Deans Cards - something I never knew...

[brightair]

I have been getting some low grade commons from Deans Cards lately for a project I am working on, and an interesting situation arose. It taught me something new, but maybe many of you already knew this. I really want to know what others think of this since it strikes me as, well, at least, odd, but maybe it happens everywhere and I just never noticed.

Please forgive me if I am repeating an old topic, but I searched files back 2 years and couldn't find a similar thread.

Here's what happened: I've been putting cards in my cart and when I reach $100 I pay and get a reduced shipping rate. On my way to my next $100 lot, something happened which you can follow from the verbatim email exchanges below...

On Thu, Jan 29, 2015 at 10:42 PM, richard dingman wrote:

Hi,
Starting tonight I had in my cart 35 cards totaling $33.05.
I added one card for $0.85 to my cart and now my totals read 36 cards for over $7.6 million!
That's a little beyond my budget and my wife will kill me.
Can you please correct this??
Best,
Richard D
brightair

From: orders@deanscards.com
Date: Fri, 30 Jan 2015 08:28:45 -0500
Subject: Re: error, please fix
To: brightair@msn.com
Hi Richard!

So sorry for the error. I have fixed the problem card in your cart, so you should be able to place your order. So sorry for the inconvenience.

Thanks,

Jennifer Mills
Customer Service
DeansCards.com
513-898-0651

On Fri, Jan 30, 2015 at 9:40 AM, richard dingman wrote:

Thanks Jennifer.
One thing, I thought I had 35 items for 33.05 and then I bought one card for 0.85, now I have 36 items for 34.80.
Something is wrong, did I make a mistake or did you?
Best,
Richard D

From: orders@deanscards.com
Date: Fri, 30 Jan 2015 11:06:51 -0500
Subject: Re: error, please fix
To: brightair@msn.com

Richard,

One of the cards in your cart may have increased in price. When we have a high quantity of cards in stock the price goes down, but as the quantity goes down the price does increase. Hope this answers your question.

Thanks,

Jennifer Mills
Customer Service
DeansCards.com
513-898-0651


On Fri, Jan 30, 2015 at 1:23 PM, richard dingman wrote:

You mean that I can buy a card at a certain price and then after I buy it the price can go up??
That sounds weird.
If that's the case, please tell me which card went up and what the original price was and what the new price is and I will decide if I want to pay the new price.
I am not necessarily going to agree to pay any price you decide to raise it to without checking it out first.
Thanks much and look forward to this information.
Richard

From: orders@deanscards.com
Date: Fri, 30 Jan 2015 14:38:08 -0500
Subject: Re: error, please fix
To: brightair@msn.com
Hi Richard,

Yes. Our prices are based on our inventory. The more quantity of a card that we have the deeper the discount that you will receive. This is to ensure that our customers get the best price possible. As you noticed earlier today we had some pricing issues. We have a software on our website that goes through our million card inventory and reprices all of our cards. It changes the prices of thousands of cards at a time. Because the cards are in your cart and you have not placed an order, those cards were still in stock and subject to change. I do not know specifically which card in your cart changed. Sorry for any inconvenience, if you have any more questions please let me know.

On Fri, Jan 30, 2015 at 8:15 PM, richard dingman wrote:

Jennifer,
Wonderful.
This is a surprise to me and I imagine might be to many Deans Cards customers, but I don't yet know.
To find out, I am going to start a thread on net54 detailing our conversation and see how many people know that you will change the price on cards that people have already put in their cart so that customers will end up paying more for cards than they intended to, and without their knowledge that it is happening, or for what cards it is happening.
To be fair, I will copy exactly our conversation thread so that people can see for themselves. Since their are literally thousands of card collectors who use net54, I am sure I will find out how many people already knew this (maybe I am the last to know), and also, all those who didn't know will then be advised.
Since I also belong to several online card trading groups (OBC, VCT, Dugout, etc) I will share the same info with them and get their feedback. They all buy a lot online so I'm sure they will want to know.
This way I will help you get the word out about Deans Cards. You can follow the thread yourself to see how it goes.
Thanks again for your help.
Richard Dingman

[D. Bergin]

I imagine if you are putting cards in your cart and not actually paying for them until you are ready, prices can tend to fluctuate over time.

[tiger8mush]

Originally Posted by D. Bergin

I imagine if you are putting cards in your cart and not actually paying for them until you are ready, prices can tend to fluctuate over time.

