Ebay Prices vs SCF Prices

[Stryfex]

Hey,

I was going to post a thread about Matthews Young Guns prices, but thought it would be more interesting to have a general thread about the price of an item on Ebay vs SCF.

Ebay prices are what they are, they're readily available and viewable by anyone and as such a somewhat good way of discerning a popular item's value (although there are a ton of issues with that system). Now, to sell an item on ebay incurs some pretty significant costs to the seller. Foremost are the flat+% fee on final sale value of the item and shipping cost. Additionally there is the paypal fees and listing fees for sellers that go beyond the free listing allotment. From that I feel like it's okay to theorize that prices on SCF should be cheaper than Ebay by at least 10-15%.

Have you guys noticed this to be true in reality, or just in theory?

I've been saving up my paypal funds to buy a Matthews YG (for my set...I got really unlucky with my box openings and finishing that set has been proving to be expensive) and now have enough that I can start to at least look at items and make some bids/offers (although I probably need to generate a bit more to actually land one). On ebay I've seen plenty of completed auctions at the roughly $200-230 CDN range. On here, most people seem to be asking for roughly $170 USD ($234 CDN) which is either slightly more or the same as Ebay...definitely not less.

[pwskelly]

Try COMC, I sold a BGS 9 Matthews for about $145. BGS 9.5 copies can be had for $210. I haven't looked but I'm sure ungraded copies go cheaper.

[Stryfex]

Try COMC, I sold a BGS 9 Matthews for about $145. BGS 9.5 copies can be had for $210. I haven't looked but I'm sure ungraded copies go cheaper.

Cheapest ones I see at the moment are about $180 USD + Shipping

COMC is one of those sites where cheap stuff is SUUUUUUUUUPPPPPEERRRRR cheap while in-demand items are generally a little higher to alot higher than ebay/forums

[pwskelly]

Yes but again. YGs like Matthews are in abundance on COMC so you'll get a better deal there than on eBay. A Crosby YG BGS 9.5 however is ridiculously priced at over $1000 because it's the only one on there.

[RGM81]

prices on SCF should be cheaper than Ebay by at least 10-15%.

I don't envision too many people willing to take a 15% hit just because they're saving some of the eBay fees and selling a card here. The usual "my card, my price" rule applies. People can always negotiate of course.

There's a lot of factors that can go into a card's prices and you can get some wide fluctuations on eBay due to Global Shipping, feedback & reputation, S&H, scarcity, etc.

I just got a Brendan Gallagher Cup Scripted Sticks on eBay for $8.50 not long ago. Don't think I'll get too many people here willing to sell me that card for $7.

With a widely-available card like the Matthews YG, you may be able to get some give & take with people but $20 off the going eBay rate seems unlikely to me.

[Stryfex]

@RGM81 - I think the logic is that if a person is selling a card for $200 on ebay, they're donating well over $20 of that to ebay anyway...so when selling it for $175-180 off-ebay they're actually selling it for the same amount of take-home money.

[RGM81]

True enough, but I would imagine most would be happy to pocket that extra $20 instead of having to pay any fees on it at all. LOL

A lot of guys doing razzes will often go higher than the going rate so their take-home is even a bit higher still.

[pwskelly]

Stryfex, let's use your Matthews example. I sell a Matthews YG on eBay for $200 and lose $20.00 to eBay for fees. I sell a Matthews YG on an online hobby site such as SCF for $200 and lose nothing. Obviously I make more selling the card on SCF than if I sell it on eBay.

However there is no real incentive for me to sell the card cheaper to you because I'm saving on listing fees. You will still pay about the same price, whether you go through eBay or another site. It's all about what the market will support. If people are paying $200 for Matthews YGs, then as @RGM81 suggested no one's going to offer a discount because they are saving on fees. $200 is still $200.

[pwskelly]

I also don't think that the price of the Matthews YGs (or his other RCs) are going to drop anytime soon. Unless he suffers from the sophomore jinx, I think his value is only going to continue to climb. If you need that YG, you might want to get it prior to start of training camp.

[adamslogik]

I've run into this situation a few times while selling.

A buyer will see a card I am selling for $100 on ebay and offer me $85 for it. Their reason being that it would be the same take home for me (which isn't entirely accurate since I get a 10% discount on my fees at the end of the month).

Here is the rub. I want to help out a fellow collector and am all in favor of not giving ebay that $$$ BUT there needs to be some kind of benefit for me also.

Usually I would offer to split the difference (Sell the card for $92, they save $8 and I keep an extra $7). Sometimes people take the offer, other times I just get a bunch of grief and they have no interest. Usually I will make a mental note to never deal with these people again.