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I'm always curious to see what the new marketing and sales trends are on eBay. Sellers come up with all sorts of innovative ideas to sell items. eBay also does their share by improving functionality and offering great features like Buy It Now and Make An Offer.
One of the newer trends I've noticed in the trading cards area is the "You Choose" sales style. The seller will offer up a large list of cards, usually from the same set, and allows you to choose a pre-determined number of cards from the list. I've noticed these more and more as I've been working on my 2009 Topps Heritage SP set. The most common type of auction is for the seller to allow you to choose 10 SP cards from their list. Here is an example auction.
The great thing for the seller is that this style of auction tends to yield more money per card than selling them individually or even as a lot of 10. I've picked up SP singles for $1 and picked up a lot of 10 for just over $12. The auction that I linked to above is about to end and it's at just over $36. I've chosen not to go this route as a buyer as my cost per card would be more than I want to pay. But it got me thinking about the possibilities as a seller.
I posted yesterday about CheckOutMyCards.com. I think that's a great site to sell cards that that book for anything over $4 per card in Beckett. The reason I set the $4 minimum book value is because I'm figuring I can get at least $1 for it. It's really not cost effective to sell any cards for less than $1 because of the selling fees.
As we know, there are a lot of cards that book below $4 each. What do we do with all of those? Well, I figured since buyers are responding well to the "You Choose" format for cards from the same set, why not try auctions with cards from different sets?
I've had cards sorted by player and stored away for a while. I picked out all the cards with $4 and higher book value out of those boxes and sent them off to COMC some time ago. So, I started some player auctions today that list all of my cards from a certain player and allow the buyer to choose 10 cards from the list.
I started out with Derek Jeter, Ken Griffey Jr., Cal Ripken Jr. and Nolan Ryan. I set the Buy It Now price at $7.99 and the minimum bid at .99 cents. I'll keep you posted on the results. I put them up for a week so they'll end next Sunday. Hopefully the results will be good and I'll have a viable option for getting rid of a bunch of cards from my childhood that I'd rather not have in my closet. I'd then have more money to buy cards that I do want want to have in my closet.
I'm curious to see what any of you reading think of this format and whether you'd use the same idea. What about the Buy It Now price? Too high? Just right? Click here to view my Ripken auction.
I love seeing gem mint examples of older cards. I always wonder how they stayed in such great condition after all the years. I've opened some wax from the 70's in the last few years and not everything comes out in great condition.
Steve Largent was once the NFL's all-time leader in receptions (819), he's now 15th on that list. I can't believe so much time has passed that he's dropped that low on the list. I can still remember being at the Redskins vs. Broncos game in 1992 when Art Monk passed Steve Largent with his 820th catch.
When Largent retired he also held records for most receiving yards (13,089), touchdowns (100) and consecutive games with a catch (177). He was a seven time Pro Bowl selection and was elected to the NFL Hall of Fame in 1995. Largent truly was in a class of his own as a receiver in his early years.
You can view the auction here.
One day I hope to own a gem mint vintage card like this one. The trouble will be deciding which one to own.
Earlier this week, Mario over at Wax Heaven posted about purchasing some cards for his Canseco collection from CheckOutMyCards.com. I joined the site about three months ago and have been meaning to post about it. Mario's post inspired me to do that.
I've purchased and sold cards on CheckOutMyCards.com. I actually started out selling cards on the site before I ever made a purchase. I'd been thinking about it for a while and initially tested it out by sending 10 vintage baseball star cards that weren't in great shape. I was quite pleased when they all sold within a week of being posted on the site. I set the prices a bit higher than what I could get on eBay and had no trouble getting it.
Since then, I have sent over 1,000 cards to be added to my account. I've sold 45% of those cards to date. I price my cards anywhere from 50% - 95% off of Beckett book value.
The beauty of CheckOutMyCards.com is the process of adding your cards to the site. You package up your cards and send them off. That's it. They scan the front and back of your card, look up the book values, add credit to your account when they sell and ship them out. It's so easy. They charge anywhere from 15 cents to 50 cents per card to add them to the site, depending how fast you want them added. Once your cards sell, you can use your credit to purchase other cards or cash out. You can request a check or a Paypal payment. They take 20% off your payout if you choose to cash out. When you consider eBay fees + Paypal fees + your time, this is not a bad deal.
