New Feature: Product Value Review

I once saw this concept on a message board and thought that it would be a great “feature” for the content of SportsCardsUncensored. Have you ever wondered exactly what the return value of a purchase of cards is? Have you ever really wanted to see a breakdown of Beckett’s Inflated Value vs. Ebay Real Value of a random case of cards? Have you ever wanted to see if a certain product was worth a large investment of your own money? If you answered yes to any of these questions then you should love this new feature.

The new feature is heavily dependant on the “collective” readership of SCU. Here is what happens. We sell 50 “shares” in a case (think of it as an investment) in order to purchase the case. Then we break the case on video (just like we do for our group breaks posted on here and on YouTube). After the break, I will list all of the cards from the break on Ebay and sell them (7 day auctions with no reserve…have to push the free market idea). After all of the sales have been finalized (delivered to customer via tracking, etc.) we will then do a breakdown in 2 ways.

First, we will do a breakdown of sale value vs. purchase value. In other words how much of your original investment could you expect to get back if you were to sell all of the cards (assuming that the case is an indication of an “average” case).

Second, we will do a breakdown of “Beckett” book value vs. Ebay sale value. What percentage of the Beckett value can you expect to actually get out of your cards? Hopefully this will give some concrete evidence of how disconnected “book” can be for collectors.

Finally, the best part about the feature. After taking all of the expenses (case cost, paypal fees, ebay fees, shipping fees) and subtracting them from the income (share income, sale income) the money left over will then be refunded to each “share” holder. Of course if the sale values are very good (think a huge hit, etc.) then there is a chance each share holder could make a profit. However, odds are that we could expect to make roughly 50% of our money back at a minimum (hopefully). I will be keeping a spreadsheet of all income/expenses that would be emailed out to each “share” holder in the interest of transparency.

For example say we have $32 per share. That is a total income of $1533 (1600-1.34 per share Paypal Fees). We buy a case of Exquisite from Blowout or some other dealer at $1475. We then sell the cards on Ebay and get $1000 profit (sales – fees and shipping cost). So 1533-1475 = 58 + 1000 = $1058/50 = $21.16 per share refunded to shareholders.

Obviously this is not a money making adventure for participants, but rather it is a chance for the readership of SCU to come together to hopefully see some sweet cards pulled and to help educate the wider collecting world of the value of certain products (while of course continuing to debunk the “Gospel of Beckett Values”).

Up first will be a case of 2008 Upper Deck Exquisite. Look for the official “shareholder” sign-up tomorrow at some time. It will be a lot of work for me, but I think well worth it to continue educating the collecting world. Plus at worst I figure we maybe lose $15 per share on a product like Exquisite so it is a great starter.

Let me know what you all think.

P.S. If anyone wanted to design a sweet banner for this feature it would be greatly appreciated (I am not artistically gifted and so it would just look horrible if I did it).