What happened to people making offers and asking questions on ebay?

[Lucas00]

I have an ebay account I occasionally sell a few things on every once in a while. About 40 listings. I'm not a typical collector/seller of run of the mill same old same old cards (nothing wrong with that of course). I have lots of unique and cool things that are often the only examples listed for sale online.

My question is, why do I never get any questions or offers on listings? I definitely used to get several questions a week just a few years ago. Now there's seldom a peep, and never any offers.

How bad has it gotten? Why are people so scared to make an offer?

My thought process is people just don't do BiNs anymore. If it's not an auction there's zero traction. Probably some kind of algorithm suppression is my assumption. The views are terrible. My posts here on n54 with a gazillion less people get 50x the views in a day compared to ebay with a huge audience. It's really unexplainable and
Extremely frustrating.

Let me know your thoughts.

[Peter_Spaeth]

Concur. I think people just assume all BINs are just museum prices and don't even bother to look. Try running an auction with your BIN as an opening bid, bet you get more views.

[JustinD]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

Concur. I think people just assume all BINs are just museum prices and don't even bother to look. Try running an auction with your BIN as an opening bid, bet you get more views.

Yeah, I am in this boat the last few years of crazy BINs too. If it’s not in my saved searches, I likely miss it. I have been using auction only search most of the time to avoid useless overpriced clutter in the results.

[icurnmedic]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

Concur. I think people just assume all BINs are just museum prices and don't even bother to look. .

This is me. I filter to auctions only for cards.
Tired of sellers wasting my time with 30%+ markups.

[BigfootIsReal]

Was checking out 1976 Shakey's Pizza Jackie PSA 9, seller has 799.99 LMAO sent offer of 105 and showed him where an SGC 9 sold for 42 in Feb....his reply...."what a joke, good luck in finding another 9"

[NiceDocter]

Maybe if your items are very unique or unusual people arent finding them.... Im not really good at perusing eBay so I just use a few key phrases every once in a while..... but occasionally I will run across something great by accident.... so maybe you need to have more "mainstream" headings? I speak as a total novice here......

[Snowman]

It really depends on what you're selling. Low end stuff or cards with average to below average eye appeal just doesn't move well on ebay unless it's an auction. But if you have strong demand cards with great eye appeal you'll get a ton of messages and offers. Almost all of my cards are perfectly centered HOFers and my inbox gets bombarded every day.

[Lucas00]

Thanks for the answers so far everyone.

I will say I am far far more on the memorabilia, ephemera and photo side of vintage baseball collecting. I know that is less popular than cards so that is another thing to add. Still doesn't explain much about so little views as I do title items (I believe) very well.

I think the kind of stuff I have caters more towards single player collectors who want something really rare/cool that sets their collections apart from plain old Topps card runs. Maybe this kind of collecting is becoming less popular somehow? To me it should be the opposite and very sharply at that. But who knows.

[Snapolit1]

I think the market has been so all over the place on pricing of cards and memorabilia and so hard to predict that many people, myself included, assume that the only smart was to buy anything these days is an auction so you at least have some idea where the market is.

Many BIN prices are based on what some dude bought something for three years ago at the height of the market.

[4815162342]

Originally Posted by Snapolit1

… Many BIN prices are based on what some dude bought something for three years ago at the height of the market.

+1

When I got back into the hobby last year after my seven-year sabbatical, I quickly realized that eBay had drastically deteriorated. I’m still blocked by a seller that has a card I need, simply because I asked a question and made an offer.

[JKPolk]

Maybe I'm in the minority but if there is a BIN with BO I'll always make and offer before buying at asking price. Usually I'll look for recent comps and offer with a slight discount to see if they're motivated to move the card.

If they reject and I love the card I'll either just buy it at asking if its reasonably fair and something I might not see again for a while, or I'll watch list it to see if the card sits at asking price and try again in a few weeks.

