Buying Raw Cards on Ebay

[todeen]

Originally Posted by upstateNYmilb

I have a card in the mail from eBay seller t206cards-com, and they also have a website. They look to be a reputable seller, anyone do business with them before?

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They sell here on the forum. They currently have a massive sale of 100s of cards on the BST.

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[ullmandds]

I echo the sentiments of many on here. Personally I have changed the way I collect in the last 10 years and I buy a lot more raw cards usually <$3-400 than i desire for my binders. Most likely these cards will never get graded and I am not so concerned about their grade or whether they might have minor alterations. That comes into consideration when I decide my price.

Then I have my collection of Babe Ruth, Ty cobb, and other higher value cards. Most of these are graded... some are not due to inability of the third-party graders to offer the service. But I have been in the hobby for over 40 years and I feel I can judge authentic cards 98% of the time. Additionally Ebay will always favor the buyer and you can always return some thing in a reasonable amount of time.

Sometimes it might be worth it to have to overnight a card to a third-party greater to authenticate just to get back in the window of return on eBay you just never know?

On a slightly different note Ebay is a lot different now than it was 15 years ago as has been said. There is like 100 times more scammers on there now and the quality of material does not compare.

[Kutcher55]

I wouldn't buy any raw cards of real value (>$100) off EBay. But if you do, make sure you study the reputation and rating of the seller. As a general rule, do not buy from a new seller unless they make extremely accurate descriptions of the card you're interested in. Avoid any seller who provides a personal grade of a raw card that is higher than what you would grade the card upon inspection.

For any raw card of any value (and this probably goes for mid-grade slabs as well), write a note to the seller and ask if the card has creases or wrinkles. It's very easy to not show these in a photograph. Pay attention to the way the seller communicates to you in private mails as well as the way they describe the cards.

Good luck.