Why Insult The Buyers???

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Posted By: Chris Stufflestreet

When I was a seller, I used to spend time before shows making certain everything was fairly priced. In other words, if I had a card that Dr. Beckett said was worth $20 and it was Ex/NM, I didn't mark it with a $20 tag, I made it $12 or $15. I wouldn't have stuck a High BV tag on a card that was obviously flawed, because to me that wasn't right.

Now, I go to shows and see far too many sellers who don't do that kind of preparation...if I'm interested in a card, I find it a waste of my time to wait for the seller to go through this routine:

1. Pull out a Beckett
2. Try to determine what set the card is from (this one really bug me...if you don't know what a '51 Bowman card is by lookin at it, you shouldn't be selling the damned thing!)
3. Offer it to you at a price that's way to high for you to pay.

I recently went to a small mall show, and found a Hi # '51 Bowman card that was in terrible shape. I asked the seller if he'd let it go for $3 (which I feel is more than reasonable for a '51B Hi # in F/G), and he pulled out the ol' Beckett and then asked, "do you know what set it's from?" Looking at the book, he says, "I can't let it go for less than $20...It's a $50 card."

I told him that he obviously wasn't allowing for condition, because anybody who'd call himself a card seller would certainly know that a card in F/G wouldn't fetch 40% of High Beckett...he pointed to the Hi BV and said, "it says right here it's $50." I then went to the next table.

Which brings me to another point...why is it that some collectors and seller s can quote Hi Beckett for hundreds of cards, yet don't know how much to discount for condition? For goodness sake, THAT info is the same in every issue!

A nice postscript to my story about that seller...when I went to the next table, I hear a crash. Whe the seller went to put that Bowman card back on his display, he bumped a 3200-count box full of shiny modern game-used, autographed and "chase" cards and knocked it off the table. I had to laugh at that.