[trib01]

I no longer offer on items unless specifically stated they wish to have them. I used to message and offer prices on items all the time, but lately when an item is grossly overpriced and I make an offer the responses I have received - even from well known known guys - have been harsh and sarcastic. I always follow up with "I wasn't trying to be rude or disrespectful." But the attitude in the hobby and with people in general has gotten so much worse. I welcome offers. Even if I don't take them I will always thank someone for making one. There are several collectors/dealers out there I refuse to work with now simply because their rudeness has driven my business away.

[Kingcobb]

I think there is something wrong with EBAY's sellers dashboard. I listed 10 items last week 6 of them sold. On the sellers dashboard it showed no views or watchers for the 6 items I sold how is that possible?

Daryl Fraley

[Directly]

I have posted items on eBay Buy it now-no buyers, reposted as an auction, sold for more than my original Buy it now price, this happens all the time. I'm curious if eBay favors auctions and has those more visible to buyers.

[4815162342]

Originally Posted by Directly

I have posted items on eBay Buy it now-no buyers, reposted as an auction, sold for more than my original Buy it now price, this happens all the time. I'm curious if eBay favors auctions and has those more visible to buyers.

I can’t speak for eBay’s search algorithm, but buyers favor auctions over BIN museum pieces.

Rick Probstein recently started converting everything to auctions. Great move IMO.

[Exhibitman]

Do you have an auto-reject floor set on your offers? If so, you may be getting offers that you never even see.

[bigfanNY]

I think the OP 's question has more to do with people's lack of overall communication skills. These days when I send a 2 line text I often get back " so and so liked your text" rather than a 1 or 2 line reply. Just the way it is..
To be honest when I do send an offer or ask a question I do keep it very simple. Just to easy to offend or feel offended these days.

[Yoda]

Ebay BINs seems to be the pricing norm at big shows these days, at least in my experience. Dealers seem to be firm with their asking price with little flexibility, particularly for big items. Last year, I bought nothing at the National, which was a first despite having been to many.

[Lucas00]

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

Do you have an auto-reject floor set on your offers? If so, you may be getting offers that you never even see.

I do, but I check my offers often to see if I get any auto rejects. I almost never do. And when I do get one its not close to a realistic price. Say $250 item and the auto reject is $25.

[MooseDog]

If you are leaving your items up for months at a time I think the algorithm is working against you. There was a rumor around that if you list for 30 days, end, then relist that you reset the algorithm in some way. I can say from my own experience I have sold more things by using this method than just leaving them up to auto-relist.

As for auctions, I can concur with everyone else that those seem to get more action overall.

Also I have been sending offers (when you look at your Active Listings, one of the buttons at the top will say "Sending Offers Eligible") at 20-35% off with some success...these being items I am happy to get rid of at any price...

[tjisonline]

Agreed. Most buy it now prices are ridiculous for even low to medium eye appeal cards regardless of grade. For the higher end stuff regardless of grade, forgot about it. Wait for an auction house or trusted IG / FB / Net 54 seller.

[Snowman]

Originally Posted by 4815162342

Rick Probstein recently started converting everything to auctions. Great move IMO.

That's because he sells other people's cards and storage space comes at a cost to him. I guarantee you he isn't auctioning off his own high-end cards on ebay.

[Snowman]

Originally Posted by MooseDog

If you are leaving your items up for months at a time I think the algorithm is working against you.

Yes, it does. Your sell-through rate matters, as does your click rates and transactions per click rate, duration of time an item has been listed, total sales volume, feedback score, transaction defect rates, on-time shipments, etc. Those all affect ebay's "Best Match" search results algorithm.

[mannequin1]

Here's a great example: COMC, the biggest sports seller on ebay had 31,000 feedbacks within the last month. Sounds great right? Nope. They have 6,600,000 items so that's a sales rate of about half of 1 percent of their inventory. There are sellers on ebay with only 200-300 items that move 10-20 percent of thir items and some even a lot more in auctions.

