Consigning with Probstein123
 

Can anyone give feedback who has recently consigned with eBay seller Probstein123?

How fast were your cards listed? Did you get the price you wanted? How are the fees? How fast was payout?

Never consigned with Rick BUT I do know that winning one of his auctions (at a decent price) is dam near impossible.

Hey has 1 heck of a following - I'll give him that

Probstein typically listed less than a week after reception. Payout within a wee after auction end. Prices he gets are consistently high for eBay auctions. He is not big on communication; there is no acknowledgement of him getting your cards - they just get listed.

I use him a lot. If I ever do have an issue it is typically resolved quickly. Straightforward graded cards that are standard size go good. Raw, groups or oddball size sometimes have delays. I recommend.

He communicated just enough to ban me from bidding on his items. - said I did a friend of his wrong, but would never go further than that...and my reputation is my bond...anyone who has dealt with me knows that.

For that reason, probstein is , and always will be dead to me. What an arogant ars!

There are plenty of better options out there. I intend to consign with COMC, albeit for smaller valued cards, based on a very favorable reference from a net54 friend.

If you choose to go with probstein, good luck...I believe you've heard both sides now.
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Same. Very bad experience with his listing items for me.

I’m banned from Probstein as well. No idea why. Never bid on an auction. Only found out one time when I tried too.

However I’ve rarely heard good things about him. I just know a lot of altered cards pass through him. His name has come up lately in some of the Facebook groups and nothing very good. No communication, late to pay, terrible description in listings tend to be the complaints.

payments if card returned?
 

If a consigned card is returned not as described, etc--how does that work--??

Have consigned with rick for 4 years. Most items are listed same day as received and lately I’ve been paid 48 hours after auction ends. Used to be with paypal but he now pays with bank deposit.

I don't have any experience consigning with him, but a few years ago he listed several cards I was after. He had the auctions end at the same exact second, so with my budget I couldn't go and increase my max bids on some of the cards if I got outbid on others, the way I could have if he had staggered the endings. I'm sure it cost him (and by extension, the consignors) money, but I don't know if that is still how he operates.

He does still do that. Just this week I was bidding on 19 different cards that ended within seconds of each other. I will say the ones I won were delivered very quickly with excellent packaging and an extremely reasonable combined shipping rate.

Probstn
 

Use him and you will get the more money then most others

Solid !

He is not the only one who does that. I emailed another popular seller one time asking them why their auctions ended so close to each other and their answer made sense. They said, with the amount of cards they have, if they staggered them more, it would take too much time for their auctions to end.
The only thing one can do is to pre-bid their max prior to the auctions ending and hope they stick.

There are certainly alternatives to the "Big Two."

Close-ending auctions
 

...
...yes , that was what made me hire a professional "sniping" service to do the bids for me at the last 10 seconds , which would have been physically impossible for me and my ancient big old tower box on the floor plus the lag time on the phone line ( "dial-up" they calls it )....I figure my EZ Sniper program has gotten me literally dozens of cards which I never could have won on my own in E-Bay's auction bidding system when a group of cards I want all end at exactly ten P M on a Sunday night.............those notorious "set breaks" were the worst scenarios ; they're not a problem anymore....


...

Consigning with Probstein123
 

I have never had issues with the few times I have consigned with Rick. My cards (modern) were listed a couple days after they were delivered and he paid within 2-3 days after auction end…I plan on sending him some cards in the next month or so…


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Appreciate the feedback from those that consigned.

and I can only imagine one of the reason he is so popular with buyers is there is no BP charged for his Ebay auctions.

Bringing this back up... anyone recently consign with Probstein? If so, experience?

Yes
 

Yes, I have consigned with Probstein off and on the last 3 years and have had good results. As long as the cards are graded or higher dollar raw, he will list them quickly. He pays normally within 5-8 days based on when the payments come in to him.

Someone just recently trusted him enough to sell a T206 Magie error card. It's up now (the example with the ugly white dot on his left eye).

