Deans cards?graded for free by their expert?

[arc2q]

David-
You're missing my point about why my wife prefers to shop there and why I believe that is best for her. eBay is not customer service-oriented and it is not a fair market place for the inexperienced. Sure, most dealers are 100% honest, fair, and service-oriented. But there are far too many unknowns and uncertainties for novices and non-collectors to attempt to wade into that market if all they want to do is buy (me) vintage baseball cards for Christmas.

We see multiple posts daily here about rip-offs and fakes on eBay. My wife and many other people who have neither the time nor experience to understand the market cannot use it with any semblance of confidence.

Certainly you could get better deals by scouring eBay or other auctions, waiting for the right deal to come along, and strategically bidding at the right moment. Many people do not have that ability. They want to buy something immediately with confidence it is authentic and assurance it will arrive in a timely fashion.

Your comparison of buying a Toyota from one dealer or another is flawed. To us it makes sense but to someone who is unfamiliar with eBay the comparison would be more like answering an ad in the back of the newspaper with no name of the seller who may or may not even own the car he is selling vs. buying from Carmax. You would expect to pay a lot less buying that car from the ad in the newspaper knowing you are taking some risk that a) the car may be in worse shape than advertised, b) it may have been in an accident, c) it may be stolen, d) it may be fake, or e) the guy might not even show up when he says he will to meet you in a back alley to sell you the car. I would be willing to pay more to go to Carmax for no hassle.

I like eBay. I do not want my wife buying cards off of eBay though because it is fraught with danger. Dean's Cards does not deserve the criticism...if buyers want to pay for the piece of mind that their store brings than that is the buyer's choice. The problem is the countless fraudulent dealers on eBay.

Andy

[buymycards]

Click on the link in the first post. This card is listed as 5-EX. Now take a look at the scan of the back of the card. Is that EX?

[vintagetoppsguy]

Andy,

First, let me say that you are lucky in the fact that you have a wife that desires to buy you cards as gifts. That's pretty awesome. I just got married, but I don't think my wife would ever buy me a card as a gift (at least she didn't do it in the 5 years we were dating). However, if she expressed that desire, I would give her a list of dealers that I would recommend, and probably a list of dealers to stay away from (and Dean's Cards would be on that second list).

I understood everything you said, but there are many, many other dealers that offer good customer service that are a lot more reasonable on their prices that you wife could shop from. I'm certainly not trying to get into your marital business. If you are okay with your wife shopping there for you, by all means continue. All I am saying is there are a lot more affordable options - not to mention the last few comments that were made about Dean's over grading their cards.

[Jantz]

You all know that there are two sellers who sell under the name of Dean's cards right?



Jantz

[nsaddict]

Jantz, Could you please let all that don't know these 2?

[Jantz]

Originally Posted by nsaddict

Jantz, Could you please let all that don't know these 2?

Richard

Dean Han-ley of Dean's Cards

Lar-rie Dean of Dean's House of Cards

It could be easy to get the two mixed up.


Jantz

[JollyElm]

Deans Cards is a frickin' joke!!!

I'm upgrading my 1972 set, so I'm constantly trawling ebay for many of the commons I need. Without question, every time I see a card priced ten times what other sellers have it listed for, I know it's our ole buddy Dean once again. It just makes me laugh how ridiculous his prices are. Clearly the guy has a screw loose and has no concept of reality. And sure, he's not doing anything illegal. A fact his apologists love to point out, as if that somehow justifies his exorbitant pricing techniques.

Case in point. The card on the left is what the esteemed Dean grades an 8. Yes, with 4 bad corners and other issues, he gives it an 8!! And his opening bid is...mind you, it's just the OPENING BID...$10.80. Yes, ten dollars and 80 freaking cents for a common you can usually grab up for under a dollar.

The card on the right is a different auction by an unknown seller. I wanted to find a card quite similar to Deano's offering and this was basically the first one I ran across that wasn't in rough shape. It has pretty sharp corners and is a little off center. The price? A buy it now of $1.79, which is about 1/6 of our hero, Dean's, opening bid price. One sixth!! And that $1.79, in itself, is way overpriced.

phils.jpg

Keep in mind that I didn't search this out to find a pathetically overpriced Dean card. I searched "Deans Cards 1972" and used the first listing found there. You can be absolutely certain that each and every one of his other cards is similarly price bloated. He/his company annoys the living bejesus out of me!!!!!!!!!!!!

[arc2q]

Originally Posted by Jantz

You all know that there are two sellers who sell under the name of Dean's cards right?



Jantz

Yeah, that occurred to me later. One sells at a number of shows and is for
Richmond I think. The other runs the very large website card business known as Deans Cards. Both fine men.

[conor912]

Years ago when I first started collecting vintage I bought several times from Dean. At first I loved his site's simplicity and ease of use. After a while, however, I realized how expensive he was compared to other dealers and stopped buying from him. At one point during this time my dad bought me a complete set from Dean which came in an 800 ct box. When I got it, I opened it, checked the key cards, and put them back in the box. Four years later I decided to put the set in pages and as I did I realized a card was missing...then two...then three...then 78. There were 78 duplicates, 78 missing cards, and two team cards with team stickers stuck right on them. Because it was four years later I figured I was SOL but decided to call them anyway. I talked to a guy (not Dean), explained the situation, and he told me to email him a list of the missing numbers. I did, and a week later a box showed up, free of charge. I thought that was pretty amazing. When I opened the box, they still screwed up 3 or 4 cards which I still had to go track down elsewhere. You can take this story as a positive or a negative, depending on how you choose to. The guy could have just told me tough shit, but he tried to fix it. In the end though, they still came up short.

[Tao_Moko]

I don't get this crowd sometimes. I mean, just next to Jesus in how ethical you are. Dean didn't violate anyone or break any laws. From what I can tell, Dean invests into keeping his inventory up so charging a premium to a person with money that was buying a gift is not that awful. She was happy and was treated well from what I read. He did spend his time fulfilling her requests. There are lots of crooks in this hobby and Dean is not one of them. So what he made a couple bucks. Should I hate the Pandora bracelet lady that gets a premium out of me when I buy them for my wife or mother? I'm a dude buying overpriced metal and glass. Not much different from a woman buying baseball cards made of paper and ink.

Eric S