Overpriced cards on ebay -- Are they part of a tax scam?

[brianp-beme]

Originally Posted by calvindog

I just did a check on ebay; over the past 15 days yepbg has sold 6 of his highest priced 1000 cards for sale. That's actually a good 15 day period for him.

Remember, selling six cards at his price is like selling 12 to 18 cards at normal prices. Maybe this guy doesn't financially need to sell or is retired...to me it would be a perfect way to bring in some cash without working too hard at it (fewer trips to the post office, not to mention the assurance in knowing you got absolute top dollar for your cards).

Of course as a collector on a budget I hate this business model.

Brian

[bobbyw8469]

over the past 15 days yepbg has sold 6 of his highest priced 1000 cards for sale

It's a shame that collectors can't wait until his cards come up for auction from other sellers. That way they can pay around $200-$300 for the cards that they bought from him for $1,000+!! It is not like he has anything THAT rare!

[BlueDevil89]

It's a shame that collectors can't wait until his cards come up for auction from other sellers. That way they can pay around $200-$300 for the cards that they bought from him for $1,000+!! It is not like he has anything THAT rare!

He's not selling to collectors on this board. The buyers that take him up on his offers are either (A) collectors who have so much wealth that money is no object for cards priced under $10K or (B) those making a gift purchase for another who don't have the time to wait to maybe be the high bidder to win the item at auction. Either way, he's serving a specific segment of the market that is willing to pay more to have the item now.

I don't begrudge the seller. Perhaps he is a collector content to hold onto his cards until someone takes him up on his premium prices. If he has the financial resources to do so, then good for him. In fact, he is in some respects preferable to me to the true collector who purchases cards and then keeps them for decades without ever naming a price for which they can be purchased by others. If I want to buy the eBay seller's cards, at least I know what the price is, and I can take it or leave it. With the true collector, I don't even have the opportunity to buy his wares at any price.

Just another perspective...Happy New Year to All!

[Exhibitman]

Originally Posted by BlueDevil89

He's not selling to collectors on this board. The buyers that take him up on his offers are either (A) collectors who have so much wealth that money is no object for cards priced under $10K or (B) those making a gift purchase for another who don't have the time to wait to maybe be the high bidder to win the item at auction. Either way, he's serving a specific segment of the market that is willing to pay more to have the item now.

I don't begrudge the seller. Perhaps he is a collector content to hold onto his cards until someone takes him up on his premium prices. If he has the financial resources to do so, then good for him. In fact, he is in some respects preferable to me to the true collector who purchases cards and then keeps them for decades without ever naming a price for which they can be purchased by others. If I want to buy the eBay seller's cards, at least I know what the price is, and I can take it or leave it. With the true collector, I don't even have the opportunity to buy his wares at any price.

Just another perspective...Happy New Year to All!

Or maybe he's just a good card-carrying capitalist. Isn't making the most profit the highest goal of capitalism?

[egbeachley]

Originally Posted by brianp-beme

Remember, selling six cards at his price is like selling 12 to 18 cards at normal prices.

From a sales (revenue) perspective, yes. From a profit perspective, selling 6 is probably like selling 50 at normal prices.

[Runscott]

Well, when someone figures out how to sell vintage cards on ebay, whether it's offering 3X VCP-price BIN's, or something else, please let me know.

I've put BIN's up for 1/3 of what inferior examples sold by the guys you mention are being offered for. So I have no idea. I put five very nice T205's up on ebay a while back with 'make an offer' and BIN's about 2/3 of what the average dealer had....no offers - not even one.

And when I started my auctions at $9.99, I got my @ss handed to me.

So I'm throwing my hands up in the air as far as ebay is concerned. These guys are doing something right, but it must be completely behind the scenes.

[ScottFandango]

in the last few years, there have been less and less auctions on ebay...

could it be these big dealers are scooping up the auctions and then placing them on BIN at triple the price? it seems so...
there are only 2 E90 cards up for auction, 500 at BIN, many from the seller in question...maybe he is trying to corner the ebay market...he's close

i have sold some graded cards on ebay at auction that went HIGHER than some BINS that were available at the same time in same exact grade!!

there are so few auctions on ebay these days that people get really excited and sometimes pay more for a card they could have had via BIN...sounds strange but it happened to me last month!

