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  1. #41
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    @Xspyrit when searching the IM for your want list it searches all inventories at once, and not by member. So if 20 people have a card I want it show me all 20 members in the search results. If one member has one card I want and another has 5 cards I want I see that too and no who to reach out to first
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  2. #42




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    I collect game used and autographed cards of Beliveau, Lafleur and Maurice Richard. Can consider other nice Habs cards too.
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  3. #43




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    I'd say this:

    I do think trades are much harder to do now, than when I joined SCF.... which was more than 10 years ago. There's a few factors:

    1. Costs of shipping has gone up a lot since then. Much harder to justify small trades.

    2. The number of people building sets has diminished quite a bit. More and more releases are geared towards "hits" for group breaks. There's a bigger percentage of collectors that that would rather own one or two "nice cards" than complete sets of anything. Set builders were the EASY group of collectors to make trades with.

    3. The entire hobby has made a HARD SHIFT to whatever the flavor of the week is. That always existed somewhat, but I think it's much stronger now than it was even 5 years ago. Last year's sets don't hold their value up very well. That's fine if you're trading for older stuff too... but when people have the new/hot thing - they only want the new/hot thing in return.

    (Yes, I'm generalizing, this doesn't fit for everyone).

    I know that I'm personally a pain in the butt to trade with. I can buy and sell easy enough.... but fact is: There isn't a whole lot of cards out there I'm looking to get. I've got some cards for my all-time Oilers project I'm looking for, at any given time, Ranford cards that I don't always own.... and the last few inserts I'm looking for from 94-95 Score, and 11-12 BTP. That's about it. I have some stuff that I would consider "nice traders" - and certainly to a degree I'm okay making a swap that helps out someone else.... *IF* it's not diminishing my traders.

    All good points, thanks

    However, shipping is not that expensive if you deal within your country. Even from Canada to the USA 3.12$ is still very cheap. It starts being more expensive when you're sending overseas. Also for the US members sending to Canada but there's a way to send for cheap. A member I have bought a few lots from send me ~50 cards packages for ~2.50$ US. I tried to give the tip to a few US members but no one still wanted to do it. We live in a time where people want the easy thing.

    The best point is number 2, it makes a lot of sense, a lot less collectors "easy to trade with" because many have changed the way they collect, many are more like "trading stocks" now.

    @Xspyrit I feel your pain.

    I have a wantlist ranging from 1910-11 (I know I'll never get those) to present (from 2018-19 forward, I'm only collecting rookies of Leafs, Golden Knights, and Seattle when they enter). My list is so long because I'm hoping it would generate more offers.

    The BV vs. SV thing is no big deal for me. I usually look at the max BV and the average SV and meet in the middle. @canucksfan007 and I are a good example of how well a BV guy and an SV guy can work together to get things done.

    I've made a few trades lately but I'm nowhere near as active as I want to be. I face three massive issues in this hobby.

    First is my financial situation. I have cerebral palsy and other health problems. Despite earning a college diploma in 2001, employers won't hire me because they say that my health problems would cause their insurance costs to skyrocket. Because of this, I'm on a government-funded fixed income. Government pays me by direct deposit and sends me a form every year to make sure I still qualify for income. Part of that form is a consent to view my banking activity over the past year. If they see any transaction other than the money they send me and when I pay my bills/groceries, I am questioned. PayPal, credit cards, or electronic money transfers are out of the question. If government sees that, I could be disqualified from the only income I have.

    Second is my location. I live in rural Newfoundland, Canada. The nearest hobby shop to me is three hours away in the capital city of St. John's.

    Third is the cost of packs/boxes/cases. Making a three-hour trip to buy hockey cards is not financially feasible.

    As a result of those three issues, my traders are not great. It seems that if you don't have recent cards (within the last three years or so), you are irrelevant in the hobby. The only way I can freshen up my traders is to trade for them.

    Despite my situation, I have been able to build what I consider to be a nice personal collection. I collect rookie cards of key players around the NHL. I have rookie cards of over 1,200 players from 1954-55 (Johnny Bower Parkhurst RC) to 2018-19 (a YG of Golden Knights player Zach Whitecloud).