[jayshum]

Originally Posted by mannequin1

Here's a great example: COMC, the biggest sports seller on ebay had 31,000 feedbacks within the last month. Sounds great right? Nope. They have 6,600,000 items so that's a sales rate of about half of 1 percent of their inventory. There are sellers on ebay with only 200-300 items that move 10-20 percent of thir items and some even a lot more in auctions.

COMC is probably selling a lot more from their own website than on eBay since it's cheaper to buy directly from their website.

[Snowman]

Originally Posted by mannequin1

Here's a great example: COMC, the biggest sports seller on ebay had 31,000 feedbacks within the last month. Sounds great right? Nope. They have 6,600,000 items so that's a sales rate of about half of 1 percent of their inventory. There are sellers on ebay with only 200-300 items that move 10-20 percent of thir items and some even a lot more in auctions.

Ya, but if someone buys 20 items and leaves feedback for all 20, ebay will only count it as 1 feedback since they're all from the same buyer in the same month. Also, a small fraction of buyers even bother to leave feedback in the first place. So that 31,000 feedback likely represents hundreds of thousands of card sales.

[mannequin1]

Originally Posted by Snowman

Ya, but if someone buys 20 items and leaves feedback for all 20, ebay will only count it as 1 feedback since they're all from the same buyer in the same month. Also, a small fraction of buyers even bother to leave feedback in the first place. So that 31,000 feedback likely represents hundreds of thousands of card sales.

Selling 20 items to one person may count as only 1 sale in their feedback score/total but many people leave feedback for each item. Of course, many people don't leave feedback at all. I sell at least 10% of my items each month. A half of a percent is terrible. Okay let's say only half the buyers left feedback, so then it's 1 percent of 6-7 MILLION items. Their prices are often outrageous because their sellers ask ridiculous prices. There are sellers who only auction and put low minimum bids that may sell 90% of their items.

[Lucas00]

Just turned every listing into an auction (near or a bit lower than my old bin price)

Will report back in 7 days if anything sells.

[robertsmithnocure]

Originally Posted by Lucas00

Just turned every listing into an auction (near or a bit lower than my old bin price)

Will report back in 7 days if anything sells.

Looking forward to seeing your results.

[Exhibitman]

I've noticed an inordinate # of overpriced BIN listings have offers preset to reject at nearly full price. One guy had a best offer indicated on a partial set of obscure nonsport trade cards I was interested in. I made offers to 70% of BIN and they were all automatically rejected. I got discouraged and quit. Yesterday the guy sent me an offer at 70% of the BIN. I said no because screw him for wasting my time in the first place. Let his item rot.

[mannequin1]

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

I've noticed an inordinate # of overpriced BIN listings have offers preset to reject at nearly full price. One guy had a best offer indicated on a partial set of obscure nonsport trade cards I was interested in. I made offers to 70% of BIN and they were all automatically rejected. I got discouraged and quit. Yesterday the guy sent me an offer at 70% of the BIN. I said no because screw him for wasting my time in the first place. Let his item rot.

You over-reacted. He was probably inflexible some time ago when he listed it but now has realized that it's better he take your 70% offer and move the item. I would take his offer and put you're feelings aside.

[Yoda]

I have always thought auctions were the most equitable way to price items. Auction prices set the market.

[UKCardGuy]

Auctions are great for items that are in demand by lots of buyers. But for unusual or rare items, BIN gives time for the right buyer to come along. But as others have said, ending the listing and resisting it using "sell similar" is a good way to reset the algorithm.

[perezfan]

In the "good old days" of eBay, asking questions of the seller was common and even expected. The vast majority of sellers were happy to provide prompt answers to any questions/concerns a prospective buyer might ask.

Fast-forward to today, where it is 30/70 (at best) that you'll even get a response. And if you are graced with an answer, it is typically rude, terse or a non-answer. What has happened to people's ability to communicate?

