Card Shows: Tech as a servant or master?

[brunswickreeves]

I don’t think dealers were picking the lowest purchase price from the past 36 issues of Beckett, or pricing the sale of their cards from the most expensive issue either…tech has enabled a much further reaching view to pick from, given VCP averages over a significant time horizon and makes data aggregation more accessible.

[JollyElm]

Coming soon to a new Collectorisms thread near you...

Phone Value - the updated, modernized version of “book value.”

[skelly]

I’m not looking up cards that I am inquiring to buy & I don’t expect a dealer to spend 2-3 minutes looking up comps. You look it up, I’m no longer interested. Quote me an immediate price, I might buy it even if you’re on the high side.

[BillyCoxDodgers3B]

If I even hear the word "comp", there is no transaction happening. Glad I'm in a part of the hobby where its usage is not yet as prevalent as it is with cards.

[Hankphenom]

Old baseball cards are not auto parts. Comps are a useful piece of information, sure, but more relevant are how long a potential buyer has been looking and how much they're willing to pay. On the other end, the dealer has to think about how long it will take to replace that card and for how much. When the buyer and seller have the same idea as to the card's value at that moment, you'll have a deal, which might have little to do with previous "comps" in one direction or the other.

[Keith H. Thompson]

Originally Posted by Hankphenom

Old baseball cards are not auto parts. Comps are a useful piece of information, sure, but more relevant are how long a potential buyer has been looking and how much they're willing to pay. On the other end, the dealer has to think about how long it will take to replace that card and for how much. When the buyer and seller have the same idea as to the card's value at that moment, you'll have a deal, which might have little to do with previous "comps" in one direction or the other.

When I go to a show, I don't care what the dealer says or looks up or claims, only what the price is. I don't counter claim, or make a lower offer, just buy the card or not depending on how I feel at the moment or judge my ability to find a better copy sometime soon.

[Hankphenom]

Originally Posted by Keith H. Thompson

When I go to a show, I don't care what the dealer says or looks up or claims, only what the price is. I don't counter claim, or make a lower offer, just buy the card or not depending on how I feel at the moment or judge my ability to find a better copy sometime soon.

Sure, except that you know there's somewhere between 10-20% off built into the sticker price of just about everything, but you have to ask for it, as in a simple, "what's the best you can do?" etc. On the flip side, dealers can respond to the refrain, "I can get this for so much at such and such," with "Why haven't you?" It's a bit of a dance, but like I said, we're not talking auto parts here, that's part of the fun.

[notfast]

Originally Posted by BillyCoxDodgers3B

If I even hear the word "comp", there is no transaction happening. Glad I'm in a part of the hobby where its usage is not yet as prevalent as it is with cards.

How should someone price their cards?

[BillyCoxDodgers3B]

Originally Posted by notfast

How should someone price their cards?

As noted, I'm not into cards. Card guys are unfortunately stuck with being badgered by an endless chorus of "comps".

It's not the usage of comparable sales that bothers me as much as it is the term "comps". That's just me being crotchety!

Then again, it must be very difficult to accurately use comparables because most cards are fairly unique. As we discuss so often, one 3 is completely different from another 3. Sometimes, both grades are accurate, but for completely different reasons. Other times, the number grades make no sense when the two cards are placed side by side.

As Hank noted, and I've often thought to myself, we're not talking about auto parts or something where every comparable sale is of exactly the same product in a uniform condition. Therefore, this practice I'm reading about where people are searching for the lowest "comp" and trying to obtain the card for said price can't be much fun for those on the selling end. It's just a new way of, "How far can we make this seller bend over?". How much hair-splitting is involved beyond finding the lowest "comp"? "Well, I'd say this card is 16% nicer than that 3, and 6% less attractive than this other 3...These other ones sold at the height of the Pandemic Boom, so..."