eBay

sylviebee · ‎08-04-2015

I'm looking for some free advice.

I've noticed that there are quite a few posters who sell cards.

I have a box of Star Wars Cards from 1977. I've had them for about 10 years and there is an unorganized mass of hundreds and hundreds of cards.

I haven't counted them but there are a LOT of cards. It seems like these came directly from the factory.

I have no idea what they're about, nor do I have any interest in organizing them, but I do want to sell them and think they have some value.

I could list them as is on eBay as is but I'm pretty sure that would be asking for problems on so many levels.

I could take them to several stores in my town to see about selling.

I can't stress just how far this is from my comfort zone. That's why I thought I'd ask for advice here.

I've started to list these about a dozen times and always end up tossing the box in a corner because it just gives me a headache.

sylviebee · ‎08-05-2015

@ricarmic wrote:
I think Pierre makes a good point.

We all know that to make money here, one needs to at least triple the price paid,

ricamic......... I read your post and some of it makes sense, but I really got stuck on that first sentence.

If I buy an item for $500 and sell it for $800 I've made $300 for perhaps an hour's work and I'm very happy with that.

One doesn't have to triple the price paid to make very good money!

I've seen sellers do very well buying and selling at MUCH less than 200% profit.

pierrelebel · ‎08-05-2015

"One doesn't have to triple the price paid to make very good money! "

Here. you are not looking at buying one item and reselling one item.

A dealer (buyer) would purchase a box full of cards, unsorted with some duplicates. Time is money. It will take time to properly sort, identify and price these relatively low priced items.

So what the dealer (buyer) is purchasing is inventory for resale. He will pay half or a third of the estimated retail value (based on condition) minus the value of his time to prepare the merchandise.

In all fairness, you cannot compare that box of cards to a $500 item selling for $800. Apples and oranges.

pierrelebel · ‎08-05-2015

In the good old days before retirement, I would pay $500 to $600 for a stamp with a resale value of $1,000 (it may take me several years before I find a buyer willing to pay that price)

I would pay $40 to $50 for a stamp with a resale value of $100

I would pay $3 to $4 for a stamp with a resale value of $10

You see the progression? The lower the value... the larger the mark-up or margin to account for value of time.

Now, for a box full of unsorted stamps with an approximate retail value of $100, I would have paid $10 to $15 at the most. And that, my dear, is not "lowballing".

ricarmic · ‎08-05-2015

Hi sylvie!

For me, for anything selling here, I won't touch stuff unless I can at least triple, other than very special circumstances.

If something sells for $800 on ebay with $300 gross profit:
-less somewhere around $160 of fees depending on what category it is in, PAYPAL fees etc.
-less whatever one chooses to assume the $ value is for the risk of the sold item being ripped off (credit card chargebacks, loss in mail depending on how shipped etc)

Especially this day and age, I'm more worried about selling $800 items in eBayland than I ever was (some of the stuff I reference in my email goes to the other dealers because I know when he says he will pay me $2,000 for something, he will, and the cheque is good and I do not have to worry about it any longer.)

For your profit example if "I have a guy" for it, yes in those situations a lower markup margin is quite likely, but none of "I have a guy"s are from ebay.... they're all folks I've accumulated over the years that I have direct relationships with.

In my opinion, the box of star wars cards is in a different category than the buy it for $500 and sell it for $800 scenario.... to make any good $$$ on them the work has to go into them....

sylviebee · ‎08-05-2015

I responded to the statement because it doesn't generalize to all things and it was stated as if it's a fact.

I learned a long time ago that for me I'm much better off buying the best items I can with the highest demand.

I don't sell that stuff on eBay very often.

It takes just as much work to sell a high priced item as it takes to sell a $5 item.

BTW: I paid a few dollars for the box of cards above and I've often thought that was too much.

ricarmic · ‎08-05-2015

Hi Sylvie, given you have little into it, then it is similar to my collateral stuff, and the two suggestions I had may make sense......

ricarmic · ‎08-05-2015

Actually, I'm going to make an extra suggestion, if you have little into it, a "box of many 100s of 1977 star wars cards who knows what lurks" might do pretty well as well

You'd have to be sure there are many 100s there if it is going to be in the title. (It would also be good to say if they are Topps or OpeeChee if OpeeChee even made star wars cards... it should be on the cards prominently)

You can even be honest in your description that you don't have the time and energy to sort them out into sets and sell individually.... and you aren't a collector cards expert....

sylviebee · ‎08-05-2015

My reason for posting about the cards initially was because I couldn't make sense of them.

I was hoping that someone who's forte is collector's cards would fill me in a little.

My first thought was that these are counterfeit cards. While I doubt that anyone would have counterfeited Star Wars Cards I really don't know but someone who deals in them would or should.

As I've said before:

This is not someone's collection.

These are uncirculated cards freshly cut from the factory. Most are in pristine condition.