Recent example... We all know that a card graded "3" could or could not have a wrinkle/crease that fails to show up on a provided scan. I personally don't collect cards with creases, and like to request that the seller look at the card (typically if it's graded 2 - 4) to let me know.

You'd think I was asking for the moon. A few sellers will still respond with no issues, but most either ignore the request completely or reply with something like "I'm not a professional grader".

I did not realize you had to be a professional grader to hold a card under a light and disclose whether there's a crease. We've gotten to the point where 99% of sellers' descriptions simply state the number grade and nothing else. At what point did TPG became the word of God?

[Exhibitman]

Originally Posted by mannequin1

You over-reacted. He was probably inflexible some time ago when he listed it but now has realized that it's better he take your 70% offer and move the item. I would take his offer and put you're feelings aside.

Yeah you’re probably right.

[Zach Wheat]

Agree with Adam there are a lot of overpriced BIN's. I think many sellers over value their item. I regulalry look at BIN prices for one specific issue of graded card. Almost all BINs are well over recent sales, some times 8-10x of recent sales.

[Yoda]

VCP is such a handy tool and in some cases can persuade reluctant dealers to lower their off-the- chart BIN's.

[Butch7999]

Similar to what Rock, Daryl, Trib, and Mark have cited above, we've been made gun-shy about making an offer because
too many vendors are provoked at a glance, soooo offended and outraged that anyone would dare to imagine an overpriced item
might be obtainable for anything less than the BIN or auction start price.
We've even gotten nasty replies after merely asking for details on items poorly photographed and/or inadequately described.
Also, so many eBay BINs are 200%, 500%, 1000% above any established or probable market value -- there's just no point
to trying to make an offer at a reasonable price.

[gunboat82]

Originally Posted by Butch7999

Similar to what Rock, Daryl, Trib, and Mark have cited above, we've been made gun-shy about making an offer because
too many vendors are provoked at a glance, soooo offended and outraged that anyone would dare to imagine an overpriced item
might be obtainable for anything less than the BIN or auction start price.
We've even gotten nasty replies after merely asking for details on items poorly photographed and/or inadequately described.
Also, so many eBay BINs are 200%, 500%, 1000% above any established or probable market value -- there's just no point
to trying to make an offer at a reasonable price.

Yeah, these are weird times on eBay. I asked yepbg if he would take $4,000 for an item listed at $4,410. He said no and raised the price to $5,780.

It's his prerogative, of course, but it felt like a passive-aggressive response.

I don't usually leave much wiggle room when I sell on eBay either, but that's because I'm just a hobbyist who gets hit with fees on the buying and selling end, and I'm usually just listing to break even or take a modest loss. Failing that, the stuff stays in my collection.

For example, I bought a card on REA with a $3,400 hammer price, but my cost was $4,375 after taxes.

When I found a better copy of the same card just a week later, I offered the REA card at $4,250 shipped in multiple places, with zero interest. I had to list it at $4,750 on eBay to hit that $4,250 target, and wasn't willing go any lower. The person who used BIN ended up paying $5,100 after taxes.

I can't even imagine what the spread is like for someone who has overhead and does this for a living. In this ecosystem, the auction houses and eBay are the real winners.

[ricktmd]

