Just don't get it with some sellers

[glchen]

Originally Posted by Snapolit1

Maybe someone could explain to me the logic behind this.
Let's assume a fairly obscure but not impossible to find card. From the 1920s. The last 3 sales on eBay were in the neighborhood of $700-800 for the card Authentic. Now there are 4 cards listed, all As, all about the same. 3 of them are appx. $850, but accept offers. The 4th is listed for $1800. Same condition.

I realize some people really don't want to sell a card, and list it at some dream price in case lightning strikes. The "I don't want to see my house but if someone rings the bell and offers me a million dollars for it of course it's for sale" routine.

But why take the time and expense of listing some for 2x what three or four other people are selling for? What are hoping for. It's just going to sit right? And the seller in the case I ran into last week was a sophisticated seller, someone whose name has been bandied about here in the past. I just don't see the plan with this kind of listing.

As an ebay seller myself, I think sellers have a lot of different strategies on how they price their cards. Many times, they don't even compare what other sellers are selling that same card for on ebay. They might not have the time to compare or don't care. For example, they may just take the purchase price of the card for them, and then add a 50% markup to it, so that after ebay/paypal fees, it will still net out to a profit for them. If the card is the only card on ebay for that condition, they might put a high price on it, hoping that someone who really wants it, will bite.

Another factor is that the same condition for a card can vary greatly, if that makes sense. For example, a VG card can have a huge crease across the middle or it could be a beautiful card with just a speck of paper loss on the back. Therefore, the seller might price higher based upon perceived eye appeal for the card even if VCP for that card in that grade shows much lower average prices.

In addition, not everyone that buys on ebay are collectors. A lot of folks who buy on ebay are just buying cards as gifts. I've been on ebay selling for 6-7 years, mainly just prewar cards, and I've had around 1700 unique buyers. Many of the people who buy from me are collectors that I've heard of, but others just seem to be one-offs where they are buying cards for friends or family members. If they see a 100 year old card for $20, they may think that is a perfectly reasonable price for something that old, and not realize that others are selling that same card for $5.

Another possibility is that the seller is putting up a high price on ebay in hopes that you will contact him so that the purchase can occur off-ebay for a lower price and so that he can avoid the ebay fees that go along with it. Basically, fishing for an offer.

Finally, as mentioned, the card could just be in his personal collection where he is not planning on selling that card. However, he just slaps that huge price where "if somebody wants to offer me $X, then it's a no brainer that I got to sell it." That price may have no price in reality, but that's just the price the seller decided.