Any memorabilia experts?

[xShowtime32x]

Hey guys just wondering if anyone has dealt with mraksports.com either through their website or on the bay. They claim to be a direct dealer of Steiner merchandise and I was looking to buy a Steiner piece form them on the bay and just wanted to see if the piece and the seller is legit. The thing that makes me wonder is how can they afford to sell these items so cheap? They claim that the retail is $300 and Steiner has one that is not quite as nice of a ball on their site right now for $279. They have multiple items listed with BINs of half or even less of their retail value. Is it one of those if it's too good to be true it usually is sort of things?

 

[wildcatfanman3pt]

do you have a link?

 

[duncanonyou21]

i have some exp with steiner link me

 

[duncanonyou21]

i found it and checked it and there feedback i have bought from them before there legit

 

[xShowtime32x]

eBay: MAGIC JOHNSON Signed/Auto NBA Basketball!Lakers,Steiner (item 120140086503 end time Jul-15-07 18:04:51 PDT)

It makes me feel good that you have dealt with them duncan. They do have 21 negatives and 18 withdrawn but I suppose that is the norm for someone with 12,000+ feedback? I'm asking because I'm not very experienced with eBay or memorabilia yet. How do they sell so cheap?

*Edit* Got a scan duncan just curious to see what you got.

 

[wildcatfanman3pt]

still has a lot of time left on the ball. Will go way up more than likely

 

[xShowtime32x]

still has a lot of time left on the ball. Will go way up more than likely

Yeah one ended at $105ish and one ended at $190ish. Not sure why such a gap but the high one looked like a bidding war. They actually have one with a BIN of $160 though which is like the same price Steiner wants for a Jason Kidd on their site.

P.S. Check your other thread.

 

[wildcatfanman3pt]

One more thing:

A lot of sites (UD, Steiner, ect) that sell memorbilia, tend to inflame the prices big time. Otherwise, they wouldn't make any money. MRAKSPORTS Home is just takeing retail prices off of sites like UD and steiner and other sites prices that are high. Just so that he can say what it retails for. And thats the amazing thing about ebay. If you take a look on mraksports website, compare his prices to those of ebay's closed auctions. He is wanting 400 and something for a barry bonds signed baseball. He says it retails for 600 which is probably true on sites like steiner. But if you take a look on ebay, you can get a ball of bonds for 200.00. eBay: Barry Bonds signed OML Baseball Giants DNA 9.5 Mint + (item 250139040359 end time Jul-10-07 19:30:00 PDT)

If you just compare prices of mraksports.com and ebay, you will soon find out, that mraksports is wanting you to think there selling you something for a great deal. When in reality, there selling it to you for some times double of what you could of paid for it on ebay. Hope this helps.

 

[xShowtime32x]

Yeah that makes sense but how do they get Steiner authenticated pieces cheap enough to sell them at such prices. Like I said I'm pretty new to memorabilia so bear with me lol. I have been trying to stick to things from companies like UD, Steiner, Mounted Memories, Schwartz sports, etc. because I feel things authenticated by PSA and others have a greater chance of being forged. Also, how can they make a sticker tamper-proof, like what happens if you try to peel it off?

 

[wildcatfanman3pt]

PSA is in the top 5 of the best authenticators. I haven;t really heard of anyone second guessing that something is fake that came from places like PSA or GAI. Plus, places like UDA and i believe steiner do not authenticate for the general public. I believe the only way to obtain peices from them are to buy them. I pretty much only deal in memorbilia as of now, and as far as COA's, i trust PSA, GAI, Steiner, UDA, and Sports Centre and a few others.

Now as far as how do they get COA from steiner so cheap, i have no clue. Maybe they buy a lot off ebay, maybe they have an agreement with steiner. I really have no clue.

 

[xShowtime32x]

No I'm pretty sure that these are original Steiner pieces that were gotten by Steiner and came into mrak's possesion. That is why I like UDA and Steiner and such because they actually get them signed themselves then guarantee their authenticity whereas despite PSA's reliability a fake is bound to get past them every once in a while.

 

[ac-n-mike]

man that Magic ball is NICE I got a ball signed by him when the All-Star game was here in Houston and that auto (in the pic your showed) is RIGHT ON....

Magic was signing at a Suit Mart of something Ig to a ball signed and took a quick pic I will have to find it (the pic) and show you GOOD LUCK!

 

[ewils990]

steiner is such a rip off....if anything is being sold less than steiner and it contains a good replica steiner coa (certficate of authenticity)......I'd definitely go for it :-)

What type of piece are you looking for?

 

[bhelser]

Like many on-line stores, the overhead is soooo low that they can often buy in large quantities and get a huge break on the product, so they don't have to have a large mark-up to make a profit. Same reason you see card shops selling a box for $200 when you can get it on Ebay for $125. Most of the sellers on Ebay don't have to figure in employees they have to pay, rent, other utility bills, ettc.

 

[duncanonyou21]

showtime check this out'
PSA/DNA Autograph Authentication Experts