Communication Gets the BEST deals

General
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So I’ve noticed since I started collecting seriously about 5 years ago that all my best eBay buys have involved some level of communication. Whether it be booster packs, singles or lots, they almost always involve a message and a deal to follow. Only a handful of times have I ever actually payed a premium price.

Usually it goes like this…

“Hi, I’m interested in the booster packs you are selling, but that’s a lot of money. Do you want to sell them all for one price?”

OR

“Hi, I noticed you sold some pokemon cards previously, do you have any other cards that are holos or first edition that you would not mind selling?”

In ONE rare instance, it even lead to me calling and talking to a seller on the phone. Now, I don’t recommend that because “stranger danger”, BUT it turned out he was an old card store owner and after 4 trips to his apartment with a friend I have purchased 3 prerelease clefables, over 10 shining cards, whole shadowless sets and other rare cards including the japanese neo intro sets and first edition base cards for only a fraction of the price. There is a ton more too, but I can’t list it all.

My point? It ALWAYS pays to shoot a message to someone instead of simply auctioning or buying because it can lead to some incredible deals. Thoughts?

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Agreed. I mainly do that with smaller sellers though. I don’t mean to generalise, but I find the high volume people will just give you some kind of automated response when you contact them.

There was a case where I bought $300 worth of blister packs(ebay seller that was local) and the guy showed up with a box full of NM/M top loaded holos and asked me $100 CAD for it. There was well over 100 cards in the box, including a Gold Star Mew and a couple Shinings, Mint Base Zard,etc… I was going to maybe maybe $100 profit on the blisters, but that little box earned me so much and I still have leftover cards I think I will just donate to kids. :blush:

There’s even a collector here that managed to get his hands on a Pikachu Illustrator card and other very rare items, as they contacted an ebay seller they bought from.

www.elitefourum.com/t/shyguys-collection/17989/15

Edit: It’s actually the seller that contacted them, but it still goes to show having the right contacts at the right time is key. I’m actually surprised with some of my ebay experiences where buyers or sellers don’t respond to messages and they could have either earned another sale or a good deal on a future purchase. Oh well… Too bad for them.

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Well, duh! :blush: You have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

The best deal I’ve ever gotten started off with a message I sent to a semi-popular Poketuber who was opening 1st edition WOTC packs she had bought from her LCS. This was back in 2012. I asked her if she would mind sharing the name of the store, but she refused, which is completely understandable. Instead, she directed me to her ebay store - which had her city and state in the profile. A little sleuthing and I came up with a list of three card shops near that location and called them all up. Hit the jackpot with the second call and ended up buying out all of their 1st edition Neo Genesis & Destiny packs at $4/pop. Needless to say, that Poketuber did not open up any more packs from that store and mentioned in a video that the shop was sold out, hehe.

The second best deal came from a shady guy I ran into during the two weeks I was running around playing Pokemon GO. Turns out he had a bunch of old cards from WOTC-EX. We arranged to meet at a Pokestop that weekend and have him bring the goods… 1st edition holos, Charizards, gold stars, and ex’s galore, all pristine. Bought them all at <10% of market price.

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Yup, you’re right about this. I used to sit on the newly listed eBay page for the “pokemon” keyword and just wait for one seller to keep putting up two to three items at a time that were a good deal and then shoot them a message. Ask if they have anything else of Pokemon and say that you’d be interested in all of it if so.

This recently happened to me with a sports cards seller listing 40 sealed Japanese Base Set packs including the box and all cards + holographics that were opened from the missing packs. They threw it up as an auction but I asked if they’d be willing to do a buy it now and said they want to wait and see what happens, so I placed a bid at .99 cents and it has 1 day left until it ends and I am the only bidder and they messaged me saying they’d sell it all to me for $200.

Communication is key.

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I have bought tons of high value collections because of this. I always message people who have some interesting cards. I usually end up talking alot with people, earning their trust before they really want to show you the good stuff :blush:

That what I made many connections and got tons and tons of goldstars/crystals and 1st edition base holo’s this way.
For the ones that know me, I literally graded hundreds of goldstars the past years and most of them were collected this way.

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Expand your presence and build your reputation and they will all come to you. Whether it’s new people searching out a buyer for all their stuff who found you based on your rep or presence, or past customers wanting out of the hobby…it can keep you really busy. I’ve personally bought lots in the 10s of thousands, always at a fair price to the buyer (never pennies on the dollar cause that can kill your rep plus is inherently dishonest).
Be prepared to travel for the big ones cause it’s convenient for the seller and just part of the cost of doing business.
I have tons of tips but many are best to learn from experience.

