Burbank Pricing

[Keyser Soze]

I'm much more annoyed at the prices of vintagesnowmobiles and griffeyfan24. Maybe it's because they just have more stuff that I want. Griffeyfan24 will mark his stuff 60% off and it's still way overpriced.

 

[chippercards.com]

I was watching a 1995 Electric Gold parallel of Jim Thome by Burbank. Pretty sure it was marked at $4.92, now marked up to $12. FWIW based on rarity I think the $4.92 was a good value. But they had 6 of them in stock! Amazing. The best way to take advantage of Burbank is to monitor their additions and target cards that regularly sell for well over book as it appears they use book value in determining their pricing- something like the 98 Teks are a great example.

I think their business model is sound though, and one I mimic- obviously on a drastically smaller scale and focused on particular niches : I call it the "Available for sale" business model of offering cards no one else has or if others have it, always make sure you underprice them. Clearly some like griffey & vintagesnowmobiles mentioned above take this to extremes.

 

[gamecockfanatic]

I'm much more annoyed at the prices of vintagesnowmobiles and griffeyfan24. Maybe it's because they just have more stuff that I want. Griffeyfan24 will mark his stuff 60% off and it's still way overpriced.

well you know griffeyfan is on these boards....personally i dont care for him or his business model either....but i think you've given him too much credit...it's his 80% off sales that leave his items priced at quadruple book and frankly i think he is going overboard and trying to take advantage of people with more money than brains....FAAAAR worse than burbank who at lest does have a HUGE selection rather than a few select players....

they are not alone ..... there's also sancarloscomputers , elwaybronco (store name is mike's insane ink) , and lest we forget jaderock who loves to hold rare items hostage as well......

there is also one more who lives only 20 miles from me who picks up a lot of 1/1 items of former south carolina game****s then relists them for anywhere from 3-10 times what he paid for them ....he is automvp ....many are items of my pc players who are "busts" that lasted less than 3 years in the league if they even survived season 1 ....he tends to beat me out on their plates that USUALLY go for $10 or less then ups them to $40-60 along with numerous 1/1 autos that usually go in the 30-40 range and jacks them up to 150 or 200 - and i KNOW there aren't going to be any takers at his prices since i'm pretty much the biggest (or only?) COLLECTOR of many of those players

 

[MansGame]

I can't say Burbank hasn't been instrumental in my Belle collection and getting it to where it is today but I haven't purchased a card off them in probably 2 years and that is OK with me considering they're pricing, etc. but as someone once told me, they have the cards and they sure do price them as if they're the biggest baddest guy in the room... at some level can't argue with that.

For the record, they don't have a single Belle card that I need but over the years I've honestly purchased probably 250 cards off them or more.

 

[nosterbor]

I have gotten many Juan cards I needed for them. I thought some I needed a few years ago were way over priced and did not buy them, and now they are gone. I have not seen those cards since and wish now that I had bought them. You snooze you lose. I could have bought a 99 fleer 24k 2 years ago for $120. I lost the last one on ebay 4 months ago. It went for $220

 

[MansGame]

I have gotten many Juan cards I needed for them. I thought some I needed a few years ago were way over priced and did not buy them, and now they are gone. I have not seen those cards since and wish now that I had bought them. You snooze you lose. I could have bought a 99 fleer 24k 2 years ago for $120. I lost the last one on ebay 4 months ago. It went for $220

Yea, probably 5 or more years ago they had a 1998 Bowman Atomic Refractor Auto of Belle for like less than $100 and I didn't think that was a fair price... it is long long gone now and I actually have NEVER seen the card anywhere else ever lol... o well

 

[RStadlerASU22]

1/1s , rare items etc , aren't being held hostage, they just don't want to sell unless they get what they want. Who's to say Burbanks pricing isn't more of a factor on market value than what the person running a .99 auction on an expensive card is. Or VSM or GF etc etc. Yes it can suck if they price something outside what your willing to pay , but your budget isn't everyone else's budget. Some of these people mentioned don't want to move the items they like unless they get a price they are comfortable with. If they were hurting for $ they wouldn't be in that thinking mode , but they are comfortable waiting it out for the sale or enjoying what they have is my belief.

