Its situationally dependent for me. If the seller is knowledgeable but missed something, im probably not saying much. If the seller isnt used to the hobby and is looking for knowledge as well then i’ll give them info and make an offer based on my budget.
I dont mind spending more than they ask as long as its within my range of what I feel the cards are worth. If they are selling a $1000 card for $5, im going to say something while offering a few hundred. If its a $50 card priced for $5 at a store, no way. If its a reseller, even less incentive.
If you’re in it for the long run, informing potential collectors (not the resellers) about their slab values will most likely help keep them in hobby as well versus them realizing they got got later on. That’s healthy for the ecosystem.
If they are a vendor/reseller, then they’re just bad at their own ‘hustle’ that they employ on a day to day basis.
haha we all can dream. Closest I came was when a friend of mine inherited a collection and texted me asking “is this Pokyman worth anything.” I made a fair offer but encouraged him to grade it. I must admit, if it were a stranger I would’ve left it at the fair offer and never brought up grading. If he were only a stranger…
Why do people who think their card is 10x the actual price always put the cards in these cases? Most of the time when I see this in a FB listing they are over estimating their cards or basing off of graded cards.
Also props for not taking, I probably would have offered a price slightly under market, then graded it myself.
To be fair this was from a collection from 25 years ago and it was stored that way before it was worth anything/internet. The zard ended up selling for 14k ish. I totally get the sentiment for the new age stonkers though
I don’t think I’d worry too much about it unless I was ripping off a kid (and probably in a select few other hypothetical situations as well). I’m not entirely sure how I’d feel in a 1st-edition-Charizard-garage-sale-find situation.
One example I ran into recently was buying a card off Ebay and having the seller reach out with other cards he was looking to sell that he hadn’t listed yet (he was selling off his old collection and wasn’t currently collecting). He had a price in mind for each (using PriceCharting) and I spotted a “double holo” Neo Revelation Houndoom and Misdreavus that I was able to pick up at a little below comps for the non-double-holo variants. It’s not a crazy price discrepancy, but it’s a small win that I’ll take for being involved in the hobby and learning about these nuances.
I can’t remember who said it on here but a long time ago it was said, and I paraphrase, “I don’t care if the last card I need is owned by the leader of ISIS or Al Qaeda, I’m buying it” IMO this sums up the mindset of most of the “hardcore” collectors on E4 lol.
Morals be damned, I need to complete this PSA 10 set!
As much as I truly enjoyed the good old days with link cable battles and trading cards in the schoolyard as an 8-year old, I don’t have rose-tinted glasses about it either. It was just as cutthroat as anything else. Everyone took advantage of everyone as much as they could within their means. Knowledge, shrewdness, brains, having the cards everyone wanted, status, seniority, all the little tricks. Every angle was played.
Trading was only fun when it was favorable. Trades where everyone got what they wanted were exceedingly rare and successful trades with the other sharks were practically nonexistent. I barely interacted with the other 2-3 kids with the best binders at school because we knew we couldn’t screw each other over.
This is exactly why I’ve come to see the funnier side of what’s going on in the modern Hahbee™.
It’s exactly what we’ve always been doing, except now as grown-ups with lots of money
The hahbee certainly paints a terrifying picture of what the world is going to look like when 80’s and 90’s kids become the string-pullers in 30 years time.
Luckily, both me and my Hypno/Venomoth coolection will be in storage on Elliðaey by then.
If you see a $100 card listed on eBay for $10, what are you supposed to do? Message the seller and tell them they underpriced? By the time the seller would see the message, the card is already sold to someone else anyways.
Adults making adult decisions agreeing to sell a card for a certain price doesn’t mean you can’t get a deal without being morally wrong.
Depends on the context (aka, where I find it and what).
If I find a heavily undervalued card on eBay or similar websites, I just buy it. If I don’t, someone else likely does anyway even if I do send a message first.
If someone asks in public or specifically PMs: ‘Is this worth anything?’, I usually briefly educate them on how to look at sold eBay listings and such to make an estimated value themselves, and use one of their cards as an example. (In 999 out of 1000 of those cases, it’s not something I’m interested in anyway.)
