HOBBY forum or BUSINESS Forum?

[Ray33]

to avoid the hassle and all the troubles, just a buy a case or two for yourself.

I don't have a problem with guys buying cards from each other, or selling some cards to recoup costs.

I am talking about people who break a CASE or TWO of an expensive product, and won't even check a bucket or tell me what they are looking for for their PC to try and make a trade happen.

all 5 of my replies today were simply:

"Cards are for Sale only"

Nobody said, "I'm looking for player A or Player B" or "Sorry, I didn't see anything I could use in your Bucket"

the cards are for sale.

THAT is my problem. Busting a whole case of product and INSTA-LISTING it.

People are welcome to make it a business if they want, I just get tired of seeing a Hobby forum like this get turned into a place where only 25% or less of the members are even willing to consider a trade.

[BruinsFan08]

I've gotten to the point where I think I'm going to quit breaking boxes for the most part. Tomorrow, when my paycheck drops, I'll be sending out enough money to buy three boxes of Ultimate, but will be getting a Bobby Orr triple GU'd card, and an Orr auto #/25. What are the odds that I would have pulled two cards that matched the value of those two out of three random boxes? Slim. I broke about 6 boxes worth of SPGU, 8 Contenders, loads of Certified and Artifacts, and ended up having to start a non-Bruins PC because I pulled almost no B's, and couldn't make enough trades for the stuff I did pull. When someone's able to break 5 cases of the highest end stuff, what do I possibly have that they would want? Next to nothing. So I'm stuck saving my pennies and buying my wants, and then holding on to traders forever. I can't take an eBay style price hit on the stuff I've got, because I can't just break another case and get more traders, I've got to save up. I just don't have the income to be on par with case breakers, and have nothing they need. I've gotten the same answer from a half dozen people, selling only, but at the same time I feel lousy having to turn down trade offers from people that in the same boat that I'm in. They need cards that I've got, and I would love to trade, but they have nothing I want or need. Frustrating, but it's just a part of the game I guess.

I'll tell you this though, I've gotten both great and awful offers from case breakers...

Best one ever was a guy, we'll call him case breaker A. He broke a couple cases and offered to sell me a card that I needed, NPDTS, numbered to 10, for peanuts. At first, I jumped at the offer, but he PM's me and says he STILL wants to go through my bucket, because "you never know!" and in the end, he found a card to trade it for instead, and its BV was LESS than the sell offer. I sent him another couple cards just to make it feel a little more even from my end, but it was cool to see him interested in trading, not just in making his money back out of the case. He worked with me to help my PC, and picked up a card that he liked for it. He made the effort. I would have bought, and in the end didn't have to. Solid guy, and we've made another couple trades since. The example? Try trading first, be patient and see what's out there, and if all else fails, sell off what you can, and then take the rest to the 'Bay. Make the effort, traders will LOVE you for it.

On the other end of the spectrum, case breaker B rips 12 cases (not a typo, a DOZEN cases of a fairly high end product,) and pulls several cards I would love to own. I pick one out, being realistic, because I know this guy rips The Cup like I ripped Artifacts this year, so what could I possibly have? So I think of the card I'll be most likely able to pick up, not super-ultra-rare, and ask him if he's interested in trading. "Of course!" he says, and proceeds to tell me who his PC players are. I happened to have a card of his main PC player, a nice auto patch that's NPDTS, and woo-hoo! He doesn't have it! It's numbered to less than half of the card I'm looking for. He tells me I'll have to add, because that player's not as popular as Neely. Clearly BS, because almost every Neely card I look at that does book, compared to his PC player, is half the price or less...

As an example, 10-11 SPA auto patches: Neely #/25 = $120, his guy #/25 = $250 And it's like that for almost everything I look up. Not as popular as Neely, but apparently sells for double nearly every card they have in the same sets, right?

So, yeah, I decided to pass on the trade, it seems he's just trying to milk it. He offers me a buy price that is insulting, already more than double the BIN price of a copy of the same card that's on eBay, so I politely pass on that as well. Within a week, I end up buying the card from another member for 1/4th of his offered price. Down the road, case breaker B asks me about the card again, coming down a whopping $10 on his sell offer, and I tell him how much I paid for it, with a better patch, and numbered 08/25, Neely's jersey number. He "congratulates" me on getting such a good deal, and then proceeds to offer me yet another awful price for the card I've got that he "couldn't really use at the moment" for his PC when I was offering to trade it to him. He was all about money, but when what I wanted was out of the picture, he wants to buy his PC stuff from me like I'm selling at prices that lead one to believe that it's my last desperate step before selling my internal organs on the black market.

