Buy it Nows....still popular?

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Posted By: Chuck R

When eBay started using Buy it Now a few years back, it actually made my life a lot more stressful. Whereas before I could search items every 2-3 days, I now had the feeling (and still do to some extent) that if I didn't scan 3-4 times a day I'd miss the gold mine Buy it Now. I actually did hit one gold mine a couple years ago. On a Sunday afternoon, I picked up a complete 48 card 30's nonsports set for $25 (probably worth close to $800). I ended up buying some more great old, nice condition cards offline from the seller. I ended up giving the person some extra cash so I could sleep at night.

Anyway, that's only happened once in the years since eBay started Buy it Nows. I rarely see any Buy it Nows that I am tempted to bid on. Are there few of them out there? Are there still tons of them but I'm missing them all (yes, the old paranoia remains)? Has anyone else been affected by this incessant need to search since BINs came out? Better end this...must search.

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Posted By: Nathan

I think there's less BINs now since EBAY changed it to a tiered pricing.

As one who sells occassionly, I do notice myself skipping the BIN step more often.

Before it was 5 cents flat fee. Now it is:

US$0.01 - US$9.99 US$0.05
US$10.00 - US$24.99 US$0.10
US$25.00 - US$49.99 US$0.20
US$50.00 or more US$0.25

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Posted By: Brian McQueen

I never especially cared for BINS, especially after I started selling cards on the forum. If I was looking for a set price, I'd just throw the card in BST.

On Ebay, BINS are so easily "sprung" they're not even worth placing on the auction without a large reserve. A single bid wipes out your BIN which makes it totally pointless in most cases. So in order to protect your BIN, you have to stick a large reserve on your card. I don't know what it is about using reserves, but I'm less motivated to bid on cards that have these. I don't know why. But I've had several collectors agree with me that they are somewhat of a deterent.

So, knowing I may be scaring away buyers that are considering bidding on my item by placing a reserve on the card, I usually just do away with both the BIN and the reserve and let the Ebay community decide how much my card is worth. My cards tend to go cheap for some reason so I think the lesson I've learned here is use the BST pages whenever possible. The BST pages vs. Ebay is an entirely different thread topic altogether, so I think I'll just stop there.

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Posted By: joe brennan

I search them everyday. I have noticed a seller that has been listing some everyday and my self and another board member have pick up a few of his lots. Good fillers at a fair price and of course the lots save on individual shipping so, I still keep looking. Out

Edited to add this. I bought the lots @ $8 a card. Someone put a bid on a 5 card lot before I saw it. BIN was $40 and the auction ended at $102. Go figure

"I had the right to remain silent. I just didn't have the ability" Ron White

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Posted By: T206Collector

No doubt?

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Posted By: joe brennan

And what was your opinion of the cards?

"I had the right to remain silent. I just didn't have the ability" Ron White

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Posted By: T206Collector

...the seller had me scared for a bit because he was purchasing reprints from Lindascards, as well as authentic cards from reputable sellers. So my first lot of 38 I was worried would come back half fake. But they were all original. And he had mis-listed 5 of the cards as minor leaguers, when in fact they were southern leaguers. By and large, nothing would grade over a 2, but there was one card out of 38 that might grade a 4.

I just won another group of his cards today. I wish he would just sel his whole collection to me for $8.00/card. It'd be a swell deal.

But it was all risky, I should note, because none of the cards had scans.

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Posted By: joe brennan

I thought it was risky too W/O the scans. I also won another lot today, lol. Of the 9 cards I won, 2 should grade 4. with 5 in the 2 range.

"I had the right to remain silent. I just didn't have the ability" Ron White

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Posted By: T206Collector

...because I think more often then not I am able to get more for my cards when I start them at $.99 with no BIN ceiling. But sometimes I'll put a dream price on cards that I have a high reserve on, just to see. Once in awhile, I get lucky. About two months ago, I sold 10 T206 cards graded PSA 4-6, some HOF, some not. I estimated, on a good day, that I'd get $1700 for the lot, if sold individually. So, before I listed the cards individually, I put them all up in a lot of 10 with a BIN of $2,000 in a 24 hour auction, with a minimum bid of $1899. Well, sure enough, I got a $2,000 bid within a few hours. Best sale I ever made -- and the reason I may stay a Power Seller for at least a few more weeks!

As a bidder, I love BIN, and keep my eyes open pretty often. But you have to get lucky, because if something is a really good deal, it'll be gone before you ever knew it existed.