    Half of my PC consists of SP Authentic rookie cards. Unfortunately, I still need over 100 and many of those are big names, like Sidney Crosby, Auston Matthews, Alexander Ovechkin, Patrik Laine, David Pastrnak, and Connor McDavid, among others. Unless I win the lottery, I'll never afford those FWAs.

    It's truly depressing.

    Thanks for sharing Tony, we talked about these issues by PM. That'd be nice if people could give ideas on how to improve your situation.

    @Xspyrit when searching the IM for your want list it searches all inventories at once, and not by member. So if 20 people have a card I want it show me all 20 members in the search results. If one member has one card I want and another has 5 cards I want I see that too and no who to reach out to first

    Thanks for the tip :)

  4. #44
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    All good points, thanks

    However, shipping is not that expensive if you deal within your country. Even from Canada to the USA 3.12$ is still very cheap. It starts being more expensive when you're sending overseas. Also for the US members sending to Canada but there's a way to send for cheap. A member I have bought a few lots from send me ~50 cards packages for ~2.50$ US. I tried to give the tip to a few US members but no one still wanted to do it. We live in a time where people want the easy thing.

    The best point is number 2, it makes a lot of sense, a lot less collectors "easy to trade with" because many have changed the way they collect, many are more like "trading stocks" now.


    There is a lot of "speculative" collecting going on out there. In the last few years: The jump in price of Crosby YGs, lead to McDavid jumping pretty quickly too. A YG hitting $100 in real value used to be rare.... not so much anymore. That's just using some of the simplest rookies out there..... the right kinds of auto'd cards of the biggest names in the game do really well.

    IMO, if you were trying to play the speculation game - dealing cards of this year's hot rookies, for guys that have been in the league for a couple of years.... and are on the verge of turning into superstars - that's where you'd get the biggest bang for your buck. Kucherov sells for crazy $$$ right now. Two years ago you would have paid less than 25% of the current rates..... though he's the extreme example.


    The shipping thing - I agree with you to a point. Staying in country, it's still pretty cheap. Sending from Canada to USA isn't too bad.... but you're only half right on the USA to Canada stuff. There are cheaper ways for Americans to send to Canadians, but it's not as simple as you're making it out to be. If the shipper is being honest about the contents of the package, then those cheap methods don't actually exist. As I understand it, many postal outlets don't really care - and will accept things the way out pacakge them.... so long as it looks correct. Some do, and will question you on it. I'm sure anyone would rather spend $3 on postage than $7, but if their post office hassles them when trying to do it, it becomes not worth it.

    Also remember that delivery confirmation is dirt cheap for USA-to-USA shipping, but the moment it includes Canada (and even Canada-to-Canada) it costs a lot. When dealing with more expensive cards - some are going to insist on it... which turns them off from dealing with people from other countries.

  5. #45




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    I think many of the collectors my age have turned part of their collecting habits into prospecting or flipping.

    I collect Roberto Luongo, that's basically it. I like older parallels / inserts / jerseys / autos and all the high end low serial numbered stuff I can get. I don't care about getting all the low end jerseys from every new release. With the resurgence of the younger Canucks core, I have been picking up Pettersson, Boeser and Horvat. I do my daily searches for my specific PC stuff .... but that doesn't do it enough for me in the hobby. I want to be more involved / spend more time on my hobby. I dont want to add many more players to my PC, that just gets more and more expensive.

    I decided for me, the best way to keep myself "busy" in the hobby was by prospecting and flipping. I do it every year, with certain players. Once over the summer, and another during the regular season. I also have my longer term investment players. Because of this, I recently opened an eBay storefront for flipping. Most of my transactions are not for my PC. I have a full 3200 count box of "investment" players, that I plan to sell off this season or playoffs, kind of like aging a bottle of wine. I have a shoebox full of items I have on eBay, all were either purchased at shows for the purpose of flipping, or I feel went too low via auction on eBay and I was the highest bidder. Some cards I have up to 10 copies, just because I felt the market was too low. Did I take people's PC cards away from them? I'm sure I did. Am I going to let them have said cards cheaper than market value because it's for their PC, not a chance.