Ebay has done a terrible job with their categories. It is difficult to search for Sports cards without doing a word search. The categories used to plug you into Pre 1930 baseball cards or similar. Like many things ebay does it makes the site worse and more difficult to use. Even the custom searches that used to be fruitful have been invaded by what ebay pushes not what you search for. If you want to look up 1920 W522 you do a word search, and it gets you there, sort of. There is no sense to try to look through their mixed-up categories relating to Sports Memorabilia. As far as communicationing with sellers most are uninterested and could care less. Ebay has helped create this atmosphere of over pricing, apathy and seller disinterest.
As far as selling via auction or Buy It Now. I agree they are different mainly because there are 3 types of buyers. BIN only, Auction Only and people that do both. It is good to toggle your items back and forth between BINs and auctions to get new eyes. I would disagree that auctions necessarily do better in terms of sales then BINs. Sometimes yes and sometimes no. If you try to auction an item starting at 149.99 for a 149.99 value card it is my experience that a bin has about the same odds of selling. If you choose to start the auction lower you may get more bids, even past a BIN that sat in your store for 2 months.
There is so many listings on ebay that stuff gets lost and with ebay pushing what they want you never know. Sometimes you land in the algorithms air stream and your item gets pushed to Google and Bing. That is when ebay is really helping you get views
I am scaling back selling. If I have a valuable sports cards to sell I tend to consign to an auction house. On most other types of items ebays return policy is absolutely insane and unfair to the seller. Revenue and profit comes from buyers. Sellers are treated like they are, replaceable. The few big sellers are treated a bit better. In the end ebay is still a good resource and if mined correctly can yield good buys. As far as comparing it to the partnership it had with sports collectors in the past it is completely different

[raulus]

Originally Posted by gunboat82

Yeah, these are weird times on eBay. I asked yepbg if he would take $4,000 for an item listed at $4,410. He said no and raised the price to $5,780.

It's his prerogative, of course, but it felt like a passive-aggressive response.
.

My experience is that yepbg offers sales of all of his stuff periodically. Usually for a decent discount off his standard prices. If I remember correctly, the last one was maybe a month ago for 30% off. So waiting for one of those to roll around, and then just buying at his discounted asking price might be your best strategy.

Of course, if he’s reading this, then he might decide to stop offering those periodic sales events.

[gunboat82]

Originally Posted by raulus

My experience is that yepbg offers sales of all of his stuff periodically. Usually for a decent discount off his standard prices. If I remember correctly, the last one was maybe a month ago for 30% off. So waiting for one of those to roll around, and then just buying at his discounted asking price might be your best strategy.

Of course, if he’s reading this, then he might decide to stop offering those periodic sales events.

I'm sure it was one of those discounts, because my inbox gets flooded with e-mails from eBay when it happens, which is when I remember there's stuff I want. I just noticed that the discounted price went up considerably after I inquired about that item.

Another seller on eBay (the name of this one escapes me) did something similar a while back, but this seller actually had the "Best Offer" option open. I offered 90% on a $5K item, and the seller declined and raised the price to $6500. I couldn't tell if the seller was annoyed, or if it was part of some business strategy where any item to raise the price on any item that generates interest.

[gunboat82]

To his credit, yepbg reached out on eBay and said he adjusted the price because he thought it was too low relative to a recent auction... not because he was ticked off about receiving an offer. It was a pretty obscure item and he knows the market better than I do, so it could have been a one-off.

The other seller was definitely annoyed to get an offer below the BIN price, because the rejection was almost immediate (but not automatic), and the price hike came immediately after the rejection. I wish I could remember the details, because it was bizarre. It was probably a Colgan Chip, because that's all I looked for on eBay for a while.

[ledsters]

.

[jpittman765]

My experience selling on eBay has been different than many of the above-described situations. First, I am a relatively new, small seller, so that may be a partial reason for my situation. In the last 12 months, I have sold only 240 cards, most priced between $100-$250. Primarily I sell graded vintage cards from 1909-1955. It is a hobby for me and I enjoy the interactions with other people. My customers have been polite, interesting hobbyists. I enjoy researching my cards presale, and I enjoy answering questions. I have met some fascinating people with great backstories. I sell only with fixed prices; my prices are generally around or slightly above what comparable cards have yielded on eBay sales, looking back over the last 1-2 years. Yes, eBay fees are high, but there is flexibility in their pricing, and I rarely lose money on any card I sell. So, I have fun. And, by the way, where can you find better people, and better advice, than here on net54. I have learned the hobby by going to school here, listening to the experts.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Svabinsky78]

Were you by any chance the one with the 65 Palmer team issue? I saw that the listing was converted from BIN to an auction.

