Deans Cards - something I never knew...

[D.P.Johnson]

Some people like to pay a little extra for the security of buying from a reputable dealer...I'm not one of those people......

[Rich Klein]

Actually I think Burbank lowers a lot of prices on modern cards when they feel they are overstocked.

Way back in the day, Kovacs used to raise prices on cards he kept selling at shows.

If you think about this, that actually makes business sense and if in a cart and not paid for that can happen.

Sounds goofy but that's actually fairly normal business in many ways.

I'm going to say this, but if you think it's a good deal, sometimes it's just worth paying the price now and not worrying about tomorrow.

[JollyElm]

I just can't stop laughing hearing that someone is actually buying from Deans cards!!! You got to be kidding us, yes??????? They are an absolute joke!!!! They are beyond laughable!!!!!! I and many others have done numerous threads on their ridiculous, insane, utterly STUPID pricing. No human being with an IQ higher than something in the single digits would ever even consider buying anything from these ripoff artists. What a freaking joke!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(Nothing personal, OP.)

[JollyElm]

This is a card I bought recently (NM with nearly perfect centering. An almost exact clone of this very card) for $6 with free shipping, so I thought I'd do a quick ebay search for it tonight in NM, and there were absolutely no surprises here. Look at the results with his dumb 'actual image' logo (I, too, eliminate this moron from my searches, but sometimes he squeaks through and when you see that logo, you know it's time to just zip past that listing). He prices his card at basically ten times what the other people are asking and with them your shipping is included. Granted, the other two cards are o/c, but if they were greatly centered, the cost would probably be the same. As I said, mine cost a mere $6.

And I won't even mention that he (yes, I purposely personify this laughable company as 'he') calls a card with an obviously rounded/damaged lower left corner as NM. And this isn't some isolated incident. He does this ridiculous pricing with all of his cards. He annoys the living crap out of me!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What a joke!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

62stuart.jpg

[Tao_Moko]

Overpriced yes. What he is doing with inventory is understandable to me. Your cart is not a place holder and only a reminder and organization tool for you. I don't see an issue.

[vintagesportscollector]

Darren, how do you really feel? Just come out and say it. You don't have to mince words.

[JollyElm]

Originally Posted by vintagesportscollector

Darren, how do you really feel? Just come out and say it. You don't have to mince words.

It's because we've discussed this guy's stupid prices before. In one thread we said how it's easy to add (-Dean) to your search and his ripoff listings wouldn't appear in them. A perfect solution. But then suddenly, a couple of days later, he eliminated his name from all of his listings, so it didn't work anymore. He obviously reads these boards...and he disgusts me!!!

[the 'stache]

Originally Posted by JollyElm

This is a card I bought recently (NM with nearly perfect centering. An almost exact clone of this very card) for $6 with free shipping, so I thought I'd do a quick ebay search for it tonight in NM, and there were absolutely no surprises here. Look at the results with his dumb 'actual image' logo (I, too, eliminate this moron from my searches, but sometimes he squeaks through and when you see that logo, you know it's time to just zip past that listing). He prices his card at basically ten times what the other people are asking and with them your shipping is included. Granted, the other two cards are o/c, but if they were greatly centered, the cost would probably be the same. As I said, mine cost a mere $6.

And I won't even mention that he (yes, I purposely personify this laughable company as 'he') calls a card with an obviously rounded/damaged lower left corner as NM. And this isn't some isolated incident. He does this ridiculous pricing with all of his cards. He annoys the living crap out of me!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What a joke!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Attachment 177299

Darren, this will blow your mind then. Here's a direct excerpt from an email correspondence I had with Dean's Cards regarding their claim of having "low prices".

Also realize that try we keep EVERY post-war vintage card in stock, in every condition. To do so, we have to pay more and charge more, depending on the card. So we are not the cheapest on every card, but we have every card. Also, our prices have come down by that percentage in the last year. Please check out the post-war vintage commons that we have listed and this should answer your questions.

This morning I was looking at 1957 Topps commons on our site. Considering the most cards on eBay our overgraded by at least one grade - if not two - our prices were far lower than most other options. Again, focus on the cards, in which we have higher quantities. Those our the best deals.

This communication was from January 2nd of this year.

The rationale here is "we keep every Marco Mendoza card in stock, so, therefore, we are justified to charge $60 on a 1962 Topps [finger quotes]near mint[/finger quotes] Dick Stuart card that nobody else charges more than $10 for.

But if we go to their website, we can save 20% there! So, we could go to Dean's Cards .com, and pay only $48!

[brightair]

OP here again.

I'd like to thank all who responded, and I did learn something from this thread. I learned that the practice of adjusting the price on a card when it is in your cart is not unusual.

What I did not learn much about, and what I was most interested in, was how people felt about this system having no transparency. I guess I could, as one poster suggested, keep copies of my cart and look for changes. Perhaps I will have to do that. I would rather be advised that a card price has been adjusted. Then I can respond as I see fit.

Maybe if I had worded my original post differently, I could have been more precise, and gotten more of the replies I wanted. I did not intend a DC bashing thread. My fault there.

I'd like to say one thing more in defense of DC (and I know I will take flack for this, but I feel it needs to be said for fairness and balance) since so much of the opposite has been aired.

There are not many online sites that will show both sides of thousands of commons at several different grade availabilities. I say not many, but I can only really think of one. This is very important to me. This service costs Dean time and energy, and his customers should pay for it. So it is not surprising that DC prices are higher than others who don't offer this service.

Further, from my, somewhat limited, experience, their grading is fair, and they deliver quickly and pack well.

I don't buy a ton from DC. I pick and choose and look around a lot. But some special things I can't find just anywhere. I am a bit of a cheapskate and will get the best deals I can wherever I find them, but I don't have the time or resources to search thousands of commons in any other way but online. And that is often what I need to do to find the cards I want. So DC really fills a niche that I appreciate. I would love it if they were cheaper, but I also would love it if I were a few inches taller and a few decades younger.

Thanks again to all, and to all a good night!

Richard D

[Rich Klein]

Now that is a good question

If you have cards in a shopping card and prices change while they are sitting in your cart, if there some way of getting notifications of price changes,

I'm not a programmer but I think that is, and not just for Richard but for anyone, the real crux of the question.

If the question had been asked like that, I think we could have avoided the DC thread and kept it to the real question at hand

[pokerplyr80]

Originally Posted by brightair

OP here again.

What I did not learn much about, and what I was most interested in, was how people felt about this system having no transparency. I guess I could, as one poster suggested, keep copies of my cart and look for changes. Perhaps I will have to do that. I would rather be advised that a card price has been adjusted. Then I can respond as I see fit.

Richard D

In response to the OP's question, I think it's common knowledge that prices on any website can fluctuate. Just because an item is in your card does not mean it has been purchased. The item can also be purchased by someone else, and happens on major sites like ebay and amazon. If the cards were only in your cart for minutes before you made your purchase than the timing is unfortunate. But I don't believe a website should be expected to notify you of a price change for something in your shopping cart.

Just my opinion.