Agreed, I'd think it works like amazon.com. I put items in my cart, but I go back a week later and look at my cart and the price may have gone up or down. If you want to pay the current price, pay for it now.

But then again, I've never done Ebay cart. I've only done BIN and auction. Good luck!
Rob

[freakhappy]

Originally Posted by tiger8mush

Agreed, I'd think it works like amazon.com. I put items in my cart, but I go back a week later and look at my cart and the price may have gone up or down. If you want to pay the current price, pay for it now.

But then again, I've never done Ebay cart. I've only done BIN and auction. Good luck!
Rob

Amazon kills me when they do that! I'll literally put an item in my cart, shop for a few minutes and go back and wham! the price jumped. You gotta get it while it's low and not mess around

[kailes2872]

You gotta get it while it's low and not mess around

I don't begrudge anone who has a million cards, can hire multiple folks to process orders and deal baseball cards for a living...

However, the quote above in regards to Dean's Cards, is the absolute peak of irony.

Kevin Ailes

[autograf]

I exclude them from any post war searches I do........

[bigfish]

Go up in value? Richard, I would shop somewhere else. Go patriots.

[D.P.Johnson]

I've always wondered who bought cards from Dean and now I have my answer...J/K...

[swarmee]

Originally Posted by freakhappy

Amazon kills me when they do that! I'll literally put an item in my cart, shop for a few minutes and go back and wham! the price jumped.

On the Amazon side, you have a lot of flippers on COMC.com (which is the subcontractor to Amazon for baseball cards) who will buy newly listed cards or cards that are discounted on COMC's site and then reprice them. I have had cards I listed at 2.50 get bought and be re-listed for $20, just so that guy can run a 75% off sale to try to get $5 for it. However, none of the sales show up on Amazon. So if you're buying a lot of cards from Amazon, you should really sign up for an account on comc.com instead. Then you wouldn't have to pay shipping on every order. You could just wait until you have all the cards you want for a set/order over weeks or months and then take delivery. Plus you get to take advantage of the sales (invisible on Amazon) and even get to make offers on cards.

[Mikehealer]

I don't know how that guy could ever raise his prices on cards without wearing a ski mask.

[4815162342]

Originally Posted by Mikehealer

I don't know how that guy could ever raise his prices on cards without wearing a ski mask.

This cart-shilling must end!

[brewing]

I'm still in shock someone bought cards from Deans overpriced cards.

[Brian Van Horn]

So, the shopping cart can have stock market fluctuations?!

[frankbmd]

I wonder how often the price of cards in the cart goes down.

[David W]

They used to have Dean's Cards in all their listings, they no longer do, as too many people were searching and excluding Dean's Cards in the search. Now they all have a number like D2342 or something.

It is hard to believe they sell anything.

[mrvster]

his new listings earlier today.....he has a huge over size 206 and 2 diamond cut 206 with the exact cut and half name at top.....those 2 diamond cut t206 are definitely sheet mates.....neat little pieces....

but agree, who would pay those ridic prices???????

[D.P.Johnson]

Some people like to pay a little extra for the security of buying from a reputable dealer...I'm not one of those people......

[Leon]

Originally Posted by brightair

I have been getting some low grade commons from Deans Cards lately for a project I am working on, and an interesting situation arose. It taught me something new, but maybe many of you already knew this. I really want to know what others think of this since it strikes me as, well, at least, odd, but maybe it happens everywhere and I just never noticed.

Please forgive me if I am repeating an old topic, but I searched files back 2 years and couldn't find a similar thread.

Here's what happened: I've been putting cards in my cart and when I reach $100 I pay and get a reduced shipping rate. On my way to my next $100 lot, something happened which you can follow from the verbatim email exchanges below...

On Thu, Jan 29, 2015 at 10:42 PM, richard dingman wrote:

Hi,
Starting tonight I had in my cart 35 cards totaling $33.05.
I added one card for $0.85 to my cart and now my totals read 36 cards for over $7.6 million!
That's a little beyond my budget and my wife will kill me.
Can you please correct this??
Best,
Richard D
brightair

From: orders@deanscards.com
Date: Fri, 30 Jan 2015 08:28:45 -0500
Subject: Re: error, please fix
To: brightair@msn.com
Hi Richard!

So sorry for the error. I have fixed the problem card in your cart, so you should be able to place your order. So sorry for the inconvenience.