Definitely interested in that one. The price was just a tad too steep for me, even now the lowered auction price. Great issue nonetheless.

I definitely make offers on listings that i am interested in that have the BO option and the asking price is somewhat in my ballpark. On the whole, I have had success, and I do not low ball. I will throw out an offer that is 10-15% off the asking price. If the listing price is way over comps, I will generally refrain from making an offer (I do not want to insult the seller).

With oddball cards/issues, older pre-war cards, my sense is that there just isn't as much interest (could be due to a lack of knowledge about the player and/or issue), unless you are talking about the super stars (Aaron, Mays, Mantle, Gehrig, Foxx, etc.) and the asking price is competitive.

Just as an example, there is a lovely 1947 Cleveland Indians Photo Pack listed on Ebay for $249. It's missing the Doby but it has the Lemon "rookie," along with Feller, Boudreau, Gordon. It looks to be in pretty decent shape, mid-grade. I have been watching it for about a month. When you check the sales for the 1949 Bowman Lemon "rookie," there have been plenty of sales in May, and even a number of sales in June. But the 47 pack is just sitting, and it has an issue of Lemon that predates the Bowman by two years. Could be that your average collector does not realize that that is a Lemon "rookie," or they just don't care for oddball issues.

There was a 1940 Red Sox Photo Pack Ted Williams in an SGC 2.5 that was just sitting and sitting (it finally appears to have sold), and the asking price was not bad (I think it had a BO). During the time that this Ted sat, there were plenty of the 1940 PBs that sold....and we are talking about Ted Williams, one of the greats, and the photo pack is more scarce than the PB.

I think if you deal in more oddball, unique, scarce items, they are more likely to sit and not garner as much interest unless, again, they are cards/issues of the hobby darlings, priced competitively. And, sometimes even with the greats (Ted above), they will sit and sit because folks either do not know enough about the particular issue or only collect Topps/mainstream sets.

[Lucas00]

Originally Posted by Svabinsky78

Were you by any chance the one with the 65 Palmer team issue? I saw that the listing was converted from BIN to an auction.

Definitely interested in that one. The price was just a tad too steep for me, even now the lowered auction price. Great issue nonetheless.

I definitely make offers on listings that i am interested in that have the BO option and the asking price is somewhat in my ballpark. On the whole, I have had success, and I do not low ball. I will throw out an offer that is 10-15% off the asking price. If the listing price is way over comps, I will generally refrain from making an offer (I do not want to insult the seller).

With oddball cards/issues, older pre-war cards, my sense is that there just isn't as much interest (could be due to a lack of knowledge about the player and/or issue), unless you are talking about the super stars (Aaron, Mays, Mantle, Gehrig, Foxx, etc.) and the asking price is competitive.

Just as an example, there is a lovely 1947 Cleveland Indians Photo Pack listed on Ebay for $249. It's missing the Doby but it has the Lemon "rookie," along with Feller, Boudreau, Gordon. It looks to be in pretty decent shape, mid-grade. I have been watching it for about a month. When you check the sales for the 1949 Bowman Lemon "rookie," there have been plenty of sales in May, and even a number of sales in June. But the 47 pack is just sitting, and it has an issue of Lemon that predates the Bowman by two years. Could be that your average collector does not realize that that is a Lemon "rookie," or they just don't care for oddball issues.

There was a 1940 Red Sox Photo Pack Ted Williams in an SGC 2.5 that was just sitting and sitting (it finally appears to have sold), and the asking price was not bad (I think it had a BO). During the time that this Ted sat, there were plenty of the 1940 PBs that sold....and we are talking about Ted Williams, one of the greats, and the photo pack is more scarce than the PB.

