So I am about to list some ungraded cards on eBay for the first time, so, naturally I have a couple of questions.
First, as far as listing the cards themselves, does listing a condition have any benefit? Let’s face it: everyone has a different definition of what a near-mint card is, so would I be better off just taking good photos of the cards and letting the buyer determine for themselves what type of condition the cards are in? Is there any benefit at all to listing conditions such as “mint,” “near-mint,” etc. in titles?
Also, for shipping: how do you guys do it? Let’s say I am shipping 10 ungraded cards. Obviously, you put them all in penny sleeves and in a team bag, but do you also put each individual card in a toploader?
Depends on which cards you are selling. For me personally, anything that’d be over $20 I’d ship in its own toploader, and cardboard on either side of all the cards, to prevent further bending of the cards - not 100% sure how I’d ship single “bulk” cards, as in 10 or so, maybe between two toploaders? I’ve seen that pretty often, and would again try to prevent bending and the cards slipping out from between the two toploaders, also with the help of additional cardboard.
I don’t sell on ebay anymore but when I did I had issues with people and condition. Mostly with MTG though but it’s something to look out for. I’d have a guy buy a card and by the time the card got to him it would have dropped in price 20% so he would file a claim as item not as described due to condition. Of course Ebay sides with him without even providing pictures and I’m out shipping costs. Also be careful with PayPal as they have 180 days to file a claim. I had a guy file a claim through ebay over a $600 guitar amplifier that I sold him. I surprisingly won the case and got my $600 back into my account. A few months later he filed a claim through PayPal and PayPal didn’t contact me other than by email (or so they said) that I never received and since I didn’t know what was going on and didn’t respond within 10 days they automatically sided with him and didn’t require him to return the amplifier. So I was out a $600 amplifier. As far as shipping goes it depends on the value of cards and amount. For large lots I use small cases like these. www.amazon.com/Ultra-Pro-25count-2-Piece-Plastic/dp/B0002TT3KM/ref=zg_bs_2522048011_23?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=MNCGPKR4N0GTA8RCPNYA
Except I get a different brand from an LGS for like $0.75 each. The only downside is they won’t fit sleeved cards unless they’re perfect fit sleeves. If I’m not doing that then I will penny sleeve each card, tape the cards together on the sides and bottom, and wrap another sleeve over the top and tape it down. That insures the cards stay together and have no way of coming out or getting into contact with the tape. Then I’ll sandwich the cards in between two toploaders and tape all sides of the top loaders together. Then I will put that into a ziplock bag, wrap and tape to waterproof.
At the end of the day it’s all dependent on how much the cards are valued at but good packaging leads to return customers and getting premiums because they know you’ll take care of them. If it’s a single $5 card, throw it in a penny sleeve, semi rigid and in a stamped envelope and call it a day. If it’s a gold star Charizard, treat it like a gold star Charizard.
I think the condition indication in the title is beneficial, if someone is looking for a near mint or light played card particularly it weeds out the other options They don’t want, and They are gonna look at the pictures anyway. I, personally, when looking for cards go towards ones with it stated, then make my judgement from the pics. In the grand scheme though it probably doesn’t make a difference either way haha. And for the second part: ive sold very few cards on eBay but from my experience I always put the card in a penny sleeve, use a piece of tape to make a pull tab on so they can pull it out of the top loader easily, then put it in a top loader, then stick it in a normal mail envelope. I’ve never got any complaints or bad feedback from this method! And repeating the same process I just stated, I’ve put two Penny sleeved cards in a top loader back to back and that worked out just fine, they’re not too hard to put in nor take back out. I hope this helps some!
Generally, I suggest listing cards with high resolution photos and listing the condition as slightly worse than it actually is . . . it’s better to have buyers be pleasantly surprised than disappointed.
For shipping, I use bubble-mailers with toploaders/cardboard. First Class package labels are only a couple bucks and include tacking numbers, plus fast delivery.
This is also what I do. I try to grade conservatively, and always ask myself if I’d be happy receiving the card with the stated grade. If you can honestly answer yes, then you should have very few troubles.
Always gotta keep margins in mind when accounting for shipping. Regarding your hypothetical, are you saying $9 total for 9 cards or 9 cards for a buck? I’m not a shipping expert, I’m sure there’s some more fat I could trim, but my cost to ship is around $0.70. The forever stamp makes up most of that at $0.50 (and I think it’s rising soon) and then my shipping materials (envelope, penny sleeve, card saver) make up the rest. I typically put free shipping on my listings and then price with my costs in mind. Also keep in mind that eBay is gonna take 10% of your sale price and PayPal is gonna take 2.9% along with a flat $0.30 fee on each sale.
If someone buys 9 $1 cards off you at once, the good thing is that PayPal usually lumps that together and only charges $0.30 once plus their 2.9% so you don’t get hit for $0.30 on each card. This saves you around $2.40. Add to that it would cost $0.70 to send each one individually ($6.30) and your margins have now gotten a bit healthier thanks to selling them all at once.
For 9 cards, I’d send them in a bubble mailer. I’m comfortable with sending 1-2 cards in an envelope with just a freedom stamp. 3-4 cards I send in an envelope but I make sure I get the non-machineable stamp from the post office (costs around $0.20 more than a Forever stamp). 5+ I send in a bubble mailer with tracked shipping. I already price my cards with $0.70 going to shipping so if someone buys 5, that’s $3.50 I have to spend on tracked shipping. I’m not sure how many cards you can cram into an envelope and still use the non-machineable option.
I’m sure someone can give more advice on how to save a little more with shipping. I know you can purchase shipping labels on eBay for slightly cheaper than my method, but I don’t have a printer so it’s not an option for me.
Hi Cerulean,
I’ll share my advice below, keep in mind I am in the UK so it may be different where you live. I used to state condition and stopped doing so, as people will always have a subjective view over what condition a card is in.
Sell all singles above $1.99 individually. If you have singles below that amount, it’s probably best to bundle them.
Do not state condition, rather upload high resolution pictures of front and back, and mention in the listing ‘refer to photos for condition’. Also, make sure there are no scratches or dents that can only be seen at an angle, if that’s the case, take pics at the adequate angle to show the imperfections.
When shipping, sleeve the cards and put them inside a toploader. You can fit up to two cards per toploader provided they are inside the same standard sleeve (avoid perfect fit sleeves as they only hold one card).
Up to 8 cards (four toploaders) can be sent in a standard envelope with a regular stamp, but do make sure you don’t stack all four on top of each other and go for the ‘two on top of two’ configuration to make sure you don’t exceed maximum thickness or you will incur extra postage costs.
For orders above 8 cards, the thickness of the envelope will already be too high to be sent with a regular stamp so, since you’ll already be paying extra and more cards means a higher declared value most of the time, go for bubble mailer envelopes for extra protection.
Hope this helps, and good luck with your sales.