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Did anyone ever find a first edition Charizard this way?! That would make it the best possible strategy!

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act like a wall, be like a wall. be neutral. have no feels.

some rude/trash sellers trash talk / spit at me, but in the end I get better deals from them.

we are humans after all.

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Hard to agree and support your pov (or offer advice) when I don’t know what your talking about? Plain English for us old guys please;)

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Sorry, in my case it went something like this:

Me: I really like your card. My offer is X price. We can negotiate if you like. Best wishes.

Seller: Are you retarded or just a dumbass? I’m not going to sell my card at that X price. You’re literally a cancer to the whole market

Me: Sorry, sir/madam. I didn’t mean to cause anything that’s offending. Again, I apologise. Best wishes.

A couple of weeks later, that same seller came back to me and asked for a negotiation. I said no, then he eventually accepted my original offer.

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You got lucky on a card that doesn’t sell or he overpriced it to begin with, this is not the norm. I get lowball offers constantly on my items, a simple decline works on my end and I mostly price my cards around sold values (market price). I would never reach out to someone who lowballed me and beg them to negotiate, there are way to many buyers in the world to do that.

Just sayin, the guy most likely overpriced or was selling some obscure card and needed a quick sale.

I also block people after 3 lowball offers. After 1 or 2 of 50-60% market value, I tell them one more and they will be blocked. Nothing pisses me off more than someone wasting others time with trash offers if you couldn’t tell by my rant.

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Yeah, I initally made my original offer, which was below market value at the time, based on a prediction and because the card in question barely sell. The seller upped his original price, higher than the last sale, which was like maybe 1 month apart.

Point is… Had I argued with him back, became hostile against him, or ignored him, I doubt he’d come back to me due to our grudge or vice versa. Instead they would just re-list the item and sell to someone else for a higher price (higher than my original offer), maybe.

There are very rude sellers (usually not big ones) out there, but if you can deal with them, you may make good deals with them eventually.

Wilson from Cast Away = True manipulator, alas the greatest manipulator of all time!

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Havent had a stand out ‘awesome deal’ moment that I can remember, but just by inquiring I have found out what they had in there personal collection, and sometimes successfully lure it out with a hefty offer.
E.g
me: “Hello, did you happen to have any other X?”
seller: “I have this rare X, however not for sale as it is in my personal collection”
me: “All good, if you change your mind, an offer I’d make is $XXXX”
seller: “Done, that works!”

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Here’s a story a bit different than the ones given above - not seeking-out additional cards, but offering assistance to someone that’s in-need (sorry in advance for the length)…

Back when I was in high-school, someone walked into my Dad’s Coin Shop (walk-in off the street - had never been into the shop before). Fortunately, I was working with my Dad that day and got to talking with this gentleman for awhile. As it turned-out, this gentleman’s father had owned a card-shop back in the 80’s and 90’s - and had passed-away awhile back. So, this gentleman was looking to sell-off his father’s remaining inventory (which was being kept within a storage locker). He described the inventory as being 1980’s and 90’s Sports Cards - and mentioned how he had been to a few local card-shops only to be turned-away without any assistance and/or a low-ball offer on everything. He was getting very discouraged and really wasn’t sure how he was going to deal with all of this inventory that had been left to him (other family members weren’t at all interested in any of this stuff).

At the time my Pokemon eBay Business was in full-swing; however, I didn’t have any knowledge of Sports Cards (none at all). I wanted to help the gentleman out; but, I didn’t have the funds and/or knowledge of Sports Cards to be of much assistance to this gentleman. I threw-out an offer for him anyway though… I told him that I would be interested in researching and selling the inventory on eBay and take a commission on everything that sold - he was THRILLED! Later that day, he returned with a small portion of this inventory - there must have been 10-20 boxes FULL of various Sports Cards / Packs / Sets… Let the fun begin!

To make a long-story short, I quickly learned how tough 1980’s and 90’s Sports Cards were to sell - for those that aren’t familiar, these cards are basically worthless! But, I stuck to my guns - getting very creative with selling this inventory. And each month I would give the gentleman a run-down of everything that I sold, give him his pay-out, and he would return with more inventory. This went-on for about 6 Months in which time we built-up a GREAT relationship.

