buying habits?

[sliqwill]

what are your buying habits?

i only bid with money that i have live in my paypal, so i can pay shortly after the listing ends, and by that i mean, usually within the first 12 hours.

if i am bidding on multiple items with a single seller, once i see i have won the first i will send a message that says 'im bidding on other items ending in the next (day or two), if/when i get outbid send me an invoice'

i know ebay goes in cycles. seems that idiots cluster all at once, and then a couple months will go by and then more idiots all come at once. i also know that i sell cheap stuff, so i get some real class acts.

in the past 2 weeks, ive had multiple people tell me they had to 'wait on their check.' sure, i can see this is you are dropping $300 on some card you have been waiting on to surface and you are low on funds...not 7 days after bidding, on an item that ended for $0.99. if you are that hard up for cash, i think you should take up a new hobby, like walking, or looking at clouds, something FREE...

ive been on eBay for almost 12 years now. ive never had a 'non paying bidder' opened on me. i have never retracted a bid. i have never told someone they would have to wait a week for payment.

i get that trading cards is similar to gambling or addiction, so people will waste all their money and then some looking for their next big score, or their next fix, but man alive.

my largest purchase was back in 2002 or 2003 when i dropped $1400. want to know how i paid? i sent the dude $200 in paypal as a 'deposit' because i was sending a check, back in the days when you could send a check. so why send the deposit? because i hit a Buy It Now, and back then you could split payment ****ods, so i wanted to show the dude i was serious. i am just baffled at others...

/rant

 

[natehaselby02]

I usually only buy an item on eBay if I have the money. If I win the auction then I pay right away. I think that is just the best way so then the seller can ship it right away so I can get it sooner. I would see where it would be different though if you found a card you've been looking for a long time, but I wouldn't buy it if I didn't have the money right away.

 

[captkirk42]

I prefer to do BIN shopping. For regular auctions I have learned to hold off on bidding until the last day, preferably in the last few seconds before the auction ends and hope I outbid any snipers. I can't always be watching at the auctions ending time in those cases I wait as long as I can and hope my max is more than enough. When I bid on multiple auctions by the same seller I usually contact them after the first one to tell them I am bidding on a few of their other auctions and waiting for those to end. Most every time I bid on or BIN multiple auctions by the same seller I select the ask for invoice (however Ebay words asking for the grand total) and hope they have a reasonable combined shipping cost. Not all sellers will combine shipping and some will combine some but don't take too much off making it almost better to have tried finding the thing cheaper from another seller.

I recently had bought one card from a seller and they mentioned they had a similar card from the same series and wondered if I was interested in the second card for the same auction/sale price as the one I had just won. I said yes, and they added the cost of the second card, but he added it to the "shipping" cost. Not real thrilled with that but whatever he wasn't charging any extra for shipping just the cost of an extra card.

I also try to look for free shipping, but don't like when sellers will add the shipping costs to the opening bid/BIN price. I try not to bid on that type. Conversely I don't like when sellers start an auction at $0.99 but have a ridiculous shipping cost.

Another recent purchase I had, actually on sportlots not ebay. I don't think sellers on sportlots can combine shipping, or at least not as easily as you can on Ebay (if the seller even knows how to do it) I won an auction at the starting price $0.25 (sportlots 1,2,3 auctions usually start at that) of 4 or 5 cards plus a second auction of 2 cards same $0.25 shipping was $5 no problem. However, they shipped in a PWE using only $0.49. Sure the cards were safe in a pennysleeve carefully taped with paper between the cards and tape, and sandwiched in a folded over piece of cardboard that itself was taped closed, but it was a PWE. The "empty" part of the envelope was folded over and the whole thing taped around some, but still a PWE with Post Office shipping label, not a stamp, for just 49CENTS. I should of given the guy a neutral for that but decided not to. Giving a Negative would have been satisfying but is uncool to do for high shipping. I'll just try to avoid getting stuff from this guy again.

 

[captkirk42]

Oh and I only bid/buy when I have enough in Paypal. I sometimes wish they still allowed the check or money order payments like they did in the old days.

