I have never had a cheque book in my life, yet manage to spend just fine on the AMEX black card.
Who in the world in 2016 carries 10-20k on them in cash? A few hundred, fine. But to buy a big ticket item with cash is certainly nothing I've ever done. Never had to!
Happy I dont attend shows as i'd probably blow my brains out waiting at a table for a dealer to talk to me as I usually only wear a hooded sweatshirt and Jays cap.
No thank you.
Jonathan.

More than a thousand in cash? No way. Went to a show recently and had to drive five blocks to find an ATM. Only did it because seller was a nice guy who needed a sale. If you are at the national in AC and cash only nice knowing you. I'm walking away.

Card Show Payments
 

Remember that comment for this weekend at Shriners!

Cash is always king but in today's world Paypal and other apps can be used most times. I will take anything but don't take credit cards......however, I think someone could pay with a cc through paypal if they wanted to.

.

Vintage Clout...
 

I will see you at the show. I will bring my man purse. Bring some great stuff to sell...

Its just a matter of time before the old guard dies off and these silly practices of "cash only" die with them.

I am not railing against anything but the dealers that ONLY except cash. Its silly and these are usually the grumpy guys sitting there complaining to their buds about how they get no business while ignoring the customers right in front of them. Its these dealers that usually break out the Beckett price guide when negotiating, and have stickers from 1973 on their cards as well.

Uhhhh I know this card is only a $30 card but if I put a sticker on it saying

Book price = $500
Our price = $125

then everyone will fall for it.

Its any dealers prerogative to not accept anything but cash and I hope most people just avoid their tables to get to actual dealers who embrace technology and use it to further their business. Paypal, checks, CASH app, etc. there are a bunch of protected ways to accept other forms of payment. And YES a good dealer DOES make it more convenient for you to purchase
I can't believe that an unnamed above would use an argument that somehow making it convenient for a buyer is ridiculous.

BTW even the saying "cash is king" is so silly and outdated please stop using it...or don't and have everyone else continue to blindly mock you.

I've found the same thing at our shows in NY but now I'm prepared and make sure I bring cash. It's definitely frustrating when you're standing there ready to make a purchase and woops gotta go find the nearest ATM which is sometimes blocks away. As a dealer why would you not be prepared to accept any and all forms of payment known to man? Paypal and credit/debit cards should be a no-brainer.

Old
 

How old do you have to be to qualify for The Old Guard ?

Old enough to not accept anything but cash...like "the good ole days"

I always take cash to a show. I also have a checkbook. Generally speaking, in the rare incidence that my wants outpace my cash on hand I know enough people who will either vouch for me or cash a check. This said, I doubt they would cash a $6000 check.

Embrace technology? In other words, make themselves susceptible to charge backs?

It's not a matter of embracing technology. It's a matter of protecting themselves. :rolleyes:

80

I never have more than $20 cash on me at any given time. I've paid via PayPal a handful of times at the National with no problems. I'm not going to walk around with a wad of $100 bills and get myself killed.

I just had a friendly PM from the dealer. I misunderstood what he said about the Paypal Friends and Family payment. He says I could have done the F&F payment right then (as he's done with other Net54 members) and taken the card with me, no waited until later and had the card mailed. Upfront guy for the way he contacted me, thanks!

The F&F fees would have put my out-of-pocket cost for the card above what I was willing to pay, so guess I wouldn't have ended up with the card anyway. :(

But how would somebody know how much you have? How do they know if you're carrying $20 or $2000? Whenever I carry large sums of cash, I usually have it in multiple pockets. I try not to 'flash' it in front of other people. If I do have to pull it out in front of others, they only see a portion of what I'm actually carrying because the rest is in other pockets. And it's not distributed equally between pockets. I may have a $500 in my right pocket, $1000 in my left pocket and $2000 in my jacket pocket, etc. Depending on the size of the purchase, I know which pocket to pull from so anybody that's looking sees as little cash as possible. I don't feel any less comfortable carrying large sums of cash than I do if I'm carrying no money at all. I just don't understand the safety concerns.

