Tell me why I shouldn't start the screwbay revolution

[Bambino]

Originally, ebay lived up to the saying "one man's garbage is another man's treasure." You had a lot more people who were just trying to move items and make some money because as it turned out, they couldn't buy diapers or food with Ken Griffey Jr. cards.

Nowadays, it seems people aren't willing to settle for "some money". They want book value or more and will not settle for less. So they set super-high reserve prices or they end auctions early if the bids are too low. Just set a "buy it now" for what you want in return and stop wasting everyone's time pretending this is an auction. If you put up a Mickey Mantle rookie card in mint condition and start the bidding at 1 cent with no reserve - you need to be willing and able to sell that card for 1 cent.

And so it doesn't sound like I'm placing all the blame on the sellers...buyers need to do some more research before you bid on an item. I've seen cases where they'll bid a certain amount on one card, see it for cheaper somewhere else, and then cancel their bid or refuse to pay. It's not the seller's fault that you didn't do some price comparisons before bidding.

That being said...

Leon - I'm not a internet wiz, so I'm not sure if this is even possible - but if you could find a way to allow actual paypal/credit card transactions on this message board - I think you've found the best of both worlds.

In other words, if I start a thread to sell a Hank Aaron rookie card, it would be amazing for people to be able to bid on, make offers for and even pay for an item within that very thread. In another scenario, someone mentions that they would love to buy a Sandy Koufax 1956 Topps card - how awesome would it be if I could reply to that post with a scan of that very Koufax card and give them the ability to click on a buy button within my post to purchase it?

[Leon]

Originally Posted by Bambino

Originally, ebay lived up to the saying "one man's garbage is another man's treasure." You had a lot more people who were just trying to move items and make some money because as it turned out, they couldn't buy diapers or food with Ken Griffey Jr. cards.

Nowadays, it seems people aren't willing to settle for "some money". They want book value or more and will not settle for less. So they set super-high reserve prices or they end auctions early if the bids are too low. Just set a "buy it now" for what you want in return and stop wasting everyone's time pretending this is an auction. If you put up a Mickey Mantle rookie card in mint condition and start the bidding at 1 cent with no reserve - you need to be willing and able to sell that card for 1 cent.

And so it doesn't sound like I'm placing all the blame on the sellers...buyers need to do some more research before you bid on an item. I've seen cases where they'll bid a certain amount on one card, see it for cheaper somewhere else, and then cancel their bid or refuse to pay. It's not the seller's fault that you didn't do some price comparisons before bidding.

That being said...

Leon - I'm not a internet wiz, so I'm not sure if this is even possible - but if you could find a way to allow actual paypal/credit card transactions on this message board - I think you've found the best of both worlds.

In other words, if I start a thread to sell a Hank Aaron rookie card, it would be amazing for people to be able to bid on, make offers for and even pay for an item within that very thread. In another scenario, someone mentions that they would love to buy a Sandy Koufax 1956 Topps card - how awesome would it be if I could reply to that post with a scan of that very Koufax card and give them the ability to click on a buy button within my post to purchase it?

ok....so here is a possible solution....list a card on GSB....put a link on the BST in the auction section to it......then someone can click on it and buy it and pay with anything they want to, including paypal, right there.....and the seller gets a ton of other value-adds for the 2% or less it will cost. I don't think there will ever be paypal and those other things on our BST...though obviously you can use paypal to pay for cards bought from the BST, you just have to click over to it....

To be fair, I would be careful about posting auctions on GSB right now, unless you start at a price you can live with. I would rather something NOT sell there than the seller be disappointed with the realized price. Hopefully that will change with the monumental changes that will come in the future....the future being about 3 mos to 6 mos away.....

[brianp-beme]

Changes beginning in 3-6 months...screwGSB that! Just kidding. I think I am a perfect candidate to get this thing rolling, at least on the lower end...I have a decent variety of vintage and I will not get upset if it sells for its reasonable minimum. Let the revolution begin NOW (or when I have time to make it happen).

Brian

[jcmtiger]

Even though we all have different problems with EBAY, it has many many more buyers when selling items.

Joe

[Leon]

Originally Posted by brianp-beme

Changes beginning in 3-6 months...screwGSB that! Just kidding. I think I am a perfect candidate to get this thing rolling, at least on the lower end...I have a decent variety of vintage and I will not get upset if it sells for its reasonable minimum. Let the revolution begin NOW (or when I have time to make it happen).

Brian

Brian- I can't do it for every item or for everyone, but if you put an auction item up there on GSB.....I will make it the next contest for guessing the price.....that will attract a few eyes.

[timber63401]

It aint much but Ill register and I have a low end T-206 coming that Ill put on there for .01 and see what happens.

[GoldenAge50s]

As a member who was selected to help jump-start GSB at the very beginning w/ some listings, mostly auctions, I had GREAT results & sold 12 items---everything from T206's, a '50's yearbook and an Old Judge periodical collection.

There was nice initial traffic for the kick-off & if not for a planned hiatus from selling at the time, I still planned on returning to GSB w/ some auctions.

The main thing that held me back (and has been discussed w/ Leon) was seeing a series of T206's go for much less than Ebay would have brought because site traffic fell considerably after nothing but Fixed Price listings dominated GSB (and still do).

I think GSB WILL definitely work if a certain amt of regular traffic & decent priced auctions can be created & promoted.

I'm aboard to help make it go!

[atx840]

I for one like the idea but have one recommendation.

I bought a card on GSB that I REALLY needed and a few days later got a note saying it had already sold on the bay/sellers site. If cards could be limited to GSB or if they are on the bay somehow reference the listing on the backend to keep the site up-to-date.

That is all.