Ryan

 

[RStadlerASU22]

And to add on to what is perceived market value, Burbank has 100000+ feedback , 99.9% rating. In the last 15 days they have sold about 4500 items (may be multiples of same item that would make it more) , so 300 sales per day ranging from .99-$273. So they are moving about 12 items an hour (1 every 5 minutes) around the clock.

Again I may not be willing to pay their asking on some items , but my budget isn't the same for others and Burbank knows that and seems to be doing ok with their strategy.

Ryan

 

[MansGame]

And to add on to what is perceived market value, Burbank has 100000+ feedback , 99.9% rating. In the last 15 days they have sold about 4500 items (may be multiples of same item that would make it more) , so 300 sales per day ranging from .99-$273. So they are moving about 12 items an hour (1 every 5 minutes) around the clock.

Again I may not be willing to pay their asking on some items , but my budget isn't the same for others and Burbank knows that and seems to be doing ok with their strategy.

Ryan

Haha well done. That's crazy.

 

[gamecockfanatic]

i dont think you get what i mean by an item being held hostage....

dealers/sellers etc who are not collectors at all who go around buying up very rare items an immediately relisting them at an exorbitant mark-up that is far beyond the typical selling range of said item....

two items in particular serves as a good example....both involve one of my highest priority players....player was in the league two years and then gone...he has a grand total of 31 1/1's....i own most of them....

first up is a simple printing plate......the majority of the plates for this player sell well below $10 at auction and i've won all but one i've ever bid on.....for that one automvp beat me out and a week later had it re-listed at 8 times his winning bid....he's relisted it literally dozens of time over the past 2 years , sometimes as auction with opening bids of 5-6 times what it should go for , sometimes as a BIN witout a BO , and occasionally as a BIN/BO.....i've made several offers up to double what they usually go for...he either ignores every offer or gives a counter that is literally 50 cent to a dollar below his already sky-high BIN....he isnt collecting this player but he bought it and is now holding the card hostage (pretty sure i'm the only one who has ever submitted an offer on it and i know i was the only other bidder in the original listing i lost)....it's a huge need for my collection , but not at $50-75 for a non-autographed plate when i paid less than that for 10 of them combined and in fact got all my true 1/1 AUTOS of said player for less than that....

the second case involves the same player....he has 3 autographed 1/1's....one i've never seen , but i'm almost sure the guy who was working on the 2007 limited master set has it ....the second one , i won at auction for less than $40 dlvd...the 3rd one popped up with a BIN of 60 but the seller admitted the card was damaged....i submitted an offer in which i asked if he'd accept the same amount i'd just paid for the undamaged one (one was as absolute spectrumplatinum and the other was a contenders championship ticket)...he never replied at all , but he lowered the asking price a bit...still a good bit more than the one i'd already bought so i held off because the card's condition just wasn't good enough for that price....he kept it in his store for a year then raised the price by a whopping $2 to $42 ....automvp picked it up at that price.....a week later he had it in HIS store asking $250...in more than year , the lowest he's been willing to go was an auction with an opening bid of $150...not realistic at all...literally EVERY 1/1 of this player that i own (plates , true non-auto , and true auto) COMBINED cost less than that....in short , he bought an item not for his own collection , and immediately jacked up the priced 600%....he IS holding that card hostage and likely knows i'm the only one who really wants it (there are 4 different players - all essentially commons/scrubs - i'm trying for 100% including 1/1's for whom i currently have at least 60% of the 1/1's)...until automvp came along , i literally never lost a 1/1 of those 4 players and i'm pretty sure he figured that out - thus they are now held hostage by a non-collector who has them so over-priced they will NEVER sell....


edit to add - another ebay seller that does this (though he doesnt mark things up 500-1000%) is hi5ahusker....he bids on hundreds of plates and other low-end 1/1's and immediately relists them all at a hefty mark-up.....i've lost a few of my guys to him ...the difference between him and automvp ? husker will list them over and over and the longer they sit , the more he'll chip away at the price....two or three times a year he'll try to raise funds by putting them on sale at up to 50% off....on more than one occasion , i was able to buy one of his sale items for less than i'd bid on it when he beat me out in the first place...

