- Thread starter
- #1
f2tornado
New member
Football cards have their ups and downs perhaps more than any other major sport which has led to a lot of card speculation over the past few seasons. I'm having a lot more issues with speculative buyers than at any other time in the past. The most common problem is people making bids on a card in hopes the player has a solid performance or repeats a big game. This is particularly common when the card(s) sell on the low end of expectations. The bidders then hold the card hostage and wait for the next game or even two games out before deciding whether to pay or not. By this time the buyer assumes no risk other than getting the eBay slap on the wrist for non payment. Seller is now either effectively selling the card below market value if the player pops or is stuck selling at a lower price if the player has a bad week. Either way, the seller loses. I sometimes sell cards that have upside potential to buy other cards with bigger upside potential or to simply pay for cards where I got lucky on a low hammer. This is a lost cause when buyers don't hold up their end of the transaction. The other problem I have is people coming up with various excuses after a poor game to cancel a bid or transaction.
Here are a couple examples from the past few weeks where I got the short end of the stick. I sold a Stephen Hill 2012 Finest Prism Auto /10 BGS 9.5 for $34 (#141057484201) on Sept 11. The card went cheaper than I hoped as I figured it could get double but nevertheless I needed some funds for some 2013 singles. Eight days later and after another okay but not big game the nonpayment process began. On the final day of the process and right after Hill's big game last week I got paid. Pretty crappy since I could not use the money earlier as hoped and also knowing the card would likely fetch a lot more than I got out of it. A couple months ago I sold a Stephen Hill 1957 Refractor Auto right after the physical card came from the redemption center. The card fetched over $30 yet subsequent copies got only half of that. The buyer requested a refund claiming the corner was not BGS 9.5 quality. I obliged but told the buyer he would need an e-check refund as the Paypal account was dry. I said he could wait a couple days for an instant payment and all I got was hell over it. I proceeded to sell the card for half the price and blocked the rude buyer with remorse. Now on to yesterday. I have some Hill cards up for bids hoping he'd build on his previous game and the fact I just need some dough to pay the bills. Unfortunately Hill gets knocked out of the game on the first drive and the Jets looked like cow dung. Like clockwork, a buyer contacts me and asked to cancel his bid on the Chrome Prism Auto BGS 9.5 since he did not notice a (minor) scratch on the case. This actually would be just cause for a not as described case so I obliged.
Here is what I am doing to limit this nonsense. First I set the unpaid item assistant to automatically file after 4 days. I used to be a lot more flexible but am getting too many burns these days and this is costing me money. In order to do this I had to change my combined shipping rule to 3 days. I noted in my item descriptions, "Payments should be received within 4 days to avoid automatic non payment case. This is a change from my previous auctions as I am done with bidders holding my cards hostage waiting for the next game to decide if they are going to pay or not. Please contact me if you cannot pay within that time". Since most of my football card auctions end on Sunday or Monday the buyers can no longer wait until the next game without a case being opened. They may still end up not paying but at least it's no longer waiting through two games. Next, while I have always been good about noting obvious card flaws, I tended to ignore the superficial stuff and just listed most everything as NRMT-MINT. This was especially true on thicker cards that are condition sensitive by nature. I am now including the condition sensitive verbiage in item descriptions. I don't yet have too many problems with buyers on these flaws but they are slowly increasing. Buyers are more finicky when it comes to slabs or at least making excuses to wriggle out of purchases or get a discount when they perceive to overpay. I always mentioned any obvious slab issues but will now be mentioning even the minor stuff in an effort to stave off as much of this nonsense as possible.
Bottom line is cover your asphalt. The entire eBay experience is not as fun as it used to be and the next time I get a survey I will be letting them know the mockery that has become of the trading card section on the site.
Here are a couple examples from the past few weeks where I got the short end of the stick. I sold a Stephen Hill 2012 Finest Prism Auto /10 BGS 9.5 for $34 (#141057484201) on Sept 11. The card went cheaper than I hoped as I figured it could get double but nevertheless I needed some funds for some 2013 singles. Eight days later and after another okay but not big game the nonpayment process began. On the final day of the process and right after Hill's big game last week I got paid. Pretty crappy since I could not use the money earlier as hoped and also knowing the card would likely fetch a lot more than I got out of it. A couple months ago I sold a Stephen Hill 1957 Refractor Auto right after the physical card came from the redemption center. The card fetched over $30 yet subsequent copies got only half of that. The buyer requested a refund claiming the corner was not BGS 9.5 quality. I obliged but told the buyer he would need an e-check refund as the Paypal account was dry. I said he could wait a couple days for an instant payment and all I got was hell over it. I proceeded to sell the card for half the price and blocked the rude buyer with remorse. Now on to yesterday. I have some Hill cards up for bids hoping he'd build on his previous game and the fact I just need some dough to pay the bills. Unfortunately Hill gets knocked out of the game on the first drive and the Jets looked like cow dung. Like clockwork, a buyer contacts me and asked to cancel his bid on the Chrome Prism Auto BGS 9.5 since he did not notice a (minor) scratch on the case. This actually would be just cause for a not as described case so I obliged.
Here is what I am doing to limit this nonsense. First I set the unpaid item assistant to automatically file after 4 days. I used to be a lot more flexible but am getting too many burns these days and this is costing me money. In order to do this I had to change my combined shipping rule to 3 days. I noted in my item descriptions, "Payments should be received within 4 days to avoid automatic non payment case. This is a change from my previous auctions as I am done with bidders holding my cards hostage waiting for the next game to decide if they are going to pay or not. Please contact me if you cannot pay within that time". Since most of my football card auctions end on Sunday or Monday the buyers can no longer wait until the next game without a case being opened. They may still end up not paying but at least it's no longer waiting through two games. Next, while I have always been good about noting obvious card flaws, I tended to ignore the superficial stuff and just listed most everything as NRMT-MINT. This was especially true on thicker cards that are condition sensitive by nature. I am now including the condition sensitive verbiage in item descriptions. I don't yet have too many problems with buyers on these flaws but they are slowly increasing. Buyers are more finicky when it comes to slabs or at least making excuses to wriggle out of purchases or get a discount when they perceive to overpay. I always mentioned any obvious slab issues but will now be mentioning even the minor stuff in an effort to stave off as much of this nonsense as possible.
Bottom line is cover your asphalt. The entire eBay experience is not as fun as it used to be and the next time I get a survey I will be letting them know the mockery that has become of the trading card section on the site.
Last edited:
