I think part of the disconnect is that the leverage dealers have over buyers in today's market is quite a bit different than it was back in the 80s, 90s, and even the 2000s. Back then, if you wanted to sell your cards, you either had to find a friend to sell it to or take it to your local card shop/show and take whatever you could get for it. They had a lot of leverage over you. They knew they could resell it for X, so they gave you some significantly lower percentage of its value in order to turn a profit. It's a business after all. But in today's market, collectors no longer need dealers or card shops to buy their cards. The only thing a dealer offers them today by buying their card is the convenience of not having to deal with eBay or a consignment company. We don't "need" a dealer to buy our cards nowadays, so that leverage is lost. But most of the dealers I've encountered don't acknowledge this. It's like they still think they have power over the market/buyers because they've somehow "earned" it with their decades of experience. I find most (not all) card shop owners that I've encountered to be extremely arrogant.
The only leverage they have now, in the case of a trade, comes from them having a particular card that you want, not from them being in the position of being a dealer. Sure, some people are desperate enough to acquire a particular card that they're willing to take a loss on their trade in value to get it, but it's not because the person on the other end of the transaction is a dealer, but rather because they have what the other person wants. I think most trades at shows nowadays probably occurs between collectors away from the tables. Trade night is a big deal at the larger shows.
|