PWCC - Sorry, Yet Again

[Snowman]

Originally Posted by Aquarian Sports Cards

If you mean me, while we aren't a major player, we're not looking for $10 cards. We take them as a courtesy to consignors who provide us with better items as well, but we start them at $1. We have less than 1% no sales, and typically move the few we have into a future auction for the original consignor. If someone wants them back we send them back, our dime.

I like this approach better than PWCC's. Definitely more personable and better customer service. But I also think you guys are likely dealing with a more sophisticated consignor base. I could see a situation where it becomes problematic though if it gets to the point where your user base expands and you get people taking advantage of this courtesy by just sending you all of their junk cards and having you do all the work required to list/sell them. There is surely a dollar figure below which consigning a card cannot be done at a profit for the auction houses, and I'd wager good money that this amount is likely much higher than $10. But, as you say, it's a courtesy to take those low-value cards, and I assume one that is offered strategically so as not to lose a customer to a competing auction house who accepts both their junk and their Ty Cobbs.

I think if I were starting an auction house, I would probably take this approach as well. Just be overly generous with your resources and time and offer the best customer service possible. However, I also realize that at scale, there likely would come a point where a company often outgrows this personal relationship with most of their clients and where preventing consigners from taking advantage of your generosity (whether knowingly or not) becomes something that's necessary to guard against.

[Snowman]

I think it's a shitty thing to do to your consignors if it's just some random line item that nobody reads hidden away in your TOS. But if it's made extremely clear upfront that this is how they handle low-value items, and if there is some sort of an escape clause offered for $100+ cards that somehow snuck through the cracks, then I think it's a perfectly reasonable way to handle things. But the communication aspect of it should be made very clear to the person consigning. I don't know how well they market this information though? I know I was aware of it ever since I looked into consigning with them over a year ago (which I ultimately never did), but I don't recall how I came upon that information. I'm sure I read more than the average person consigning cards does, so it may have been the result of me information hunting moreso than it was a result of them over-communicating. I can't remember.

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

Originally Posted by Snowman

I could see a situation where it becomes problematic though if it gets to the point where your user base expands and you get people taking advantage of this courtesy by just sending you all of their junk cards and having you do all the work required to list/sell them.

Well we do tell people, "No, thank you, we're not interested" on a regular basis. We don't have people just mailing us cards unannounced and expecting us to sell them.

We definitely do NOT make any money on $10 cards. Realistically somewhere around $50 is where profit starts.