hi guys i was wondering what is the reason why big items go for private sale, instead of ebay for example ?is there a lot of these secret sales ?
- No eBay fees
- Once you get up to real high-end items you have contracts and lawyers, not eBay customer support
- Many high-end buyers prefer the discretion and anonymity of a private sale
22 Likes
Also, some people get very, very mad when they see other people spending a lot of money on non-essential goods and voice that very loudly. You can see some examples even on this forum where the emerging discussions end - with a padlock from fourthstar 
8 Likes
To avoid this
17 Likes
More secure doing a private sale between 2 known collectors, rather than a random person on ebay with a -1 overall feedback.
5 Likes
Sell high privately so that you can buy low publicly. 
6 Likes
Is it because they spend a lot of money, or that they avoid taxes as much as they can on the sales?
Yes
1 Like
(That’s how you get secret rares)
1 Like
Oh OK. I can see why people disagree with the tax avoidance, not so much with how much the cards are sold for.
People being angry over cards selling high never has anything to do with “tax avoidance.” Lol.
What does it have to do with?
Do people that sell cards privately, for high amounts, not do what they can to avoid taxes?
People get mad when cards sell for high prices because it reinforces the fact that they’ll never own it. So I think the angry responses generally boil down to jealousy.
2 Likes
I’d imagine that private sales tend to have more interaction between the various parties and allow for greater negotiation versus ebay where its a set price. You can also throw in other items or remove other items when its private.
1 Like
Usually on high end cards, there will be profits to be made given the growth of the hobby in the last 20 years. In a perfect world, you are suppose to be taxed on the profit and give that to the government on an individual card basis. That 1st edition base set PSA 10 gem mint charizard you got for $1,000 back in 1999 and sold it for $350k today, well Uncle Sam wants a piece of the $349k of profit that you just made.
That’s one of the reasons why people prefer to do private sales. Same reason why people prefer paypal FnF instead of GnS as no sale information is remitted to the government.
Gary King Pokemon even mentioned it in one of his posts a while back (link below).
That sucks. While I don’t think cards should be worth the amount that they are (leads to a lot of shady dealings), it is what it is. I’m not jealous. I just get tired of hearing about all the tax avoidance people go through, just to get max profit they can get.
Choose 1
Privacy yo
1 Like
People who buy and sell higher-end Pokemon cards / trophies tend to run in the same social circles. So it’s much easier to ask and offer up high end cards to that same group of collectors first to see if there’s any interest before pursuing public avenues.
This does 2 things:
- Avoids the 10-20%+ fees from public auction platforms, unless the seller thinks they can get more from a public sale than their “inner circle”
- Keeps the card within a known community of collectors so that it’s easier to get it back later, or that it ends up in the hands of someone who will ‘care’ (for lack of better word) for the card
3 Likes
I disagree with Gary on that. Taxes are an absolute necessity for our society. We all benefit from the services that are provided by the taxes. Plus, when it comes to those high end cards, your profit margin is more than likely high enough, that the taxes don’t hurt in the grand scheme of things.
1 Like