To me they make no sense but maybe for some reason they sold boxes of cards like this at one time?

Did they?

mr.elmwood · ‎08-05-2015

Sylvie, I totally get what you are saying. I get myself in the same jackpot.

Wanna buy some beer steins? I bought them for $4 a piece, and, they are worth four bucks a piece. At least I did not pay $60 like others were paying at the same auction, for the same $4 beer steins. I am "donating" them.

Without putting some organization into the cards, you really don't know what you have. A dealer may not even want them, unorganized, as they may feel the risk is too great.

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sylviebee · ‎08-05-2015

I agree Elmwood.........

Everything I have listed other than my purses is going to be donated very soon.

The cards are something I couldn't put off dealing with any longer as I've pushed them aside too many times.

I'm selling off as much as I can before I move but other than my purses it's more work than it's worth.

Thing is: eBay with these endless "free" listings makes it too easy to keep recycling the stuff and I do sell a little very month.

I'd just as soon be done with it.

ricarmic · ‎08-05-2015

At one time I dealt with cards years ago. Years ago they produced "vendors boxes"they were unpackaged so they didn't have gum in the packs and came just as stacks of cards in a good sized box. These could be from that. They could also be the pickings/leftovers from that....

mr.elmwood · ‎08-05-2015

@ricarmic wrote:
At one time I dealt with cards years ago. Years ago they produced "vendors boxes"they were unpackaged so they didn't have gum in the packs and came just as stacks of cards in a good sized box. These could be from that. They could also be the pickings/leftovers from that....

Yep.

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sylviebee · ‎08-05-2015

That makes sense and fits.. Sounds reasonable enough for sure.

But these cards are in little piles and they were never separated from each other or picked through at all.

I have to sort of pull them apart as you would freshly printed cards. A few stick a little and get a little damaged in the process as they were stored that way all these years and the dampness had an effect on some, butt most pull apart with no damage.

I also wondered if some employee might have made off with them from the factory.

ricarmic · ‎08-06-2015

It has been a long time but my recollection is that vendor boxes had 5,000 cards in them, in 10 small boxes with 500 in each. The cards were in a column "stack" in each small box box and they were jumbled, and not in order. I only saw vendors boxes for hockey and baseball cards but I presume they probably existed for the others.

Vendor boxes were intended for resellers, one bought the box, put them in order and sold the sets from it. The reason for selling them this way was vendors didn't want 1,000,000 pieces of gum and the wax from the wrapping that tended to damage one of the cards.

I don't think they made vendors boxes past the late 1980s but it is possible they were being made when the Star Wars cards you have came out in 1977....

Please keep in mind these are recollections from 25 years ago so I might be misremembering.....

pierrelebel · ‎08-06-2015

"sort of pull them apart .... A few stick a little and get a little damaged in the process as they were stored that way all these years and the dampness had an effect on some,"

Ooooops!

The value of these cards just went down at least 50%. Few dealers selling first quality cards would be interested.

sylviebee · ‎08-06-2015

@pierrelebel wrote:
"sort of pull them apart .... A few stick a little and get a little damaged in the process as they were stored that way all these years and the dampness had an effect on some,"

Ooooops!

The value of these cards just went down at least 50%. Few dealers selling first quality cards would be interested.

Of course. That goes without saying. The damaged cards have no value and should be tossed.

However, as I have pointed out many times the vast majority are in pristine condition as if they'd just left the factory.

That's why I avoided the cards all these years and thought they might be counterfeits right off the press but wasn't sure enough about that to toss them.

To me it looked like they were printed on old cardboard because some are really puzzle pieces.

What ricamic said makes perfect sense. They were likely vendor's boxes that someone piled into the box I have now.

pierrelebel · ‎08-06-2015

Back to your original post:

"I could take them to several stores in my town to see about selling."

That is the way to go. You do not have the time nor knowledge to ascertain a value. Since the box only cost you a few dollars years ago, get a few dollars for it today and move on.

sylviebee · ‎08-06-2015

Perhaps. But it doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand Star Wars cards.

Probably not much more effort than it takes to go to a few stores.

sylviebee · ‎08-06-2015

@toby**bleep**zu wrote:
If these are really 77 ones on perfect condition it would be well worth making an effort to understand what you have. You'd get a lot more here then from a dealer

eg

http://www.ebay.com/sch/Trading-Cards-/868/i.html?_from=R40&LH_Complete=1&LH_Sold=1&_nkw=star+wars+c...

Definitely the way to go.

I spent the afternoon watching bad TV and sorting through cards.

Quite a few sets. I'll pull the sets and take the rest to a dealer.

Knowing those guys they would have offered me $25 to $50 for the box before I went through it and they'll offer me the same now as well.
(Hardly worth the time and effort though.)

Also, I feel better knowing what I'm dealing with.

So now I know more than I ever wanted to know about Star Wars Cards.

Thanks for all the help.