Thursday, July 24, 2008

A Quick Comment On BIN/BO

Thanks to a generous donation from my parents to the "Buy Gellman a B-day Present Fund" I am able to get some stuff I have wanted for a while. I managed to snag a Joe Mauer JSY from A&G for less than 5, and I thought I would maybe think about getting a few autos of people I didnt have.

I started looking around for a Cal Ripken auto that I could trust and maybe a Pujols or something like that. What I didnt expect was that A) No one uses the counteroffer feature, B)Everyone responds with "sorry I cant go that low," despite my offers being ABOVE market value of completed auctions, and that C)BIN w/BO is an enigma if you are buying from a card shop with an eBay store. In reality, they will only give you 5-10 bucks off the already sky high price if you make an offer.

Also, if someone has quoted BV in the auction title, dont even bother.

5 comments:

  1. There are some of us (granted I have only sold one card and in the process of selling another) who actually use the counter-offer feature.

    The unfortunate thing is that because many dont (outside the 5-10 dollars discount they may give) some buyers don't even bid because they think that the seller's BIN is pretty set in stone.

    I try to find a good spot in the middle between what the guy initially offers and what the BIN was.

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  2. This is one THE biggest things that infuriates me throughout the etirety of eBay.

    A.) People ridiculously over-value their card constantly, which I think as you point out is a result of card shops having eBay accounts. That phrase, "I can only go as low as X" is usually only heard at card shows or shops.

    B.) The people who do use the counteroffer feature are asshats anyway. I very often see an item I want with a BIN price of say $20. I offer $14, and the moron sends me a counteroffer of $19. What the fuck is the point of even having a BO on your item??

    C.) A complete aside to this is shipping costs. Even if it's a card I really want, I will not pay more than $4 for shipping, and I do that grudgingly. When I sell cards on eBay, I ship for $2, and I break even. There should be no reason for $4, $4.50, $5, I've even seen $6.80 to ship one card. And the goat-rapers who build extra profit into their shipping don't get a dime from me.

    TWGM is coming dangerously close to needing a major overhaul.

    Maybe an item specific aptitude test, and standard shipping rates to weed out the jag-offs and morons.

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  3. I am more of a bargain hunter and buy in bulk so I usually ask the ebay store owner if he has 50 autographs he is willing to sell for $100. I've found some great stuff that way, even some Hall of Famers. You have to find the larger card stores though. I find that certain stores keep so much inventory that when they get a chance to dump a 50 cards that don't ever move, for a hundred they jump on it.

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  4. Whenever I'm selling cards on eBay now, I just put in 4 oz for the shipping weight and that's it. Sure I have a bit of handling, but only enough to cover the listing fees.

    eBay rapes us enough as it is. The Fukudome card I pulled and sold for $46 ended up costing me a total of $8.50 to sell between eBay fees and PayPal fees. That's just ridiculous.

    I just signed up for NEXCOM or SportsPay or whatever the thing is called today, maybe I'll be happier selling cards there.

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