B/S/T seems slow

[Snapolit1]

Originally Posted by mechanicalman

I agree with Orlando's sentiment and wish that more higher value cards were at least initially offered for sale through BST before being consigned. I calculated that about only 5% of my purchases were through the BST since I joined, though 90% of my sales went through BST. I simply don't understand why others wouldn't first try to sell direct vs. letting an auction company take a 15-30% margin on a sale just for the benefit of writing a flowery description and shipping the card for you.

Honestly, I think there are situations where you can get a lot more $ on eBay for a particular card than you can get here. Sometimes an educated consumer is not your best customer.

(An if it's something's really nice, you can in most cases get an AH to waive their fees, or sell with an outfit like Brockelman which doesn't charge a fee to sellers.)

[sterlingfox]

I agree that even with ebay and Paypal fees, you can do better on ebay in most cases (especially on a buy-it-now auction).

For anything truly one of a kind or close to it, a major AH is your best bet.

[mechanicalman]

Originally Posted by Snapolit1

Honestly, I think there are situations where you can get a lot more $ on eBay for a particular card than you can get here. Sometimes an educated consumer is not your best customer.

(An if it's something's really nice, you can in most cases get an AH to waive their fees, or sell with an outfit like Brockelman which doesn't charge a fee to sellers.)

Yes, AH's might waive their seller's fees, but they will not waive their buyer's fees, so whatever you call it, there is still a margin that separates a seller and a buyer. (Seems like we go over this a lot.) I'm just questioning why selling cards this way seems to be the modus operandi, especially with fairly basic issues like Cobbs, Ruths, Gehrigs, etc. that tend to come up often.

That said, I do agree that sometimes dumb buyers will bid certain cards up beyond the general "market price" than an educated buyer's base would pay, (see: Battlefield), and I do agree that really rare stuff and especially memorabilia is perhaps better off with some marketing support.