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 Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Everything isn't as it seems in eBay's fee reduction
Posted by Steve
 Although there are several good points to eBay's recent announcement, make sure you read everything before getting too excited. The major points for listing fees include lower insertion fees, making gallery photos free and reducing fees for gallery plus, picture pack and feature plus services, effective Feb. 20, 2008. For example, insertion fees for auctions starting at $.01-$.99 were $.20 and will now be $.15, while insertion fees for items $200-$499 were $3.60 and will now be $3.00. Also, the gallery function used to cost us $.35, but will now be free. Gallery Plus used to cost us $.75, but is now lowered to $.35. Bottom line: It will cost us significantly less to list items on eBay. Great news, right? Unfortunately, final value fees have risen significantly also. Fees are based on the closing price of the auction and used to be 5.25% for the first $.01-$25 of closing value. They will now be 8.75%. Final value fees for a closing price of $25.01-$1,000 were 5.25% of the initial $25, plus 3.25% of the remaining balance, but will now rise to 8.75% of the initial $25, plus 3.5% of the remaining value. Here's a couple examples for a $20 item and $100 item (starting price of $.99): - $20 Item before 2/20: $.20 + $.35 Gallery + $1.05 Final Value Fees = $1.60
- $20 Item after 2/20: $.15 + Free Gallery + $1.75 Final Value Fees = $1.90
- So it's $.30 more to sell an item for $20.
- $100 Item before 2/20: $.20 + $.35 Gallery + $3.76 ($1.32 on first $25 + $2.44 on remaining $75) = $4.31
- $100 Item after 2/20: $.15 + Free Gallery + $4.82 ($2.19 on first $25 + $2.63 on remaining $75) = $4.97
- So it's $.66 more to sell an item for $100.
I don't want this to be a negative blog (coincidentally, I should mention that selling something for $10 is a nickel cheaper under this new fee structure) because there are some nice positives in this announcement concerning feedback. The most important one in my opinion is that negative (or nuetral) feedback left by the buyer will be removed for transactions in which a buyer doesn't respond to the Unpaid item or if the member is suspended. This means sellers no longer have to fear filing unpaid bidder alerts to recoup their fees only to get negative feedback from a buyer who hasn't even paid for the item. Another plus is that positive repeat customers feedback will count. The one I'm still hedging on is that buyers can only receive positive feedback from a seller. While this stops sellers from leaving retalitory negative feedback, it seems to ignore the fact that there are a lot of bad buyers out there. However we feel about any of this though, we've got until Feb. 20 to get used to it.
1/30/2008 11:04:12 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00) 
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Monday, January 28, 2008
Upper Deck offers Golden Ticket for Exquisite Basketball
Posted by Steve
 Upper Deck announced that it will offer "The Exquisite Experience" to five lucky collectors from the U.S. or Canada this summer for 2007-08 UD Exquisite Basketball. These collectors will get a preview of the set, including a behind the scenes look at this year's product and an opportunity to create their own pack of cards according to the set ratios in place for the product. One golden ticket will be randomly inserted into 2007-08 NBA SP Authentic (releasing Feb. 13), 2007-08 NBA UD Black (releasing Feb. 27), 2007-08 NBA SP Rookie Edition (releasing mid-March), 2007-08 NBA UD Premier (releasing early April). A fifth golden ticket will be awarded through a no-purchase-necessary program. The five lucky winners will receive airfare and accommodations to attend the packout of 2007-08 Exquisite Basketball this summer. Collectors will have only five minutes and won't be able to put together 1/1 packs, but will be able to select the players and inserts they want in their packs in line with the ratios. “The Exquisite Experience’ is another innovative and exciting way to give collectors an opportunity to see the large undertaking we go through for packing out a product this important," said Chris Kollmeyer, Upper Deck NBA brand manager. "The other thing winners will enjoy is just how awesome it is to see all of these cards in one place for that brief time before they all are packaged and sent out. It’s the type of behind-the-scenes type of experience that any hardcore collector would salivate over.” Salivate is right. Exquisite consistently comes up with the most demanded rookies of each player every year and has the exclusive rights to Kevin Durant autographs so there's plenty to be excited about. The build-your-own-pack concept with these Exquisite golden tickets will make a trip to the chocolate factory seem like the prizes given away by Steve Martin at the "Guess Your Weight" booth in The Jerk. *********** In completely unrelated "news," did you see this auction on eBay? Someone is auctioning Ryan Braun's game-used and autographed jock strap and cup. This is one game-used item that I'm actually kinda hoping doesn't show a lot of use.
