I’ve noticed over the past month that Ebay steals and deals are drying up. I’m not sure if it’s more market awareness by sellers, limited supply, Ebay sellers moving to newer selling platforms, ebbs and flows of my luck, or a combination of the four. I’m curious if anyone else has noticed the same thing. I used to pick up one or two items a week for great deals, but lately I’ve been striking out. I haven’t even seen an item that I missed out on because someone was faster than I was. What have you guys noticed?
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Depends on what you consider a deal. I definitely agree there aren’t many steals anymore though. I think it has to do with limited supply while having other platforms to sell on.
I consider a deal to be 50% off the price of its current market value. A steal would be below 50%.
Since ebay charges tax now, getting deals and steals on a high value items would be incredibly hard. I’m sure though depending on the item, someone possibly could find a few deals using the make-offer option on an item or getting lucky on a poorly described auction thats ending at a bad time. Overall I’m sure everyone could agree finding steals and deals on ebay consistently is a thing of the past.
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I think the supply is just naturally drying up. Those items that remain have even more recorded history to prove their price too. The only deals I can really find now is local shop collections or FB marketplace. That is experiencing the same thing though.
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There is no regular supply or x amount per month of steals on ebay, they come at random, sometimes it’s consistent, myself had periods of over a year to find steals again. Just saying doesn’t mean much.
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So you’d say its just the ebb and flow of luck…if that’s the case then I’ve been cold lately.
If you’re saying it’s harder to find a good deal on ebay, likely there is a larger demand and deals you’ve scouted ar gone faster. They still do exist though.
From the perspective of 1st ed psa 9 wotc holos, which is my primary collecting focus, it’s crazy right now. Cards that have been the same price for years have gone from $30-40 to >$100 and sold quickly after being listed. One example is Neo discovery tyranitar which I passed on multiple times around $60 at auction. The other day one was listed and quickly sold for $150. This is a specific example of something I see in a lot of cards I have passed on/was saving for later.
If you look at pokemonprice, (which I know is sometimes criticized for missing sales, but even in spite of this) www.pokemonprice.com/TotalSetPrices you can see the very clear general trend, here’s psa 9 jungles:
It just feels like there are less auctions/ opportunities to get these cards at sweet deals. The small size of the last pwcc lot is another example of this. Instead there’s a growing trend of buyers just picking off the lowest BIN prices and sellers slowly adjusting upwards. Definitely an availability issue; I don’t think this is caused by taxes because taxes don’t directly affect the seller and clearly the issue is not people paying less because of taxes because the data contradicts that. I’m hoping the increased prices encourages people to list more and we see a bit of a retrace so I can pick up the cards I still need
Until then I just have to be more competitive and pace out my purchases a bit more
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I think it’s a combination of everything. Also I think also depends on what you’re looking for. For example, over the last year or so I had been collecting PSA 9 1st Ed. Neo Genesis-Revelation Holos and I have indeed noticed that not only have the prices increased for many of those cards, but they’re just not even available at times. The other day I realized that I hadn’t seen a Neo Revelation Ampharos 1st Ed. in PSA 9 in a long time, and then saw the last sold listing was in early November of last year.
I can also say that I’ve started to use Mericari instead of Ebay to try and find cards. I think Ebay will remain the head honcho when it comes to finding something you want the quickest, but I like how using this other site makes me feel like I’m engaging more with the sellers to work on making personal deals. I might even go back to Reddit trades if I am tempted enough. I can also say that in the last few days I’ve purchased more cards from Mericari than Ebay, which is completely new to me.
I don’t believe deals and steals are a thing of the past, but I do think that maybe they’re happening less frequently. I actually got what I believe was a steal when I purchased a complete fossil 1st Ed. NM/M set that I recently posted in my collections additions thread.
After everything I’ve said though I do have to remind myself that because of things like the Ampharos, or any other cards that are becoming less abundant, or optimized, or however you want to put it, today’s prices could very well become tomorrow’s steals. So keep saving for the things you absolutely want for your collections, and don’t wait too long trying to save a few dollars because it might not come back anytime soon, or ever.
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Around 5 months ago when Dark Espeon 1st edition psa 10 was listed on dacardworld’s website for 460 ish, coulda just added it to card and checked out but I didn’t. And after not selling for a while they decided to put it up on auction. I was about to buy it but saw the ebay auction and thought “all right i’ll just put in 500, hopefully it ends less.” Well, it ended at 700. I just don’t expect any deals on ebay anymore… Now if i want a somewhat hard to find card and I see it for market value anywhere, I just don’t risk waiting for a “deal” and just buy it, and I’m willing to bet a lot more people also think that way now.
Also, on a side note I realized that if I buy from ebay I have to pay tax too. It feels so bad to know that when I buy a card for 600, I have to pay 60 in tax and ebay gets 60, meaning I pay 660 for it and the seller only gets 540. I’d recommend using vendor’s own websites or seeing if they’re a member here first if you see anything on ebay you want, still safe and prob can save 10-20%.
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Naturally, as more people enter the market it becomes more optimized. Increased knowledge and a strong collector base makes deals harder to come by. With that being said, the people with the most knowledge have an enormous competitive advantage in this kind of market and constantly find good deals. Sure there’s less of the big ticket items that fly under the radar but there’s still an abundance of opportunities if you know where to look.
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Just list what you want here on E4 with your offers and you’ll make out much better. Heck, the biggest sellers in the business are right here. Also, the largest inventories in the world are owned by the people here. That way you won’t be paying the government or eBay. You’ll be keeping the money in the hobby.
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From my experience of the Pichu market, January and February are often the slowest months for new listings, but March and April are the fastest.
I feel like people are also less willing to spend money this early in a year as well. I guess a lot of people are making up for an expensive Christmas period.
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This has been my experience as well. I just add stuff to saved searches and cross my fingers.
Normally this is true for me as well, where the spending picks up durring spring; however, this year has been very strange for me. I’ve gotten a lot of sales for December and this is by far a record breaking January for me. I’m curious if other sellers are experiencing the same?
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Had a good amount of January sales (About 128 orders) which seems very strong compared to last years numbers. Not sure if its my inventory being different or what, but I have noticed it too.
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Same! I felt a spike as well.
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I have as well…
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My apologies for nitpicking what was a great post overall, but the economics teacher in me feels compelled to correct this.
Tax incidence is shared by both the buyer and the seller. In basic terms, if a buyer is willing to spend $1,100 on an item but there’s a 10% tax rate, then the buyer would only be willing to give $1,000 to the seller (plus the $100 tax).
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