Rings Around A Draining Tub

[mintacular]

While High BINS can be aggravating, one positive result is that sellers with realistic BINS usually do quite well...in a strange way they (hi BIN sellers) are a helping hand to the rest of us

[zljones]

Originally Posted by mintacular

While High BINS can be aggravating, one positive result is that sellers with realistic BINS usually do quite well...in a strange way they (hi BIN sellers) are a helping hand to the rest of us

This is true.

[iggyman]

This might be going a bit off-track but for the past few months, I've run a combination of BIN's and straight auctions with both methods working quite well. The straight auctions received a bunch of hits, with some cards selling for a premium and others selling at the painful level. Overall, I was more then satisfied with the bids, but as usual there was no rhyme nor reason for the bidding; one day I would do fantastic, a few days later the auctions would bomb. With that said, at the end of the day, when you have a card that two or more bidders want, nothing beats a straight auction which starts are .99 cents. The BIN's was another animal entirely.

For the most part, they barely would get a hit, but sooner or later someone would bite on them (which was sometimes surprising to me), other times, they wouldn't sell but I would receive a respectable offline offer. That is both good and bad, but as a seller you always have the option of not accepting the offer. As someone, who has always run straight eBay auctions, I really enjoyed doing the BIN's. I didn't have to sweat out the hammer price and for the most part the cards would sell over the course of a few weeks (which made shipping and handling alot easier). From a sellers perspective, I'm sold on BIN's.

Lovely Day...

[MVSNYC]

there still is a feature that allows you to edit out the BIN "auctions"...i did a random pre-war search last night, it brought back around 42,000 total items. when i edited out the BIN's, the amount went down to around 4500...that's 90% BIN's...ridiculous. i too miss the good 'ole straight auctions. let the bidders determine the market.

[novakjr]

Personally when running a search of pre-war, I'll either edit out BINs and search by Time Ending Soonest. BUT I also run one with BINs by Price + Shipping Lowest First. Never have any problems with the first search. The second however is a nightmare. You have to rifle through tons of reprints, conlon cards, negro league postcards, national pastimes(or whatever), tcma's, stat game cards, amongst a bunch of other crap.. Even after using the "-()" for most of the bad keywords, you've still gotta go at least 20 plus pages before you really get to anything that's actually pre-war. I usually jump ahead, but I always wonder if I'm missing something that's lost in the mix of all the BS..

NOW I'd like to address sellers that list their cards and such with random inventory numbers. ie:1917(well, you get the point). Those cause multiple era listings and flood the hell out of every imaginable search. And those who list the Conlon cards by the year of the photo on the card. Please F***ING STOP...

I have no problem with somebody wanting top-dollar for their items...They're not gonna get it, but I have no problem with it...It's clearly the mis-listings(whether intentional or not) that piss me off.

[JasonD08]

While I agree with mostly what is being said on here, I have to say this has a lot to do with the way ebay restructured things. Also as an eBay seller, I have been on both sides of the fence. I used to purchase items mostly through ebay alot more when the stores were no so prevalent. I think the sellers like myself with alot of items are forced to used the store method because of the cheap insertion fees. Auctioning right now is a real gamble and I think listing BIN (reasonable) with a Best Offer option is best. It gives the buyer an option to make a fair offer. I try to respond to ALL offers as rediculous as they may be. Trust me, I get plenty of stupid offers as well. Listing 5000+ items with $0.05 fee is easier than $0.35 etc. With that being said, there are PLENTY of sellers with no Best Offer option that have rediculous prices on their items.

A good example of how it works for me as a seller, is that I just sold a 1933 WWG Ruth through a Best Offer on ebay. (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...5#ht_500wt_699)
I had offers of $1 up to the price I sold it for at $1,025. I had it listed at $1,200 OBO. I settled on a price that I probably got out that at even money. The card was dead centered with EX corners and gorgeous color. It had 3 big creases through it and that is why is was an SGC 30. When I purchased the card, I bought the card....not the holder and paid more than a typical beat up 2. Aslo the WWGs are alot tougher than the regular Goudeys and not collected as much at all. With that being said, auctioning this card would have been a real gamble. I probably will not find another one like that with the same visual appeal. Now if you look at my stuff this week you will see some cards I have decided to auction like 54 B Ted WIlliams in EX+, a nice CLemente RC etc. I think the beauty of these cards will carry them so I decided to auction those.

My 2 cents........do not get hung up on how someone sells their items......its a free country and a free market still. Let them hold them forever. They will break sooner or later and BUY THE CARD NOT THE HOLDER. I have paid 50% more for items with eye appeal with the same technical grade. With that in mind, do not expect a seller to sell a much nicer appealing card for the same price as someone who just sold a card in the same technical graded holder that was beat to hell.

Jason
looking for 39-46 exhibit Gehrig

[zljones]

Originally Posted by novakjr

Personally when running a search of pre-war, I'll either edit out BINs and search by Time Ending Soonest. BUT I also run one with BINs by Price + Shipping Lowest First. Never have any problems with the first search. The second however is a nightmare. You have to rifle through tons of reprints, conlon cards, negro league postcards, national pastimes(or whatever), tcma's, stat game cards, amongst a bunch of other crap.. Even after using the "-()" for most of the bad keywords, you've still gotta go at least 20 plus pages before you really get to anything that's actually pre-war. I usually jump ahead, but I always wonder if I'm missing something that's lost in the mix of all the BS..

NOW I'd like to address sellers that list their cards and such with random inventory numbers. ie:1917(well, you get the point). Those cause multiple era listings and flood the hell out of every imaginable search. And those who list the Conlon cards by the year of the photo on the card. Please F***ING STOP...

I have no problem with somebody wanting top-dollar for their items...They're not gonna get it, but I have no problem with it...It's clearly the mis-listings(whether intentional or not) that piss me off.

Amen to that, I too am sick and tired of reprints and other garbage listed in the vintage category or as a card in general when they are not even cards. When I was on my hunt for a T205 Johnny Evers awhile back, I would put in T205 Evers in my search then it would keep pulling these two black and white reprint photos. What the hell do reprint photos have to do with T205!?

[JasonD08]

Yes the reprints need to have their own catagory and if a seller is found selling reprints, then they need 1 warning then a suspension. The only problem with this is that alot of the eBay reps are not real bright and not versed on what is a reprint or not. I think many would still slip thorugh the cracks. I think ebay cut down costs and time with personal by cutting the sub catagories out, therefore pushing everything to a store format and getting rid of the auctions. This was a move to downsize I bet and increase profit margin. Until someone or some company rivals ebay with their old idea of online free market auctions, this will never change. Many have tried and nobody has succeeded. I personally like the buyers that negotiate and negotiate prices then eventually purchase the card and give in. Even when you ship it next day, they hit you with less than a 5 star rating and we both know it was because the seller didnt give in to their offer demands.

[David W]

I've had 2 cards on my watch list going on 3 years now.

Every 6 months or so I make a best offer of 75%, it always
gets auto rejected.

I don't really care if I have the cards anyway..... Apparently
the seller doesn't either.