 

[Keyser Soze]

I just somewhat overpaid for a nice PC card Burbank had: 2000 EX Craig Biggio Essential Credentials Future #01 /10 for $135, card showed up with 4 jacked up corners and the outer coating peeling off. I don't mind overpaying slightly for a rare PC card, but I expect it to show up as described.

 

[chippercards.com]

Yeeouch. Sorry for your Biggio. To date I have had only good experiences with Burbank.

Sent from my LG-D800 using Freedom Card Board mobile app

 

[subject to change]

I don't have any issue with large dealers like Burbank pricing super rare cards well above market (read: auction) value. I probably won't pay their prices because my player collection needs are few and far between, and when it comes to being a team collector, where are always literally tens of thousands of other cards to chase, so I'll just move on to something that is more in line with what I want to pay. The real head scratchers are the common autos prices at $10, when the same card is available on COMC for $1.50. But if Burbank prices their cards off of BV that makes sense. Or at least as much sense as Beckett values make in 2015...

 

[DeliciousBacon]

I've had a few dealings with Burbank, and both times I felt I paid less overall than I would have elsewhere. However, I was only buying cheap stuff, but $1 for GU stuff that other sellers have for $8-$10 is still a damn fine deal. My major gripe with them is their use of stock photos; you can never trust a patch from them, and many of their cards have the wrong item pictured (with the "it's a stock photo" excuse).

 

[MansGame]

Another thing I would add is they are extremely responsive to messages on eBay or via their site or even direct email, which is great IMO. You would think someone like them and of their size would just ignore any and all. Also, I've had some dealings with them about value and even errors on their end and they usually make it right. Not promising anything but if you see a card you really want and have a good case for why the value might be an error, just email them and nicely try and have the conversation... might get you 10% at the least.

 

[RStadlerASU22]

Your def of holding hostage is different than mine. The 2 sellers you mentioned seem to buy what they feel are undervalued items to resell. Though I don't know their profit margin , they are doing ok and don't seem to be holding everything hostage. Again I get as frustrated as you when you see something you want priced above what you seem is reasonable , but you either bite the bullet or move on. Just last week I thought there was an item I wanted way overpriced at $2000+ , my offers and what I felt it was worth was $500 , the counter I got back the 2nd time was $1900 or so, within an hour it sold for $2k. So my thinking was not in line with what actually occurred.

Automvp in the last 3 months has SOLD 89 1/1s so he is selling an average of 1 a day to people who are comfortable with his prices

Hi5ahusker has sold 422 1/1s in 3 months , so 4.5 a day , so he is pricing his items I'd say at a non hostage rate

Those are just my thoughts on the subject , but I never blame sellers for asking what they want even if I get ticked. I collect oddball Will Clark items , a variation of a hat sold for like $8 a few months ago in auction, I forgot to bid in time , but another came up for sale this month by another seller at $35. I'm like no way , I'll wait for a price drop , the auction only brought $8 so it's priced way over market. Well , it sold , full price. You just never know when someone out there is gonna want what you want.

Ryan

 

[SINFULONE]

Did you send the Biggio back?

 

[gamecockfanatic]

Your def of holding hostage is different than mine. The 2 sellers you mentioned seem to buy what they feel are undervalued items to resell. Though I don't know their profit margin , they are doing ok and don't seem to be holding everything hostage. Again I get as frustrated as you when you see something you want priced above what you seem is reasonable , but you either bite the bullet or move on. Just last week I thought there was an item I wanted way overpriced at $2000+ , my offers and what I felt it was worth was $500 , the counter I got back the 2nd time was $1900 or so, within an hour it sold for $2k. So my thinking was not in line with what actually occurred.

