Hi everyone, I was doing some research on the UK market, then I realized there are some big differences in prices between these two markets.
The PSA9 price in the UK on average is around 35% higher (including all low-end, high-end)
The PSA 10 price in the UK is around 25% higher than US (same card).
Is this really the case? Or is my calculation just wrong. I’m really not familiar with the UK market. Thanks for your insights.
PSA market will always be more expensive in Europe (and also in UK)
Taxes is the key word. On average 20% VAT added on your grading costs, bad exchange rates when selling at ebay or using Paypal.
What price range is used to describe low-end and high-end items?
And people in Europe need to pay more in shipping cost. Raw cards cost more in Europe as well because is imported from USA. So there are a lot of reason behind it. Collecting in Europe is not easy as in USA.
Sounds about right to me. Mixture of UK collectors thinking grading with PSA is hard so there are less PSA slabs in general in the UK, and taxes.
Once you hit a certain turnover you have to pay 20% (in most cases) VAT for all your sales. In America its standard to add sales tax on top, but here its just built into the cost. So the big businesses / sellers who do over 80k~ in sales have that hefty fee on top of everything.
If we want to buy a slab from America, if its over £160 or so we have to pay 20% VAT on it when we bring it into the country. Those same big sellers/companies who are VAT registered can claim that back, but an average person who isn’t a business will have to pay that fee (or dodge tax 
) That being said, PWCC → eBay UK is still some of the easiest arbitrage out there if you can get cheap shipping and keep your import tax burden low
I’m sure i’ve missed some reasons, or maybe I’m overthinking the VAT thing, but those are the reasons that come to mind
One obvious factor not mentioned is supply difference. Most sellers are located in the US and most don’t sell to the UK (and if they do they use the very expensive GSP option)
Less available supply = higher prices
I think most cards in general, raw or graded, seem to be more expensive in the UK than the US.
Im always seeing cards on eBay where I think “wow, that’s a bargain”, and then notice the $17 shipping - of course, from the United States.
The definition for low mid and high end is as following: (might change in the future)
low-end: <$325
Mid-end: $325-$800
High-end: >$800
I asked a few people and took the average = (price range for each tier).
thank you everyone for the great information, I was worried my numbers are off, but it seems like UK has been more expensive for a long time due to a lot of factors.
Really appreciated.
Out of curiosity are you planning on adding some way of differentiating between UK & USA ebay on your site? That would be an amazing feature if possible.
Right now, everything is US sales, no UK yet.
Region switch/selection would be the way I can think of. For example, adding a button to switch among the US Marketplace/UK marketplace/Japan Marketplace.
Also, I need some time to think if there’s another way. But one thing is very clear, we can’t simply put US/UK sales together. Eventually UK will be added, this is for sure, I just need to find a way to differentiate the two marketplaces.
