sure where else to put them. Maybe the bed? Or a table?

This thread was moved to the front page as it's good for all members.
As far as "coining", you have been here for 10 yrs with hundreds of posts. LMK if someone doesn't trust you and I will enlighten them on how to look for scammers or trolls. This site is far different than other sites as there are far less rules. (on purpose, I hate rules)

You can't do coined photos on scanners? I have been doing them for about 20+ yrs. I think I might have invented it LOL...

Not my Texas Tommy any longer but it was probably scanned with that coin 15- 20ish years ago. I just do them to show the size of the card.

To answer the question specifically, as others have said, have a competitve price on something that is desirable and many times it will sell.

I post unique nice things on BST and seldom get anything more than a random compliment. I think there are people here who will pounce if you list something absurdly cheap, otherwise stuff mostly sits. People here are educated consumers and monitor nearly every major auction. You won’t get the random customer base of eBay. A few times I have sold things to board members and seen them listed on eBay for $3000-$5000 more than what I just sold for. Most of the time they don’t sell so it doesn’t annoy me that much.

Unfortunately listing on BST has largely been a waste of time and energy for me the last few years. Probably all caused by wild market fluctuations Covid and post covid.

I could be completely wrong, but it seems to me that over the past year or so, the BST just generally has slowed way down from what it was 4-5 years ago when I joined here.

And here's another one for the "you know you've been on net54 a long time when...." collection:

...when you see a BST post of a card you want, but upon seeing who the poster is, you don't even bother clicking on it because you know the price is going to be too high

Good scans and fair prices will lead to fast sales.

I don't know that I could agree more with this whole post!
I use to buy allot here, now I cannot justify paying MORE than I can find on eBay for.
As far as trading is concerned, I have traded for some big ticket items, which I usually have added cash for ( $10k for two of them) . That seems to get sellers attention and is slight more fun for both.

Agreed. Yet we occasionally see high dollar cards for sale with blurry / grainy pics of a card, or even better being held in a hand. :eek:

I won't spend 1 second digging for someone's images -- it's on the seller to SELL their product, and that's done visually. You don't need a scanner, just a decent cell phone pic -- meaning a phone produced in the past decade -- looking for angles that reduce glare.

Also, for anyone on the 10th bump, it's probably time to drop your price.

"Fair prices". Yeah, there's the rub.

The secret to getting a traction on BST posts is to have a reasonable price to sell an item. I see so MANY posts with sale prices way out of line with reality.

When I place LTB (looking to buy) posts I receive a few messages and some result in transactions. Also get the same crap responses from people with a single post having the card or knowing someone that has the card.

If you want to sell something and you put it at a reasonable price it has a decent chance to sell. If you want to do a trade, well not everyone is into that. For the folks that are willing to trade, some are willing to spend hours negotiating and bundling a million different items, and some, perhaps most people, would rather keep things simple.

Easiest way to get things done is with money. That's why it was invented in the first place.

Take for example that 1971 Banks you're looking to sell for "$50 TV." That's a really nice looking card and a very reasonable price. I suspect you could sell that card for $50 pretty easily, but you don't want to sell it, right? You want to orchestrate some complex trade. Therein lies the problem...

Thanks. Yea, I'm mainly a trader. I just don't get anything in return whenever I sell. So not a fan of it.

Yes. I've had 3 offers to buy that as well as all the Mantles for the value I had posted. But, as I said in the previous post, I'm not too big on selling as I don't get anything in return.

You do get money and then you can buy things.

To me, selling a card and then buying something else with it is effectively a trade.

At least that thought makes it fun to me.

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Getting 3 offers to buy at list is the definition of "traction", trading is difficult.

+1 on the scanner recommendation. One of the 1st things I bought was an Epson V600 scanner not only to archive my collection but also have high quality images of the cards I'm selling. I think you can pick up a used on for $175 on ebay.

Good Luck!
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The key is always price and the item.

I have both bought and sold a few items on the B/S/T. If I bought an item, it was mainly because the price was much cheaper than most comps. I sold for the same reason. I had an item I really wanted to move and priced it accordingly well below comps.

Any item i list here ALWAYS has the Ebay fees discounted. The buyer saves the fees and it cost me nothing to sell with no fees added as long as PPFF is used. Still, 15% discount from my Ebay listings do not insure a sale. Someone still has to want the item and think the discounted price is fair for it.