    A lot of the generation older than I really dislike the investors and flippers. We see an opportunity to make money, doing something we like ..... while they see us as not true collectors like themselves. In all honesty, it must suck watching a card you want go to someone else, only to see it up for sale in the future at a much higher price tag. If you think it's bad on the forums and eBay, I would stay off IG for cards, the generation under me is even worse for this. I don't often take money out of the hobby for other things, whatever I flip goes to me often overpaying for the stuff I actually want for my PC, or back into my prospecting.

    It's just the way the hobby is evolving.
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  6. #46
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    A lot of the generation older than I really dislike the investors and flippers. We see an opportunity to make money, doing something we like ..... while they see us as not true collectors like themselves. In all honesty, it must suck watching a card you want go to someone else, only to see it up for sale in the future at a much higher price tag. If you think it's bad on the forums and eBay, I would stay off IG for cards, the generation under me is even worse for this. I don't often take money out of the hobby for other things, whatever I flip goes to me often overpaying for the stuff I actually want for my PC, or back into my prospecting.

    It's just the way the hobby is evolving.

    There's degrees of this.

    First off, I don't care who you collect, and how important a particular card might be to you: Nobody is entitled to own a particular piece of cardboard. Nobody.

    Next, nobody should apologize for wanting to make money doing the buying & flipping game on cards. Again: Nobody. If you can guess right.... and do your buying & selling at the right time.... there's a lot of money that can be made, and it doesn't even have to be with particularly rare cards. I made about $200 on COMC during the 2016-17 season, just buying & selling Jesse Puljujarvi YGs. The "bottom" rate was usual in the $10-$12 range, but you'd see copies dip below $8 pretty frequenty, and sometimes even more. If I could buy them for under $6, I'd jump on them - and then relist for $10.

    If I'm looking for medium valued cards... ones that are easy enough to find... I often try and buy it as part of lot. If the value is there, I can often break the lot up, and make all of my money back. Get my card for free.

    At the same time, I can think of an instance in the last year, where I lost out on a rare card I wanted.... I placed a bid higher than similar cards had sold for in the past... and lost. We're talking about more than $100 for a card of (you guess it): Bill Ranford. I didn't win? That's okay. Someone else wanted it more than me - I stopped worrying about things like that a long time ago. It irked me quite a bit when I saw it relisted a couple of weeks later, for 3x the selling price. It's still listed for sale today, occasionally goes "on sale" for about double the last sale price.

    Why does it irk me? If someone wanted that card for their own collection, have at it. Outbid me, and enjoy. You simply wanted it so you could flip it? That's cool too. Catch an undervalued auction.... and reap the rewards? Good for you. This wasn't either of those things though. This was someone paying top dollar for a card, only to try and sell it for a price that will never happen - and they know it. Still not sure their end game.

    People like that though, I do think they're few and far between.

  7. #47




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    There is a lot of "speculative" collecting going on out there. In the last few years: The jump in price of Crosby YGs, lead to McDavid jumping pretty quickly too. A YG hitting $100 in real value used to be rare.... not so much anymore. That's just using some of the simplest rookies out there..... the right kinds of auto'd cards of the biggest names in the game do really well.

    IMO, if you were trying to play the speculation game - dealing cards of this year's hot rookies, for guys that have been in the league for a couple of years.... and are on the verge of turning into superstars - that's where you'd get the biggest bang for your buck. Kucherov sells for crazy $$$ right now. Two years ago you would have paid less than 25% of the current rates..... though he's the extreme example.


    The shipping thing - I agree with you to a point. Staying in country, it's still pretty cheap. Sending from Canada to USA isn't too bad.... but you're only half right on the USA to Canada stuff. There are cheaper ways for Americans to send to Canadians, but it's not as simple as you're making it out to be. If the shipper is being honest about the contents of the package, then those cheap methods don't actually exist. As I understand it, many postal outlets don't really care - and will accept things the way out pacakge them.... so long as it looks correct. Some do, and will question you on it. I'm sure anyone would rather spend $3 on postage than $7, but if their post office hassles them when trying to do it, it becomes not worth it.