There are NO fees with a f/f payment via paypal

I make my wife carry the cash...it's more fun to pull it out of her pocket :D

It depends on how you fund the purchase. If you send PayPal F&F and use a credit card to pay, you will incur the fees.

There is a 2.9% on mine.

Yes correct if you use credit card or paypal credit there will be a fee that the sender incurs. If you use your paypal balance or bank account there are no fees

If you have a Paypal merchant account you can get a swipe attachment to your phone that will accept almost any type of credit card.

I had Paypal send me one just in case, for the once in a great while show I might set up at but it hasn't come into play.

Like others I don't carry a smart phone with me. Don't generally have a purpose for it, so I'm not going to incur the monthly bill for a data plan. My wife and kid have Iphones, but I never had a need. One time it might have come into play for me I brought my Fire Tablet hoping I could connect through an available WiFi connection, but no luck. LOL!

If I had a habit doing shows on a regular basis, I would probably figure it out.

I have on occasion taken customers CC information, given them product if I feel comfortable with them, and the processed the transaction once I got home. I've also given stuff to people I know, and then just sent them a Paypal invoice when I get home.

One advantage everybody has to keep in mind with cash. With Card Dealers, just like with contractors, mechanics or anybody else that doesn't work out of a big box store......you are much more likely to negotiate a better discount for yourself if you are paying with cash.

I deal in mostly lower end stuff, so I know if I'm at a show and I have something priced at 15 bucks and some guy comes and throws down a credit card in front of me and says, "I'll give you 10 bucks for that", I'm not going to waste my time and money processing a credit card payment for this guy............if you put 10 bucks cash in front of me, there's a pretty good chance I'm going to take it. Hell, I'd even take a check as eventually I'd make my way to the bank for something else anyways.

Larger amounts, yes I'd certainly go through the trouble, but you're not going to get as good a deal, that's for sure.

But you'll walk around with the equivalent in stuff you've bought?

Ha! Good point.

Cards or money
 

Can picture myself walking back to hotel after a day at the National, having a guy pull a gun and demand money, and me offering him a selection of cards...unless he is willing to take a credit card, check or PayPal

I do not see a right or wrong here, just different preferences and comfort levels

Exactly! So one really can't fault a dealer either for not accepting CCs if that's beyond their comfort level.

If I were a dealer, I would probably accept CCs for smaller purchases, but no way for a $6K purchase.

+1. You wrap your two $100 bills around your wad of $1s if you want to show off your wad. You wrap your $1s around your wad of $100s if you want to hide how much you have.

You can mock anyone you want, but a lot of dealers have regular jobs, or just deal in the cards for fun on weekends. Having someone bounce a check on you for the best card in your collection could really hurt. Cash is also used at most other types of sales to avoid having to collect sales tax. I've had dealers tell me they would give me a better price if I pay cash.

Thank goodness, I have wiggle room

Wiggle room? I'll show you wiggle room!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34r4-yzCyVw

I once had a buyer ask me if I would accept cash as a form of payment. I thought he was kidding, but his face didn't change. I started to panic, and then quietly said, "Yes." He handed me $200, and I handed him the card and said, "Thank you." He said, "Thank you" back, and then walked away. It was all very odd...

Though I have no personal experience, I doubt that illegal drugs can be purchased with prewar baseball cards.

I had a guy on eBay make me a best offer on a card of $5.00 (I was asking $5.50). I accepted and then he asked for my address and proceeded to mail me a $5.00 dollar bill.

If you really want to piss a dealer off ask for a receipt.

Cash?
 

OK, let's get down to the nitty gritty. This doesn't have anything to do with comfort levels or lack of technical knowledge or chargebacks. It is plain old tax avoidance. (evasion?) The seller probably doesn't have a sales tax license and doesn't pay sales tax on the sale. The seller also probably doesn't report cash sales, so they are tax free.

