private signing mark ups
 

Just out of curiosity when a "dealer" does a private signing with someone- say a Yaz or a McCovey etc- what is the typical markup they do for a card? Any ideas?

Tom orr does about two signings a year with mccovey. Typically the price to have a card signed is less than a flat/ball. I think dick Gordon does the same for yaz.

what I meant was how much do they pay the player vs how much do they charge us?

If you go on the MAB message board mollie discusses the asking price for some former players. That can give you a general idea of mark up based on recent signings.

I can speak to this, but typically the markup is around 200% above total cost. So if a player is $20 cost to the dealer and then the ball is $11-12 from Rawlings, dealer is into it for around $33-34 with the cost of a certificate and hologram. That ball will probably be sold at $99. Or at a show $59 for a flat/ball, plus a fee for the cert. Typically a private is priced a slight bit higher than a public only because the dealer will have to move the entire commitment through pre-orders, send ins and signing inventory so they need to cover, say, all 500 pieces without a direct public appearance. At least at a 500 piece commitment with a public appearance, if the name is prominent a dealer can move half or more via the public and then use the same avenues to move the rest of the guarantee after the signing in the same manner as the private, it just reduces their burden. The reason for that 200%, roughly, markup, is to allow a wholesale play to move the rest of the signing if they choose to. That's a rough idea for more common guys, for some even more premium names, like Brady or Jordan, markup can be as high as 300-400% dependent on the item. Hope that helps

It also depends if the promoter paid for flights, hotels, rental car, etc. There are additional costs that most don't think of.