Thanks,

Jennifer Mills
Customer Service
DeansCards.com
513-898-0651

On Fri, Jan 30, 2015 at 9:40 AM, richard dingman wrote:

Thanks Jennifer.
One thing, I thought I had 35 items for 33.05 and then I bought one card for 0.85, now I have 36 items for 34.80.
Something is wrong, did I make a mistake or did you?
Best,
Richard D

From: orders@deanscards.com
Date: Fri, 30 Jan 2015 11:06:51 -0500
Subject: Re: error, please fix
To: brightair@msn.com

Richard,

One of the cards in your cart may have increased in price. When we have a high quantity of cards in stock the price goes down, but as the quantity goes down the price does increase. Hope this answers your question.

Thanks,

Jennifer Mills
Customer Service
DeansCards.com
513-898-0651


On Fri, Jan 30, 2015 at 1:23 PM, richard dingman wrote:

You mean that I can buy a card at a certain price and then after I buy it the price can go up??
That sounds weird.
If that's the case, please tell me which card went up and what the original price was and what the new price is and I will decide if I want to pay the new price.
I am not necessarily going to agree to pay any price you decide to raise it to without checking it out first.
Thanks much and look forward to this information.
Richard

From: orders@deanscards.com
Date: Fri, 30 Jan 2015 14:38:08 -0500
Subject: Re: error, please fix
To: brightair@msn.com
Hi Richard,

Yes. Our prices are based on our inventory. The more quantity of a card that we have the deeper the discount that you will receive. This is to ensure that our customers get the best price possible. As you noticed earlier today we had some pricing issues. We have a software on our website that goes through our million card inventory and reprices all of our cards. It changes the prices of thousands of cards at a time. Because the cards are in your cart and you have not placed an order, those cards were still in stock and subject to change. I do not know specifically which card in your cart changed. Sorry for any inconvenience, if you have any more questions please let me know.

On Fri, Jan 30, 2015 at 8:15 PM, richard dingman wrote:

Jennifer,
Wonderful.
This is a surprise to me and I imagine might be to many Deans Cards customers, but I don't yet know.
To find out, I am going to start a thread on net54 detailing our conversation and see how many people know that you will change the price on cards that people have already put in their cart so that customers will end up paying more for cards than they intended to, and without their knowledge that it is happening, or for what cards it is happening.
To be fair, I will copy exactly our conversation thread so that people can see for themselves. Since their are literally thousands of card collectors who use net54, I am sure I will find out how many people already knew this (maybe I am the last to know), and also, all those who didn't know will then be advised.
Since I also belong to several online card trading groups (OBC, VCT, Dugout, etc) I will share the same info with them and get their feedback. They all buy a lot online so I'm sure they will want to know.
This way I will help you get the word out about Deans Cards. You can follow the thread yourself to see how it goes.
Thanks again for your help.
Richard Dingman

It seems a cart's cards can change prices before they are purchased. This is my take away from this thread....and Deans cards are way overpriced in general.

[D.P.Johnson]

Originally Posted by Leon

It seems a cart's cards can change prices before they are purchased. This is my take away from this thread....and Deans cards are way overpriced in general.

BINGO!!!....And, while I feel it's good information to make people aware this can happen, to spend a bunch of time bitching and complaining over a few extra cents is a little over the top...IMHO, of course......

[AustinMike]

In essence, I agree with the gist of most replies. My one caveat would be the timing of the increase. I do not think the price should increase for an item in a cart until you leave the site. Once you end your session (leave the site, walk out the door, etc.), the owner has the option of changing the price. In this case, the OP hasn't indicated the timing (EvilKing00 did ask about the timing and no response thus far). My impression from the OP is that he puts items in his cart, leaves the site, comes back and adds more items, etc. until he's up to $100. If that's the case, then yeah, Dean's Cards can increase their already exorbitant prices.

But since you're already paying many dollars more than you should be, why complain about a few pennies?

[1952boyntoncollector]

Originally Posted by AustinMike

In essence, I agree with the gist of most replies. My one caveat would be the timing of the increase. I do not think the price should increase for an item in a cart until you leave the site. Once you end your session (leave the site, walk out the door, etc.), the owner has the option of changing the price. In this case, the OP hasn't indicated the timing (EvilKing00 did ask about the timing and no response thus far). My impression from the OP is that he puts items in his cart, leaves the site, comes back and adds more items, etc. until he's up to $100. If that's the case, then yeah, Dean's Cards can increase their already exorbitant prices.

