Dean's Cards Discounts

vintagerookies51 · #1 02-12-2024, 02:53 PM

Anybody a regular buyer of his cards? Only customers I see would be people looking for some rare item that Dean has or people for which money is not a factor. That can't be sustainable by itself, yet he's still doing it after all these years so I must be missing something.

raulus · #2 02-12-2024, 03:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vintagerookies51

Anybody a regular buyer of his cards? Only customers I see would be people looking for some rare item that Dean has or people for which money is not a factor. That can't be sustainable by itself, yet he's still doing it after all these years so I must be missing something.

I concur with your analysis.

That's the beauty of capitalism - you won't last long if your value proposition is garbage.

The only possible answer has to be that Deans is selling enough to make enough money to stay in business. Maybe a lot of the sales are going to people who aren't familiar with the market, either because they're new or because they don't really spend enough time to really evaluate whether the pricing is within a few standard deviations of market?

I suppose it's also possible that some buyers just prefer to work with a dealer that they know and trust, rather than faff about with randos online.

And maybe it's a little bit of all of the above, including the situations you listed.

gunboat82 · #3 02-12-2024, 03:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by raulus

The only possible answer has to be that Deans is selling enough to make enough money to stay in business. Maybe a lot of the sales are going to people who aren't familiar with the market, either because they're new or because they don't really spend enough time to really evaluate whether the pricing is within a few standard deviations of market?

I suppose it's also possible that some buyers just prefer to work with a dealer that they know and trust, rather than faff about with randos online.

And maybe it's a little bit of all of the above, including the situations you listed.

This. Someone recently bought his PSA 4 1933 Goudey #149 Ruth for $40K. It's nice, but so are the other 4s I've seen that went for half the price.

mantleman · #4 02-15-2025, 10:28 AM

Bought a couple 60's Mantle cards off the website (not Ebay). Spent hours scouring the photos to ensure they were the cards I wanted condition-wise. Was pleasantly surprised they graded out much higher than their system graded them ( assessed at Vg-Ex, came bac Ex-Mt). Although this wouldn't be the case for the majority of their cards.

Would buy from again and the customer service was very responsive (international transaction).

gonefishin · #5 02-15-2025, 11:03 AM

Deans reminds me of a local card shop, but its on-line. The staff and everyone I have dealt with are very pleasant, and I believe, honest people.

Has anyone ever sold cards to Deans? Just wondering because I would consider contacting them if I ever decided to sell my collection.

Vintage Vern · #6 02-22-2025, 03:44 PM

What happens to the market if a card is bought for more then most are selling for through these sellers? Does it have zero effect or does it move the needle?

raulus · #7 02-22-2025, 05:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vintage Vern

What happens to the market if a card is bought for more then most are selling for through these sellers? Does it have zero effect or does it move the needle?

Not sure I totally understand your question. Let�s use an example just for fun. Let�s say a Mays 72T in PSA 7 usually sells for $100, but there are several dealers asking $500 for their copies.

Are you asking what happens to the market if one comes to auction and someone pays $1,000 for it?

Or are you asking something else?

Vintage Vern · #8 02-22-2025, 06:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by raulus

Not sure I totally understand your question. Let�s use an example just for fun. Let�s say a Mays 72T in PSA 7 usually sells for $100, but there are several dealers asking $500 for their copies.

Are you asking what happens to the market if one comes to auction and someone pays $1,000 for it?

Or are you asking something else?

Yep. Does it drive the market for that card and similar cards with the same value or do you own a card that will take time for the world to catch up. Do these sellers actually influencing the market.

raulus · #9 02-22-2025, 09:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vintage Vern

Yep. Does it drive the market for that card and similar cards with the same value or do you own a card that will take time for the world to catch up. Do these sellers actually influencing the market.

In general, particularly with my example, I think the answer is no, or not really.

There�s just way too many 72T Mays cards in circulation for any one dealer to have an impact on the market, at least one that lasts for very long. And a single sale at 10x the going market price is likely to be ignored by most everyone as an extreme outlier. Now if you get 5 or 10 that sell for that price, the trend might get a little more momentum. But my guess is that even then with my example, it wouldn�t last long, because owners would flood the market with similar examples, and the price would come right back down to around where it was originally.

One example not too different than this happened a year or two ago. Some guy started buying up all of the T206s that he could find on eBay for a particular player, who I think shared his same name. Price spiked for a few days until he had sated his appetite. Market flooded with a bunch of them at silly prices for a bit, in part because he was paying silly prices. And then once he stopped, the market eventually came back down once it was clear that he was done buying, and no one else was going to pay that much.

I do think the one exception is in situations where stuff is rare. Like really rare, with maybe only a handful of known examples, and where you might have to wait years or even decades for them to come onto the market. In that case, the market could be affected simply because transactions happen so infrequently, and your only option as a buyer is to either pay the asking price, or wait years or decades for another one to come on the market.

Snowman · #10 02-22-2025, 11:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vintage Vern

Yep. Does it drive the market for that card and similar cards with the same value or do you own a card that will take time for the world to catch up. Do these sellers actually influencing the market.

It depends on how frequently that card sells. If there are a lot of recent comps then one outlier sale generally doesn't move the market much, though technically every sale does have an effect even if small. But if that card sells very infrequently, then it can have a massive effect on what the next copy sells for.

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