This is the basic information I got about the kid by trying to work this deal...
1. I'm open to all offers, of course, why, I love to check out buckets! That's probably why I won't do it.
2. I'm "totally up for trading," especially for PC cards that I need! But, again, I won't.
3. I'll buy from you, but only at about 8% of BV. Any more than that is unthinkable.
4. I'll sell to you, but plan on paying around 96% of BV, I couldn't take less, it's bad business!
5. Did I mention that I love making trades? Heck yeah, I do! But oddly, I won't.

Exaggerated, yes. Hilarious, yes. True? Pretty close, which is the sad part. Frustrating to the Nth degree. I would sell at somewhere between BV and eBay sale value, somewhere in the happy medium between the two, because I'm not trying to get BV for it, they're often unrealistic, but I'm not looking to get rid of stuff on clearance, so the middle road is fair. Am I wrong? Ugh.

Anyway, sorry to go wild in your thread Adam, but it seemed like a place where it made sense to put all this. That said, I'll trade with you any time bro!

[habsheaven]

I have no problem with breakers wanting to sell. As long as I can keep finding cards for my PC I am happy. For that matter, I do not break any boxes myself so I rarely have anything "new" to trade anyway.

My collecting habits have me buying all my newer, higher-end PC cards and trading for all of my older lower-end PC cards.

[jbudny]

with cases being so expensive now you really have to sell all you don't want to get some money back, but I understand it can be frustrating when people don't want to even trade.

On the flip side it's frustrating when people say trade only! I have missed out on a few cards because I didn't have anything to trade. I was always willing to pay more then fair price for those cards too!

[BruinsFan08]

with cases being so expensive now you really have to sell all you don't want to get some money back, but I understand it can be frustrating when people don't want to even trade.

On the flip side it's frustrating when people say trade only! I have missed out on a few cards because I didn't have anything to trade. I was always willing to pay more then fair price for those cards too!

Also drives me nuts. If I seriously have absolutely nothing they want, I'd throw down some money for a PC card if I have it, and that's almost always the time they'll say "trades only, sorry." We can't win!

[Craig2]

I have no problem with breakers wanting to sell. As long as I can keep finding cards for my PC I am happy. For that matter, I do not break any boxes myself so I rarely have anything "new" to trade anyway.

My collecting habits have me buying all my newer, higher-end PC cards and trading for all of my older lower-end PC cards.

x2 on this one.

I am very happy to cherrypick the cards I need from each of these breaks, because it's much easier on my Paypal account than it would be to bust a case myself. I give these folks credit, it's a big risk you take spending a few thousand dollars with no guarantee of seeing any ROI.

[tuukkatime]

Selling for money makes perfect sense.

Especially if you're a player collector like myself. Most people don't have cards of the player(s) I'm looking for that I don't already have, so selling is really the only route if someone wants my card.

And in another sense, maybe someone just wants the money to buy a PC card that they have been eyeing instead of what a person may have.

I think people just read too much into the monetary aspect of the hobby some times.

I couldn't have said it better myself.

The entire barter system was created for this specific purpose. For a lot of collectors, money IS like trading. We give away something we don't want for money to use to buy things we do want. Money is just the tool we use to do it.

Another thing is that I really don't feel that there is money to be made busting boxes. It's a ton of fun and great when you hit but I'm sure there are very few people who can net profit off busting wax (if you are one of them, I suggest writing a book).

I wouldn't say it's business but the cash aspect of deals makes things way easier.

Just my opinion,

Matt

[centrehice]

To myself, Hockey Cards are nothing more than a commodity, like hats, cars, houses, groceries, clothing. I am in this business to make money.

Along the way, I move a few cards to the side for myself, and it becomes a collection.

To me everything in the World is "For Sale", and I'd like to be the one selling it.

Do I feel cheap and embarrassed at my attitude? Absolutely not. Should you be upset by my behaviour? Only if you are insecure.

I began this thing by putting 1955-56 Mint Parkhurt Gordie Howe cards in the spokes of my bike and ended by going through at least 20 Bobby Orr 1996 Topps Rookies in the same manner, I think I can pretty much do what I want with cards, based on that History.

[Sapphire Sports]

What is a hobby to you is just Business to others.

[SkyFire47]

in any transaction (business or otherwise), both parties need to speak the same language and be on the same page. as a trader, you speak in cardboard. as a breaker, he speaks in money. this shouldn't come as a surprise after all. go to any store and try to buy a box, the price is dollars, not cardboard.

if you want to deal with breakers on their level, sell your traders and use the funds to buy from them. that way, you're essentially trading. you can't expect a breaker to want your random traders. breakers spend much more money on boxes/cases. if they wanted your random traders, they would've stuck to buying singles. it would've been much cheaper for them than assuming risk on opening product.

it's an extra step but it's well worth it. you can buy a box for $150 or you can spend the $150 on that one card you really, really want. honestly, the OP should be thanking all the breakers rather than posting something like this.. without them, you wouldn't have any new singles to trade for.