Sportlots Questions - Buyer & Seller

[Letch77]

Given COMC's shipping debacles and them making it harder to earn store credit through challenges, I've been looking more and more into Sportlots to both buy and sell lower end cards. I have some questions as a potential buyer and seller that some of you may be able to answer.

For buyers:
- How long can you hold cards in your box...indefinite like COMC? I'd want to build up a sizable box of low end to make box shipping worthwhile.
- Is Sportlots' box shipping fairly reasonable? Saw one thread where @sportscardtheory was quoted $10 to ship 50 cards.
- What happens if you request your box be shipped but sellers don't follow through by sending them to Sportlots?
- How often do sellers not send cards to your box? It'd suck to have 50+ common cards from Seller A and a few others from Seller B, request your Sportlots box, then Seller A doesn't respond and your $5 shipment only has a few low end cards worth less than the shipping cost.

For sellers:
- If you offer box shipping, do you have to send your sold cards to Sportlots soon after they sell or wait until a buyer requests their box be shipped? Wondering if Sportlots has onsite storage for sold cards that buyers have "boxed".
- How do you avoid being on the losing end of box transactions if you only sell a couple of $.25 cards before a buyer requests his/her box shipment? Example, you sell $.60 worth of cards to a seller who requests his box right away. Even in a PWE, you're basically breaking even.

Any other advice/tutorials would we awesome! I've searched through a few older threads and see that @DeliciousBacon is an active seller, so maybe he'll have the insight I need. Thanks for any insight!

 

[DeliciousBacon]

I've never bought using the Box system, but as far as for selling, it's a brilliant idea. You charge much less for shipping, and get to send in a whole bunch of orders all at once, and Sportlots does the work of sorting them to the buyer's Sportlots PO Boxes. For example, I charge $0.50 shipping for 1-4 card orders to ship to Sportlots; as soon as I fill a medium Priority box, I seal it up and send it off. You wouldn't just sent one box order, you'd save them up for a week or so, at least until your postage is paid for.

You do occasionally have people who don't get this, and expect their cards shipped to Sportlots as quick as they'd get to their house. That isn't the point of the box, it seems some buyers will wait a few months before they request their shipments. Buyers are supposed to be aware of how it works, and be significantly more patient until their orders are received by Sportlots (it can sometimes take them a few days to process a box shipment once they receive it from a seller. There are a few links to YouTube videos that Sportlots made explaining the process, on the box section part of the seller's screen.

 

[Dilferules]

I have to admit that as a buyer it can be very annoying waiting for that one slow seller to ship their cards to "box headquarters" or wherever before you get all your cards sent to you. I tend to just pay a little more and have everything sent directly to me instead of waiting for the box shipping and paying a little less. That way when one seller waits 3+ weeks to send, then you're just waiting on their cards and you already have all the cards that were shipped promptly.

 

[WizardofOz1982]

I have to admit that as a buyer it can be very annoying waiting for that one slow seller to ship their cards to "box headquarters" or wherever before you get all your cards sent to you. I tend to just pay a little more and have everything sent directly to me instead of waiting for the box shipping and paying a little less. That way when one seller waits 3+ weeks to send, then you're just waiting on their cards and you already have all the cards that were shipped promptly.

I only use the Box option if I'm buying a ton of singles for a set build or something. I'm too impatient to wait for 2 or 3 cards to show up so I just send them separately.

 

[Letch77]

Placed my first box order yesterday...24 cards, mostly to complete a couple of sets. I'll let them sit there until I shop for some PC items or other set singles.

I may spend some time this weekend adding a bunch of extras to the site, too. I've got a lot of Frank Thomas extras I need to start shedding.

 

[DeliciousBacon]

Oh, there is something important to keep in mind. You do pay shipping twice when you use the box shipment; once when you buy the cards, and the second time when Sportlots ships them to you. So, yes, make sure your box is nice and full when you request it, so you get your money's worth for your shipping.

 

[Letch77]

Oh, there is something important to keep in mind. You do pay shipping twice when you use the box shipment; once when you buy the cards, and the second time when Sportlots ships them to you. So, yes, make sure your box is nice and full when you request it, so you get your money's worth for your shipping.