But since you're already paying many dollars more than you should be, why complain about a few pennies?

Pennys add up when buying 1000s of cards for sets....plus if an increase of 8 cents doesn't matter then why don't auctions go on for infinity with people keep adding 8 cents to enternity since its only a few pennies..

[brightair]

OK, I am the original poster.
Unfortunately I apparently didn't identify the issue that concerned me well enough because the thread seems to have gone off the tracks.
I know well enough that DC prices are high, but I have other reasons to buy from them that are not relevant here.
I also know that cards in the cart are not yet bought, and that also is not my issue.
I also am aware that we are talking small change here, so that also is not my point.
The cards were sitting in the cart for perhaps a week or so, with me adding every day to them.
My point is that prices were raised on items I can neither identify nor tell how much the raise was, AND I never would have been made aware of this fact had I not accidentally noticed that my total cart cost had jumped up beyond what I had agreed to pay. That is what I object to and what I was hoping to get some other opinions about to see if anyone else felt that such a practice was unethical.
If anyone cares to comment on this, I'd be interested to hear opinions.
Richard

[Section103]

Originally Posted by brightair

OK, I am the original poster.
Unfortunately I apparently didn't identify the issue that concerned me well enough because the thread seems to have gone off the tracks.
I know well enough that DC prices are high, but I have other reasons to buy from them that are not relevant here.
I also know that cards in the cart are not yet bought, and that also is not my issue.
I also am aware that we are talking small change here, so that also is not my point.
The cards were sitting in the cart for perhaps a week or so, with me adding every day to them.
My point is that prices were raised on items I can neither identify nor tell how much the raise was, AND I never would have been made aware of this fact had I not accidentally noticed that my total cart cost had jumped up beyond what I had agreed to pay. That is what I object to and what I was hoping to get some other opinions about to see if anyone else felt that such a practice was unethical.
If anyone cares to comment on this, I'd be interested to hear opinions.
Richard

So.....you want them to show before and after pricing on every card in their inventory? Not gonna happen. I understand the inconvenience but they arent doing anything unethical beyond price gouging.

[D. Bergin]

Originally Posted by brightair

OK, I am the original poster.
Unfortunately I apparently didn't identify the issue that concerned me well enough because the thread seems to have gone off the tracks.
I know well enough that DC prices are high, but I have other reasons to buy from them that are not relevant here.
I also know that cards in the cart are not yet bought, and that also is not my issue.
I also am aware that we are talking small change here, so that also is not my point.
The cards were sitting in the cart for perhaps a week or so, with me adding every day to them.
My point is that prices were raised on items I can neither identify nor tell how much the raise was, AND I never would have been made aware of this fact had I not accidentally noticed that my total cart cost had jumped up beyond what I had agreed to pay. That is what I object to and what I was hoping to get some other opinions about to see if anyone else felt that such a practice was unethical.
If anyone cares to comment on this, I'd be interested to hear opinions.
Richard

I would imagine they don't even know what cards you have in your cart until you check out. They could conceivably run out of stock on a card and you could lose out on it between the time you add it to your cart and when you check out.

You don't actually commit to buy, until you hit the buy button.

I run a couple websites and sell on Ebay, and I've had people call me and say they've got such and such in their cart, can you check it out for me, and I have to tell them, I have no way of knowing what's in your cart unless you pay for it.

Also, on the Dean gouging issue. I'm sure they do as plenty of evidence has been put forward already. However in the OP's case it looks like he's paying about a buck a card, for whatever his project is.

Even if it's the commonest of commons, I don't see an issue here. This isn't a card show where somebody just throws 1000's of commons in a bunch of monster boxes, with no labor involved whatsoever, and you have to go through and dig out your own nickle & dime cards.

Anytime there's inventory, labor, scanning, shipping involved, those nickle cards become $1.00-$3.00 cards.

I do this myself with boxing card commons, because I have no interest in selling cards online in which the transaction fee on the payment alone, eats up the entire cost of the card. I'd rather just not sell the card at all and let it sit.

Now once it gets up to a certain level, you know.........legitimate $5-10 cards or so, I understand the concern for gouging.........but I don't think the OP should catch flack for spending a buck a card from Deans or anybody else.