Set Builders - Need feedback for an online store.

[sandlotcards]

Hi All - I'm trying to get some feedback on the pricing of common cards for my online store. I opened my website sandlotcards 2 years ago with the intention of serving set builders and master set builders. Business has been growing steadily but I'm wondering what people think about my pricing of common cards.

Basically I price commons at 25 cents a card. My theory is that I sort all cards, I put most in penny sleeves, and list them all online so they are easy to find by year, set, etc. I also take pride in the way I package all cards. Very labor intensive. I know commons can be found at local card shows cheaper but they are frequently not sorted and not penny sleeves.

Just wondering if people find 25 cents a card reasonable for modern commons or even commons from the 'junk' years for that matter.

I look forward to any feedback positive or negative.

[asujbl]

25 cents is ridiculous...in my opinion at least.

I'm sure others will disagree - but I'd never pay that much for common cards - sorted or otherwise. The penny sleeve means nothing to me as that is exactly what it is - 1 penny.

If you take the time to do all that work that's your choice as it's your "business" you wanted to start.

Just saying - no chance I'd pay more then a dime per card if they were true commons and not semi-star level commons.

[DaClyde]

For 25 cents each, people will just use Sportlots, where most commons are 18 cents or JustCommons.com where they are as low as 8 cents.

[geoffyb]

i would pay 25 cents if it was just one or two cards I needed for a set. if i was buying in bulk i would want to pay no more than about 10-15 cents per card.

[sandlotcards]

Thanks for the feedback. Always helpful to get opinions from collectors..

[jones9923]

I agree with geoffyb, but if you ever are wanting to buy cards for your set..I'll hook you up!

[twinsfan48]

For those of you that said no, would it change your mind if it was free shipping and you didn't have to pay any extra shipping costs. Would you pay $0.25 to $0.50 more per card if you didn't have to pay any shipping costs for the cards?

[bangsportscards]

I have somewhere around 50,000 cards at the moment and many are football commons from the 1990's.

As to this situation in listing on a website I personally was thinking $0.05 per card. Now this hasn't factored in all variables completely.

I sort cards pretty fast. I believe if you had let's say 1,000,000 (or 10,000,000 and up etc) cards that were suitable for set building and the bottom cost was $0.05 each then you would be in a great position in the overall picture to pick up more business and realize a higher sell through rate with the idea of potential customer numbers rising favorably.

So all this may perhaps offset these mentioned labor costs.

And also always factor as part of the decision making process the fun and enjoyment of dealing cards!

OTHER THOUGHTS:

You will be giving some cards away with small sales. That should be ok with most wise motivated sellers. Send all cards that sell under $0.25 in a penny sleeve, with 10 or so cards tops slipped in between two top loads, seal them in a set bag, and then ship in a bubble envelope. I've found on eBay you can get 4" x 8" Kraft envelopes (a couple sellers to check are justpoundsandounces and threerb) in bulk of 500 + for around $0.07 each and less. And bulk top loads and penny sleeves are also great deals on eBay.

I have feedback for your website. I'd look at increasing the main page font size a bit as this I believe will help draw people's attention better and in part help to keep them around. I see you have a brown color for the brand. I've always thought some shade of yellow was a solid foundational color for connecting well. The button options on the left are a great idea, less the arrows before the years, and perhaps you could use rounded cornering for the buttons. The eight selections in white across the top should be increased a little in size and the text seperated by dividing lines. Click this website for what I mean when mentioning these buttons and lines www.phmiracleliving.net A key is keeping everything simple while using attractive design, layout and images to capture the audience's interest. Not knowing your position fully enough, these insights are what I'm offering by looking in from the surface of things.

Contact me if you want to talk about anything in more detail. And I'm actually working to build my own business, website, and marketing approach.

Brian