    Also remember that delivery confirmation is dirt cheap for USA-to-USA shipping, but the moment it includes Canada (and even Canada-to-Canada) it costs a lot. When dealing with more expensive cards - some are going to insist on it... which turns them off from dealing with people from other countries.

    The guy told me he creates a shipping label by going to paypal.com/shipnow and that the post office don't really care and just send the envelopes.

    By the way, what do Canada Post consider that cards are? Documents or art work?

    I think many of the collectors my age have turned part of their collecting habits into prospecting or flipping.

    I collect Roberto Luongo, that's basically it. I like older parallels / inserts / jerseys / autos and all the high end low serial numbered stuff I can get. I don't care about getting all the low end jerseys from every new release. With the resurgence of the younger Canucks core, I have been picking up Pettersson, Boeser and Horvat. I do my daily searches for my specific PC stuff .... but that doesn't do it enough for me in the hobby. I want to be more involved / spend more time on my hobby. I dont want to add many more players to my PC, that just gets more and more expensive.

    I decided for me, the best way to keep myself "busy" in the hobby was by prospecting and flipping. I do it every year, with certain players. Once over the summer, and another during the regular season. I also have my longer term investment players. Because of this, I recently opened an eBay storefront for flipping. Most of my transactions are not for my PC. I have a full 3200 count box of "investment" players, that I plan to sell off this season or playoffs, kind of like aging a bottle of wine. I have a shoebox full of items I have on eBay, all were either purchased at shows for the purpose of flipping, or I feel went too low via auction on eBay and I was the highest bidder. Some cards I have up to 10 copies, just because I felt the market was too low. Did I take people's PC cards away from them? I'm sure I did. Am I going to let them have said cards cheaper than market value because it's for their PC, not a chance.

    A lot of the generation older than I really dislike the investors and flippers. We see an opportunity to make money, doing something we like ..... while they see us as not true collectors like themselves. In all honesty, it must suck watching a card you want go to someone else, only to see it up for sale in the future at a much higher price tag. If you think it's bad on the forums and eBay, I would stay off IG for cards, the generation under me is even worse for this. I don't often take money out of the hobby for other things, whatever I flip goes to me often overpaying for the stuff I actually want for my PC, or back into my prospecting.

    It's just the way the hobby is evolving.


    All you said I do it too, it doesn't fix trading though! I made a lot of money with Erik Karlsson in the early 2010's, I had countless copies of his cards, even high end stuff. I did collect him (still have the PC) but the rest was a flip, I knew it was going to be profitable. I flip houses and even other assets, so nothing wrong with that. It's like trading stock. If you invested in a player at the right time and then made a profit, good for you. But if you're trying to steal cards by constantly trying to bend others over, it's too much. So there's gotta be a limit. The problems talked in this thread is not when dealing high end cards for money or other high end, but too many trying to get your high end for peanuts or holding on to low/reasonable value cards like crazy, unless you overpay like crazy.

    There's degrees of this.

    First off, I don't care who you collect, and how important a particular card might be to you: Nobody is entitled to own a particular piece of cardboard. Nobody.

    Next, nobody should apologize for wanting to make money doing the buying & flipping game on cards. Again: Nobody. If you can guess right.... and do your buying & selling at the right time.... there's a lot of money that can be made, and it doesn't even have to be with particularly rare cards. I made about $200 on COMC during the 2016-17 season, just buying & selling Jesse Puljujarvi YGs. The "bottom" rate was usual in the $10-$12 range, but you'd see copies dip below $8 pretty frequenty, and sometimes even more. If I could buy them for under $6, I'd jump on them - and then relist for $10.

    If I'm looking for medium valued cards... ones that are easy enough to find... I often try and buy it as part of lot. If the value is there, I can often break the lot up, and make all of my money back. Get my card for free.

