Hundreds of pre-1930 cards on Ebay

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Posted By: Darren

I've bought several cards from Levi over the years and have not been disappointed.

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Posted By: peter chao

Darren,

Here's the problem, everybody can afford to overpay once in a while. However, I tend to buy hundreds of cards from dealers I trust and get a good deal from. I certainly don't want to overpay on a hundred cards.

707 and dealers like that have good inventory, but their inventories aren't any better than the people I'm presently dealing with so as far as I'm concerned there's no reason to shift my loyalties.

Peter

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Posted By: Dave F

Its not really a problem in my eyes..The biggest problem is having to sift through all his cards on ebay to find real auctions.

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Posted By: Dylan

If a seller wants to list 20$ cards for 200$ on his website, more power to him... it does get a little annoying sifting through these BIN on ebay however. I dont really know what Levi has for sale. If its an obscure item i can understand having a high price, but if their cards that trade hands often I dont see how a vast markup can be justified. In the end its his cards and his listing fees being paid so i dont really mind.
As for dealers placing cards in their case just to show off, thats cool, but itd be nice to actually place something in the case saying their not for sale just for show and tell. They probably think the'll attract more attention to their case by having these cards shown regardless of if there for sale, and their probably right.

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Posted By: Tim Newcomb

The poster above who questioned the statement that dealers wouldn't always know the prices of vintage cards must not have been to many big shows. A huge part of the fun of the National (other than seeing n54 friends) is finding great stuff that's grossly underpriced-- exactly because the dealer isn't aware of what he has (or how much it's gone up recently).

Sure, most show prices are high, but there are also plenty of bargains at good venues. A great many part-time dealers (people who do a few shows a year) don't take the time to update their prices every time they go. They know what they have in the cards, and are willing to let them go for their initial selling price, which in a market like this one has been, will almost always represent a healthy profit if they bought the cards even a year or two ago. Thank Goodness this is true or ordinary collectors like myself would be pretty much SOL!

A couple of examples that come to mind:

-- 3 Star Player Candy cards (value ~ $750) bought from the $5 box of a well-known dealer who specializes in Topps stuff. He didn't know what they were, much less how much to ask for them

-- E97 Keeler and Cy Young bought for less than half then-market value from a lovely older couple who has been selling for many years. They are perfectly knowledgeable about the cards themselves, but don't have the time to check SMR every other day. They knew how much they had in them (probably very little) and were content to get my $700 for them. (It also helps if you are repeat customers, but I did pay their sticker price minus the standard show discount.)

-- my find at the 2001 National of 290 sharp-looking T206s (including 50+ HOFers and Southern Leaguers) for $1000. (That's not a misprint.) This was late on Saturday. The sellers were part-timers breaking up a set. They had sold nearly half of it by Saturday 5 PM, had already made a nice profit, and wanted to get on home. I was lucky enough to be the first person to walk by after they put out their "closeout" sign. Super-nice-guy dealer Ron Barrett lent me the cash to buy it!

I've got dozens more of these written down at home. I don't think I'm unusually adept at finding stuff like this. Everybody who goes to shows (who isn't looking only for a few very specific things) has these stories.

There are just too many sets and too much fluctuation in prices for anyone to follow all vintage card prices unless they want to make it a full-time job. As I said, thank goodness!

Tim

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Posted By: shane

Some of you guys just don't get it. Who cares how Levi prices his cards or how he conducts business? What business is it of yours to evaluate how he operates? Don't buy from him if his prices are too high. Here is a secret that might explain his pricing. He has more money than all of us put together multiplied by 3. His inventory is second to none. He sells plenty to get by and he enjoys being in this business. He is a great person, a fair person and one that will be around for a long time.

Regards,
Shane

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Posted By: barrysloate

Shane- this is a chatboard and forum to discuss baseball cards and various hobby issues. Discussing a dealer or auction house is fair game. Nobody attacked him, and as I said earlier, there are different business models and the one he uses wouldn't work for everyone. I don't see where anyone went over the line.

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Posted By: Joann

Shane,

I don't think anyone is really arguing with 707's right to run their business. Several posts upthread have specifically said they can price cards any way they want. I think the issue that this pricing, in combination with ebay dump days, creates a lot of clutter for normal ebay cruising.

Suppose I had 2,000 T206 commons in low grade, priced them at $700 each and dumped them all on ebay 3x per year. Not only would that be irritating, but one could also argue that it approaches intentional interference with ebay's listings and with the concurrent auctions of smaller sellers.

