Do you feel like you are the only one not selling?
 

Talked to two long time collector friends over the holiday weekend.

One has finally decided to sell about 75 percent of his prewar collection in the winter/spring timeframe (sending to auction). He told me the money will be used to supplement his retirement.

The other is considering selling most or all of his collection. Profits will go into investments or savings. He said the hobby has past him and would rather have value in other areas.

Am I the only one not selling? Some days it feels like it. What a strange time in the hobby these days.

Everything that sells has a buyer.

Im not selling much… and when I do I usually roll it over into other cards.

Good post Drew,
I'm currently refining. As I travel further down the pre-war rabbit hole (thanks Leon) the cost of entry moves higher on rare cards, I have to give something up, and it's usually desirable post war cards. So, I'm a seller and a buyer.

Channeling Yogi? Nobody's buying anything, they're all selling.

probably 90% of any card I’ve ever sold was to buy more cards. wish I didn’t have to but the budget in this hobby only goes so far.

Well, as a matter of economic principle, if everyone but you was selling, then I would expect prices to come down, and not just a little.

But maybe just a lot of people you know are getting out while the opportunity is still here?

I will confess that when prices were crazy high for some of my items (like $350k for one in particular, albeit one of the key pieces in my collection), I was sorely tempted to consider selling at least that one.

75% of collecting is half selling.

That goes double for me.

Neither a buyer nor a seller be.

So……………

You gotta know when to hold ‘em?

I’m now imagining the hilarity of Yogi having a conversation with Shakespeare.

Right before you mail or give your cards to the auction house, you just gotta say, "WTF" :D

He buys and sells. He’s amphibious.

Amphibious in a commercially ambidextrous fashion, of course.

Brian

Many times health reasons (including age) & lack of someone to leave your collection with has a lot to do w/ deciding to sell.

That is certainly MY reason for doing so.

Hang in fred your a good person

Very clever!

Consider selling my t collection to buy the next biggest logoman! :D

buying?
 

Hang in there! Plenty of collectors are buying and holding:) Trent King

Yolo!
 

I believe is the new expresion

Drew,

I’ve noticed a big divergence in private sale sold prices vs what auction houses get for cards. Do these auction houses allow buyers to pay with a credit card? I pay for the cards they won in auction buy using cards and funds? Like cash and trade ?

IF an auction house accepts a credit card they are going to charge 3% (or that vicinity) as they aren't going to eat the merchant fees. IF there is one that doesn't they probably aren't in business any longer.
The reason I am holding any decent cards is because I am a collector, first and foremost, and I have been priced out of most of the great stuff. And I can't afford it again.
I just don't have 10k-20k++ to spend every month as some members eagerly do. It kind of sucks but that's life sometimes.

and a card...thanks Peter!
.

Great looking Cobb, Leon!

I'm still upgrading my T206 set, but in the back of my mind, I'm wondering if this is THE time to jump off & sell.

Great opinions on this topic.

Most of the collectors I see selling are not net54 members (or at least I don’t think they are). They are on other online platforms.

One guy is now selling his t206 partial set. Told me in a message he can’t complete the set now and now wants to invest in things non card related.

People are selling right and left on FACEBOOK I've seen a lot of low grade Cobbs with harder backs recently.

Most of my collection has been sold, not for the money, but my age.

I’ve heard that from several collectors lately. Like it or not those of us with 30-40 years as collectors are getting old. With that comes some reflection. I am negotiating with one collector to buy his collection. He is selling because he is 75 and has no kids or grandkids and doesn’t want to leave a mess for his brother and his family to sort out.

My plan is to turn my liquidation into a business for my retirement. I figure a few hours a day BST will be fun and profitable.

My sales have slowed considerably the last calendar year and have had to consign to some AH's to help. And those prices haven't been the best. It's a tough sellers market right now.

Maybe I need to spend more time bidding on the auctions where you consign your pieces, because my experience is the exact opposite of what you described.