    At the same time, I can think of an instance in the last year, where I lost out on a rare card I wanted.... I placed a bid higher than similar cards had sold for in the past... and lost. We're talking about more than $100 for a card of (you guess it): Bill Ranford. I didn't win? That's okay. Someone else wanted it more than me - I stopped worrying about things like that a long time ago. It irked me quite a bit when I saw it relisted a couple of weeks later, for 3x the selling price. It's still listed for sale today, occasionally goes "on sale" for about double the last sale price.

    Why does it irk me? If someone wanted that card for their own collection, have at it. Outbid me, and enjoy. You simply wanted it so you could flip it? That's cool too. Catch an undervalued auction.... and reap the rewards? Good for you. This wasn't either of those things though. This was someone paying top dollar for a card, only to try and sell it for a price that will never happen - and they know it. Still not sure their end game.

    People like that though, I do think they're few and far between.

    Yeah this is another thing I find ridiculous. There's some listings on Ebay where people try to force collectors into overpaying by a significant margin. I understand you want to make a coin by flipping a card but at least be reasonable. A card that usually sells 50$ is not worth 100$ all of sudden. If you paid 40$ and sell it 60$, ok it sounds good but if you're trying to get 100$, you're really forcing it. Get good deals from people who don't want to bother selling their cards (1 by 1) and then sell at market value (personally that's what I do). I don't consider it a sideline or whatever, just more funds and cards to grow my PCs. If I wanted/needed to make money, this wouldn't be a choice of business at all, I mean how many people can really make more than a sideline with this?
    Last edited by Xspyrit; 09-11-2019 at 05:05 PM.

  8. #48




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    The guy told me he creates a shipping label by going to paypal.com/shipnow and that the post office don't really care and just send the envelopes.

    By the way, what do Canada Post consider that cards are? Documents or art work?

    There's instructions for this stickied on the main hockey page: https://www.sportscardforum.com/thre...or-a-few-bucks
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  9. #49




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    There's instructions for this stickied on the main hockey page: https://www.sportscardforum.com/thre...or-a-few-bucks

    Thanks for the link, hopefully more US people will get with the program! In that thread, you explain everything in details but a lot of the info is regular shipping methods. The only variation here is the Paypal account (and printer)

    1. To use this method the package must be less than 3/4" thick and 14" length. Seal the toploaders with painter's tape and put them in team set bags. Arrange them in a manner that will keep the package under 3/4” and tape them in place (I like to tape them to thin cardboard such as a piece of a cereal box).
    2. Log in to Paypal, then go to this link: https://www.paypal.com/shiplabel/create/
    Choose First Class - Large Envelope (fill out the weight and calculate price/ add customs information)
    For the customs form, put Documents - Hockey Photos (fill out the qty, weight, value)
    3. Print, sign and date the form, affix to the envelope, drop the envelope in your mailbox.



    Very nice. Does the value you put change anything? I know that for some countries I have been told to put under 30$ or 35$

  10. #50
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    The guy told me he creates a shipping label by going to paypal.com/shipnow and that the post office don't really care and just send the envelopes.

    By the way, what do Canada Post consider that cards are? Documents or art work?

    I don't know how the paypal / shipnow thing works.... but my understanding of how shipping works in the USA: Sending goods in a bubble mailer, and sending documents in a bubble mailer, are not the same thing, and do not cost the same. Goods cost a lot more. I'm guessing if you're honest about the size, weight, etc.... and then call it "documents": You can get that paypal label for cheap, just drop it off at the post office (or just stick it in a mailbox) and nobody will care.

    Does it work? Yes. Is it honest? No. IMO, it's like the hacked android boxes people use to stream TV. They're not breaking any laws (in Canada, using one of those boxes is NOT illegal), but they're not really willing to pay for the service they want - so they don't... but use it anyway.

    And please, someone from the USA who has more first hand experience in this than me (I'm just going off the top of my head, from what I recall others saying) but it really comes down to lying about the contents of your package (or at least stretching the truth) to get a cheaper rate.

    As for Canada Post: I have no idea. I have never been asked the contents of a domestic piece of mail. If I have to fill out a customs form.... I typically say "photos" instead of "hockey cards" - but that's an attempt to not have the package labeled as "values, steal me!", not to avoid costs...... pretty sure Canada Post doesn't care about the contents, it's just size & weight.

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