last time I ever listen to ebay and start an auction at 99 cents....
 

Forgive me for a sympathy-seeking post, but I mean, come on!

https://www.ebay.com/itm/17539824139...&segname=12011

Probably should’ve outed this auction a few days ago… ;)

Card sold for $6.59. What is the fair market value, $20.00? You only lost the ability to purchase a large pizza.

well, so much for sympathy :)
 

FMV would be about $40-60. I guess you'd be thrilled to sell your cards for one-eighth of their value?

It’s all relative. I’m not going to sweat $50.00.

Sorry Tim--I wish I had seen it. As you know, that card pose is m101-5 only.

is there a rule you have to start at 99 cents? pretty sure you can start at any number you want.

sorry to hear about the cheap price. nice card!

Tim, that stinks man.

Sorry…..

Agreed. Those cards are so reasonably priced to start with.

I wish that I would of seen it too, but I rarely look at ebay these days. I’ve seen so little worth buying on ebay that it’s not worth the time anymore. You probably would have done better on the BST.

For future sales, I recommend you list it like this:
1916 Sporting News M101-5 Blank Back #185 Clarence Walker STL Browns Vintage Baseball Card

You also showed the card in some really scratched up sleeve, and self-graded it as EX, when it looks creased/scratched (because of the sleeve) and the bottom left corner is mangled.

I would say this is a learning opportunity.

Bingo!!! Someone gets it. That auction title left a lot to be desired. People have to be able to find it. That is like Ebay 101 type stuff.

Learning opportunity my butt
 

Damn, some of you people are condescending. You’re seriously telling me that adding “Clarence” to the description would have made a difference. Get real.

Thanks Todd and some of the other posters for getting the point. The rest of you , take a hike.

...the .99 cent mins are too risky...agree with other needing to find it. I usually put in a decent price at buy it now with best offer option. If the card is in demand you'll get a buyer (I want the card). You'll have some offer under (need a deal only) so put in your auto reject level. And some that understand the value and work with you (there can be context on seller side/buyer side / both) that leads to a fair offer that works for both.

I think some buyers follow the algorithm and bid for items expiring ONLY on 'slow' days/times. Shaking my head but I bet they can make a living at it.


Ed

Sent from my SM-G996U using Tapatalk

Don't underestimate the power of bids sometimes. I've had items sit for a year and when I started them in auction at 99 cents they doubled my original Bin.

Also like other stated, the listing title needs to be more complex. You should have added full name, issue year and team. Ebay's search algorithms are not good at all and that listing probably didn't even show up for people with a Clarence Walker or St Louis browns search saved.
Just my thoughts.

Constructive suggestions I appreciate
 

Thanks Lucas, that all makes sense.

John's comment was straightforward and helpful. Ultimately, it has the potential to be far more valuable than, "damn, it sucks your card only sold for x."

Regarding "Clarence" in the title - yes, that would help. When one or both of the players' names is common, many buyers save their favorite payer's full name in their searches. For instance, I look for Steve Carlton cards. Without including both Steve and Carlton in my saved searches, they would yield too many results.

As for 99 cent opening bids, they're a gamble. There are items which perform spectacularly, some that draw no interest, and others which sell at the "market" price. Of course, there are also some shilled to high heaven which give the illusion of success. It's a mixed bag.

If you have a general price in mind, set your starting bid accordingly or list as a buy-it-now. Take eBay recommendations for what they are: recommendations; not mandates. Start your auction at a bid you're comfortable with. If it doesn't sell right away, take advantage of the "relist for free" feature.

I'm legitimately trying to help. If it comes off as condescending, please know that's not my intention.

I hope it at least went to a good collector home. I stopped selling on eBay a long time ago. I still search t213 and n172, but those rarely show up anymore, and if a seller did not put those designations in their title, I missed them. They took away the pre-war category because they don't want hobbyists selling on the platform.

Hopefully non-payer
 

Hopefully your buyer won't pay. its being very prevalent on eBay these days.

This. eBay’s reorganization to eliminate the era categories makes proper search terms far more important than before.

