eBAY Bid
 

Just finished bidding on 19 cards, all 1961 Topps, ungraded, offered by Greg Morris cards. Cards mostly 6's, some 7's. 5th and 6th series. I only won 2 of the 19. The other 17 went for overall average of 44% above Beckett listing.

I realize Beckett is not gospel, but it gives a place to start, and if you have time, which I looked at a few, Beckett Marketplace was less on a lot of the cards. I just do not understand the thoughts of what people are willing to bid on items that are not necessarily hard to come by in other places.

Any thoughts on your experiences like this?

Most of the cards on ebay are overgraded. Cards advertised as NM turn out to be EX+ when you see them in hand. In contrast, people trust the grading on Greg Morris cards, and are confident that a NM card will actually be NM when it arrives.

The other thing about Greg Morris cards is they sometimes have very nice, well centered cards and those cards get bid up pretty high.

Another thing to consider is the savings on s/h when you can buy multiple cards from one source versus multiple. Buyers can justify paying more per card if they can avoid paying separate sellers individual s/h charges on each card and instead buy as many cards as possible from one seller, especially a seller who caps their s/h rates and sells quality cards. GM cards offers 20k cards a week, lots of opportunities to save on s/h. IMO, this is one reason folks are willing to pay more per card.

I'm with the Beef on this one.

(This is in no way a criticism of Greg Morris Cards.)

GM card prices have skyrocketed in the last couple of years. I used to buy a bunch of different set upgrades from them at very cheap prices, and get the combined shipping to make it a sweet overall price, but, man, that train has left the station!!! Good for them and their consigners!! They do crazy well these days with virtually everything, and it forces me to look elsewhere. Their grading is indeed spot on, but 99% of the time any auction's pics will let me know what condition the cards are in (your results may vary. :rolleyes:), because I examine the scans and ask questions when necessary, so I'm happy to get much cheaper winnings from other sellers. That's my simple take.

Morris has successfully built a brand around the strong filtering of altered cards as well as applying tough grading standards to the raw cards that do put out there. As such, they have become in many ways the leading standard for raw vintage pricing on eBay and they routinely get top dollar. And so I'm not surprised to hear about you not winning 17 of 19 with them -- it aligns with my own informal research.

No critique of Beckett Marketplace since I don't use them, but for cards you're buying on eBay, especially raw ones, I can't imagine a better tool to use than eBay sold prices on the specific card you are after. Granted this is tougher with more obscure cards.

I have peace of mind bidding on GM auctions. I have won over 1000 GM auctions over the past 5 years. With that said I probably only win maybe 10 percent of the auctions I currently bid on. I refuse to overbid. Prices are getting out of hand. My interest in their auctions is starting to wane.

With that said, I have no complaints about their customer service and their integrity.

Similar to the Yogi Berra quote, their auctions are so well received, nobody bids on them anymore.

Prices of lots, accumulations, near sets, and sets have steadily increased in value over the past few months. In some cases, buyers are paying more (per card) for a lot than they can buy cards individually.

As Darren's signature states, overpaying yesterday, is simply underpaying tomorrow.

If I am down to a handful of cards to complete sets, which I am in many cases, I will overpay with GM knowing that the grading will be right plus I might not be able to find that particular card, even a common, in that condition, except maybe at a real big show.

Their "NM-MT or better" cards get bid up sometimes too because people like Jolly with superior analytic skillz can tell they are mint or gem. For example GM sold a 76T Ryan #330 for $550 not too long ago. In comparison 4 Sharp Corners just sold a PSA 8 of that card on ebay for $142.

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Ha ha! "Jolly" is just an adjective. It's Elm...or to almost everyone, Elms.

I have been a huge buyer and bidder with GM over the years and the positive comments align with everyone else.

-accurate grading even better than expected at times
-combined shipping. As long as I’m still winning auctions I let it rid for a week or longer. If I’m bidding on 61 topps I can see 3-4 set breaks in that timeframe.

All the other stuff is true too though. The prices are higher now and I never buy stars from him. Mostly commons. I am at the point where a need about 800 cards to finish off the 50’s decade and 800 cards to finish the 60’s decade. These are getting to be mostly tougher cards and the premium of say 40% in $15-$20 cards adds up a lot more than a premium on $2-$3 cards. I don’t bid with GM much anymore but when I do I gear up for a lot of bidding. I’ll bid on a couple hundred and win maybe 3-5%. And it’s usually ones with a little less eye appeal than his other auctions. Competition is stiff for his auctions.

Bravo to him for making money in this hobby in a fair and responsible way.

Wow, what a great way to put it!!