Trading by BV/SV - a little rant

So lately I've been trying to trade on other sites to fill holes in my Upton collection. Nothing big time, but I figured I might as well unload some of the low end base/inserts/parallels I've accumulated to add similar stuff of Upton that I need.

A lot of people on these sites like to trade by BV. I'm all fine with that, especially for low end stuff where the values are pretty similar, but the following situation has come up a couple times. I reject a trade offer and feel like the prospective trader is a bit miffed because they were offering "equal book value." In these cases it's someone offering me something on my want list that may very well book the same as what they're wanting in return, but doesn't sell for even half of the card they want from me. I'm always curious if these people actually think they're offering me something fair or if they're just trying to rip me off (I'm betting the latter). I always respond politely, rejecting the offer and explaining why I can't accept even though the BV is the same, but I just have that feeling that they're upset about it. I always wish I could then find a scenario where the positions were reversed and I had something they wanted that booked the same as a card I wanted, but doesn't sell nearly as well. I'm guessing they wouldn't be as excited about trading by BV in those cases either.

Oh well, what do you do? I just don't get some people. /end rant

80% of off ebay deals I do, I take a loss on. So that doesn't sound too out of the ordinary to me. I have encountered that before, but usually just do it if its something that I've been looking a while for.

I've been doing a lot of trading lately as well, mostly for set building purposes. I agree, I'm still shocked at the number of people who quote "BV". No, I will not pay $4 dlvd for those (10) 1990 Topps cards I need when I can win a complete set for .99

I was offered 2 single color jersey cards of Upton that would end at 0.99 plus shipping on eBay for a Pujols patch that I've got where similar examples are selling for $25-$40, because BV is about equal.

I was also offered a Tristar Upton auto that wouldn't sell for $15 for my 2001 Passing the Torch Wade Boggs on card auto that I paid ~$50 at auction on eBay because the BVs are the same.

I really don't want to be rude to people and I sincerely hope they just don't understand the disparity in value of their offer, but man it gets tough to give some people the benefit of the doubt. Do they not understand how lowball their offers look? Or are they hoping they can take advantage of me because quoted BVs are the same. When we're talking base or low end parallels, I'll definately trade in someone else's favor BV/SV for something I want, but not when values get higher and the differences become that large.

I was trying to buy a bunch of commons/inserts off of someone on another site and they told me the BV was around $15, but they can give me the cards at 10% off (13.50). Before I had a chance to respond to his offer 3 other people commented to him that his asking price was way too high. He honestly had no idea that the BV was not the true value of his cards. He thought he was giving me a deal.

I am not saying this is the case with you, but I can see how some people could feel that if they are giving you equal book value in return you should take the offer

It's a dog eat dog world out there, and people just try to get themselves the best possible deal that can, even if that means manipulating BV/SV and trading by whichever one works best in their case.

Huffamaniac said:

I was trying to buy a bunch of commons/inserts off of someone on another site and they told me the BV was around $15, but they can give me the cards at 10% off (13.50). Before I had a chance to respond to his offer 3 other people commented to him that his asking price was way too high. He honestly had no idea that the BV was not the true value of his cards. He thought he was giving me a deal.

I am not saying this is the case with you, but I can see how some people could feel that if they are giving you equal book value in return you should take the offer

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See I've been under the notion that everyone was on the same page about SV nowadays. I have noticed however that I've been getting more of the BV crowd again, more intensly over the last 4 or 5 months. Does Beckett still have a magazine? If so, are there articles in the magazine that push for BV trading or something? Just curious I guess as to why the BV type trade people are becoming more frequent as of late.

WoundedDuck said:

I was offered 2 single color jersey cards of Upton that would end at 0.99 plus shipping on eBay for a Pujols patch that I've got where similar examples are selling for $25-$40, because BV is about equal.

I was also offered a Tristar Upton auto that wouldn't sell for $15 for my 2001 Passing the Torch Wade Boggs on card auto that I paid ~$50 at auction on eBay because the BVs are the same.

I really don't want to be rude to people and I sincerely hope they just don't understand the disparity in value of their offer, but man it gets tough to give some people the benefit of the doubt. Do they not understand how lowball their offers look? Or are they hoping they can take advantage of me because quoted BVs are the same. When we're talking base or low end parallels, I'll definately trade in someone else's favor BV/SV for something I want, but not when values get higher and the differences become that large.

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I agree this is always going to be a problem simply because there are so many different cards out there. Can someone really expect someone else to know exactly how a specific set **and** specific player sells? Usually people know about how a player sells or a set sells but not both, at least with regard to rare and semi-rare cards.

SCF= Full of BV dealing baffoons.

Been trying to trade for master set needs and some people will have 20 of the minis I need with a "BV of $60" so they ask for $40. Then I wait a few days and get a lot, albeit have the size for .99+ shipping on ebay.

If you are trading I'm not against using the BV type of thing, but selling...no WAY!

Its possible I suppose that some of those "BV" hold outs are simply using book value to make them feel better about their wax buying purchases. Perhaps they just feel better by convincing themselves that their inserts/game used cards are "worth" $10 rather than the .99 they could actually be bought for. I mean its printed in black and white on paper so how could anyone argue against them

In my Allen & Ginter master set building days I encountered this a lot. I'd have a card that was selling for $40 or $50 on eBay, but the trader wanted to trade a set number of mini-cards for my one limited card without accounting for sale value. I was okay with that to a degree because I was set building, but why it's fair to trade $10 worth of 50 cent cards for one card with solid resale is beyond me. I'd just ask to meet somewhere in the middle; however, I also dealt with very generous traders as well.

The type of trader you're dealing with doesn't care about how much profit they're making...only keeping it "fair," whose definition changes by need.