the trouble with cards that don't often come to market

[abothebear]

Originally Posted by raulus

I would posit that there are two types of rare items:

1) stuff that everyone knows and wants
2) stuff that is obscure with thin demand

For group #2, my experience is that auctions are often a poor way to sell. Often the buyer is either someone who just happens to be in the market at that time for that precise item, or an opportunistic buyer who knows that they can get it for a steal now and then wait patiently for the right buyer to come along who will pay a king’s ransom to buy it and avoid having to wait years or decades for another one to come onto the market. Unfortunately, when it comes to the auction format, you need multiple highly motivated bidders who all can’t live without your item. The odds of that happening for items in group #2 tend to be very much hit or miss.

Yes, this is my fear. I don’t need to squeeze maximum value out of these cards, but I also don’t want to take a bath on them either. I’ve been burned trying to auction rare cards of category 2 variety to the wrong audience before. I’ve also benefited being on the other side. I tried to auction two cards here one time and got no bids. In the right time and place, they could have gone for 4x the opening bud. I ended up selling or trading them, but still for much lower than they would have gone in the proper setting.

Thanks for all of the advice so far, everyone, This is helpful.

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