How is the card market treating you? As a seller or buyer

Unfortunately I haven't been able to pick up much since I've exhausted all of my card funds, which really is too bad. There are some great deals to be had.

As a seller......well it's been down right awful. I haven't been able to sell much. And if I am able to, it's at a loss. I wouldn't do that under normal circumstances, but when I see something I need, I have to make that sacrifice. But my stuff just sits there, even at fair prices.

How about you?

Makes me wonder how Christmas will be for a lot of people this year. Seems like almost everyone is hurting.

Sorry for making that post such a gloomy one. I'm just irked a little bit, even though I shouldn't be.

But I am curious to know if anyone else has experienced this, and how far does it go beyond cards.

Like you said, right now its a buyers market and there are some great deals to be had. Selling has been really slow, I think all the auctions have been slowing down of eBay and BST cards.

I just hope big TV's come down in price...I could use one!

Good point Gil!

And with hop prices on the up and up, prices won't be coming down too soon.

don't people drink more when times are tough? i would expect beer prices to increase.

selling stuff has been tough, whereas before i'm only losing 10-15% now i'm losing 25-30%. imo the prices have not bottomed out yet, cheaper prices will still be had on the "flip" stuff early next year.

The batch of auctions that I had close a few weeks ago netted what I expected overall, but some lots went strong while one lot in particular, a group of 6 t206 HOFers, sold for less per card that a group of 10 t206s. Now that hurt. My current group of auctions has minimum bids set so that I at least get what I want for the cards, otherwise, I'll sit on them until the market gets better.

It's looking like got a really good deal on my t205 Johnson. There is another one with Sov back and the bid is already $150 higher than what I paid and there is more than 1 day left in the auction.

Jay

Liquor/drinking is recession proof...when you're low on money you can usually find some $$ for Blatz, and if times are good, you buy Newcastle!

Either way you drink.

The tough part is getting a city to give you a liquor license.

I have no $$$$. Made out OK in selling last month though.

Sean, Blatz?

Growing up, tough times meant Red, White & Blue, Falstaff, Schells (now considered damn near gourmet) and Cold Spring. Maybe Old Milwaukee and for special occassions, Hamms. My dad said that when he was in the Army stationed in Texas Pearl was pretty disgusting, and he found some on my list above to be delicious. Any other rotgut beers that those of you around the country would like to call a shout out for?

Good old PBR. The Pabst is pretty kick a$$. Prolly my favorite retro beer.

Natural Light was the beer of choice when I was in college. A 12 pack ran me $4.20 with tax.

Then you can get into the Malt Liquors: Old E, Schlitz, Colt 45, Mickey's, Hurricane.....all are horrible. Mickey's is the best of the bunch in my opinion.

Stock market is telling us there will be a deep recession and i am sure vintage cards will follow.

Remember Gil, and others i talked about this 10 months ago?

Anyway, it will be a great time to BUY cards since i believe they will be at 50-60% off prices seen 2 years ago.

We will get thru this but it may take 3-4 years....IMHO


Mark

Yes Mark, I sure remember your forcast of national financial impact (due largely to sub-prime losses), ten or more months ago.

I have been able to pick up a few cards really cheap, selling is definitely iffy.

As far as beer goes, do like me. Get a job with a beer distributor and it tends to be really cheap. The beer sales have been down since the beginning of summer. What is weird is that the craft beers are the ones increasing in market share.

When I was in college Pfeiffers was our cheap beer of choice. Always seemed to have money for beer.

Lee

Let's not forget Mad Dog 20/20 and Thunderbird. Both top choices of the street crowd. No mentioned Grain Belt. I was always partial to that and Hamms until I got more refined pallet for beer. Now I'm a die hard Newcastle fan, but love trying new crafted beers as they come out. In the winter, there is a Burbon Cask Ale that is awesome. Can't remember who makes, we all just call it snowman because the tap handle is a snowman.

When I was in the Navy, if you were broke, you drank San Miguel. You never knew if 3 beers would kick your ass or if it would take the whole case.

Jay

yea beer talk!

i love ZIMA...sushi and walsh it down with zima, nothing's more american and apple pie than that!

