Question For Player Collectors

TMLFan3

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Hi Player Collectors, question for you!

Do you educate your eBay sellers with a message when you see a rare card you need pop up?

Lately, I have been more then ever. Seems like lots of BIN's as opposed to auctions are coming up. I send a message usually saying "Hey, nice card, but I collect this player and know his market well. This card should sell for XX as opposed to XX. Hope you can consider a lower price".

Usually 8 times out of 10 I will get a message back saying something and I would say 4 out of those 8 times the price is revised to a lower amount.
 
I collect cards of myself and anytime I try to say something like that to an account on ebay they tell me to go kick rocks lol
 
As the resident "Taylor Hall Expert" (by default) I have done that sometimes. About 1/3 of the time. no reply, 1/3 of the time, It gets lowered, and 1/3 of the time it's "Well I think this is what the card is worth and I'd rather hold on to it than sell it at that price."

BUT- if you don't ask, there is no chance of you getting it for a better price.
 
Markets change. Both up or down. Not sure why anyone would think they can determine the exact price a card someone else owns should be priced at.

If I got a message like that it would be straight to the blocked bidder list personally.
 
Every time I've tried that I've basically been told to go @#$% myself!

I know the market for Luongo, but people are delusional. 10 years ago, yeah it could work. But today people think they have a winning lottery ticket with every card!
 
As a seller it depends on the player. Mid to lower end players I have no problems lowering the price. Especially for PC collectors.

As a buyer, I will ask only if the card is something I need to completed a rainbow set. Else, I don't bother trying if it priced too high.
 
Markets change. Both up or down. Not sure why anyone would think they can determine the exact price a card someone else owns should be priced at.

If I got a message like that it would be straight to the blocked bidder list personally.

I disagree. If I can say- "10 other copies of this card have sold recently for $20-$25 and yours is priced at $250",
I think it would be extremely unprofessional and childish to block me for that.

If you had a card xx/10 and I said,
"Hey, several similar cards from other sets sold for $125 and yours is listed at $250",
I'd be more open to a "This is my price, end of story" response, but still- blocking someone for pointing out recent market similar sales??? Too extreme and is a reason the fun is leaving the hobby.
That said, if someone tried to say a 1/1 of a wily vet should only be $10 (ie- a stupid pricing), I could see the block coming for that.

Buyers should not have to worry about being blocked for making reasonable "price advice" comments. I get that a seller can ask any price they want, but a conversation (reasonable and calm, kind, etc) should always be allowed.
 
If a buyer doesn't put a best offer option then I assume that is the price to get the card. If I feel comfortable buying the card I will grab it. If I don't I simply watch it. Often times I'll get an offer for it sometime in the future at a discounted price and if I hadn't acquired it I'll consider the offer price and see if that works for me.

If someone is selling a 25 dollar card for 250 then chances are it would never sell. It should be fairly easy to acquire elsewhere though if that card is indeed only worth 25.

There is also a huge difference from someone asking for a lower price and someone messaging you your card should be priced at xx. I would typically ignore someone asking for a discount if I wasn't interested because it's a flea market mentality but telling me what a card should be priced at? No, thats what the market is for. Not every card needs to be sold in a week. Sometimes it's simply waiting for the right buyer. I've listed many cards over the years in the 75-100 range and had people message me saying comparables and what the last one sold for and it should be x or y. A couple months later I'll sell the card at the full price.

The recent market sales argument only works to the benefit of the buyer. If prices of a player jumped on a listing that had been active for say a year, you wouldn't message the person and say hey this card if selling for 50 more than you are asking for it, raise the price please so I can buy it, you would simply pull the trigger. The same works the other way. If the comparables for a card were 25 for a card and I want 50 then why didn't you buy the ones at 25? Theres probably a reason behind it. Maybe the card only sold for 25 because they wouldn't ship to Canada limiting the market. Maybe the last one sold at an auction at an undesirable time, wasn't properly listed, etc. I'll know I'm right because my card will eventually sell. If it doesn't then I'll have to re-evaluate my pricing.
 
The only time I message sellers about their listing practices is if there is an error that will cost them money. "You've listed this as a X. It's actually not, and you'll end up with an unhappy buyer lodging a complaint. Here's how to tell the difference."

Pricing? Don't care. They can ask what they want. I'm not required to buy it.
 
