Poll: BST Activity for 2024
 

Seems to me our esteemed BST is not the hotbed of transactions it used to be. Particularly more pricey stuff. Just curious what people have done this year.

I did a number of transactions this year, but I dont think any single cleared $1K. But then, I dont often do transactions over $1K anyway. So while my BST activity was actually up this year compared to past; I know Im an outlier in that regard.

Another poll might be, what is your overall spend in the BST sections this year? I had several, several hundred dollar ones, but only 1 over 2k this year. It's been an off year for me anyway, overall. Too many bills!
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Agree on the smaller stuff. Me too.

Just seems like 5 years ago high end stuff flew off BST. I bought stuff over 15k a few times. Seems now people are so addicted to the adrenaline rush of auctions they don’t want to forgo that.

Can a selection be added for < $500. That might get a few more responses. I've made several < $500 transactions on the BST for 2024.

Maybe change the title to BST activity for 2024 (instead of 2023).

I only have a household budget that allows smaller purchases, as with my recent 1971 Topps completion. I envy you guys with deep pockets!

I have 3 in the $1000-$2499 range. Technically not in the BST section but all sold to fellow members from posting a pic on Net54.

I have bought several cards on here in that same range over the years but none this year. Bought a lot of small(under$100) items this year in the BST section.

This

I selected "Other" because it's less than $500. A lot less, actually!

It certainly seems to me that most items with substantial value don't show up on the bst anymore. I used to log in several times a day to check for new listings but now I often don't even check once a day.

I think I sold six or seven of the eight items I listed this year, with a couple being over $500.00.

Personally, I'm pitching a shutout. Or getting shut out, as I'm still sitting on zero BST transactions lifetime.

Part of it is just because I don't buy a whole lot, and when I do, it's usually rare stuff that goes to auction, or is brokered by one of my collector friends.

And if I'm selling, usually it's going to be on eBay. Most of the stuff that I'm selling tends to be fairly obscure, and if I'm being honest, my prices tend to be rather elevated, which doesn't mesh well with the deal-seeking buyers on the board.

ETA: I have done several deals (on both sides) with fellow board members. But to my knowledge, the stuff was never listed on the BST, so it doesn't seem to meet the fundamental basic BST criteria.

If there's something with the right price and worthy of buying (immediately), then it'll already be gone by the time the rest of us see it. For a long while (and probably still), it seemed to always be the same few members getting the grabs, and hence...

534. Kiblitzer (Yiddish)
Someone who seemingly has a front row seat to every thread in the B/S/T, and rushes in to buy up everything before anyone else has a chance to even view it.

Yes, always good to know what year it actually is . . . .

Yes.
I answered it as if it was "how much have you bought and spent total there in 2024." I missed that it was for a single item.
You can remove one of the 4 votes for option 2

I peruse BST but imo a lot of items are either a) overpriced b) not desirable or c) both an and b.

I agree with this. Certain sellers are almost ridiculously high, just waiting for a sucker to come along. How many times do you see bump after bump lowering the price? Or the famous last chance before it goes to eBay or auction? Or my all-time favorite, the ones with expectations so stupidly high, no price is even listed, because the seller is awaiting a sucker.

N54 BST is my favorite place to buy/sell.
Many dozens of successful transactions here.
Let’s end the year with a flurry folks.
Post your items for sale.
RayB

just picked up a few great postcards from BST

I think these were all this year.

I have a 1952 Berk Ross Campy on there now :)

Trying to raise some funds to cover the big purchase i made yesterday

Bought several complete sets this year.

1963 Topps High Grade $10,500
1960 Topps Mid Grade $3000
1954 Topps Low Grade $2500

Always looking for vintage complete sets.

I’m broke. Kids are little. $600 in before school care, $510 to after school, $1200 in child support for the almost 21 year old. Put a patio in over the summer. I miss the BST. My activity has been the $25-50 purchases.

I wonder how the last half of 2025 looks with $1200 back in my pocket. Do I finally obtain the Green Cobb T206? Do I make moves on some of the other big cards in the T206 set? Who knows?

Used to be that you could get things at a decent price here and you knew who you were dealing with. Now the prices are usually as inflated as everywhere else and when there is a deal its gone in seconds.

To me it feels like some folks are scared to make offers. MAKE OFFERS! If you are interested in something that doesn't say firm.

I actually had somebody on the forum who recently "didn't appreciate" my VERY fair offer on some photos (didn't say no offers, firm etc). That member only uses the forum to sell and I have never seen them comment anything on any discussion post but it's just a prime example of why you should make offers. Don't be scared of people saying that to you, if they do it's probably not somebody you should deal with at all.

