Small Traditions LLC/SCANDAL UPDATE

[buymycards]

In the past few years, I have sent two lots to PWCC. I would say that roughly 1/3 of the items sold for well above my expectations, 1/3 sold at for what I expected, and 1/3 sold for under what I felt I could have sold them for myself. I think that PWCC's perceived sold prices are specific to certain items, and the high prices don't carry through on all items. The same applies to PSA cards. Some prices are higher, especially on modern cards, but for lower end vintage, SGC seems to prevail.

The advantage is that PWCC's consignment rates were under what I would have paid eBay and PayPal if I had listed them myself, plus, I didn't have to scan, list, or ship.

I am not going to consign to PWCC again because of the integrity problems that they seem to be having. It has been 20 years since I submitted to PSA, but I do send small orders to SGC once or twice a year. I have 8 PSA cards in my collection and I am thinking about breaking them out of the PSA slabs and either keeping them raw or sending them to SGC.

I would mostly agree with Jay Cee's list, although some of the companies on the list are having their own problems with passing along trimmed cards, or they have problems with shipping charges, etc.

I would also add Birmingham Auctions to the list of good guys.

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

LOL, thanks Rick.

[Stampsfan]

Originally Posted by buymycards

In the past few years, I have sent two lots to PWCC. I would say that roughly 1/3 of the items sold for well above my expectations, 1/3 sold at for what I expected, and 1/3 sold for under what I felt I could have sold them for myself. I think that PWCC's perceived sold prices are specific to certain items, and the high prices don't carry through on all items...

This makes sense. I know in the past when I bid or buy, I have to check the shipping. Regardless of this controversy, PWCC (and Probstein, and sometimes COMC) have outrageous shipping charges.
For a high end item I will pay $50-$100 to ship. For a $25 item, I'm not even bidding when shipping is $25-$35. This may be one reason some cards may get the eyeballs, but not the bids.

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

and it replaces the "no buyer's premium" as a revenue stream.

[Peter_Spaeth]

According to a post today on Blowout, the Small Traditions website is permanently gone.

Anyone who didn't follow all the outed cards on Blowout, here's a link. Some stunners here.

https://www.blowoutforums.com/showthread.php?t=1345291

[Snowman]

I wonder if he's actually in legal trouble or if he simply failed to succeed in running his own auction site. I'm guessing it's the latter since his eBay store is still fairly active with recent sales.

[samosa4u]

I don't think he took his website down because of what BODA did. He can make more money selling his cards through other auction sites.

[Yoda]

I feel pretty confident that when PWCC launches its' new platform, we will see an avalanche of PSA graded cards on offer and undoubtedly some will have been messed with. But if you offer them, they will come.
As big as Ebay is, I am sure they miss the revenue PWCC provided, and it obvious that vintage, maybe outside of Probstein, has dried up on Ebay. The simplest solution, of course, is to stop buying any PSA graded cards and move to SGC or Beckett. That is wishful thinking.

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by samosa4u

I don't think he took his website down because of what BODA did. He can make more money selling his cards through other auction sites.

Funny how he ran his site and his own auctions for many years and didn't discover that. I think you're totally wrong here my friend.

[Lorewalker]

Originally Posted by samosa4u

I don't think he took his website down because of what BODA did. He can make more money selling his cards through other auction sites.

Well he absolutely stopped running auctions specifically because of being outed by BODA. I am not IT dude but the server error that displays I think suggests it was more than an expired domain but that the data from the site has been wiped out.