eBay 2022 - Less auctions, more high buy it nows

[BobbyStrawberry]

Originally Posted by Snapolit1

Why is the eBay verification program discouraging casual sellers? I’m just not making the connection. I’m a casual seller. What’s the difference for if I send it to Joe Blow at PSA or Dick Jones in Topeka. I just print out a label and send it to whoever is on the label. People may not like the program for a number of reasons, but why would it bother me as a seller. Maybe I’m missing something obvious.

For me, as a seller, sending it out to a 3rd party just increases the chances that it will be lost or damaged.

[Gorditadogg]

Originally Posted by BobbyStrawberry

For me, as a seller, sending it out to a 3rd party just increases the chances that it will be lost or damaged.

Not true. As a seller, you have the same risk you did before of UPS/USPS/FedEx losing or damaging your package. Before you sent it to the buyer, now you send it to either PSA or CSG.

If they can't deliver to your customer it's on them not you.

Sent from my SM-S906U using Tapatalk

[BobbyStrawberry]

Originally Posted by Gorditadogg

Not true. As a seller, you have the same risk you did before of UPS/USPS/FedEx losing or damaging your package. Before you sent it to the buyer, now you send it to either PSA or CSG.

If they can't deliver to your customer it's on them not you.

Sent from my SM-S906U using Tapatalk

Al, I'm not sure what you mean by "if they can't deliver...? if the TPG does a shit job of packing (which I have seen claimed) and the card/slab gets damaged, who is on the hook?

[Spike]

I think eBay's modern card "experience" follows from business changes eBay had to make to continue growing their business in other non-collecting areas. Even with our sports collecting market jumps during COVID, we're nowhere near the traffic and value of people make a living off drop-ship retail consumer goods, to pick one example.

As eBay morphs from a low-rent 2000s flea market into a glossier 2020s shopping mall, you see some of the same results: higher fixed selling prices for customers with more spending power. Sellers can offer occasional discounts if they need money today and otherwise list things for what-if amounts to see if the market catches up.

[Kutcher55]

Still the best place to buy and sell sports cards, all in all.

That said, when they transfer the costs of their authentication services to the seller, I just don’t see how that won’t hurt them. The seller will transfer costs to the buyer. There’s already a 14% vig. I can’t see how this works for $300 cards although maybe it won’t be as impactful for >$1k cards since the fixed cost of authentication will be a lower % of the sell price.

Overall as a seller the new service is great. But I’m not sure I’ll feel the same way when they start pricing it out. And the display stands they are now including seem like a waste of resources.

[MVSNYC]

Drew- Less auctions, and more (high priced) BIN's have been a "thing" for years now...nothing new. I find it rather annoying. Just let the auctions fly! The bidders will determine true market values.

[raulus]

Originally Posted by MVSNYC

Drew- Less auctions, and more (high priced) BIN's have been a "thing" for years now...nothing new. I find it rather annoying. Just let the auctions fly! The bidders will determine true market values.

I certainly have felt the same way in the past. As an amateur economist, I definitely found a strong attraction to having the market price be determined by bidders in an open auction format.

I think one of the factors that changed my opinion was the steep rise in auction final prices, and my consistent losing streak because some bidders were willing to bid up items to ludicrous levels. It got to be that auctions were no longer my fave anymore. On the flip side, with a BIN, if I really wanted an item, and the price was a price that I was willing to pay, then I could skip the drama of an auction, and skip the letdown of getting my hopes up just to lose in the end or having to exceed my original price point, and instead I can just buy it, with it landing in my mailbox within a few days.

The market is still determining the value. It’s just a market of one now, rather than the entire hobby having a crack at bidding it up.

Would I trade the current environment for the good old days of 2019? All day every day! But since the good old days don’t seem to be coming back anytime soon, I suppose it’s my way of making peace with it, while continuing to collect pieces that bring me joy.

[rats60]

Originally Posted by MVSNYC

Drew- Less auctions, and more (high priced) BIN's have been a "thing" for years now...nothing new. I find it rather annoying. Just let the auctions fly! The bidders will determine true market values.

If the seller wants true market value, he needs to send it to an auction house. EBay is the worst place to determine value. Bidders wait until the last second and snipe. The only way to determine value is to give all bidders a fair chance to top the current high bid. I can't remember the last time I auctioned a card, but it was 10+ years ago.

[Fballguy]

Originally Posted by MVSNYC

Drew- Less auctions, and more (high priced) BIN's have been a "thing" for years now...nothing new. I find it rather annoying. Just let the auctions fly! The bidders will determine true market values.

Not in what I collect. There was a time, several years back, in which ebay was trending towards more of an Amazon model and auctions really dried up in favor of BIN. Over the past couple of years however, the auction format has made a major comeback.