I should probably have been a bit more clear so folks don't think I'm one of THOSE guys, LOL.
I think it's fairly typical that buying a lot of lets say 50 cards will be cheaper than buying 50 cards individually.
What I'm basically looking to do is buy lots and then resell them individually. I do this for fun as I find almost as much enjoyment out of the buying/selling part of the hobby as I do the collecting part. I really enjoy the interactions with other collectors.
I have dealt with some folks in the past on other sites that'll be selling a group of cards and will go check ebay to see what the cards sell for individually and then ask that as their "per card" price on the lot.
So that's what I mean when I say I can't pay ebay rates, I can't pay what cards sell for individually as a "per card" price on a lot. I guess maybe that goes without saying, but I want to clarify as, again, I don't want to be THAT guy.
I'm not looking to get rich, I'm looking to have fun. I enjoy the buying/selling/negotiating aspect of this hobby almost as much as the collecting aspect of it and I want that experience to be enjoyable for both parties. I am not, nor do I ever want to be one of those guys who will vomit a bunch of BS at you about "well they're just commons and they're going to just sit around and it'll take me 3 years to sell them so I'm doing you a favor by offering you $0.50 a piece even though they sell for $4.00 each."
I'm also not one of those a-holes that says "I'll pay top dollar for your collection! (but only if it's in pristine condition, and you have lots of big name star cards and rookies, and even then I'm only going to pay you 20% of what it's worth and THAT's if I happen to be in a good mood that day!)"
I HATE that crap, and I imagine most anyone else who's in this hobby for the fun of it does too.
I'm not doing this to make a living, I'm not doing it to get rich, I'm doing it because it's fun and I enjoy the interaction of the buy/sell/trade aspect of the hobby.
Hopefully that'll clear things up a little bit. I will say that I've already made one purchase of a nice lot of cards from a member here and it went exactly as I'd like every purchase to go. I made an offer, he came back with a counter, we went back and forth a bit, and settled on a price we were both happy with. I hope to have many more such experiences here
Sorry for the long read. I look forward to hopefully making some deals with some of you folks