I’ve posted plenty of evidence that sellers abuse Fanatics Collect BIN system to inflate “sales” of their cards and adjust CardLadder price estimates.
Whether this applies to the recent snap sales is the bigger question. I think a healthy amount of skepticism is needed here. If the buyer/seller or Fanatics Collect confirm the sale, I will be happy to see that.
@pfm It’s not impossible that these cards sold for those asking values. But there have been numerous instances of price manipulation of 5-figure and 6-figure cards on Fanatics Collect within the past six months specifically. For the sake of public data, I hope that these sales are real. It sucks, but we often need confirmation these days.
I understand the skepticism, and it’s true that systems like BIN likely have been abused, as you’ve pointed out before. It’s good for the community to be aware of those specific issues.
However, applying that same suspicion to sales without specific evidence is a different matter. The default assumption in any market should be that a transaction is legitimate unless there are concrete red flags related to that specific sale. Right now, the only “evidence” against this sale is the sales platform and type, and the price itself which isn’t proof of manipulation, it’s just a new market high.
While confirmation from the buyer or seller would be nice, there’s no obligation for them to provide it. High-end collectors often value their privacy and shouldn’t have to face public scrutiny just for being the new top bidder. Casting doubt without proof can unfairly tarnish what might be a landmark sale for the hobby.
If it turns out otherwise, then everyone would be more than happy to hear about it.
no idea why anyone would list these on fanatics bin rather than ebay which prolly has 10-100x the volume and how would you do the “private sale” from fanatics bin which would inevitably happen if someone was truly serious about buying these anyway
You could be right that it’s BIN manipulation, but at the same time, there are only 15-20 copies of these and a handful of extras, and they’re almost never available.
FWIW, the EBD cards I sold to buy my house went from ~50k to 150k within the span of a month. And while I was waiting for money to process from the buyer’s to my bank account, they even peaked at 250k just 2-3 weeks later, before they started to drop again back to ~175k soon after..
After I’ve experienced that first-hand, I’m a lot less skeptical about seemingly idiotic prices compared to previous sales, haha.
But again, I understand your reasoning and since shilling and market manipulation still happens way too often, it’s good to keep questioning these things and keep the discussions about them flowing.
PS: Now, if anyone could borrow give me 7.5M? Then I’d still not buy that SNAP Pikachu. But the money is welcome nonetheless.
Play Umbreon has sold for $200k before & I’d put snap cards over that any day. But it’s still some crazy sales considering you could buy old back trophy pikas at cheaper price right now.
I hear you fully. People do pay crazy prices, and in the grand scheme of things with these extremely rare cards, any price is “reasonable” because it is the only one available.
However, it was not just a few months ago that illustrators were “selling” on Fanatics Collect for $950,000 and then getting relisted every few weeks. Fanatics Collect has become the place for fake BINs and relists to manipulate CardLadder, which I have highlighted previously.
I think the point is that when it comes to cards as rare as this, although the underhanded price manipulation is possible, it’s also perfectly possible these are legitimate sales. It’s not obviously dubious as it would be with much more common cards.
Or the third option which is “It doesn’t matter because I’m not a serious potential buyer or seller” which probably applies to everyone posting here.
The rational position is not instant skepticism or instant belief but rather to have no strong opinion either way until there is sufficient evidence. In other words: “I don’t know”. In this case the price is much higher than the last sold and simultaneously it is a card that rarely comes up for sale. Is it a real sale? No way to truly know without hearing from the buyer or seller. But also it doesn’t really matter to most people.
and how would you do the “private sale” from fanatics bin which would inevitably happen if someone was truly serious about buying these anyway