If you have a sale of $1000 in cash, you have $1000 bucks to work with. If you accept a check, or paypal, or a credit card then it breaks down like this:

$1000 in sales
-15 % in federal income taxes
-5% in state income taxes
-5% in state sales tax
-15% for the employers share and the employees share of social security and medicare
This leaves the dealer with $600 to work with.

That is why dealers only accept cash.

Not to nitpick but I thought most people would be in the 27 percent fed range

Rich

Rich
 

Hi Rich, that may be true. :) It may also have something to do with only being able to earn around 15k if you are under age 66 and on social security. Yes - I am old.

Rick

+1 As a small business owner for most of my life I fricken hate the POS that do not have whatever license is necessary and does not pay their fair share of taxes. For those of us that actually pay taxes and follow the rules it is very hard to compete.

I would hope that those dealers that are paying income tax are only required to do so on the profit of the sale, not the entire transaction. If the mentioned $1,000 card was purchased for say 800, taxes should only be required on the 200 difference.

Yep, when I was doing a fair bit of selling on Ebay I always declared a small profit as a hobby business. I wasn't allowed to claim a loss that way, but it made the book keeping nice and simple.
I suppose technically any leftover stuff that I'd gotten cheap and hadn't gotten around to selling was also profit, but determining value would have been a big challenge.

Question....
 

Don,

If this was you, I'm curious why he did not just pay you via paypal? He could have found a computer or sent it via his phone, then once you see it is safely in your friends/family account, you release the card. This seems like such an easy way to do it plus it protects you from charge backs since it goes to F/F account. I have used this method and it always works.

Mike

Mike--I am not sure if I am the dealer this person is talking about---I did have one collector who didn't have the cash and wanted to use a charge card, I don't take charge cards since I only do a few shows a year---I did offer this collector paypal , but he doesn't use paypal---when somebody pays me with paypal, I give them the card when it gets to my account. I also take checks (if the person has good references I give them the card, if not, I wait until the check clears and then mail the card to them. And yes there are times I do lose a sale because I don't take credit cards. I also believe cash is King

Amen...
 

And to think Ricky Henderson thought he was the KING!!! :) :)

Cash rules the throne like you said! Thanks Don,

Mike

I haven't read all these posts, so, for what it's worth, I always carry cash.

If I didn't have enough for a special card I wanted, I would look for an ATM, or leave the show if I had to to obtain more money.

I am soon to be 52 so maybe I'm old school, who knows? ;)

Yeah, but the important question is: Did you send him the card???
(And, was the card sent priority mail with tracking and insurance???)...:)...

It's important to acknowledge that most "dealers" are collectors who set up at shows a few times a year. It's tough to justify the expense of setting up the infra-structure needed to take credit cards for something you just do a couple times a year for fun.

For the last couple years, I have set up at a small show twice. So far, everyone has just paid cash, but if they didn't have cash or want to use Paypal, I guess I would lose the sale. Even in those cases, it would be pretty easy for the potential buyer to send me a check, or send Paypal the next day, or meet up with cash.

It never occurred to me before this thread to try and pay with anything but cash honestly.

I have recently added CC. Haven't tried it at a show yet. Paypal is super easy with the prevalence of smart phones. If you want the card, bring the cash or make sure there is a bank within driving distance.

Opinion no longer available

Never thought about paypal for a card show but makes sense as you pay other things with it. You do have more bargaining power with cash.

+++++1386. Everything is simple when their money is not at risk. They treat all dealers like they're supposed to be set up like Target or something. Most people do this for the enjoyment, not to be big timed by people that don't have the $ for their purchases. As someone said before, there are NO fees on PayPal F&F which protects the seller against charge backs. Once again, money talks and bullshit walks.

Cash value at an early age...:)
 

Attachment 227702

Peace, Mike