But there have been instances where someone simply posted a card from their old collection to gain interest and see if it’s worth anything, and it’s a card I really wanted that doesn’t pop up too often. In those cases, I usually PM-ed an offer of about 1/3rd of the price I had in mind paying for it. A lot of times, it’s still way more than they’re expecting and are happy to sell it, where it’s a win-win for both of us. (Even though they might have sold it at 1/10th of the price as well, I think 1/3rd is already a nice win for me for a card I really wanted.) (And in some cases, someone else PM-ed a higher offer and I raise my initial bid a few times if necessary; or they’re asking a way overpriced price instead, in which case I wish them good luck trying to find someone crazier than me. In the past I was known for overpaying on a regular basis; although in the current market these past few years, it’s not too relevant anymore…)
I will add my take is for adult to adult transactions.
If you see a kid selling cards at a garage sale for 1% of the value, that is morally wrong for an adult to just buy it. Give the kid some advice and offer a little more alteast
I suppose so, but not really in this context. The worst someone can do is decide not to accept my offer and sell elsewhere, which I often encourage people to do anyway.
I guess one situation that comes to mind is buying a small lot of 1st edition Team Rocket Holos in PSA 10 that I needed back in 2014. The seller had them way underpriced, so I educated him and made a reasonable offer, which the seller accepted. The seller didn’t ship them for a week and when they finally arrived, he had only sent a few of the cards and note apologizing, telling me that he sold the others to someone else after selling them to me. I then educated him on how eBay item not as described worked, since he didn’t offer me a refund for the missing cards. Disappointing and inconvenient, but I refuse to let these situations ruin my life or turn me into someone that I’m not. They’re just cards . . .
For sure. I should’ve clarified I was mostly referring to in person transactions where you can easily distinguish the level of knowledge the seller has & their motives.
The most common scenario where the moral dilemma arises for me is collection purchases. I’ve had multiple situations where the seller has asked my opinion on the the value which is a conflict of interests because I’m now both the appraiser and a potential buyer.
The most apples to apples experience I’ve had is when I was negotiating a price for a collection. The seller was very open about his lack of knowledge and was pulling up prices for unlimited cards when his collection was shadowless. I would’ve much rather been unaware of his error but because I was aware, I felt compelled to inform him. Resulting in a higher price for me.
On the flip side I came across a Shadowless Charizard at an LGS that was clearly priced as unlimited. Not only did I not bring it to their attention, I negotiated the price even lower, purchased it, and slept like a baby that night.
In both scenarios I don’t think I had any obligation to inform them of their error and I wouldn’t judge anyone for going about it differently.
Yesterday I purchased a inverted stamp WB movie promo Pikachu for really cheap. The seller listed it low and I asked if he’d do a trade sent him pics of cards I wanted to get rid of. He chose a CGC 8 base 2 Charizard for 350 trade value. So I paid him $500. Seller made his account in January and his a 20 year old kid. He sent plenty of pics and nothing about it makes me think it’s not real. Shipped today and it has to go through eBay authenticity guarantee. If it passes I got a steal. If not I get my money back. Seller has no clue how rare it is or the other cards he has. Felt bad that he doesn’t know its value or how rare it is. Also had to walk him through how to pack and ship it out as it’s his first sale. However, when a opportunity arises to get something on my collection wish list can’t pass it up lol
Interesting. If I’m understanding this correctly this was a partial trade deal through eBay? If so, how does that work? Do you ship the base 2 zard once you receive the pika or did you already send it?
Yes correct. So the Pikachu has to go through ebay’s authenticity guarantee. Once it passes that I’ll ship the Charizard out. Since I know the pika is legit. Hopefully I’ll find the answers so as PSA authenticity office is located in Jersey City and I’m only 30 minutes from there
Also, I asked if he had a IG. So we communicated and worked it out there. Once we had a trade value. He lowered the price on eBay to accommodate the extra and I paid there. So either way we both are protected I think if anything goes wrong.
In the past I was known for overpaying on a regular basis; although in the current market these past few years, it’s not too relevant anymore…)