Looks similar to COMC...if you buy cards and keep them in your inventory/box, you pay an extra $.25/card ($.45 for jumbos). You then have to pay to pay for COMC to ship and or all of your inventory to you whenever you request it.
Only difference is it looks like that initial shipping on Sportlots goes to the seller, whereas I think COMC just keeps that initial shipping payment.

 

[rsmath]

I charge the same shipping for box as direct to buyer since I don't get enough sales to have box orders to ship together.

You have 10 days to ship orders so I hold box orders as long as I can to hope I get another one in and can ship both by the deadline.

For the rare time I ship two, I wish I could refund some of the shipping to the buyers because sending 2 orders to Sportlots HQ cost me less shipping than 2 orders direct to buyers.

 

[Grandstand Collectables]

Given COMC's shipping debacles and them making it harder to earn store credit through challenges, I've been looking more and more into Sportlots to both buy and sell lower end cards. I have some questions as a potential buyer and seller that some of you may be able to answer.

For buyers:
- How long can you hold cards in your box...indefinite like COMC? I'd want to build up a sizable box of low end to make box shipping worthwhile.
- Is Sportlots' box shipping fairly reasonable? Saw one thread where @sportscardtheory was quoted $10 to ship 50 cards.
- What happens if you request your box be shipped but sellers don't follow through by sending them to Sportlots?
- How often do sellers not send cards to your box? It'd suck to have 50+ common cards from Seller A and a few others from Seller B, request your Sportlots box, then Seller A doesn't respond and your $5 shipment only has a few low end cards worth less than the shipping cost.

For sellers:
- If you offer box shipping, do you have to send your sold cards to Sportlots soon after they sell or wait until a buyer requests their box be shipped? Wondering if Sportlots has onsite storage for sold cards that buyers have "boxed".
- How do you avoid being on the losing end of box transactions if you only sell a couple of $.25 cards before a buyer requests his/her box shipment? Example, you sell $.60 worth of cards to a seller who requests his box right away. Even in a PWE, you're basically breaking even.

Any other advice/tutorials would we awesome! I've searched through a few older threads and see that @DeliciousBacon is an active seller, so maybe he'll have the insight I need. Thanks for any insight!

I sold on Sportlots for 8 years, but I have left the website because of a screwup with a high price card in a box order. Here is what happened. A customer ordered a $100 card, before I shipped the card I photographed the card twice and packaged it properly and shipped it delivery conformation to Sportlots. They received the card. Because they had no system to to connect my name to the order number both of which were on the outside of the envelope, they opened the envelope and some how damaged the card. One and a half months later the buyer demands a refund from me which I refused to make as I could prove that I shipped a card in perfect condition. I advised the buyer to take the matter up with Sportlots. They still wanted me to make a refund so I closed my account and removed my inventory from the website. Anything might have happened while Sportlots had the card for one and a half months. Keep this in mind if you wish to sell on Sportlots.

 

[Brad]

I love box shipping as a buyer. It’s great for sellers who don’t PWE So you choose between $4 or $0.50. My 2 boxes were around $10 each to ship to me and had 15-20 various size orders in them. If you believe their calculation, I saved $50+ on shipping for each.

The usual SportLots flaws are there: seller listed card incorrectly, seller adjusting order after purchase, etc. My orders were well packed in the box though. I believe I read you can have a box as long as you want, they only charge you if you haven’t had a new order in 6 months to it. I did have 1 seller where after a month, nothing arrived. They ignored my messages so I opened a not received claim and got my $3 refund.

 

[DeliciousBacon]

I charge the same shipping for box as direct to buyer since I don't get enough sales to have box orders to ship together.

You have 10 days to ship orders so I hold box orders as long as I can to hope I get another one in and can ship both by the deadline.

For the rare time I ship two, I wish I could refund some of the shipping to the buyers because sending 2 orders to Sportlots HQ cost me less shipping than 2 orders direct to buyers.

I'd lower your box shipping charges, and see what happens. My box shipping charges range from 1/2 to 1/7th of my regular shipping. Average sales have more than tripled since they introduced the box system, and the first few months, my sales were close to 6X the last few months before. I used to have the exact numbers handy, and it was shocking how much of a difference it was.