There is a point at which listing hundreds or thousands of cards at prices for which they cannot reasonably be expected to sell goes from a nuisance to an interference. And yet the simple return argument in the hypothetical above would be that I have the right to price my cards as I see fit, and that should be the end of the discussion.

I am not suggesting that any dealer is intentionally interfering with ebay. Obviously. But I am saying is that you can describe a place where a line has been crossed, and there are people here that feel like some dealers' practices are at least rising to the level of discomfort.

But no one is saying they don't have the right to price their cards.

Joann

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Posted By: shane

Joanne,
I agree with what you are saying. There are some people who are dealer haters and try to expose every fault or non-material issues of a dealer, like Levi, just to run them down. What they list on eBay is there choice and if it clutters up the board, sobeit. He is paying to advertise cards through eBay just like the rest of the world.
Barry,
Anytime a dealer is mentioned there are always going to be the rock throwers that jump in. It is really easy for these guys to bash people on an open forum sitting behind their computers. If you don't like the dealer or person, just ignore them and move on.

Shane

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Posted By: barrysloate

There's no question it's a lot easier to criticize somebody online than to his face. But was Levi being unfairly bashed? I agree with Joann that anytime ebay offers 20 cent day, the various categories get jammed with endless unsellable material. It is his right to do it, but it is equally our right to find it in some way objectionable. Collectors have just so may hours in the day to search for cards and all the clutter wastes much of that time. Can't collectors express their disapproval? I don't think it's a big deal. A lot worse has occurred on this board.

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Posted By: bill latzko

Here's what is important to me and what is NOT. I couldn't care less how many listings he does if EBAY allows it. I also don't care what he sells a card for as the Collins example given based on what he paid for it.

I DO care that my fiancee(now wife) were helped by him at the National a few years ago when others did not. I DO care to notice that when another exhibitor was having some trouble with his table, one person went over to help him--why I remember this I have no idea. That person was Levi. I DO care that he seemed to care about being with his several children with him and that while my observations were limited, that ranks a helluva lot higher than less important things in life.

Once again , on a final and hopeful humorous note, it would be nice if he was more flexible for me on the t205 PSA 6 Quinn to upgrade my psa 5!!!!!!!!

PEACE NOW!! bill latzko

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Posted By: Cobby33

I have bought from (and sold to) 707 and have always found them to be nice to deal with.

I will echo Barry, Joann, et al.'s comments that nobody is trying to bash anybody. As much as it is a dealer's right to continually price some/most of their inventory above market and "flood" eBay with their listings- it is others' right to comment on these practices. It's a discussion and that's what this Board is for. Discussions.

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Posted By: Richard Wong

This happened a couple of years ago when I was first starting to get into vintage cards:

I was selling a goudey gehrig in my ebay store about 2 years ago. I get an email from Levi asking about the price. We go back and forth a little and we settle on a number. He then says for me to ship him the card, he would examine it and if he liked it he would send me my payment.

Huh?

I replied that I didn't know him and that I would not be comfortable sending a couple thousand dollar card in the mail to someone I didn't know, have never dealt with before or had ever heard of, website or no website. (keep in mind this is before I started heavily in prewar) Typically, on ebay, a buyer would send payment and then the seller sends the goods. I also had large clear front and back scans of the card up in the ebay listing.

He tells me that this is the way he does business and has always done business. Everyone sends him the cards first. If I didn't get used to "the way things really work in the card business", I would soon be out of it.

That was literally his answer to me.

Needless to say, I did not complete the transaction with him.

Maybe he is a good guy. Maybe not. Maybe I caught him on a bad day. Maybe not. I guess everyone's experience is a little different.

The way he treated me, though, on that particular day, left a lot to be desired.

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Posted By: Larry

<He tells me that this is the way he does business and has always done business. Everyone sends him the cards first. If I didn't get used to "the way things really work in the <card business", I would soon be out of it.

Maybe everyone can ship their collections to him so he can "cherry pick" them? Maybe he thinks most collectors are retarded?

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Posted By: Dave F

Ok..now this is getting into a bashing Levi thread...and totally uncalled for. I don't like his prices, and I won't buy from him based on his high prices and his refusal to come down for me at all....but why start the childish bashing? Ridicilious.

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Posted By: Jim Dale

While chatting about all of his listings you might want to take note of his sales. I have not looked lately but the last time I did he sold more then a few "over priced" cards so it makes up for the listing fees and software necessary to load up hundreds of auctions. Its really quite amazing....sometimes people will over pay.