Automvp in the last 3 months has SOLD 89 1/1s so he is selling an average of 1 a day to people who are comfortable with his prices

Hi5ahusker has sold 422 1/1s in 3 months , so 4.5 a day , so he is pricing his items I'd say at a non hostage rate

Those are just my thoughts on the subject , but I never blame sellers for asking what they want even if I get ticked. I collect oddball Will Clark items , a variation of a hat sold for like $8 a few months ago in auction, I forgot to bid in time , but another came up for sale this month by another seller at $35. I'm like no way , I'll wait for a price drop , the auction only brought $8 so it's priced way over market. Well , it sold , full price. You just never know when someone out there is gonna want what you want.

Ryan

automvp may have sold 89 1/1's , but the players he has bought and overpriced (that i KNOW are overpriced because i pretty much AM the end-user/target audinece for those cards....for the 4 players in question , aside from those few that i lost to him , i've won every one i've ever seen on ebay , most in the $3-7 range for the non-auto plates that he has prices at 50-75 each).....for the player i'm referring to , exactly ONE card (a 2007 limited platinum spotlight) has sold for more than $40....even that one only went that high because i knew the 07 limited master set builder was going for it so i intentionally overbid by a ton in hopes i'd be one of the few people to top him , but he still edged me out at just over $100) .....aside from that one , not even an autographed 1/1 of the player in question has sold for over 40 .... the highest actual SALE of a plate was 17 when the product was brand new in 2007 and the player was actually starting (but he was out of the league by the end of the next season)...when the average sales price over a 5 year period is $6 with none even approaching 20 , his prices of 50 and 75 are simply insane....

i also know that hi5ahusker sells tons of plates...never said he didn't....and while he does outbid actual collectors on 1/1's and then quickly relist them , at least his mark-up are semi-reasonable ....usually an item he won for 3-7 will be listed in the 12-20 range and then marked down by 20-50% if it doesn't sell within the first few months....as mentioned , occasionally one of his items on sale will end up being less than he paid for it....definitely not like automvp....buy for 7 , list for 75...pay 20 , ask 150....buy for 40 , ask 250....i just am not crazy over non-collectors who outbid true collectors only to jack up the prices the following week....had one who KNEW he was bidding against me on a 1/1....he won it....5 minutes later he sent me an e-mail offering to sell it to me - for 4 times what it had just sold for....i told him flat out that if i wasn't willing to bid more than he did , what on earth made him feel i would be willing to pony up 4 times that ...his reply ? i knew you wanted it so i was buying it for you....that ass-clown in particular just put me in a bad mood regarding this subject....

 

[goobmcnasty]

After many dealings online, I actually recently visited Burbank's "headquarters." The place is awesome. Not much storefront, but a huge back warehouse area. The owner really loves sports cards and was happy to show me the operation... even the "Vault" room where he had a ridiculous amount of high-grade rare vintage.

Ebay kind of taints our opinion of "value" and anytime someone has stuff priced higher than the last ebay auction, we dismiss them as being ridiculous. I do it too, so I'm not trying to bang on that philosophy. Burbank prices their cards based on what they paid for it, and what they think they can get for it. It's a business. It seems to work for them. When I see a card on Burbank's site that I can use, and it's priced fairly, I buy it. If it's priced high, I will shoot them an email offer. If they can't sell it for the price I want to buy it for, I'll move on. Life.

 

[Joey_peapod]

I actually bought a ton of stuff off of Burbank but I do think the pricing structure is a bit off. You can't hate to much because they are moving a ton of stuff!! Look at Griffeyfans feedback, he sells maybe 1-2 cards a month. I Think he lists more to show off. You can't actually want to sell and have the same inventory for 5 years.

Also auctions are are tricky. I've been lucky that my auctions get top dollar because I list properly. I never hear anyone talk about auction factors such as day of week, time of day, bad titles, ect. These all contribute to price. A couple weeks ago a Griffey that I can get $500 for went for $350. I just didn't even see it, as I'm sure other people didn't either. Bad time and title. Does that make it a $350 card? Nope.