If you have a truly rare item, you can over price and still sell from time to time as long as SOMEONE wants the item for more than the market says it is worth. It is mainly on items that rarely come up for sale and the buyer does not want to miss out on it even if they have to overpay to get it.

I guess I should've said I don't get same value for value when you sell then buy again. For example, if I have a Mantle that's worth $100. It's going to sell here for $85 then take out shipping and fees. So you clear $75. However, when you go to buy the same card on eBay, it's going for $115 plus tax. So you're paying almost double for the same card. I guess that's what I was getting at when I said I don't get anything in return.

But I'm losing my card out of a collection and then paying nearly double to replace it (see my comment on the post above).

Why would you buy the same card? Buy something for your pc?? Confused.

Also, have you setup at a show? Lots of people with no money looking to trade lol



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I was just using that as an example saying you don't get the same value when you sell then buy another card. That was the point. And I have only set up 2 shows/year. They're fairly small (about 15 tables each show). But I do enjoy trading, whether at a show or online. I understand, though, not everybody enjoys trading even though it's as cheap and safe as ever. But that wasn't the point of the post. It was just asking how to get in with the group that BSTs. But as others have said, there's not as much as there was just a few years ago. Seems a lot of posts in the BST sections go without any movement.

You seem like an astute buyer with a good sense of value. I don't pretend to know your personal situation but if I'm reading between the lines the ol' wifey might not like the idea of you having your own account to sell the various products that you procure. Perhaps it is time to refresh that conversation and point out that you are worthy of her trust and should be able to sell things so that you can buy them. It might open up a whole new world for you.

But hey, wives can be difficult. My first one was a nightmare. My second one has been pretty solid thus far and we are almost seven years in, but that could always crumble. I take nothing for granted these days.

If I have misdiagnosed the situation please disregard the above advice and no offense intended.

Fair points. We're almost 20 years in (will celebrate our 20th at the National in Chicago this summer, I hope). She's well aware of my buying/selling/trading. And as long as I buy and sell out of my "card account" and not our main bank account, she's fine with it. I just try to maximize my card values and card money through trading.

I largely follow BST for memorabilia, so maybe this is not representative of activity in other boards. Out of last 100 posts, 9 are marked sold. That doesn’t strike me as a lot.

I joined almost one year ago exactly. In the first four months, I made around 10 purchases through responses to my WTB posts. I haven’t had that happen since October. A few messages, but at prices well above comp.

Guess we’re in a lull where people are selling the stuff they don’t want and others don’t want it either, especially at some inflated price points.

That sounds like a fair assessment.

Good scans and honest prices. Trading has never been easy for me. Trading carfds for cash is easier!

Posting cards you bought at a major auction house last week for a 20-50% markup on the bst this week is a "rookie" move and will likely be called out.

As long as the calling out isn't done in the BST thread, then all good.

Trades are very difficult. You have to give up something great to get something great. I have bought 10s of thousands of dollars of cards off the BST over the years. And my first sale there was for over 50k....

BTW, selling stuff via the Sunday night ending auctions is fun. If you have stuff you want off your desk it's a great avenue to do it.

Here is my best trade with another member. He really wanted my card and I really wanted this. It was a uniquely known card for another uniquely known card.

To the parts I made bold. I always find it confusing when someone Buys like a pro but seems to try to sell for a very long time like it is their first time and have no idea how to price/sell cards.

I also figured with the name Emlily the poster was a woman.:eek:

True trading cards for cash is easier. But you don't get the same value. You're going to sell at 75% of value, and yo're going to buy at 125% of value. So that's why I prefer to trade cards for cards.

And not sure what you mean by the second part of the comment. I've never bought anything at an auction house. I don't even know how to do that. I just try to buy on Facebook, here and Blowout. I try eBay, but everything is so overpriced, and you can't get any decent deals.

I have sold, bought, and traded stuff here for years with transactions from $2 to $3500 with almost no problems. A few trades fell through, but deals were quickly made with others. I have gotten some stuff here I would have had to search ebay and shows for months to get.

Cheers to all I have dealt with, and may there be many more!

Buy high and sell low has always been my motto.

You don’t know how to bid in an auction? Come on.

There’s the eBay museum, but there are decent deals there every now and then as well.

