High end card auctions + ebay. Would you participate?

[jfkheat]

The problem with selling high end cards on eBay vs auction houses is that eBay makes their money off of the seller while auction houses make most of their's off of the buyer. Sellers with a lot of high end cards can negotiate consignment rates with the auction house but they can't with eBay.

[raulus]

Originally Posted by jfkheat

The problem with selling high end cards on eBay vs auction houses is that eBay makes their money off of the seller while auction houses make most of their's off of the buyer. Sellers with a lot of high end cards can negotiate consignment rates with the auction house but they can't with eBay.

I get you, and that’s a good point.

At the same time, when it comes to 5 and 6 figure sales, eBay’s rates on a percentage basis are pretty low, especially if you’re willing to spend a few bucks to get one of their stores.

[ricktmd]

Having been an ebay user focused on pre 1930 baseball since the mid 90's I find this post interesting and curious both. I am not sure you are aware but there was a time where all ebay did was auction. By year 2000 many collectors were now auctioning on ebay which drastically impacted smaller auction houses, putting most or at least many smaller auction houses out of business. In some cases the smaller auction houses ran their auctions on ebay as thats where the eyes were. At a card show every other word out of dealers and collectors was "ebay this or that". Out of nowhere ebay pivoted to the buy it now format and successfully killed off most of their pre war baseball auctions. Over the the next few years new small auction houses sprung up not using ebay. At the time I regularly called trying to reach someone of stature at ebay (which was possible 20 years plus ago) and their answer was they were having a lot of issues with auctions including shill bidding and misrepresentation of product, so they decided being and auction house for pricey pre war baseball or other collectibles was difficult for them to manage. Also I was pitched that the same dealers or collectors could now use buy it now which was cleaner and had less issues. At first it seemed to work but over time the buy it now format became the ebay museum.

As a footnote to this I dont think ebay is interested in becoming more involved in auctions (unless someone has heard different), other than how GMC or others currently do it. PWCC and its issues along with complaints, time consuming human resources, and bidding issues are not what they want. I would enjoy a high end auction format on a monthly basis with ebay and think its a good idea. Without some sort of change in philosophy or large $ promises I think ebay would just say feel free to auction under the current rules. Another interesting note is ebay has instituted seller limits. I was told in part due to sellers putting 100's of items at very high prices that dont sell as well as offering items they dont have and try to procure once an item sells.

[Bicem]

I pitched a similar idea to eBay about 6 months ago in a 15 minute PowerPoint presentation when I was interviewing for a Category Manager job in sports cards.

They understand the potential but are not really interested in competing against their biggest sellers like Probstein.

[Fred]

How did the ebay interview go? Do they seem like they are interested in improving what they currently have for sports cards? Or did they seem to like the status quo?

If there's one thing I really dislike about the current AH environment, it's the extended bidding and in most cases that all lots close at the same time.

I can predict that someone will try and provide the advice to put a higher ceiling bid in. My response is that I don't have an unlimited budget for cardboard I can pick and choose things so that if I get outbid on something, then I can put the allocated hobby money towards something else. Call it my version of working with a hobby budget.

[Eric72]

Originally Posted by Fred

...someone will try and provide the advice to put a higher ceiling bid in. My response is that I don't have an unlimited budget for cardboard I can pick and choose things so that if I get outbid on something, then I can put the allocated hobby money towards something else...

I'm often in the same boat. There have been auctions in which I've seen dozens of interesting items. Winning two or three of these at roughly market value is fine. Getting invoiced for 25 or 30 items *might* cause a bit of domestic tension.

I enjoy auctions that end lot-by-lot. I place marker bids early and then begin whittling down the list of realistic options (my watch list) as the bids climb.

By the time extended bidding starts, I've usually got a small handful of targets. As lots begin to close, I've either won items or I can bid more aggressively on targets that are still open. Without this knowledge (basically my "budget" for the auction) I would be more conservative.

[Bicem]

Originally Posted by Fred

How did the ebay interview go? Do they seem like they are interested in improving what they currently have for sports cards? Or did they seem to like the status quo?

I had to sign an NDA so I can't say too much, but they seemed hyper focused on their initiatives like Vault and eBay Live more than anything else.

[Schlesinj]

They seemed to make a big time sponsorship interest in the Philly Show last month. They had a whole “fancy” area in the middle of the hall. It was a large area carpeted with focused cards in single large cases. Not sure if that was a one time advertisement or some ongoing commitment.

[Leon]

Makes (money) sense. And isn't that what it's always about?

As to the original question, I would bid in those high end auctions just like I have any other ones since about '98...

Originally Posted by Bicem

I pitched a similar idea to eBay about 6 months ago in a 15 minute PowerPoint presentation when I was interviewing for a Category Manager job in sports cards.

They understand the potential but are not really interested in competing against their biggest sellers like Probstein.

[Seven]

To answer the question, If I was making a high end card, ebay wouldn't be one of the places I use, unless serious changes from the top down, were made.

Being a member here, I'd rather deal with someone from the board. Chances are, If I'm searching for a card and I have the cash in hand, someone here on Net54 has the card and is willing to sell. Either that or someone, knows someone that has the card.

But I also think, it depends on your definition of a high end card.

[Snowman]

Originally Posted by Bicem

I pitched a similar idea to eBay about 6 months ago in a 15 minute PowerPoint presentation when I was interviewing for a Category Manager job in sports cards.

They understand the potential but are not really interested in competing against their biggest sellers like Probstein.

I had a phone interview with a recruiter at ebay a while back for a data science role in the collectibles space, but I didn't follow through with it. I have several friends that work there as well as some who previously worked there. They were primarily interested in building a price prediction model at the time, which they've since launched, somewhat anyhow. Part of that effort required the need for better categorization of cards, which is why they now require things like graded vs raw, technical grade, set and year, player name, etc. It would be easy to build something useful and robust for vintage, but ultra modern cards make it a real nightmare with all the variations and more colors than the rainbow by an order of magnitude. I didn't have to sign an NDA, but I probably would have if I decided to pursue the role and interviewed on site.