Auction Houses vs. Ebay

[Stetson_1883]

This might be a silly question, but Ive been on this board for a bit, and wanted to finally ask....

why do people use independent auction houses to sell their cards instead of ebay?

It seems to me that these online independent houses would not nearly attract the amount of eyeballs as ebay would.

Whst am I missing here? 😣

Thx!

[ullmandds]

Its cheaper.

[x2drich2000]

Less chance of funny business, returns, ebay deciding what you must do, Paypal charge backs, non-paying bidders, etc. Ebay is fine for lower dollar items, but I can see Ebay being a headache for more expensive items.

DJ

[tschock]

Originally Posted by x2drich2000

Less chance of funny business, returns, ebay deciding what you must do, Paypal charge backs, non-paying bidders, etc. Ebay is fine for lower dollar items, but I can see Ebay being a headache for more expensive items.

DJ

Of course, unless you are buying '52 Mantles, then it's ebay all the way!

[pokerplyr80]

If you're not a major ebay seller it's going to be hard to sell a card for what a major auction house could, even after the buyer's premium. I know I couldn't unless I got lucky. People don't trust sellers without high ratings and feedback scores as much as say Heritage, Goodwin, etc.

And it's easier. You don't have to post pictures, deal with buyers not paying, or run the risk that someone will receive your card and file an ebay claim any way. You're paying for a service.

I have also consigned to ebay seller PWCC and been pleased with results. Lower fees than AHs and they've got quite a following.

[TanksAndSpartans]

When you say "instead of ebay", do you mean an eBay consigner or selling yourself on eBay?

And one thing that hasn't been mentioned, if you have something rare, that is valuable, but not really mainstream and as a result the number of collectors chasing it is smaller, you may get more eyeballs on it from the AH because they send out catalogs and the length of time the item is "up" is typically longer than the eBay 7 day standard. For a graded card from a mainstream set, I'd probably go with an eBay consigner.

[egbeachley]

Originally Posted by Stetson_1883

This might be a silly question, but Ive been on this board for a bit, and wanted to finally ask....

why do people use independent auction houses to sell their cards instead of ebay?

What am I missing here? 😣

No idea since an auction house will end up costing about 3 times as much in fees as someone like PWCC.

[Exhibitman]

Sterling is 15% with no commission on graded cards. eBay is 10% plus 3% for payment processing. And all the other nonsense mentioned above versus no effort besides sending the card to Lee.

[jcmtiger]

Originally Posted by egbeachley

No idea since an auction house will end up costing about 3 times as much in fees as someone like PWCC.

So Pwcc costs less than 4 %?

Joe

[egbeachley]

Originally Posted by jcmtiger

So Pwcc costs less than 4 %?

Joe

No, PWCC costs around 10% - 13% depending on sale amount, if a card is graded, etc.

The stated auction houses that generate the highest sale amounts (REA, Heritage, Goodwin, etc,) typically add 20% buyer's premium and 20% sellers premium which totals to about 35% or so (not 40% since seller premium is before buyer premium).

Yes, an auction house will lower or even drop the seller premium for truly outstanding items. But PWCC would be 8% for those high sale items.

[1952boyntoncollector]

Originally Posted by egbeachley

No, PWCC costs around 10% - 13% depending on sale amount, if a card is graded, etc.

The stated auction houses that generate the highest sale amounts (REA, Heritage, Goodwin, etc,) typically add 20% buyer's premium and 20% sellers premium which totals to about 35% or so (not 40% since seller premium is before buyer premium).

Yes, an auction house will lower or even drop the seller premium for truly outstanding items. But PWCC would be 8% for those high sale items.

seller premium pretty rare even for items for a few hundred bucks....its basically 20% versus 13% or so......

[bbcard1]

they're just different clubs in the golf bag. I think people TEND to bid more aggressively in an auction house situation for a mid to high end card. I think you get more eyes on an eBay auction, but not necessarily more sophisticated buyers. My experience is also that sometimes, I pick the wrong golf club.