Kill E-bay!!!

[Chuck-17]

E-bay is great for the hobby. It lets me find cards that I could not normally find at my local shop.

[greengrizzle]

I understand what your saying. I love my beckett, it has is the only thing left i have in my life that brings back that feeling i had when i collected cards in my childhood, besides the cards themselves. I can sit and looks over values in a beckett for days on my freetime, and reread everything in it, even the ad's. Ebay, had to happen, there was no stopping it. With the internet being here, there was no way to stop it. And i understand about tradition, completely, but logicly ebay is the smartest way to get the cards you want. Seriously for my zimmerman collection. I would have half the cards in my collection that i have now if i was so hard-headed that i wouldnt buy off of ebay and decided to only buy my cards at the hobby shop or through trading. Specially around here with zimmerman being the "hero" of the area for baseball. I would of spent 3x the money to get what i have in my collection. Like many things in life, all things have pro's and con's. And when something looks like its here to stay and not about to go anywhere i find it best to try to work with it and use it to my advatage!!. besides there is no way i could of sold all my cards to raise money to purchase my game used rookie season auto bat from LockerRoom if ebay wasnt here. Let alone i used paypal(ebay owned) to pay for my bat since all my money was in that too. just my thoughts

[imronron]

In my experience with card shops I have found that if you get to know the owner ie: be friendly, he will be very competitive with e-bay, sometimes I go and just buy junk because I have gotten some very good deals on other cards, it makes him happy and me happy when neither of us feel robbed just my two cents......BV.$100.00

[herdyrules]

Throw your Becketts in the trash............ They don't use Ebay to price cards at all otherwise 99% of stuff would be adjusted accordingly

[OzCollecta]

Ebay has helped me immensely with my collection, as has this site.
I use Beckett as a Guide. It basically tells me what I "could potentially" get for a card. I dont mind taking a hit and gladly and have done so trade my card for a lower card priced.
I have given cards away.
I am in this hobby as a hobby and some fun. I dont try to make money and retire from this hobby thats for sure.

Heres a little story for ya a bit related but not cards.
I have an aquaintance that collects Hot Wheels Treasure Hunts. He has well over 1500 dating back to 1995 when they were first released. He does not trade / sell his THs but will gladly buy others. Now I asked him one day "Why he does not get rid of some of his to help others out", his reply was : " This is my retirement nest egg".
Yes the 1995 THS have held their values and some, but then after it goes downhill rather fast. The 95's were in a limited number nowadays they are massproduced and can be gotten for as little as $5. His collection will be worth squat Im predicting.

I get the impression that there are some people who arent in this for the hobby of collecting but rather seem to be trying to build their "nest eggs".

[doniceage]

Well let me share something else with you. If you look at your first analogy on the average let me mention this:

$5.00
$2.50
$15.00
$7.50
$35.00

If you do a BELL CURVE you take out the two outliers which are the 2.50 and the 35.00 That leaves you with 5, 7.50 and 15 which would give you a average of 9.0833 etc I think Beckett probably takes out the the OUTLIERS which are the std deviations at each end. Of course what they purport is a low and high beckett value and they are saying that in normal cases it will sell between that range. OF course just like the 2.50 and the 35 dollars show sometimes it will sell outside of that range. That has nothing to do with the Beckett being off.

I believe a lot of the older pricing of cards is out of whack but again no system is perfect.

DON

[steelers#1fan]

If it wasn't for Ebay, I wouldn't have the collection I have now. I'm done with card shows and buying boxes. Occasionally I'll go to the nearest shop (which is 30 miles away), but end up coming out empty handed. So for me, it's not worth the time or gas. I'd rather get on my computer, get what I want on Ebay, and have it sent to my home.

[joeknowscards]

eBay is making our hobby better not worse by giving so many more people access to the hobby. Would you rather go to trade shows or live auctions to buy cards or sit in front of your computer and buy a card whenever you want to?

I agree 100% with the previous thread that some guy working at Beckett is a poor way to price cards. eBay is a market where people buy things for what they are willing to pay for it, who cares about Beckett.

In addition, if you buy raw cards and get them graded, the Beckett price guide is worthless because the ungraded value of the card is worthless. You should assess the condition of the card and find out what the card is worth in a range of grades that you think this card may end up being graded. Then, if there's no price, check the population report and simply pay what you are willing to pay for the card.

In addition, who is Beckett to say what a card graded by PSA is worth?

Joe

[angel0430]

I fail to see how this is Ebay's fault. Go to Beckett and you will see that even they are starting to incorporate Ebay pricing.
http://www.beckett.com/estore/ValueGuide/

http://www.beckett.com/estore/skins/...opbar/logo.gif

You sound like a card shop owner. Is that true?

I think card shop owners in general are more at fault for their demise than anyone. I say this because I have walked into several sports card stores and tried to convince them that they should use sports card site like SCF and Ebay to get rid of their inventory. I usually get a hostile response like, "the internet is killing the hobby, especially Ebay!". The card shop owners that refuse to embrace the internet are usually the ones that fail.

Why would anyone buy a card for $20, when they can get it for $5 delivered to their house? The only benefit the card shops offer is immediateness of ownership. Is that worth $15?

Card shop owners should use Ebay to gauge the value of their cards and lower their card prices. If you are resistant to this then you will likely lose a lot of sales and hold inventory longer than you want. I go by the same card shop and see the same cards in the glass cases for 3 years now! Lower the prices and take less of a profit. Add value over Ebay for the immediateness of ownership, but not 400%.

Just my 2 cents! I think this may be one of my next articles. :)

Great opinion. That is the same way I think. The cheaper the better

[doniceage]

If it wasn't for Ebay, I wouldn't have the collection I have now. I'm done with card shows and buying boxes. Occasionally I'll go to the nearest shop (which is 30 miles away), but end up coming out empty handed. So for me, it's not worth the time or gas. I'd rather get on my computer, get what I want on Ebay, and have it sent to my home.

eBay is making our hobby better not worse by giving so many more people access to the hobby. Would you rather go to trade shows or live auctions to buy cards or sit in front of your computer and buy a card whenever you want to?

Joe

For the two of you I rather go to a show hands down. As their is no communication (personal interaction), I don't have to pay shipping, I see the card on hand, and I never had to file a paypal or ebay claim as when I hand the cash I get the card, I can trade at a card show, I meet athletes at a card show (can't get that on the bay), redemption programs by the card companies at larger shows, and the list goes on and on.

There pro's and con's to everything but to say you wouldn't go to cardshows would be overreacting in my personal opinion. To each his own. Well will holler later when I get back from the cardshow. WOOHOOO!!


DON