One thing you don’t know is what their max is. It’s always annoying losing by $1 or $2.50 or $10 whatever the small amount is, but maybe that item you bid say $450 on the other guy sniped for $500 or even $600 and he wins for $452.50. Don’t sweat it. I highly recommend sniping though. Gixen is the only free option I’m aware of. I used another one a few years back, but they started charging so I switched to Gixen and never looked back.
Yeah you would still get beaten, but if you don’t have a max bid in and the other person was only bidding in small increments and they’re winning at say $60 with a $70 max bid, you would get there with the snipe and save some cash. People get emotionally attached to auctions, if @chrispy has his $90 max bid in, that person that might’ve had a $70 max has time to think about it and get emotionally attached to the concept of winning and not wanting to lose, leading to a higher bid, potentially overpaying and having buyers remorse. Max bids also open you up to getting shilled up.
1 Like
^^^ this. Which is why I made it a point to let everything go and stick with my max bids and lose practically everything. 33 of 36 items were sniped. Next time, I’ll be using that app 
Why pay pwcc for what you can do yourself ? 
It just takes alot of time and effort to build up a following though. That is the hardest part which sets pwcc apart from anywhere else online.
If people wanted to do their own auctions, you need to invest alot of time and money into marketing, free giveaways, and building up a solid profile of clients and bidders. I would not recommend to auction less popular or unique pieces which people don’t search often. But if you auction, gold stars, 1st editions, and specific pokemon like charizard or the starters, usually those auctions can stand their ground.
But PWCC is number 1, and will always be, they have been doing this the longest and have the largest following, but you have to pay.
1 Like
Andrew, when looking through the PSA sold auction prices, I’ve noticed that your auctions end consistently higher than most others for the same items. You must be doing something right!
1 Like
Thanks for the message.
I don’t really write much about it here, but of course mine will be ending higher than smaller collectors who are just listing onto ebay for the first or second of third time. Maybe i can share some tips here below, having studied this for quite a while. As it’s my passion, and i love to collect / trade.
I’ve been selling / trading / collecting for over 11 years, collecting from Pokemon from 1999, and older cards with family from 1994. I’ve worked in sales / marketing and procurement as well, before eventually trading Pokemon and various other anime merchandise full time around 2015. and briefly in 2013 it was my full time work for over 6 months.
-
Sourcing Products. I left my entire family behind for over 4 years. I’ve been away from them, working different jobs abroad, and living in Japan directly so i can source pokemon products here. I have cleared out over 470+ stores and shops across the entire of Japan, watch every app, every auction, every twitter, every yahoo, every ebay auction and as many instagram posts as i can every single day. I’m a licensed anime wholesaler / distributor, and have all the applicable business licenses here in Japan. Because all i do is work and collect, as that is what makes me happy in life, and what i love to do is focus on collecting cool items for my kids or family, and to display in house. As well as invest for the future. So just having dedication, and longevity within the industry has been the way i have been able to source products.
-
Increasing auction awareness. We are in 2018, and it all comes down to mass social media (SNS), and marketing. I.E Facebook, twitter, instagram, free giveaways, and taking the time to engage 1 on 1 with collectors around the world, I offer everybody FREE advice, with the industry, for investing / collecting Pokemon cards, and have done this for many years on the Pokemon facebook community in Australia. I don’t see many people out there making sales posts on facebook with links to the ebay auctions directly, we get a large click through rate from the facebook pages. Italy / Europe / Uk / USA / Australia / Asia predominantly at the facebook pages i target. Some of these pages have 1000 users, others have 20-40000 users who potentially can see your post. If 1 or 2 , new users come through in 1 day, i’m happy, as that is 1 or 2 extra bidders who may win some cards. Total there is probably a potential 10000’s+ Pokemon fans active on facebook, we just need a few to click through to the auctions and see the whats going on.
-
There is a reason why we have more followers on ebay than syuju, and other competitors. We start our auctions low, and offer free bonus prizes and gifts to majority of people who purchase, even if you spend $1 and you get a gift of free cards, or toys, or figures, or coins or magazines, something nice from Japan. We post everything via airmail, NOT SAL, we dont ship sal as that is super slow. combined discounted postage, as well as low customs for Europeans, *this is the same practice many people do with the customs slips, like mandarake and other stores as well.
-
Instagram awareness, is important to help build your profile and following these days.
-
Pokemon center middleman service / showcase, this is another service we provide, and do fairly large showcases of the pokemon center in Japan on facebook, alot of people click through to these and then into our ebay store.
-
Oldschool email marketing. Some people really like the old touch of emails, especially older investors / collectors. So don’t forget the oldschool marketing ways also.