I saw this and passed on bidding because of what looks like a mushed corner and a crease in the front scan, which is very different from the written description as “sharp” and “excellent”. I mentally red flag things where the photos are not close to the written listing and move on; maybe others don’t. It’s often hard to tell what’s a damaged card and what’s a damaged sleeve in a flat scan.

The post being referenced actually suggested adding quite a bit more than "Clarence" to the title not the description. The suggested title:

1916 Sporting News M101-5 Blank Back #185 Clarence Walker STL Browns Vintage Baseball Card

Yours:

m101-5 blank back #185 Walker

The suggestion is to add 9 more words/phrases to your title - not 1.

I know it's not easy to hear but this was a valid suggestion/critique.

+1 “ Clarence” WOULD help. How many Walkers played baseball? The more descriptive the better. Also adding “Rare”, “Investment “, etc will bring in the speculators. More eyeballs the better.

Who searches "Clarence"? Who is that? The board is changing with the times. It's an m101-5 in around ex. It's not a Topps card. When you grade it, you don't count the this and this like a 1975 Topps Jose Cruz. I can't believe all the defenders of eBay. Tim is a vintage card expert. I think he deserves some respect, but I guess not. It's his fault, and not Ebay's that it sold for $6?

I would have gladly paid 3x to 4x the winning bid amount for this card in lesser condition, and I consider myself a notorious cheapass. This card was screaming for me to be a bidder. But alas, I rarely check Ebay anymore. Don't let this selling hiccup get you down, and keep up that collecting spirit Tim.

A couple of the suggestions about listing improvements are fairly valid... removing the card from the sleeve does make for a better image, and I found that the more info I put in the title (for example when I have listed Zeenut cards in the past, I would put the full name, PCL team, and MLB clubs, if any, the player was on), the more bidder/buyer attention the cards seemed to receive compared to previous efforts when I didn't do that.

Brian

Sorry Tim it stinks when your items sell for far less than they ever should. I have stopped auctions in ebay when they eliminated all categories and make things nearly impossible to find without specific searches. BIN only for me if I sell on ebay.

What *specifically* did Ebay do wrong here? Since you're clearly placing the blame on Ebay, what *specifically* would you have liked them to do to ensure that this card sold for a higher price?

Hi, Chris, good to talk with you again. I would propose that they re-open the pre-war category. I used to search it from highest price to lowest price. It had about 1800-2200 cards at a time. You could see the bidders' names, and anything I was interested in, TBob had already bid on.

Will if you advertise ONLY for the Vintage Card Experts on eBay then that’s the only eyeballs he’ll get. I believe in order to survive in business and life you have to adapt/change with the times.

Just my $0.02.

I don't disagree with you EddieP. Tim traded me a total beater T215 Huggins port like 10 or 12 years ago, and I am forever grateful. The board lives on.

Rob, my advice isn’t only directed to Tim per se, but to any young folks out there reading this board and still have time to learn and change.

https://youtu.be/2auI6Uz3D8I

I'm saying if I run an auction that simply says "BASEBALL CARD" then maybe I deserve what I get. That auction title left A LOT to be desired. How about taking constructive criticism and realizing that a weak title might have had something to do with the weak price instead of simply attacking people simply for pointing out what was done wrong?? I'm done.

Ebay did nothing wrong. He had so much wasted space in the title. He is blaming Ebay when he missed out on so many key words. Swarmee pointed out his mistake, I agreed, and we were attacked for it. I say simply let him keep doing what he is doing.

Sporting News was a huge miss. Simply the word Baseball card would have helped. Maybe vintage. Maybe rare, like you said. There was no much unused space in the title. When I saw that auction title I cringed.

That title had a lot to do with the low selling price. Its the sellers job to sell the card, not Ebays.

Hard to imagine not being able to see that you and others are clearly trying to help the seller avoid similar situations going forward by providing solid advice, but I guess, due to whatever reasons, some just can't discern the difference between advice and criticism.