1/28/2008 11:32:16 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Friday, January 25, 2008
High-grade cards, impressive cuts lead Mile High sale
Posted by Steve
 Mile High Card Co. has been known for offering some of the best vintage sportscards and memorabilia in the hobby and its Feb. 13 auction is no different. The auction is live on the site and is one of the strongest I've seen from them. Mile High is known for having elite graded cards. First, they offer a variety of Shoeless Joe Jackson cards in this auction, including a 1914 Cracker Jack PSA 5, 1916 Herpolsheimer’s PSA 6 and a 1909-11 American Caramel E90-1 SGC 10. Next, there are dozens of vintage PSA 10 cards, led by the following: - 1956 Topps No. 110 Yogi Berra
- 1959 Topps No. 350 Ernie Banks
- 1962 Topps No. 213 Richie Ashburn
- 1963 Fleer No. 42 Sandy Koufax
- 1967 Topps Tom Seaver RC
- 1968 Topps No. 280 Mickey Mantle
Other card-related highlights include hundreds of PSA Mint 9s in the sale, dozens with populations of one, including: 1950 Bowman No. 98 Ted Williams, 1954 Topps No. 10 Willie Mays, 1957 Topps No. 10 Willie Mays, 1957 Topps No. 328 Brooks Robinson and 1958 Topps No. 1 Ted Williams.  Other card highlights include several high-grade T-202s, including Ty Cobb, along with several graded sets, many of which land in the top 10 of PSA’s Set Registry. Among those are a 1948 Leaf set with variations, 1955 Bowman Football, 1955 Topps Baseball, 1963 Topps Football and 1973 Topps Baseball. Finally, some of the top memorabilia items include a 1934 Tour of Japan team-signed ball featuring Ruth, Gehrig and Foxx, among others, as well as several high-grade 1908 Rose postcards, including an Addie Joss example. There's also a nice selection of cut autograph cards, including a George Washington and Thomas Jefferson dual-cut card, and examples from Thomas Edison, Ruth, Tim Keefe and Honus Wagner.
1/25/2008 3:27:59 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Friday, January 18, 2008
Playoff wins have big impact on card prices
Posted by Steve
 A strong showing in the NFL playoffs can make a world of difference in demand for a player’s cards. This season, Tom Brady, Randy Moss, Wes Welker, Brett Favre, Greg Jennings, Ryan Grant, Eli Manning, Brandon Jacobs, LaDainian Tomlinson, Philip Rivers and Vincent Jackson have all seen demand increase for their rookie cards increase, in part, due to their individual playoff success. First, Brady’s dominance on the field has translated into huge price
boosts for all of his key 2000 rookie cards. Brady’s record-breaking
season includes throwing an NFL record 50 touchdown passes, surpassing
Peyton Manning’s 49 TDs in 2004 and also helped the Patriots establish
a new NFL team scoring record with 589 points. Some of his biggest
movers include his 2000 Leaf Limited #378 jumping from $225
to $350, his 2000 Upper Deck Pros & Prospects #124 up from $125 to
$300 and his 2000 Bowman Chrome #236 moving up from $100 to $125 this
month. Another New England Patriot enjoying success on the field and in
the hobby includes one of Brady’s favorite receiving targets, Wes
Welker. All of his 2004 rookie cards are on the move this month,
highlighted by his 2004 Playoff Contenders jumping 250 percent from $40
to $100. I've written about Grant before, but it presents a unique situation in today’s hobby. Since he was an undrafted free agent, he only has two rookies cards. His 2005 Playoff Honors rookie #191 jumped $175 and is priced at $300, while his 2005 UD Sweet Spot #177 doubled in value to $200). Both were common rookies a few months ago. Jacobs’ rare combination of size and speed helped him gain 1,000 yards this season and average more than five yards per carry. His 2005 UD Exquisite (up $75 to $300) and Playoff Contenders (up $20 to $60) are his hottest rookies. Finally, Jennings was getting virtually no collector interest