He once told me that he doesn't stagger his ending times, because he said "it will make you bid more for the cards", which to me is garbage. I will say , I have won some very nice cards from his auctions. Never consigned to him though.

I used him last summer, I thought his payroll person was a phishing scam...ended up getting a check. I actually met Rick at the National, just a handshake and hello. No complaints.

I’m going to send him a bunch of stuff. He has a really good following, list quality items quick and pays in a timely fashion.

Good luck Johnny. I hope you get top dollar. He's not the warmest of people, but that doesn't really matter. Go get some green!

I’ve sent him stuff before never once had any issue. He has always treated me good. I like that he lists stuff quickly once it’s received.

I just had this happen to my consignment. I received an email saying the card was returned and would be relisted. It was relisted that evening and ended up selling for a good bit more. Today's statement says I'll get another $60 deposited!

Conversely, I've had returned items sell for less. That dollar amount was deducted from my next consignment proceeds. If your consignment is a one and done, I'm unsure how Probstein handles that.

Same here.

Sent overnight Monday.
Received email this morning with a link to the auctions.
$.02

How is it handled with the new tax laws? Does he send a 1099K? (I think that is the form.)
Thanks,
Bob

I've consigned with Probstein numerous times in the past, and again recently. The answers to the questions posed in the OP depend on the cards you're submitting. If you send him a bunch of lower-end cards, don't expect much in terms of communication from him or how long it takes to get them posted on eBay. However, if you consign cards in excess of $1000 or even just $500+ probably, then he will often get them listed the same day that he receives them in the mail. Also, whenever I consign higher-end cards, he always sends me an email confirming receipt of them and has recently started sending me the links to the auctions for them via email as well. Payouts are hit and miss timing-wise, in my experience. I had some listings fall near a Jewish holiday before which he said was responsible for the very slight delay but responded quickly to my email when I inquired, and I had a check in hand 2 days later.

As far as sold prices goes, again, it can be hit and miss. His auctions do really well for some stuff, not as well for others. Some cards just don't do well at auction period. You really need to do your own research to optimize your selling strategy if you want the absolute maximum. But Probstein is fast, efficient, and an honest, hard-working guy in my experience.

As far as the listings themselves go, you may want to "script" your eBay listing titles for him if you want to see certain key words. But don't expect a description of the card or even a photo of the back if it's worth less than a few hundred dollars. Probstein is all about volume. He wants to process as many cards as he can as quickly as he can. He has 35 employees, so you can imagine how much volume they're dealing with. They do make mistakes sometimes, but he is always quick to resolve them in my experience. Though I've only dealt with those sorts of issues as a buyer. I've never had issues as a seller.

Records for 1099-K forms are kept and then forms submitted from the use of third-party electronic payment systems/platforms, like Papal, Zelle, Venmo, or Ebay's Managed Payment system. Probstein is not a third-party electronic payment system running customer transactions through it, so no, they aren't currently going to be sending 1099-K forms to anyone.

Thanks for the ground truth, appreciate it!

Shipping
 

What's the preferred way to send cards to Probstein123? Use UPS or USPS and get the insurance? TIA

Quick payment to consignors is a major reason for his success.

i wont consign there now. was going to send some really nice cards so you can feel happy about that..

Probstein
 

Only Probstein auction I participated in was a SGC A T206 HOF’er that I was able to get for $85 after taxes fees and shipping. Can’t complain one bit, but I do proceed with caution on his stuff

I will say, for those who are worried about multiple bids, you should look into some eBay sniping tools. I haven’t used them before, but have heard many people swear by them. Curious on what others opinions on sniping tools are. I don’t bid enough to justify them

Matt Galvin

I’ve had issues buying from them. Ships high end cards in penny sleeves and they get damaged in shipment. Lots of negative feedback, and won’t respond to problems.

I use gixen. It’s cheap (even free for the basic version), and does a good job. It does go down every once in a blue moon, which is only a problem if it’s out when an important item is ending.