I sold a good chunk of my high dollar items in the past 24 months as I do not trust in this market whatsoever. I believe I can take a nice profit and buy it back at less in a few years. This is personal opinion and I am positive that many people disagree, but it's the belief I have. I also have not added anything over 4 figures since pre-pandemic. I have zero FOMO with the current market and instead fear of regret.

Usually that's the case with me also, but this time around was not good. Then again, I consigned modern cards so that's a different beast. Have another consignment for vintage next month with a different house, so we'll see how that compares.

When was the last time you consigned?

June 2020, give or take? If I'm willing to sell an item these days, which is rare, I usually just go with a BIN on eBay. Not that I get many takers, since I've priced them at unattractive levels. But here and there a buyer will come along and be willing to pay my price.

Totally understand the modern cards situation, and agree that market is definitely down compared to last year, so not surprised to hear that it went poorly for you.

Way to vote with your feet (and your wallet)! Many of us are far too craven to make that move.

As I mentioned above, I was tempted to sell one of my high priced items, when the market soared to about $350k for it. But based on my math, after taxes and auction fees (even if I could have negotiated for really low auction costs), I would've cleared about $200-250k. So I decided I was better off just letting it ride, rather than trying to sell high and then buy it back later for less.

As others have noted. Every transaction has a buyer and a seller, so there is always an equal number of both.

Markets move depending on which party is more motivated to transact.

I look forward to the day when I’m the only buyer and everyone else is selling. But I’m not counting on it.

I disagree, I think many people are hoarding or buying up multiple examples of certain cards. No way on Gods green earth would consignors allow multiple of the same common card, albeit different grades, in the same auction. For years, even the AHs prohibited it!

Every months prices go up, and flippers are hoping someone had FOMO from the last sale and will pay a few % more for theirs.

Wonder if the situation with Michael Jordan Fleer PSA 9s plays out here with some classic vintage cards. Jordan rookie is a different animal, but is an iconic player and cultural phenomenon and a beloved card.

As an example

Uness you HAD to sell, nobody would allow 4 or 5 of the same color Cobb, or 52 Mantle to be auctioned together, Its financial suicide. I can see if you had a psa 8 and there was a psa 1, but consistently there are multiple low to mid grades in the same auction month after month. For something like Jordan it only worse because of supply. Easier to manipulate 9s and 10s though

Agreed! I consigned my 51 bowman mantle a year or two ago only to find like six of them in the auction! To say I was pissed off was an understatement! In most of the big big auctions you will see multiple examples of red tea 206 Cobbs, 1952 Topps mantles, even cards like e95 Ty Cobbs it’s not uncommon to see two or three examples in a big auction.

These experiences made me think twice about the big auction houses sometimes smaller auctions are better where your item will be a headliner versus just one of many!

I agree Pete. That isnt fair not to at least mention it, and it's the FIRST question I ask auction houses when I consign. I had some crazy rare t205s, matty cycle back sgc 5 I think, and others, and did NOT want others in the auction even if it was a low grade.

But then does it really even matter? There may not be more than one of that one particular card, in that one particular auction, but with the proliferation of auctions today, there's a great chance that there are at least two or three (or even more) other auctions or online sellers with multiple examples of that same card up for auction/sale at the exact same time anyway. The internet has truly changed this hobby into being more like an investment/business industry. While the internet has made it possible for collectors to much more easily now find and acquire cards they used to have to search diligently for in the past, it has done the exact same thing for everyone else as well!

Yes, it does matter.

If you're bidding in an auction, and there are multiple copies of the same card you want, are you going to spend time checking out each example? I imagine most people will. I certainly would.

Now, let's say the auction house only has one copy of that card. Would you go checking other auction house, eBay, etc. looking for similar examples currently for sale with the intention of bidding on one or more of them? Perhaps. I typically don't. There are certainly some auction houses with which I won't do business. There's also a value on my time. If I spend hours and hours researching all available copies to save (for example) $200, at what point have I crossed the "penny-wise, pound-foolish" threshold?