Zima is still around? It was huge in CA when I lived out there but I haven't noticed it here since moving to MN.

Cold pizza, warm beer and Capt'n Crunch...now that's an All-American breakfeast

Jay

Thought it might be interesting to revive this thread.

I'm not really a seller - more of a buyer. I admit that I have not been chasing cards for a couple years, but dove back in over the last couple months. I admit that gives me less context than many of you might have. Maybe I never saw the true "highs"?

Just my observation, but I'm not seeing a soft market - at least on items that I have an interest in buying.

I haven't been able to get near 95% of the Ebay lots I bid on. Most go for WAY over "book" (whatever that means, but definitely higher than SMR). By my lack-of-success rate, most go for considerably more than I think they are worth.

On this forum and Net54, I find the prices are very fair and many items move quickly. Whenever the prices have seemed "cheap" to me, the items were sold within hours of the sale posting.

I have seen postings from auction house owners who say the market is soft. Yet when I review some of the auction house results from ones that closed in the last couple months, I don't see it.

Anyone got any specific examples to help me learn how the market has slipped?

Cheers,
Blair

I will give you a first hand example....

The Harry Lord M116 PSA 6 "Blue Background" card you just bought from me, back in 2006 early 2007 that would have probably went for $225. The M116 Harmon PSA 8 that i am trying to sell would have went for around $600-$700.

Of course it all depends on what is being sold and who the buyer is but overall i think prices on "common" stuff is down 40-50%. The rare cards will always hold value no matter what the economy is.


Mark

Definitely bad as a seller. I took bath on a Red Cross Marquard the other day on eBay. It was almost a complicit loss, though, because I really needed to free up some cash so I can keep buying cards for awhile. So I'm hoping it evens out eventually.

It really is a decent time to buy, but I haven't had anything with which to buy. Not so much because of the pitiful economy but because I spent most of my savings on home improvements this summer and have been paying as much on my mortgage as I can over the last year or so. I guess I should learn to live with that $100,000+ balance - not like it's going anywhere anytime soon - and divert money back to old carboard.

yikes yawie, just saw the auction. that was pretty bad, but on the bright side it did go to our favorite forum owner

hmmm 100k+ on the mortgage? i need to move out there with you. if i were u i'd be taking vacations 3 months out of the year stress-free! oh wait....

In my ill-informed opinion, I do not see selling a card at a lower price than you bought it as "taking a loss" so long as you put the proceeds into a different card (which is also priced "low"). It is simply a trade.
Forgetting transaction fees, you have really not siold anything; simply stated you have only changed your holdings.
For me, I am continuing to add to my "holdings" as I always do. I acquire cards based on a budget which is fixed in between annual salary reviews, but increases from year to year. So, for me the market is currently yielding a little (but not really much) more card than it usually does. My "market segment" is cards typically p - vg, often pre-1900. Here is one of the better ones which I have bought in a while.

Square_Frame_Ramly wrote:I will give you a first hand example....

The Harry Lord M116 PSA 6 "Blue Background" card you just bought from me, back in 2006 early 2007 that would have probably went for $225. The M116 Harmon PSA 8 that i am trying to sell would have went for around $600-$700.

Hi Mark,

Thanks for posting this - exactly the kind of thing I was looking to learn. I actually had no idea those prices had reached those levels in '06-'07...that is exactly the timeframe I was pretty well tuned out of the card market.

So I guess I am benefitting as a buyer...and I didn't even realize it


Cheers,
Blair

Of course those are my opinions of the prices in 2006/2007. I'm sure some would agree or disagree.




Mark

ItsOnlyGil wrote:In my ill-informed opinion, I do not see selling a card at a lower price than you bought it as "taking a loss" so long as you put the proceeds into a different card (which is also priced "low"). It is simply a trade.

Hardly ill-formed, but spoken like a true hobbyist - i.e. one skilled in the art of rationalization. At some point, though - say a 60 percent loss on a relatively (for me) big-ticket item - ya gotta call a spade a spade.

I do miss a lot of things about Southern California, Q, but ya can't beat the cost of Midwestern living.