I've found that the $0.99 starting bids work really well for popular search items like T206's. Anything that has value, but is somewhat more obscure, I usually list as a Buy it Now.

But, I wouldn't sweat it. No one likes to sell a card way below value. Its probably happened to most of us. There's been times where a card will sell for way more than I thought it should, hopefully they balance each other out.

in 1997
 

eBay asked sellers not to use all capital letters. It's gone downhill from there. They did however allow for a longer title early on.
For 26 years I have utilized every single space. I consider it an artform. I have also listed certain items for .99. I have done so for moderately expensive items (excess 150.-200.) that I anticipate will sell at or above their historical selling levels with a high degree of certainty. Get two people interested and sit back is my general philosophy. Finally I take excellent LARGE scans/pictures of all sides of an item AND I try and be as accurate as possible in my description.
Navigating the bay as buyer and seller seemingly gets more difficult each year as they "progress" more with the investor in mind than the users. That's why one must be as robust in attention to detail as possible if one continues to list on WePay. I still sell there using the auction format - listing 100 or so items a few times a year. It's not for everybody but give yourself the best shot.. Please excuse the stream of consciousness.

no guarantees whether written or implied.

Hiya, Tim!

I would think a raw card with minimal description would have people pass. Plus the listing indicates no returns. Just trying to help.

auction
 

could also be little things like ends on a " wrong day", wrong time" , etc..

Ok, OK - thanks, I guess
 

So, the constructively phrased suggestions above I do appreciate. (Obviously "Sporting News" was a miss in the description, even though M101-5 is not now considered a Sporting News issue.)


Finally, I didn't say Ebay actually did anything wrong - just that its suggestions were not helpful to my item. But I'm kind of amazed that so many people on this board stepped up as defenders of ebay, of all things.... I haven't closely followed the category changes Ebay has made in the past few years, but I gather they haven't helped with vintage card visibility. - Anyway, now I know not to put cards like these in the true auction category.

Sayonara-

Here's the thing, and I am not trying to condescend or offend anyone...

I do not know the first thing about selling cards or anything else. But I learned a hard lesson when I was desperate for money years ago. When I sell cards, they aren't worth crap. When someone else sells cards, they are worth a fortune. It's just how it is. Thus, I only buy cards I like and I know I will keep. I like card collecting for their history, the time when these guys played and the interesting stories associated with them, and I like having them. I couldn't give a hoot in Hell about card grading, or investment, or selling them. I say this repeatedly and get ignored repeatedly, because this forum caters to those who look at raw cards as if they are either fake or not worth anywhere near as much as graded. I say who cares? I have the last laugh, knowing I am not the only one who just collects raw cards. I'm just the in the minority on this forum.

Maybe we read different posts, but the raw is better (or at least raw is beautiful) crowd seems to be pretty well represented around here. Not sure if they’re necessarily in the majority, but they’re definitely plentiful.

.

Search 'Walker' then search 'Clarence Walker' then let us know if adding 'Clarence' made a difference.

Doug 'getting real, but not meaning to be condescending' Goodman

If cheapass me had seen it, it would have likely been $20+ all that extra add-on dough, and I still probably would not have won the thing.

Brian

Damn Brian, I tried to remove my arguably condescending post (because I'm trying to be nicer in my old age) but you quoted it before I did, hahaha.

I guess God, in her infinite wisdom, wanted my words left for the world to see.

Doug

I don't think a Sunday night of a long holiday weekend (when Monday is a day off) is the best time to end an auction either.

Exactly. This is the last place where people have many problems with raw cards.

+1 BST
Would have started there first with the $40-$60 ask then if it didn't sell maybe move to eBay at some point but definitely would not start with eBay.

Unfortunately we have a few members here that have nice cards listed on eBay that have been listed for a while but have not/will not list them in the BST where they could easily sell.

The big guy/girl upstairs (Edwin or perhaps Edwina, I can't tell) commanded me to remove a certain earlier quote, so I have done so by quoting a later post.

All I know is this person plods heavily on the floorboards above me.

Brian