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Monday, January 30, 2012

Need Advice - Selling Cards Online

So I've been toying with the idea of starting to sell some of my extras on eBay as a way to partially fund my ongoing card purchases (Don't worry, I'll still keep plenty of stuff around for trades.  :)  ).  I know many of you sell some cards online, so I thought I would solicit my fellow bloggers for advice.  Tips on any topic would be welcome - Should I limit how many listings I have active at once? Do you find selling lots of common cards worthwhile? Shipping - how much to charge? Ship internationally or just US? Any issues with managing Paypal payments?  Any problems you've had I should watch out for? etc, etc, etc.....

Perhaps most importantly, do you find the money you make justifies the effort??

Thanks in advance!

3 comments:

  1. It all depends I guess. I would recommend using the ebay shipping option as you get a deal on the shipping rate. Although I haven't confirmed it, as I haven't sold anything in a few months that ebay started charging a fee, but now that delivery comfermation is free I think it's a wash. Second if you have a food scale or postal scale it helps. You can ship up to 3oz for about $1.71 or so. So knowing how much your card wiegh is important, Also have to figure in bubble mailers, containers for shipping the cards, ie top loaders, cases, team bags what ever. I found that if you plan to sell stocking up on bubble mailers by buying a case from amazon will save you a ton of money. Offer combine shipping discounts it'll encourage more people to buy from you and when you ship, use the shipping option of a ridge envelope so the cards don't get run through the machine. Yeah it cost more for postage. I usually charge $2.50 for the first auction depending on how many cards or how heavy it is and then a quarter for singles and small lots extra, fifty cents for graded or slabbed cards and a buck more for large lots say 25 or more cards for combined shipping. Figure shipping for a ridged non-machinable envelope is going to be $1.71 with delivery confirmation via ebay shipping. .25 to 30 cents for the bubble mailer depending on how cheap you can find them, 15 to 50 cents for packaging materials, some tops loaders ain't cheap especially the super thick ones. I tend to ship to the US and Canada only, but that's up to you. It's really pricey to get del. conf. to foreign countries. I've had no issues with Paypal. Just remember ebay takes a cut and paypal takes a cut. As far as commons I found that offering pick lots is probably the best way to go. You put up all you have to offer and then winner gets to pick how every many you offered. One advantage to this is you can offer just one set or multiple sets. Like 2010, 2009, 2008 topps baseball all in one auctions and the winner picks what they want. It's funny you ask this now I was thinking of putting a basic selling on ebay primer on my blog but never got around to it. So many facets. The only problem I've run into is the non-payment guys. I've only had one buyer, who used multiple accounts do this to me so it's a pain and I got my fees back. But I highly recommend delivery confirmation on packages espcially on high value cards. It's pricey at the PO but now free to go through ebay and Stamps.com too I guess. I find the money I make makes it worth it. Whatever I don't want gets traded or sold to help be justify the next round. Oh and as far as listing I always try to do no more than 25, but that's just me. Plus you get 50 free listings a month on ebay, so use that to your advantage. Ebay has specials all the time too with unlimited postings. I think the thing that scared me the most and kept me from selling earlier was knowing how much to charge for shipping. I didn't want to be one of those guys who overcharges, because that will effect the final sell price. And do your homework. Do a couple quick searches on ebay to see if anyone else has what your selling or use the completed listings option to see what things have sold for. Whew. I hope that helps a little and makes some sense. Feel free to email me if you want to know anything else. I've been selling on ebay for a few years now and to be honest it's still the best marketplace for your cards. Just my 2 cents.

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  2. wow my spelling and syntax sucks sorry tony. I didn't proof it before I published. Yikes.

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  3. Postage just went up. $1.95 is the new $1.71.

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