Independent online card dealers
 

Everyone knows COMC, MySlabs and Beckett marketplace, but there are independent dealers out there that have their own websites.

These guys sell through ebay, but if you buy directly from them you can get better pricing and avoid fees.

Here are a couple that I use frequently:

The Battersbox: https://www.the-battersbox.net/
Extensive selection and fair prices

Diamond Cardboard: https://www.diamondcardboard.com/
Steve is a nice guy that will sell at fair prices if you make an offer

Stan's Vintage Sports Cards: https://stansvintagesportscards.com/
Stan has a great selection, and also goes to a lot of shows.

Another online resource is https://bbcemporium.com/
BBC Emporium doesn't list the cards they have on ebay on their website, but if you find something of theirs on ebay that you like, you can text Curt at 515-779-3889 to get a 10% discount from ebay and avoid fees.

What other independent online card dealers do people like?

Great list, thanks.

A couple others
 

In the past, I've used

Dave's Vintage Baseball Cards (Dave Levin) - https://www.gfg.com/

707 Sportscards (Levi Bleam) - https://www.707sportscards.com/

--
Mike

I can't say enough good things about The Battersbox as linked in the first post. Their customer service is first rate.

I also have had great experiences with The Battersbox. They have discounts for certain dollar thresholds and have occasional 15% off events. Big fan.

+1 on Dave's Vintage Baseball Cards. I've made several purchases from him, and if there is better customer service out there in the hobby, I haven't found it!

I've bought from Dave a few times. Its all been good.

I am partial to SportLots. It is basically a decentralized version of COMC. I am generally a raw, midgrade and up set builder and can always find fairly priced cards there; which is more than I can say for COMC.

It definitely has a place in the hobby. To save money overall, make sure to look through each seller's port there and heavily use the ones that ship to the warehouse (box) for free or highly discounted.
Interestingly, there is a company trying to steal their main sellers. See post #974. And if you're a user of sportlots, good one to read throughout for tips/tricks/pitfalls.
https://www.blowoutforums.com/showth...373268&page=39

I bought a lot of 300 Topps cards looking for rare variations, ended up getting none. Figured the sellers on there might not be as smart on rare variations and I would get lucky with one or two $100 cards to make the attempt worth it.
There's also a flip opportunity by buying from sportlots and sending to COMC, where they'll be scanned and cross-posted to eBay.

Add: However, the user experience / search engine / design is AWFUL. You have to be super patient on sportlots, and make sure to check out every so often because it uses your own browser cache for the cart. Depending on your browser settings, you may lose hundreds of cards you had in the cart if your computer or browser crashes.

At least COMC has pics of the cards though...

Many Sportlots sellers also post pictures for star cards, which can be used to gauge how those sellers grade condition. With that information, I am perfectly comfortable ordering commons sight unseen. And, I have yet to regret it.

I just bought a few dozen common cards for my 1969 set off Sportlots and paid between $0.75 and $1.25 for most of them. A look at COMC and I would have paid 2-3x for cards in worse condition and up to 4-5x for cards in equivalent condition. Maybe its worth it you to pay that premium to look at a picture, but I have plenty of other places to spend my money and am not going to throw it around frivolously.

https://www.deserticesports.com/

and

http://www.vintagerookies.com

Bought a couple times from him, smooth transaction

I've bought many cards from Stan at the Philly Show, and he is always great to talk to and deal with. I'm wondering if I am missing something on his website, though. Does he actually have cards listed on it somewhere? Every link I clicked on just took me to his listings on eBay so I don't see a way to buy anything from him off eBay other than trying to contact him directly, and when I've done that in the past through email, he hasn't been the greatest at responding.

Yes, everything on his website is linked to ebay. But if you email Stan Loch at aztechengineering@ameritech.net, and make an offer, he will sell direct. As you mentioned, it may take a while for him to get back to you though.

A couple more to add to the list: Kit Young Cards https://www.kityoung.com/ has been around for a long time. It seems like they are still grading like it's the 1990s when things were a little less strict. This makes it hard to find bargains, but if you do find one, you can buy direct from their website and avoid tax.

Another dealer is https://www.amerlegends.com/ which has a brick and mortar in Scarsdale, NY. Their cards are listed on ebay, but you can email mark@amerlegends.com to get a 10% discount off the ebay price, which tend to be pretty reasonable to begin with.

Yet another is https://www.starxcards.com/ which sells on ebay, but if you buy direct through their website, you avoid tax and shipping costs.

Also, https://www.bleacherbumcards.com/ lists their cards on ebay and has mostly modern with a few vintage, but you can get a 10% discount or so through inquiring on their website and avoid fees.

Just wanted to add one more online dealer: https://scottsdalecards.com/

They are reasonably priced, and if you buy through their website, instead of through ebay, you can use coupon code BBCARD10 to get 10% off the listed price. And there is no sales tax if you are outside of Arizona.

I’ve had great success with Steve Wilk and Stan Loch personally both very fast and fair negotiations with both in hand deals and mailing products to a highly secured and safe manner.

Agree with the positive comments on BattersBox. Great service, fair pricing and accurate grading. Top notch operation.

Another (that I don’t see mentioned above) is Sirius Sportscards, both on eBay and their own site. They have also done well by me. Here’s a link..

https://siriussportsauctions.com/mobile/default.aspx

Hope this is helpful.