Pet Peeve: Dealers who pull out Beckett at a card show? Opinions wanted!

[bbsports]

As a dealer for many years & been doing card shows for over 25 years, most of the time it's not the dealer who pulls out the SMR at a card show first, it's the customer. A dealer with enough knowledge & experience, uses a better reference than an SMR price guide. All these books are what they are, price guides. He or she should follow the current on line prices, such as the more current e-bay sales. Some prefer card target or VCP. For me, I keep a record on what I pay for my items & just try to make a 10-20% profit on what I sell, pending the type of cards I'm selling. It's impossible to make money on ever card you sell, but you avoid huge losses. Once in a while, I get lucky & make more than that, but I find that if I keep a record of my sales, I sell a lot more cards at card shows than most dealers do.

[bobbyw8469]

Well...I should have let the guy finish talking maybe. He gave me a pile of cards. I pulled three of them out. He is like "Let me check the book on this one". He then proceeded to tell me that book was $80. I didn't even let him finish. All the dealers try to quote Beckett, something along the lines of "The book is $80, I will let you have it for $40". Never mind they are looking at HIGH BOOK VALUE, and their card is nowhere near mint condition. Normally, it doesn't rub me the wrong way, but today it did.

[Eric72]

When I set up at a show, all of my cards are already priced. Whether the card is in a box that is marked $1 each or the card is individually labeled ($5, $10, $20, or whatever) the customer knows - up front - how much I'm asking for it.

Am I potentially leaving a little money on the table this way? Probably. However, at the end of the day, I worry less about maximizing profit through Perfect Price Discrimination (as Economists would call it) than having fun and selling off unwanted cards to fund other purchases.

Regarding Beckett, I do use the guide when pricing my cards. Most often, I put them out at the low column price. Or, in the case of the dollar boxes, well below that.

Just the way I do things. I only set up at a few shows per year, and am not doing this to make a living, so it works for me.

Best regards,

Eric

[tschock]

Originally Posted by bobbyw8469

Well...I should have let the guy finish talking maybe. He gave me a pile of cards. I pulled three of them out. He is like "Let me check the book on this one". He then proceeded to tell me that book was $80. I didn't even let him finish. All the dealers try to quote Beckett, something along the lines of "The book is $80, I will let you have it for $40". Never mind they are looking at HIGH BOOK VALUE, and their card is nowhere near mint condition. Normally, it doesn't rub me the wrong way, but today it did.

Yeah, that's my pet peeve which I just decided to 'let go' years ago since it's SOP these days. A '50s card in EX condition listed at "50% off" Beckett. Well no, sir. It's actually 100% of the Beckett price. It would only be 50% off the Beckett price if you were selling it for 25% of the Beckett listed "NM" book price.

I think it's just common parlance these days so I just go with the flow rather than trying to constantly play the part of a salmon trying to spawn.

[vintagetoppsguy]

If I'm buying a raw card(s) and the dealer pulls out a Beckett, it doesn't bother me at all. Most of the dealers I've ever dealt with use it as a starting point only. They say something like, "It books for $100 in NM condition, but since it's EX condition, you can have it for $30". Now, if a dealer uses the Beckett price as their sell price and don't give any considertation for condition, I'll politely tell them thanks and walk away.

[PM770]

Originally Posted by tschock

Yeah, that's my pet peeve which I just decided to 'let go' years ago since it's SOP these days. A '50s card in EX condition listed at "50% off" Beckett. Well no, sir. It's actually 100% of the Beckett price. It would only be 50% off the Beckett price if you were selling it for 25% of the Beckett listed "NM" book price.

I think it's just common parlance these days so I just go with the flow rather than trying to constantly play the part of a salmon trying to spawn.

This is spot on. Too few people understand this.

Last year I was talking to someone who thought they were giving an incredible deal on their VG cards priced at 25% of Beckett. I tried to explain that pricing VG cards at 25% of Beckett was in truth 100% of Beckett because Beckett pricing is NM. You need to adjust for condition. I got nowhere and finally had to give up.

[freakhappy]

Originally Posted by PM770

This is spot on. Too few people understand this.

Last year I was talking to someone who thought they were giving an incredible deal on their VG cards priced at 25% of Beckett. I tried to explain that pricing VG cards at 25% of Beckett was in truth 100% of Beckett because Beckett pricing is NM. You need to adjust for condition. I got nowhere and finally had to give up.

The Beckett that the dealer I was referring to, used the graded Beckett quarterly, which priced each grade of a card...I wonder how many other people are referring to this as well. If they used the old school Beckett, well, that's a different story.

[brewing]

I only find it annoying when they price the VG condition card half of high Beckett column and expect me to be delighted at the great price.

[bobbyw8469]

This particular instance, the dealer threw me a stack of commons. I said, "How much?"...."They are $2 each." Normal pricing, because that is what Floyd sells his for. After picking out 3 cards, one being a checklist that I needed (I am working on three sets, and already have this card twice - I just need one for my third set), he was like, let me look this one up in Beckett. Beckett has it at $80. Obviously a far cry from $2. I don't mind paying a little extra, as I am not trying to cheat someone, but the card is nowhere near as tough as sellers think it is. No way can I go from $2 to $80 though.