I'm sure there are others who, for whatever reasons, will only deal with a handful of auction houses. It helps, as a consignor, when those auction houses aren't competing with themselves.

Just my two cents...

Yes! It absolutely matters! Some of these cards were not coming up for auction regularly because prices were escalating dramatically continuously. So when one example would appear it would go for a good price. Then all of a sudden people start consigning because of the prices and then all of a sudden it’s a different ball game a different landscape. Absolutely 100% matters!

In my mind, it’s a question of how much of a difference it makes in terms of the final sales price. I think in the past it has made a bigger difference. In the current environment, with demand so strong, I suspect the impact of having multiple similar items in any given auction is muted.

Naturally, if having multiple similar items in the same auction costs you 5%, then that’s still probably enough to care. And if it costs you more, then you probably get mad enough to chew nails and spit rust.

I don't disagree with you at all and understand how seeing 2 - 3 - 5+ of the same card side by side in the same auction can be a turn-off, and possibly hinder bidding on some of them. But let's face it, the cards that typically would fall into this category and issue are already pretty widely known to the hobby to not be rare at all, and examples seemingly turn up in virtually every auction nowadays it seems. For cards such as '52 Topps Mantles, '33 Goudey Ruths, or '51 Bowman Mays, there really doesn't seem to be much of a FOMO issue for such cards. If you don't particularly like the grade or eye appeal of one in ABC's auction, XYZ will possibly have a nicer one in their auction next week.

The one really bad thing about multiples of the same card in one auction is that they then typically put them all together next to each other or on the same page in the auction listing. That way the potential bidders can easily see and compare side by side which copy of the card is best, with the nicest version usually always getting the highest FMV bids. The lesser condition ones will most likely suffer the most pricewise. And humans are generally lazy, so when you do have multiples of the same card across different auctions, potential bidders aren't likely to go viewing and comparing those cards from auction to auction. But put a bunch side by side in the same auction and the laziest of us can't help but easily compare them. I guess if an auction house were smart, and listing multiple copies of the same card in a single auction, they would make sure to at least break them up and scatter those listings throughout the auction, so they don't show any of them side by side for such easy comparisons.

Kind of like the mental trick played by AHs not showing bid amounts plus the BP during an auction. Despite all bidders being told up front and fully aware there is a BP to be added onto their bids, you know that some will disregard or forget about it in the midst of the auction, and end up spending more than they originally intended to. So don't put the slightly off-center VG 3 version of a card right next to a GD 2 version of the same card, but with better centering and nicer eye appeal, in the same auction listing.

And now that I'm looking back at what I was just saying, I have to agree with you even more in that it does matter somewhat when you put multiples of the same card in a single auction, especially when they are shown and listed side by side for easy comparison purposes. I guess my original, initial thought and thinking was that it really shouldn't matter, but forgot for a moment we're talking about humans, who are often anything but logical and sensible. LOL Good call and points!

I completely agree. :)

"...definitely no logic to human behaviour..."
Bjork

...or the spelling of some people's names.

Brian (or Bryan, if you prefer)

I'm selling. See Sterling's next auction for nice stuff.

Some random thoughts:

The multiple cards thing doesn't bother me when each card is at a different level. I don't think the people in the market for a PSA 8 Hank Aaron RC pay any attention to the 3 in the same auction, and vice versa. Personally, I appreciate having cards at different price points available to me. I track about 100 vintage cards and even when there are multiples it does not seem to affect the prices unless there are multiples of the same grade.

The 1986 Fleer Jordan is a unique situation. I do not believe that those few outstanding results on the 10s were genuine sales, but setting those aside, the card is suffering from a unique problem: PSA is grading the Star cards. The 86 Fleer is really Jordan's third year card in a licensed set. He has multiple Star cards that age or older. Until recently, they could be ignored, but not with PSA adding them in. That has really driven down the sales on the 1986 Fleer.