Ok, so today I had a confusing message from someone telling me the cards I am selling cards are too cheap and that I should add a premium only when they are gem mint. I genuinely though it was someone interested in buying who simply didn’t do it because ebay’s shipping fees were too high despite the card’s price being low. So I jokingly replied that if my cards are too cheap he can grab himself a bargain.
Much to my surprise, he is a competitor and goes on accusing me of being a flipper and ruining the market for everyone by not pricing my cards higher. Oddly enough, this guys is all against flipping, but all for screwing the collectors by promoting a seller’s cartel and price fixing.
It’s no secret that I sell cards to fund my personal collection, and if people consider that flipping that’s fine, what I am amazed is how someone who is suggesting squeezing the buyer for every penny they have can take such a moral high ground. What is everyone’s opinion on this? Am I failing to see the guy’s point or is he just a disgruntled competitor?
I’ve had this happen 7 or 8 times over the years. I now have a set message I send out, “Hi and thanks for the advice. I was just planning to run a 25% off sale on everything on my site. Now you have me double thinking that. Thanks”
It’s easy to understand value in this economy. If you value something at x but aren’t willing to pay x-y in price you don’t actually value the item at x. The price you’re willing to pay is what you value the item at. Anyone that thinks they can sell at item for more than they pay should buy the item and resell it, if the margins are high enough for the effort.
Complaining about someone else selling too cheap isn’t a valid complaint. It’s either a complaint because someone is barely undercutting you, at which point you can price match them, or they’re too low in price at which point you buy them out/ wait them out.
The same can be said about people complaining about prices too high. None of these cards started where they’re currently price today. These people weren’t willing to pay the price they were in the past so they didn’t value the cards at the past prices either. Just because today they might have more disposable income, doesn’t mean they get to dictate what the value of an item is. That comes from the agreeing parties both buyer and seller. Not others who aren’t willing to put their money where their mouth is.
TL;DR, Value doesn’t come from anywhere except the agreed upon price. Any complaints made on too low or too high are invalid without money to back up the offers.
well, from a single sale this wouldn’t really be valid but there are some situations in which I would understand his arguement.
For example some Ebay sellers are just listing a ton of cards far below previous sales prices and literally flooding the market with a ton of the same cards. Graded power does this on a regular basis and it’s kind-a ruining the economy for these lower priced cards. On the long term it probably won’t have any effect but on the short term it’s surely affecting the market.
If people choose to sell it isn’t “ruining the economy”. It is the economy.
Someone like graded power has more cards than you could imagine which is why they fire sale some PSA 9’s and 10’s at auction that most individuals would never dream of selling in that manner. Their duplication at times is insane. The reason they auction so many is that if they slowly sold them only at previous sale prices or higher 1. they would never sell through a fraction of their inventory in a reasonable time, 2. they would likely run out of buyers at those premium prices.
Some cards over the past couple years were just achieving far too high of prices because of their “low pop” and naturally the market being efficient as it is unearthed many more of those cards for grading and corrected on the pops and prices.