I have picked up stuff on this site that A.) I never would’ve known about without Net54, and B.) I never would’ve seen for sale or been offered elsewhere.

I would add that the acquisition of a "high quality" scanner (and taking the time to learn how to use it) will improve anyone's sales rather quickly.

I do know that Epson makes some great scanners -

I personally invested in a Canoscan 9000F Mark II Scanner and couldn't be happier with it.

Yea, I just told my wife last night that I need a new scanner. I'd like to get one that also prints the eBay labels (the sticky ones you just adhere to the package) so that I'm not constantly using tape to tape on the labels, lol. Not sure they make one of those though. But I do need a new scanner. However, as I've said, I have to have coined photos for other sites. So I just use that and crop out the coin since it takes 5+ minutes to do one scan (scan, upload, edit, download, upload to Flickr, change size, etc and post). Just takes a while.

I will echo what others have already said. If you are selling high demand (or even medium demand) pre-war cards at a reasonable price, it will sell. Knowing what is in demand and what is not is one of the keys to selling in any platform.

I’ve bought numerous pre-war cards here. It’s a great service!

No. I just don't know all the rules. Like there's an end time, but it someone wants to bid late then they allow it. Or the buyer's premium. Don't know exactly what that is either. That's what I"m talking about. I know you're supposed to call in and bid. But that's about it.

Common scenario

Recent comps for card are $5000

Seller lists for $7500, expecting he will be knocked down anyway so why not

Potential buyer comes in with $3500. Best he can do, doesn't really think recent comps are reliable, will probably point out how card for sale is not quite as nice as the ones that sold for $5000. If nothing better comes along keep me in mind.

Nothing happens.

Every auction house has their rules prominently posted on their respective websites and in their catalogs. Calling in bids hasn’t been a thing for a minute.

My second comment was not applicable to your situation just a tactic some people use on the BSt.

Sometimes the market doesn’t clear! And as both buyers and sellers, we should be okay with that.

Yeah, I think that is true. There are a limited number of interested buyers on Net54. Sometimes you find a deal, but many times you don't. And that's ok. When you do find a deal, it's usually a good deal, and it's an efficient deal because there are no fees or at least limited fees on the transaction. Plus you get to build a relationship with a fellow member here.

As a buyer, there are certain cards I have on my list. If one of them comes up on here I am all over it. Then there are other cards that are not on my list but are still interesting, and if the price is enticing, I might go for it.

As a seller on BST, I want to focus on the first situation. I would rather sell to someone here than on Ebay of course. If I can help a fellow collector fill their want list, I want to do that.

But if nobody on here wants it, I would rather move it to Ebay, than to keep dropping the price on here until somebody decides that it is too good a deal to pass up. And the reason for that is that there is a much bigger market on Ebay than here, and I will probably find somebody who is looking for the exact card I am looking to sell.

Here's an example. I had a nice 67T Seaver PSA 7. It had great color and focus, and very good centering. I had it up on here for a couple weeks at 10% over VCP. Nobody was interested. I probably would have taken an offer of VCP, but nobody made one. I put the card up on Ebay for 30% over, and it sold pretty quickly. I hated to go that way, because Ebay's fees were about $400, and I hate paying fees, but I found a buyer that wanted that card.


That's just the way it is. Sometimes you find a good match here, sometimes you don't.


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Here's a nickel's worth of free advice:

If you want to get a good scanner, buy a good scanner. Don't try to get a piece of multipurpose equipment. Those all-in-one devices tend to do a mediocre job at multiple things. Their scanner (for example) typically lacks the technology to scan items with depth. Long story short: the scans of graded cards will look blurry and defeat the purpose of having a new scanner.

That's the problem of the one I have now. The PSA and SGC slabs are all blurry. The regular cards are pretty good (see below). That said, I just bought a ring light yesterday. So my weekly card budget is gone. And I plan on buying a new webcam next week with that week's allotment of $40, lol. So maybe the week after I can get a scanner at Walmart or something.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...1483921c_c.jpg

For slabs, I believe you want a scanner with a CCD element. Fact check that, though. I'm not 100% certain that's what they're called.

To get good traction on mid to lower grade vintage post good scans, provide timely communication and competitive prices. Definitely lower than ebay. If there are examples of the same item on ebay for similar prices I dont believe you will get much traction at all
If you items are rare its a different dynamic.

It's as simple as that.