It grinds my gears when...
 

I lose an auction to a dealer that ends up putting it in his museum..er store at double the price it was just auctioned for. It's basically unattainable now based due to the super high price. I get it, free market and all, just stinks.

I have lost many auctions to dealers or other auction companies only to find the item in there auction or on there website or Ebay at inflated prices a few weeks later. Everyone is entitled to bid and win and the ones with deep pockets you wouldn't have a chance anyway.

Totally valid points. Sour grapes on my part.

Mill Creek Sports does it all the time. Buy an item, slap a PSA/DNA sticker on it, and then charge a crazy high price. Drives me nuts!

Yea there are a few big dealers on Ebay that I won't name that do the same thing, throw a PSA cert on it and charge an inflated price.

If they are dealers, I would assume they are successful at selling stuff, but if their prices really are too high to result in sales, then just wait until they go out of business.

My guess is that the real problem is that people are willing to pay so much for items with PSA or JSA certs, that it's pricing you out of the 'unslabbed' autograph market. Not sure who is responsible for driving those prices up, but I hear a lot of support for TPA's here in this sub-forum.

One of the issues is that the dealers get super discounted prices from TPA so they are already at an advantage. I could care less about TPA but they buy a Mantle ball for $300, get a COA, and then charge $500 - 600.

That's true with almost any business - high volume results in discounts. You might not care about TPA's, but they seem to be the root of this particular problem. If TPA's didn't exist, you would be able to bid higher than the dealers being complained about, since you both would be competing for an end product, and they would require a profit margin that you don't.

From the newest banner ad website:

Quote:

As an investor it’s also important to remember why one is buying cards. The investment and profit always has to be the goal. Get too strung up with a particular card out of personal want and attachment, and the point of investment disappears. Then a person goes from being disconnected and focused on profit, to being connected and focused on collecting for personal satisfaction. The latter can easily turn a profit into a loss with the illusory justification that the card will still be worth a lot when it is let go. Good investors don’t have those conversations with themselves; they buy and sell vintage baseball cards coldly and dispassionately. It’s a hard fact, but good baseball card collecting for investment may very well have nothing to do with a love for the sport. There is no requirement or law that says a good baseball card collector must also be a baseball fan in life.

Disclaimer, I understand the owner is a board member that I have never personally had an issue with, but the above statement brought this particular thread to mind even though this thread is in the Auto section.

Andy, that quote seems really odd to me. I don't know that many card 'investors', but I think to successfully collect cards without losing much money, or to be a successful dealer, you have to have passion for what you are doing; otherwise, you should pick something that you do have a passion for - real estate, coins, whatever. The passion keeps you in touch with the market when you might otherwise be thinking about something else. On the other hand, it's a big danger for dealers to become too enamored with their inventory. Just my opinion.

Yes. I do not have problems with people who flip or invest to fund their collection, but there is no fun involved with doing business with someone who sees the hobby the same as stocks.