Something that has baffled me for years is why some sellers, even some who seemingly do a big volume of sports cards, will list cards, either as an auction or a Buy It Now, for absolutely ridiculous prices. Does anyone have any insight on why someone would list a crap Hensley Meulens common for $5 or maybe a 1987 Topps Joe Carter for $7 (with $4 s&h)? Doesn't eBay charge for listings? Aren't they just losing money by listing these absurdly priced cards?

I'm not positive, but if they have a Ebay Store, I think there are set prices for listings and they list for 30 days...I think it's $.25 a listing. They don't pay any other fees unless they sell the item, so maybe they're fishing for suckers LOL. If you check out the ebay stores FAQ, it may tell you the exact fees required for store listings. It think it is around $15-18 per month to have the store (plus the listing and final value fees if sold) to have a basic ebay store, so if you sell lots of cards monthly it seems to be a good deal. There might be other fees I'm not aware of.

Don

I've wondered about this a lot as well...but I've changed my thinking a little recently. I still think it's crazy, but not as much so. The reason I've changed is because I decided to list 3 cards of mine as BIN/OBO and I listed them at BINs higher than I thought it would sell for to make the offers on it higher.

I listed a Lecavalier Auto #/10 as BIN $59.99, hoping I would get b/w $40-50...the highest offers I received from here were $20 and $40. Well someone bought it for the full $59.99 within 3 hours of listing the item...I checked his feedback, he was a big Lecavalier fan and bought tons of his stuff.

Then I listed a Russell/Calvin Johnson/Gonzalez/Jarret Quad GU and a Calvin Johnson/Bowe/Gonzalez Triple GU...The Quad BV was $40...I listed it at $29.99, hoping for $15-25. The Triple BV was $25, I listed it at $15.99 hoping for $10-15. Someone bought both of them at full BIN price as well...the guy was a huge Calvin Johnson fan.

So I think some collectors are willing to pay more to get the cards ASAP or, in the case of the Lecavalier, because they think they might not have another chance for that card and just bite the bullet. So I understand a little more I guess....but I've seen a Legwand 6 color patch/auto #/10 on there for $50 BIN, and I'm still not willing to pay that much for it...I guess people just do things differently.

But yeah, I still don't understand BINs on base cards, etc....

Jason,
As the others said Ebay can be a great place to unload cards. I don't think what you say is happening as much anymore due to the shipping on one card being almost a 1.50 in the U.S. Thus in the past you could get a game used for a 2 and if it was a player you needed so be it.

p.s. Ebay is a business and the people on there are BUSINESSES and if they make money doing something they stick with it. So either they have done this and it been successful or they are new and will find out it does not work. I assume the aforementioned (successful).

DON