And that is the same for sellers, how are people getting offended over offers in nearly 2025? Offer me $50 on something I have listed for $500 all I'll say is no. I won't throw a fit and say you are human scum or something stupid. Lets use our heads.

I don't want to make an offer. If you really want to sell something, put a price on it.

And please read my above ignored post.

Some sellers are just jerks when you make an offer, though. I've made offers of 60-75% of BINs on ebay...some accept, some counter, some politely decline...but I've had everything else too, including plenty of angry, insulting responses. One guy even banned me from his listings in response. It's not pleasant to have those kinds of interactions so it makes sense that some steer clear of "no asking price" listings if they don't know the seller.

You’ll be happy to hear that door swings both ways. I’ve had buyers who get argumentative and demand to know why I even have offers enabled if I won’t accept their generous offer at 25% of my asking price.

I went to a small local show about 25 years ago. A guy had a few 1970 Topps Supers all marked $1 or $2. I grabbed them all, including some I had, figuring they would be trade bait, total was $6, said "will you take $5", the seller got all upset. I said fine and pulled out $2 to pay for the two cards I neeed. He refused to sell them to me. Fortunately, that has been an outlier as most sellers are ok with an offer

Why play stupid games when selling? Just put a price on it. You know how much you want for it. Just put a price on it and stop the nonsense. If it sells, great. If it doesn't, you know you're going to be stuck with it until you come back down to reality.

I have listed and sold many items on our B/S/T over the years and have never once got offended when a member made an offer which was lower than my asking price. I've accepted many of these lower offers too.

If someone were to offer a price which doesn't work, I'd just say no. But offended? Never....

Would be a tragedy if seller bought the item for $300 and then asked for $900, but the buyer was actually willing to go to $1000. Would be terrible.

It would be beyond terrible. It would be stupid.

I don't get upset with it. I just pass on by.

But that's how it is in the world of inflated baseball cards, I suppose.

Over a dollar! All I can say is WOW.

I've had less difficulty with this on the seller side since I always set a minimum acceptable bid. I don't know why more sellers don't do this. I imagine it's just laziness.

It still rejects offers that fall below your minimum acceptable level. That’s how I run all of my BINs. This buyer, however, found my minimum acceptable level to be unacceptably high.

Right, well that's just silly!

I've made a few deals on BST, as well as privately with a few members of the community. Probably similar to amounts in recent years.

I think "stuff" is getting harder to find actually. Pricing seems to be much higher than in recent years, and the better "stuff" with eye appeal seems to be not offered nearly as much.

It all goes to auctions now.

I don't think that's necessarily true. One thing that isn't visible on BST is when people respond privately to a wanted post, I've acquired a decent number of cards that way including pricey ones and including within the past couple of years.

I enjoy BST a lot and have made great progress toward completing my T206 sets (one raw, one grade) with great interactions there. I just don't remember to go there often, and when I do, there often aren't many new listings.

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So far, the consensus would seem to be:

Desirable and/or priced right go extremely fast. As if lurkers or snipers notice postings immediately.

Doesn't seem to be that much good stuff for sale, for whatever reasons.

Still, a lot of mutually fair deals made in the past year.

Fair assessment?

Living in the south, means there aren’t really any shows and I’ve never hit the FB forums, so I do a considerable amount of buying and selling on the BST.

The bay fees and hassle are a pain, so I’d rather pass things along to board members when I upgrade or move things around. The BST also lets me do some great trading and if I find something that I need to charge until I can get some things sold to cover the tab the BST is the place.

I’ve spent anywhere between $30 and a few K on cards this year, from the BST, and I’ve sold about the same. I’m not trying to make $ very often, unless I got a steal on eBay, just usually free up cash when I make an upgrade or see something fun.

I do love the BST, but it was really awesome back during my first time here in 2008-11. Of course things were a lot cheaper then, so you could do a lot more deals without blowing your budget back then. There were far fewer auctions then, as well.

Long live the BST!
Bob

Love the BST community, the collectors and their collections here are unparalleled in the hobby. I've made connections with really great people here and have acquired cards that would most likely not make it to an AH.
The fact that we can trade/sell within our own community makes it that more special.

Over the years, I have been fortunate to make some nice purchases for my collection on the bst. Net54 is loaded with good people, and I have been lucky enough to do business with many of them. For whatever reason I haven't bought as much there this year, but I have returned these last couple of weeks. I anticipate that continuing in 2025.

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