-
1on1 crorrespondence, taking the time to go one on one with people daily is important, i probably message around 20-30 chats per day 1 on 1 on facebook, and instagram etc, as well as ebay messages. I know im still only a small potato, and other amazing sellers like smpratte, or rusty, or gary would get hounded a ton more than me.
-
Listing from $2, = more awareness more eyes, more watchers, as soon as you start hitting reserves, and high prices to start, you will lost a ton of visibility.
-
Mass auctions gets alot more attention than just listing a couple items, i don’t like selling off cards before i do an auction, as i want as many people chasing, mewtwo, or mew, or eevee, or charizard, to get there eyes onto an auction, and watch the singles they want. the more you list from a low price, the more eyes you will get.
-
Surveys and analysis, in my free giveaways, i generally ask the question, whats your favourite pokemon? this will tell me what is popular with buyers, and what to pickup in the future, also i can message these buyers directly on facebook with toys i have as well.
-
Broaden what you sell… we don’t just list cards… i’ve been selling toys, games, figures, plush items, hell i have a freaking pokemon iron as well on there. And a lapras radio. We do different brands as well. Honestly i am behind on listing these different items though.
-
After pay, we allow 3-4 weeks for anyone to pay for anything on ebay. Not many sellers allow this… as it screws them over usually.
-
You win some, you lose some, if you do auctions, you will lose money on items, no matter what, sometimes things don’t pickup, and don’t get enough awareness, but you learn from your mistakes, and what not to sell in the future. or to time it at a better time.
-
timing is so that uk / usa / australia are all awake. My auctions ended sunday midday cali, that was the time all three continents were awake. and actively busy on a sunday.
-
Targeting both Collectors and Resellers, auctions gets attention from both, i’m perfectly happy with people to resell what they win from me as well, after all, it is a trading card game.
Everybody has their methods to try and find their niche market, i’m giving you some of my secrets, but facebook analytics is probably my biggest ally in all this, as well as instagram, and taking the time to be patient with people one on one. I generally don’t sell buy it now psa cards directly, so everyone knows they need to bid with me. I feel bids and auctions are safer, and help to bring collectables cheaper to those abroad from Japan. Ebay has all the protocols in to protect buyers, in any instance, as well as deter shilling as much as possible, the same PWCC does. Think about the best times, when you scored the best deals, for me it was always from auctions on ebay or yahoo. As they generally fall below market.
It’s taken a long time to build a reputation, but if you have a passion for it, and are dedicated to collecting, you can do it.
if people have questions about anything pokemon related, feel free to get in touch with me anytime. I’ve met over 12 e4 members face to face and gone drinking with them, so if anyone comes to Japan, can also do that, just casue your on e4 
and i love it here.
2 Likes
just make note guys… this low feedback account always comes up after my auctions and accuses me of shill bidding auctions. haha check back over the years, you have probably said this to me over 2-4 years ? and my account is still going ? because i don’t shill. If anything is shilled ebay would flag the auctions, and has security measures in place to avoid it. The same as PWCC.
Successful bids = shilled!!, take note from whoever is ghosting mightymax…
Yes, this is the mentality some idiots have, that is why they are falling behind in the industry and won’t be able to keep up.
Positive business, will enact Jealously from competitors and others flaming you. No matter what in life; if you are successful, someone will want to talk you down because they couldn’t do what you did.
1 Like
To be fair Andrew a lot of your auctions end with 100% bid activity. We (E4) are very diligent about addressing that fact, but it is inherently suspicious, even if it isn’t your own doing.
4 Likes
That’s fair enough, I can’t control or change that if there are buyers whom only like to buy cards through me 100%, or can only budget for a few cards with me occasionally. It’s an expensive hobby, and people can’t always buy from different stores.
Think about it from a real life perspective, if you really love to buy video games, you go to the one store you love and trust locally.
If you really love tacos, you would go to the one place area which does the best tacos,
If you love pizza, you’d buy 100% of the time from the same place because I love that price / taste.
Same thing happens when people shop online, it’s called a marketing circle in business.People fall and are attracted to the one brand or business they are comfortable with.
Like how people buy iPhone only… 100% of the time.
2 Likes
Just wanted to pipe up here to say that the suggestion that PWCC doesn’t promote their auctions/market what’s going on/have no strategy is a silly statement. They are heavily into email marketing which I can tell you from experience is THE key approach in the current climate to cut through and see results, digital marketing, general online presence is simply too noisey, if they’re email marketing to the degree they claim too - then that ticks all the boxes for me in terms of letting their potential customers know what’s up.
As you were.