before this season, but rookie single of both have steadily climbed this season. Jennings’ 2006 Playoff Contenders ($60) and Topps Paradigm ($40) continue to sell fast. File this one under the "What do I know" heading, but that Favre Wildcard I talked about in my last blog and questioned why anyone would pay $1,200 for it finished at $6,600. Absurd. Congrats to the winner. As for the Walter Payton/Barry Sanders dual autographed cards, both sold right around the $2,000 level, but both to the same bidder (beaniewells), who has zero feedback so look for both to be relisted in the near future.
1/18/2008 3:29:49 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Friday, January 11, 2008
Why would anyone pay $1,200 for anything Wild Card?
Posted by Steve
 I jumped into the main football cards page of eBay today and was floored. Scrolling down the page with highest priced cards first, in between all the cool Tom Brady and Adrian Peterson rookies, one card jumps out at me. A 1991 Wild Card Brett Favre "rookie" 1,000 Stripe PSA 10...with more than four days left has 23 bids and is up to $1,225. What is the world coming to? If you are too young to remember (does that make me sound old?), Wild Card arrived in the late 1980s/early 1990s when card manufacturers were popping up all over, overproduced draft picks cards like crazy, went down the toilet quickly and disappeared. If you had boxes of this stuff in your closet, chances are you probably threw it away 10-15 years ago because it wasn't worth anything. Wild Card might even be lower on the manufacturers like Pro Set and Classic. At least you can still name a couple cards from each of those manufacturers that might have some demand at this point in life. Of course, I must be completely wrong if this card is at $1,225 with four days left. Wild Card must be making a big comeback and collectors will soon be clammoring to grab those 1991 boxes and bust them so they can submit cards for grading. Those that had the foresight to save their boxes of Wild Card will now be laughing at the rest of the world, while making big money on eBay. Sorry for the sarcasm, but I can't believe anyone is paying more than $20 for this card. I don't care if it's Brett Favre. I don't care if it's a 1,000 Stripe version. I don't care if it's graded.  Also on eBay, did you notice that there are two 1999 Donruss Elite Passing the Torch Dual Autographs of Walter Payton and Barry Sanders on there at one time, ending roughly 28 hours apart? One sold on Dec. 30 for $2,326, which must have inspired two other sellers to part with theirs. The first one is about three hours from ending and is currently at $1,700, while the second one is little more than four days from ending and is at $1,025.
1/11/2008 3:52:57 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Wednesday, January 09, 2008
SCD's new site launches today
Posted by Steve
 At some point today, www.sportscollectorsdigest.com will feature a completely new look. No, you didn't type in the wrong address...it just looks a whole lot better. We had been working on an old platform and as we added new stuff, it simply looked more and more cluttered. Well, now we've got a new platform for the site and a much cleaner, user-friendly look and feel. All of the stuff from the old site will still be there; just presented in a different, better way. We've still got: - the most comprehensive auction calendar in the industry
- the only auction prices realized database
- free daily sweepstakes with signed memorabilia prizes
- forums
- blogs
- video
- tons of feature articles on all areas of collecting
I'll be putting live links in the above section once the site is live and out of its development status, but I'm excited for our readers to see it.
1/9/2008 9:56:22 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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