Then one day, he came into the shop and told me that this was the last of his father’s inventory. I remember him saying he wasn’t sure if anything in this last bath was going to be worth anything at all as it wasn’t Sports Cards (that’s why he had held-off on these boxes). The shop must have been busy that day or something, because I didn’t give the boxes much thought while he was there. However, later that day, when I started looking-through what he had brought-in I was SHOCKED! Finally, something within my realm! Haha There were boxes upon boxes of Pokemon!!! There was a case of each BK Toys, BK PokeBalls, and 9-Card Sheets. And we’re just getting started… Cases of Promo Cards (WB (Catch Mew), Legendary Bird, and Entei); hundreds of Ancient Mew; case of Unl. Jungle Set Booster Boxes; case of Unl. Fossil Set Booster Boxes; Sealed / MINT Pokemon Red, Blue, and Yellow Games. I was absolutely blow-away by all of this; it was really SO FUN just being able to look-through all of this stuff!

I was so excited, I had to give the gentleman a call and tell him that we had hit the jack-pot! Haha He could tell how excited I was about this portion of the inventory. He asked me if I wanted to purchase the Pokemon Inventory outright; and I told him I wasn’t sure of the exact value and/or if I could have afforded to purchase everything outright. But, he told me to make-up a list of everything with the retail-value and my “buy-price” and e-mail him with the details. I generally tried to purchase everything at 50% Retail back then, but the total was still well above what I could afford (still in high-school after-all). But, I e-mailed him anyway asking if he would accept $X in a payment-plan. The next day, he called me back saying a payment-plan was fine, but he didn’t agree with my pricing (my heart sank at this point)… No, he said, you’ve helped me out so much these past few months, give me $X - my cost ended-up being right around 25% Retail.

If it weren’t for me being in the shop that day, I would have never met this gentleman. And if it weren’t for me willing to help-out someone in-need, I would have never had the opportunity to even see the Pokemon Inventory - which supported my eBay Business for a LONG TIME! Just goes to show you that good things can happen to the “good guys”!

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awesome^^^^^

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This is so true, I’m super inactive with my MTG buying/selling these days since my daughter was born but I still make a heap of sales and purchases solely because people contact me directly. A lot of those people I don’t even know, past customers have just passed on my contact details. It really pays in the long run to be friendly and not squabble over dollars when you’re dealing in hundreds or thousands, leave the customer with a positive feeling and they’ll com back or refer you.

I always tell people selling to me that they’re welcome to pass my details onto any friends that might be interested in selling out and I’ll look after them, it’s gotten me some seriously great buys over the years.

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@oldskoolpokemon That was a heartwarming story. Motivational! Thanks for sharing.

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@oldskoolpokemon I really enjoyed reading this. And this is what I like about this hobby and the people I connect with through collecting. Genuine people with a genuine interest in the hobby and with the ability to see opportunities in everything. Guess you learned a thing or two about sports cards and other markets aswell so I see it as a win-win-win situation. You are left with more knowledge, a great new relation to this gentleman and some extra $$$.

The community here in Norway isn’t as big as I wish it was. But I am trying to contribute to the community we have by contacting new members in facebook groups and helping/guiding new collectors that I meet through the norwegian version of Ebay. Last week I was contacted by a dude I sold some cards to a few month back. He startet by saying “I think I have made a bad deal”. He linked med to an ad to the cards he had bought for 250$. I recognized the ad from a guy that I have been reporting for selling fake cards and cards in crappy shape(looks like he fed them to his dog). He told me he was sure that the money was lost and showed me some screenshots from the sellers chat. The seller is an asshole and he and his cards are toxic to the community here in Norway. In short terms: I told him I would help him get his money back even if we had to show up on the sellers doorstep. We waited 3 days for the cards to arrive, and we were not surprised when the cards arrived. Shipped loose, not sleeved in a DVD-cover. Damaged cards and not even close to being NM as the seller stated. I told him to take pictures and send them back because I was confident that I could make sure he got his money back. The seller tried to deny that the cards came back but as smart as he was, he posted the cards on facebook the same day, trying to sell them… I confronted him about it and after my first message he payed every dollar back within a minute.

It didn’t cost me much more than some time spent messaging this frustrated dude telling him it was going to be ok and wathcing the seller and chatting with him on the side. He didn’t know I was involved until I asked him if he had any new cards and he had the balls to send me pics of the ones he just received back from the frustrated buyer.

I am left with a new collector-friend who trusts me, some knowledge on how to solve problems/cases like this and a cleaner Pokémon community here in Norway.

PS: Sorry for the Norwenglish

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