You should upgrade to the mirror version. Spend the $6!

I use the full version. But for someone else who doesn’t use it much, maybe $6 is too much.

I use the myibidder app to place snipe bids on ebay. Works great. I've only had it fail one time in over 1,000 bid attempts.

I use the myibidder app to place snipe bids on ebay. Works great. I've only had it fail one time in over 1,000 bid attempts.

It's $7 now. Inflation!!! ha ha

That's per year, btw. I just created an account for it the other day but have not used it yet. I used bidnapper a few times in a free trial and it worked fine, though I only won 1 out of 4 or 5 cards I used it for. Both seem pretty easy for a basic single item. Still learning the ins and outs of Gixen, but it seems like it will do well. I don't know how many times, I have gotten busy and even with a 14 minute reminder from ebay, I forget to place a bid and a card sells for less than I would have put in. So trying this now. But at $7/year, I don't see how it can be bad.

I mean, the label DOES say "PSA 4" but...

I dont bid on his stuff anymore. I won 2 cards and he only shipped one. Ebay said "it was delivered, too bad" Zero contact through ebay and the phone number they gave me. I had to get my credit card to refund me after I showed how the shipping weight for 1 card was 1/2 of the real weight...Since then, he is dead to me as well! FTG

How much should one pay for consignment
 

What % do you normally give up to consignment on ebay? Ebay takes 10-13%, right? How much additional does the consigner take? Similar? Is the all in fee 20%? 30%? more?

The amount that eBay takes depends on the consignor.

If you sell yourself on eBay, including the payment fees, you're more like at ~16%, at least up to $7,500 in value. Above that amount, then it declines. This assumes that you don't have a fancy eBay store. If you did, you would have lower fees, potentially a lot lower.

My understanding is that Probstein's rates vary depending on the final value for your item:

>$2,500 = 10%
$1,000 to $2,500 = 11%
$100-$999 = 12%
$50-$99 = 13%
$25-$50 = 14%
$10-$25 = 15%

Naturally, these could change, but this is the most updated that I've seen.

If you're wondering how he makes his money, I suspect it's mostly from:

1) paying less to eBay because he has one of those fancy stores so he pays lower rates to eBay, and
2) making a bit on shipping charges.

If over a thousand I always use registered mail. Slow but well handled and never fails.

My consignments are usually listed same day and his rates are cheaper than selling myself tbh.

[QUOTE=toledo_mudhen;2114859]Never consigned with Rick BUT I do know that winning one of his auctions (at a decent price) is dam near impossible.

Just curious, why would anyone consign their cards to a person/business that simply lists them on ebay? I guess if they're working all the time or traveling, etc. An ebay listing isn't all that hard and the process is simple.

I don't see how it could possibly maximize profit if one is paying a fee on top of the 10% ebay fee.

I think you could mail it to the buyer just as easily as mailing it to a broker. So, the additional 10% one would be paying is for the listing preparation and logistics of sending it off, and I guess because they have followers, etc.

Ex = I send my 87 Topps Bonds to a broker. They list it on ebay. It sells for 1.10 instead of the mean price of $1.00. Ebay collects .11, broker collects .11. I'm paid .88. If I listed it myself and sold it for the mean price of $1.00, I would have been paid .90 from ebay.

Is this example wrong, or am I missing something. I never excelled in math. :)

If an item has a lot of value, i.e., 5K plus, why wouldn't you just send it to an AH? Not saying you would get more money, but there would be a lot more marketing, etc. compared to an ebay listing.

Unless I'm gravely mistaken, the 10% fee to Probstein is not in addition to the eBay fee. The fee to Probstein is the only fee.

So you actually pay less when consigning with Probstein than if you list it yourself on eBay.

There's a lot of other issues that get mixed up in here, but having to pay a higher fee if you consign to Probstein (compared to just listing it yourself) is not one of them.