 

[Mike]

I don't ever have money in my PayPal account but, like you, I don't buy a card unless I have the money already. Also, like you, I prefer to pay for an item as soon as possible. I have email alerts directly to my phone and my PayPal info saved on my eBay account so as soon as I get the email telling me I won I can usually log in to the eBay app on my phone and make the payment. I wouldn't want to sell to someone who waits days, or weeks, to pay me so I don't do it to other people either.

That said, I don't buy a whole lot. When I do it's usually a Tony Parker card I don't have or something I want to send to someone else. I'd like to get into the flipping side of the hobby, but I just don't have the time to do the research necessary to know how much things are worth.

 

[sliqwill]

if people are buying 'other' things I always put it in the 'additional charges/discounts' section...doesn't matter where you put it, its the same amount of fees...

the thing I don't like about 'free' shipping is itll come PWE, or its not worth combining multiple items...

I had some dude charge $1.03 per card combined shipping, which I think is completely unreasonable, especially when they stuff multiple cards in crappy toploaders. sure I charge $1.50 to combine on the Exquisites I sell, BUT they come in ready for display 1 touch magnetics that cost me $1 and weigh just over 3 ounces, so it scales up a couple weight grades on postage...

I also hate the people that sit on shipping things...I completely understand that people work and cant get to the post office, but wouldn't it be realistic to know that say, you can get to the post office on Saturday only, so why would you have things end on Sunday, so when someone quick pays, like they should, they still have to wait 6 days for it to ship...if I could only ship on Saturday, I would have stuff end on Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday only...

also, when people do BS combined shipping rates, like they will knock $0.25 off on $3 or $4 shipping, which I have seen, I will pay for each item separate and request that they are each mailed separately, because I would much rather the Post Office make money off me than a dbag that wasn't happy with where the auction ended, so they are trying to get as much as they can out of the transaction...

and yes, late bidding is super common, but there are some pros to early bids, mostly so you don't forget at the end, but also if the item typically ends at say $20, and the opening bid is for $18, you may not get run up, because others will start on the $0.99 that is ending instead and end up paying more...

that said, when I am lot shopping, I will check a listing that has some not real appealing cards in the photo and a 'high looking' starting bid that has a bid...like there are 4 cards in the scan, and they sell for $3-$5 each and there is a bid for $100, its worth looking into...I typically just bid the opening hours an item is up, I know ive gotten shilled, but ill typically throw my best out first...I couldn't tell you the last time I threw an offer out and when the counter came in from the seller I took it...

also, as a seller, if someone keeps bidding the minimum on an item, to where they have like 12 bids on an item that is at $7, ill block them from future bidding, because it looks like a shill...

if someone sends me a terrible offer, I just block them from future bidding and decline the offer, as I don't want to deal with a complete lowballer...

I think a guy wanted to lowball me yesterday...he sent me a message saying he wanted to do a bulk lot of low end autos/jerseys, so I told him that ive spent under $10 in listing fees for the entire year because of the frequent eBay promos, so I wasn't going to fire sale...its been 24 hours and haven't heard back...

 

[natehaselby02]

I would also like to get into the flipping side also, but I don't have anything that can tell me value on any card at all so I really don't know what would be a good price to be selling an item for.

 

[cowboy2288]

i have the beckett online price guide anyone wanna know what a card is worth in football basketball nascar give me the info will be happy to look it up for you

 

[sliqwill]

if you go by beckett in an attempt to flip, you will be killed quickly

ebay completed listings is the info you need

there are a number of cards beckett says are worth $50 that sell for $4, some will sell for $30, and then some will book for $10 and sell for $8, or book for $5 and sell for $12

but to amuse myself, what is a 2008 Contenders Auto Jed Collins /30 going for in beckett these days? I sold mine maybe a year ago for $175, and about 2 months later say it sell for under $40

 

[cowboy2288]

I know beckett price and ebay are not even close to the same price but sometimes you have people on ebay selling a card over the book price!! That's the reason I use it and I don't really flip just collect

 

[packman80]

I just buy for my own collection not to re-sell. I always use ebay sold listings to see what people in the past paid. Only time I go to becketts when I had a subscrption. was when it was a rare card with little or no past listings or to judge if I am thinking I am getting a really good deal on a card. One nice thing about Becketts is though is they have book value and real time value as they try to list what the cards are selling for in a low to high range.