As others here have suggested, I usually operate under the assumption people won't like to be lectured. And let's face it - as well as I'd like to think I know the market, I've been proven wrong time and time again so I can't even make that claim with confidence anymore. If the asking price is too off-base, I know there won't be any common ground right away because any offer will sound like a lowball by comparison. I often hope time and patience will win the day, and sometimes it does. But my patience has its limits, and I'm not afraid to message sellers either to make myself known to them and try to gauge their realistic expected return vs the BIN/OBO price. I don't begrudge sellers shooting for the moon in the early going, especially with 1/1s because you just never know. But I find it never hurts to establish a friendly ongoing dialogue with them either in the event time proves you right and you end up first in line when they come down to earth.
 
I have an instance where I have two cards from an older set. I pulled these cards myself so they have been in my collection from “day one”. Someone said they were creating a set. I am a decent guy, said what I had and started discussing terms. One of the cards were low priced (est $40) and I was ok but the other was a retired superstar goalie. My initial price was $100, which the other person was like “$40” and said “because I am a student is why I am offering so little”…now, looking at last sale on Ebay, a comparable card sold for $150. I thought the card value I was looking for was decent, and I was willing to let it go for $70, but the $40 offer was an insult. There is a current version on Ebay right now that is listed for $325. Needless to say, my card will not go lower than a respectable $250.
Also, what erked me was the fact the person was also trying to build two other sets of similar age and difficulty. Hey, when I was in college, I didn’t have money to buy cards. To this day, I refuse to deal with this person, and he is an active member here. If this story reminds you of someone, please keep it to yourself. The person who this is about may read this should know that there are limits and “you should be out of college now, so offering more $ should be feasible”…:-/

But on another note, I pulled a card from ITG H&P…short printed patch of a player that I know a Player Collector has the other cards. I believe the patch variation for the year is /8 or /10. When I say they have the other cards, I mean they have almost the quincy of the production run. I have one of the remaining. Here is my dilemma on this and it falls right in this discussion: do I hold out for the value based upon the reality of its rarity in the market (seemingly being greedy), provide market value based upon player (being blissfully unaware of its rarity), provide a discount on the prior (knowledgeable dealings), or sit on it since the “deal” isn’t advantageous to sell it (collector pulls the “all the others I got for xx and it should be only xx, not worth XX”)?

There are some unscrupulous people out there. I am not trying to be one and like to be fair, but also don’t want to be taken advantage of. We have seen that one COMC vendor that will buy the sought after short print card and drastically increases the price. They are doing the extreme. “If someone wants the card bad enough, they will pay the asking price.” Totally ballsy and may work a few times but definitely gives a bad reputation for “being that guy”, to paraphrase Letterkenney.

Good discussion. Sorry, I may be a bit long winded.
 
being a player collector it seems like there are 2 schools of thought

1 people know you and what/who you collect and want that card to end up with the collector and will be fair or take a loss even just that it ends up in a collection where they think it belongs

2 People know you collect so and so or whatever and they will try and rake you over the coals like Sportcardheaven on ComC does if he finds out you want/need/collect something
 
BINGO!!!!!

being a player collector it seems like there are 2 schools of thought

1 people know you and what/who you collect and want that card to end up with the collector and will be fair or take a loss even just that it ends up in a collection where they think it belongs

2 People know you collect so and so or whatever and they will try and rake you over the coals like Sportcardheaven on ComC does if he finds out you want/need/collect something
 
being a player collector it seems like there are 2 schools of thought

1 people know you and what/who you collect and want that card to end up with the collector and will be fair or take a loss even just that it ends up in a collection where they think it belongs

2 People know you collect so and so or whatever and they will try and rake you over the coals like Sportcardheaven on ComC does if he finds out you want/need/collect something

This is spot on. I have dealt with both types, but its really tough to find the first kind via ebay, especially if you're inquiring into an already inflated price.
 
I don't bother doing that, for pc cards or anything else. The market will naturally correct high prices. I don't need anything right this minutes, plenty of other things I can be spending my money on instead.
 
I don't actively message sellers, but sometimes people will reach out to me about a card to estim ate value, or if it's something I need we come to a fair price for it based on my experience collecting that certain player.
 
If youre a player collector you sometimes just need to be ok with not being able to get certain cards. I collect Shayne Corson, no one else does, but some sellers want obscene money for some of his rare stuff. I just move on and hope I see it again down the road sometime.
 

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