The great part about this site is that you can sell cards that don't traditionally sell on eBay. True collectors seem to be a large part of the purchasers. I've noticed that I'll sell multiples of the same player to the same buyer or multiple cards from the same set. The best part is that there's no rush to sell your cards, they can just sit there until they sell.
I'm thrilled with the site so far and will continue to use it for selling and purchasing cards. In fact, I'm sending off another shipment of 150 cards tomorrow morning. I've also made a couple purchases in the past two weeks. I found some 2009 Topps Heritage SP singles that I needed and I got some 1960 Topps Pittsburgh Pirates cards for my autograph project.
Shameless plug: my cards on checkoutmycards.com
The site has a "make an offer" feature, just like eBay. Feel free to make me offers on any of my cards. The prices are low but can always go lower.
Date sent: 2/21/09
Date returned: 5/14/09
When I first started thinking about doing TTM autograph requests back in February, two people came to mind immediately that I wanted to send requests to. Those were John Wooden and Vin Scully.
I sent both requests in February and received back my signed card from Mr. Wooden less than a week after I had sent the request. I was so happy to get that back. A short time after I received it he came down with pneumonia and his family asked that the autograph requests stop.
I'm so thrilled to get this request back from Mr. Scully. I sent it way before the season started but was beginning to wonder if I'd ever get it back. He signed my 8x10 photo beautifully in blue sharpie.
Listening to Mr. Scully announce a Dodgers game is as close to perfection as you're going to get. He knows everything about every player that takes the field and always has a story to tell. His style was developed on radio where you have to paint a picture for the listener. He never changed that when he started doing games on TV. I have the MLB Extra Innings package and I always turn over to Dodgers games to listen to him do at least an inning. There's nothing quite like it.
Date sent: 4/27/09
Date returned: 5/14/09
This is my ninth return out of twelve in my quest to get autographed 1960 Topps cards from all twenty surviving members of the 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates team.
Gino Cimoli came over to the Pirates in 1960 from the St. Louis Cardinals. In fact, you can see he's in his Cardinals uniform on his 1960 Topps card. Gino is probably most famous for his lead-off single in the bottom of the 8th inning in game seven of the 1960 World Series. The Pirates trailed the Yankees 7-4 entering the bottom of the eight and lead 9-7 after the 8th. Cimoli's hit started the rally and he later scored on Dick Groat's single.
I just received a few more cards in the mail this week from eBay purchases so I'll be sending those out to be signed by the weekend.
As I mentioned the other day, I am a Capitals fan and season ticket holder. I will be attending the game tonight so there won't be a traditional blog entry today.
If you have nothing to do tonight you should check out the game. This could be one of the all-time classics tonight. It's what the NHL wanted all along and it's what they got. There's nothing quite like a Game 7.
Go Caps!
Ichiro is the greatest hitter of all time. Yeah, you read that right. Not only did I say it but I truly believe it. He kind of flies under the radar a bit because he plays in Seattle and he doesn't hit home runs. I don't think most people have taken the time to soak in what he's accomplished in his first eight years in the majors.
Eight 200 hit seasons
.330 career batting average
Averages 40 stolen bases per season
Has played all but 16 games in his career
Eight Gold Gloves
2001 AL MVP
2001 AL ROY
Ichiro is 35 years old and on pace to have 3,000 hits by the time he's 40 years old in 2014. If you add in his 1,278 hits he amassed in Japan, that would put him ahead of Pete Rose in all-time hits. OK, I know that we're not going to count those hits but it's an interesting thing to think about.
The thing that amazes me about Ichiro is that his production hasn't slowed a bit. He played all 162 games last season and batted .310 with 42 stolen bases. That's a heck of a season for a 34 year old player in his 17th year of professional baseball. He's off to a good start this year as well with a .315 batting average.
I think the statistic that cannot be ignored are the 200 hit seasons. He has eight in eight seasons. This is an incredible accomplishment. Consider that Pete Rose is the all-time leader with ten in twenty four seasons.
Collectors may want to think about picking up a rookie card or two of this great hitter and putting them away.
I'm always curious to see what the new marketing and sales trends are on eBay. Sellers come up with all sorts of innovative ideas to sell items. eBay also does their share by improving functionality and offering great features like Buy It Now and Make An Offer.