I think if you deal in more oddball, unique, scarce items, they are more likely to sit and not garner as much interest unless, again, they are cards/issues of the hobby darlings, priced competitively. And, sometimes even with the greats (Ted above), they will sit and sit because folks either do not know enough about the particular issue or only collect Topps/mainstream sets.

Yes that is mine. And you are definitely right. The crowd isn't huge for most odd releases, to me that's still hard to imagine. I personally am bored by standard cards, especially at card shows. Every table looks the exact same to me. Kudos to tables that make you stop and look closely at every little thing, you guys are doing a huge service to many. I think I can walk around the national and look at most tables for about 3 seconds before I know if I want to even stop or not. And 80% of the time it's the latter. Even at vintage tables. Most people can spend days looking around, I feel like I can see everything that would interest me in around 3 or 4 hours.

By the way, if you are seriously interested in the '65 team issues you can pm me. Obviously I can do better for n54 members directly 😀.

[Snapolit1]

Reminder to bidders:

If something is posted at $4950, and you really like it, $250 or $300 is probably not a constructive open offer.

[BillyCoxDodgers3B]

Originally Posted by Snapolit1

Reminder to bidders:

If something is posted at $4950, and you really like it, $250 or $300 is probably not a constructive open offer.

Reminder to sellers:

Don't forget to set your minimum dollar thresholds for offers so you don't have to deal with annoying lowballers.

I refuse to use the OBO option. Buyers can either pay my price or pass my listings by. Even with verbiage in the description that specifically asks people not to send lower offers via messages, I still get them. It's a combination of people not reading the descriptions, eBay blocking most of the descriptions on the mobile version (unless the viewer goes out of their way to click on it), and customers who just don't care and still try to get something for less. That's understandable, but not what I'm looking to deal with. I try to provide very personable customer service, but have tired of replying to "Will you take less?" queries when I've sepcifically said I won't in each listing. So, unfortunately, I have stopped even answering such messages, as I already answered before they even asked.

Also, many years ago, I tried that experiment that the one poster wanted to utilize. I set everything to auction with opening bids close to my BIN price. It was a complete waste of time, and really, rightly so. Auctions are a game. To succeed, you have to play by auction rules: ridiculously low opening bids are key. From there, you have two choices: stay honest and let the cards fall where they may, or shill away. I don't like either option, so auctions aren't for me. The bigger the seller, the better odds of success with the first option (and second option, lol). You may as well consign your material to one of the big guys if you want the best results via auction-style listings.

[ricktmd]

There are buyers on ebay that only look at auctions and some that only look at BIN's. That is fact. I take OBO because it works sometimes. Of course the ridiculous offers are something you just delete. I usually try both options if something isn't selling. I do agree that big sellers auction and either allow or wink at consignor shill bidding or just sell for whatever. Not a great option for me as a seller. Better as a buyer

I salute the poster or anyone who can buy from an auction house, pay 20%, plus freight and tax then flip it on ebay and make a profit. If you are clever enough to buy desirable items at auction that are popular on eBay, are able to pay 30% to the AH then overcome ebays 15% that's great. There is also the time it takes to list and ship the items. Even if I buy an auction lot and get a good deal say 100.00 per card and pay 130.00 delivered and sell on ebay for 50.00 additional 180.00 ebay takes 25.00 of the 180.00 and you are left with 155.00 for your 130.00 purchase. And that's if you guess/buy right. If you are selling your own items purchased years ago that's a different story.

Fortunately, most Sportscard deals go smoothly. If you sell other stuff and have to risk returns and pay shipping both ways ebay becomes a questionable business decision. A 75.00 item that cost 20.00 to ship can cost you 40.00 out of pocket. With ebays 30 day no risk policy (plus 3 weeks to ship it back) someone can test or take your item out on consignment, send it back poorly packaged/damaged and take nearly 2 months with it. Ebay is all about the buyers and when that happens to sellers ebay takes no hit