[Runscott]

Originally Posted by ScottFandango

in the last few years, there have been less and less auctions on ebay...

could it be these big dealers are scooping up the auctions and then placing them on BIN at triple the price? it seems so...
there are only 2 E90 cards up for auction, 500 at BIN, many from the seller in question...maybe he is trying to corner the ebay market...hes close

i have sold some cards on ebay at auction that went HIGHER than some BINS that were available at the same time!!

auctions are so few on ebay these days that people get really excited and sometimes pay more for a card they could have has via BIN...sounds strange but it happened to me last month!

I think you have a point (your last paragraph) - auctions are still 'fun' for collectors. Whenever a big auction comes along, like the T206 set break Legendary did recently, I settle back with a bottle of wine and my 'plans', and just have a lot of fun - sometimes I buy a few cards I would not normally have bid on.

The same thing used to happen on ebay - I can remember several huge finds of various types that would get dropped on ebay, generally on a Sunday night, and would be talked about on the forum for several days. Most of these finds were dropped on us by dealers, as straight auctions, and the bidding could get crazy. What happened to that?

The current ebay BIN's are certainly crazy, but at least a few of the dealers accept reasonable offers. Some do not - I made an offer the other day that was very reasonable (30% over VCP avg), and I was surprisingly rejected. I'm guessing that there are enough idiots giving them their BIN asking price, that they don't want to have their name show up here as someone who is willing to negotiate.

BTW - I recently sold a very nice SGC40 T205 Cobb on ebay for $850...to a dealer. It will be sold on ebay for $1,100+, and I can guarantee that someone (possibly one of you) will buy it, thinking it's a deal. Mine was a straight auction. So what gives? I do think that some of you like the BIN's, even if they are high, and perhaps it is the security of buying from a known entity. I don't know - like I said, I've thrown my hands up in the air when it comes to ebay.

I much, much, much prefer selling a card a little low to one of my friends here, to selling to a dealer on ebay and paying the ebay tax on top of it all. Same goes for buying cards.

Ebay needs to go back to selling Pez dispensers.

[Exhibitman]

So much of it is timing, Scott, just catching the right buyer at the right time. That's why having long-term listings in stores can work: eventually someone has to have it and they bite. I've done that myself a couple of times when I've grown frustrated looking for the last card or two in a set and have held my nose and BINed what was there. Selling is all timing. I sold an SGC 50 card a couple of weeks ago for $144.72 on Ebay; I was pleasantly surprised by the result, so I posted an SGC 80 of the same card for sale this last week for $179.99 opening bid and it did not sell. Maybe because it went up on Christmas and closed on New Years Eve...

[Runscott]

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

So much of it is timing, Scott, just catching the right buyer at the right time. That's why having long-term listings in stores can work: eventually someone has to have it and they bite. I've done that myself a couple of times when I've grown frustrated looking for the last card or two in a set and have held my nose and BINed what was there. Selling is all timing. I sold an SGC 50 card a couple of weeks ago for $144.72 on Ebay; I was pleasantly surprised by the result, so I posted an SGC 80 of the same card for sale this last week for $179.99 opening bid and it did not sell. Maybe because it went up on Christmas and closed on New Years Eve...

I have not considered ebay stores, but I'll take a look.

Meanwhile, while I will not leave my studio apt (I own it and am tremendously upside-down), I HAVE moved a woman into it, so I should get partial credit for heeding your wise advice.

[Runscott]

Okay, I've looked. It all makes sense.

Ebay is looking for a steady, predictable revenue flow (monthly contracts) and everything else is gravy (but they also love gravy). With this in mind, they make it as pleasant as possible for people to pay them monthly fees....like $15,95, $49.95, or $299.95 to have an ebay store. The $299.95 fee makes it super-appealing for sellers to list thousands of overpriced items, even if they rarely sell much of anything. Notice also that most of the over-priced store items do NOT have the 'make an offer' button. There's a good reason for this.

Example: let's say you have a caramel card with a value of $1,000 listed at $2,000. Someone wants it, so they contact you and ask if you'd take $1,300. You say, "Yes, but only if you buy it through my non-ebay website". They go to your website, send you $1,300, no ebay fees are incurred, and you just made enough to completely cover your store fees for the entire month. Your insertion fee was 3 cents and even if you sold the item through ebay, your end-value fees were the same as for any other sale.