 

[andy]

Some cards are legitimately worth more than Beckett. Beckett's checklists are great (AND FREE) but I think their pricing is completely worthless.

 

[packman80]

Thing that I find most funny is people on Ebay who will buy a card then turn right around and put it back on Ebay for even more money. Saw this just happen guy was selling quad patch for $60 OBO it was bought and now back on there with $150 OBO price. Funny thing is it has book value of $80. Heck happened to me years ago I sold a Maurice Clarreit auto card. Week later guy I sold it to had it back on Ebay using same picture I had on listing.

 

[andy]

Thing that I find most funny is people on Ebay who will buy a card then turn right around and put it back on Ebay for even more money. Saw this just happen guy was selling quad patch for $60 OBO it was bought and now back on there with $150 OBO price. Funny thing is it has book value of $80. Heck happened to me years ago I sold a Maurice Clarreit auto card. Week later guy I sold it to had it back on Ebay using same picture I had on listing.

I don't usually do this with singles (usually breaking up lots) but there are plenty of times where a card goes cheap for a variety of reasons and I buy with the intent of putting it back on eBay. Look at what doesn't sell on eBay even with a 99 cent bid and you will see why so many people try their hand at flipping.

I think the issue is that the supply of cards is far outpacing the demand and people are coming around to the fact that they make the same rare card of the same player year after year. There may only be 12 2009 Donruss Elite Status of Tom Brady, but there are 12 made every year for 15 years. Not to even mention how they have expanded the Statuses to different parallels....some even /199 this year!

 

[sliqwill]

Clarett is an interesting cat...ANY of his 2004 stuff sells great, his 05 stuff sells ok....

as for getting 'flipped through' where you buy and the next guy immediate resells, I see it all the time...

the immediate flip is often used on a 'hot' card...it was fun watching Jeremy Lin National Treasures during Linsanity. 17/25 sold for like $40, then resold for $500 or so, then again for $1200 or so, then $2500, then sent to BGS came back a 9.5 sold for $4000 or so, then that guy got 'stuck' with it after he got on ESPN and various other sports/news outlets, he had it up for $25,000, then 'sold' it for $21,000 (I think it was), but between the start and end of the auction, Lin went down, sale wasn't completed, dude relisted it and I think it went to like $12,000 and im not sure if that completed...

sometimes I don't like relisting right away because people can easily check the history on an item...so when someone had a low BIN, wrong category (ie football card in baseball section) or the fun misspelled word in title that you ended up winning, you will get lowball offers on it...

I very rarely do the single card purchase flip, as I sell 'low' end stuff typically, so if I buy a $5 card that sells for $1, then I tack on the $3 shipping, im into it for $4, and it sells for $5 typically, im into it for about $4.50, so it leaves tiny profit and high potential to lose money...but if a guy has a bunch of stuff where I can combine shipping, ill do that and make a 'custom' lot of sorts

I feel that 'flippers' get a bad connotation in the world...if I was simply buying Kyle Boller stuff like in the past, if there was a 'rare' one in a lot, I might be willing to throw say $50 at it...the lot could very well sell for $150, so am I willing to pay $150 for a card I would only pay $50 for? not a chance, but would I pay the guy who bought the lot (which is much harder to track these days), $40, sure...I don't consider myself one who holds cards 'hostage' where I want 3x or more for what I paid for it and wont budge...ive bought so much rare stuff over the years its not even funny...you can ask most collectors 'are you willing to pay $10 for a card that hasn't been listed on eBay in 5 years' if it is a guy they PC, that isn't crazy, especially for an auto...would you pay $25 for that card? likely not...I recently sold a 2003 Leaf Limited Contenders Preview Rookie Ticket Auto /10 of Zuriel Smith (who?) for $12 shipped...and serial number was 01/10, making it more desirable to folks...if you are building that set and you didn't buy one in 2003-2005, you may not have seen one since...or if you went to college with him, you probably didn't have the $25-$30 to spend in college because that is almost a weeks worth of food, but now that you have a decent job, you can buy one and there aren't any...

if a card always sells for the same price, no one would sell...