Ripken items on ebay auction

[mr.miracle]

Just wanted to put a good plug in for my good friend Dan Derleth on a few of his Cal Ripken Jr. game used items currently up on ebay. I have had a number of fine transactions with Dan so I can say that this is a great chance to get several fine Cal items that come from a very reputable source. The game used base even comes with the MLB hologram which is as good as it gets in terms of authenticity.

http://cgi.ebay.com/CAL-RIPKEN-JR-HICKORY-LVS-F149-Game-Used-Bat_W0QQitemZ280033879747QQihZ018QQcategoryZ60596QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.com/CAL-RIPKEN-JR-RARE-LVS-R161-VINTAGE-Game-Used-Bat_W0QQitemZ280033877454QQihZ018QQcategoryZ60596QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.com/CAL-RIPKEN-JR-GAME-USED-3RD-BASE-FROM-CAMDEN-YARDS_W0QQitemZ280033877057QQihZ018QQcategoryZ50117QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

By the way, given the recent prices that game used Cal Ripken items are reaching with bats going over $3k and jersey's well over $4k I would say that these are very solid given their origin.

[mr.miracle]

Re: Ripken items on ebay auction

On a side note I am actually surprised that Dan has gotten bids over $1000 on his F149 so far. I am not saying the bat is not worth it, in fact it is probably worth more than the $1800 that he has listed for the buy it now price given recent Ripken bat prices. I am saying this because I have decided personally to stop using ebay to sell anything game used. After repeated attempts to sell about 8 total game used jersey's, bats and several other items over the past 3 - 5 months and getting outright ridiculous and insulting offers such as $100 for game used jersey's, bats, etc. of hof and hof calibre players I will use nothing but national auction houses from this point forward.

I am just downright amazed at the general levels of stupidity of the buyers on ebay. You just cannot get anywhere near current fair market value on ebay for whatever reason. The last few times I have used the buy it now or best offer option I have had repeated wise guys offering 1 cent for items and have even had two people use buy it now and then never pay. In fact the two buy it nows were situations where someone specifically signed up for an ebay acct. used buy it now for two of my most expensive items on the same day and immediately cancelled their ebay acct's. By the time I tried to report them as non-payers after repeated attempts to contact the buyer ebay reported to me that they were no longer registered users. I am just sick and tired of the stupid games on ebay.

Anybody have any thoughts about what the problem is on ebay compared to national auction houses? I know as a general rule that ebay always brings lower prices than auction houses but then I have always wondered why that is? I have also wondered if this comes close to evening out with the consigment fees being as high as 15-19% for sellers through the auction houses as well.

Anybody else have these problems or am I doing something wrong when selling? All I know is that I am done dealing as a seller on ebay as I am just plain tired of the nonsense and answering stupid questions and fielding completely absurd offers that are an insult and a complete waste of time.

[kingjammy24]

Re: Ripken items on ebay auction

re: the difference between auction house prices and ebay prices.

i think the difference in prices is due to a difference in clientele. ebay tends to attract more of a bargain hunter whereas auction houses tend to attract individuals with deeper pockets. (i'll refrain from saying savvier because i fail to see what's savvy about relying on auction house loas versus using your own authenticating skills to find gems on ebay). i believe those generous buyers are attracted to auction houses because they perceive the purported authentication measures as a security blanket of sorts. if someone's going to lay down $3k for a bat, they want to feel warm and fuzzy knowing that the stringent eye of lou lampson has done all the work for them and given them his approval. contrast this with ebay where such a person has little faith in their own ability to wade through the red light district of collectibles and figure out whether a ripken bat from camdenfan54732 is good or not. they need an authority to tell them what's good and they're willing to pay more for such "authenticated" items.

the second part of all of this concerns the notion of "fair market value". fair market value is the amount that the market is willing to pay. the two are same thing by definition. i'll hear sellers state things like "this jersey is worth $3500-4000!" and i wonder where they get these numbers from. is there a price guide out there that i don't know about? a kelly blue book for jerseys? or are they simply deluded into thinking their items are worth more than they are? if you believe an item is worth $4k, you offer it publically and only receive $2k, then by definition the market value of the item is $2k. you can believe it's $4k all you like but that isn't reality. an item is worth exactly what someone is willing to pay for it. that said, ebay has a different market than auction houses so ebay's market value will be different. a jersey on ebay that has a market value of $2k may fetch $3k at an auction house. again, auction house buyers are willing to pay the extra money for the "authentication".

many sellers have stated that ebay has driven down the value of items. perhaps, due to a lack of previous competition, their items were overvalued to start with. ebay is really a true marketplace. you've got genuine competition among sellers, you've got equal access to millions of buyers. let's say, for example, that pre-ebay a dealer, we'll call him jimmy dealer, was getting $500 a jersey. he was able to get this because he had loyal customers who didn't really have many other dealers to buy from. there was no easily accessible, real time conduit to dealers all across the country. jimmy dealer's customers knew him and maybe one or two other dealers and that's it. now of all sudden ebay comes along and every dealer from every crevice in america has access to the same customer base. competition has just shot up. suddenly jimmy dealer's customers now have their choice of 300 dealers. this sort of competition naturally results in price cuts. i think it's rubbish if jimmy dealer starts crying about how ebay is cutting the price of his stock. that's the beauty of a market economy. increased competition leads to lower prices for consumers. i wouldn't call this a "problem with ebay".

brett, you say you receive garbage offers from ebay and attribute these offers to stupid buyers. while it may well be that many ebayers don't know what they're looking at, there are thousands of others who are knowledgable trolling ebay every single day. it only takes a single buyer to consumate a sale. if i put an item up for auction and was getting nothing but ridiculous offers, i'd wonder why not a single savvy ebayer bid. if someone put up a stellar ryan howard bat on ebay, i'm sure the seller would get the sorts of lowball offers that you mention but i also believe someone like john taube would quickly snap it up. sure the item would go for less than an auction house (for reasons stated above) but the large demand for such an item would almost guarantee some decent offers. additionally, while the seller may have received less than they would via an auction house, they didn't have to pay a cockamamey 19% consignment fee and wait a month to get their money. if an item is desireable and aggressively priced, then i fail to see how ebay somehow prevents the invisible hand of the market economy from working.

personally, as a buyer i choose to avoid auction houses because a) the authentication is absolutely meaningless to me. i don't trust it, i can do a better job, and as such i'm unwilling to pay a premium for it. b) a "buyer's premium" of 17% is idiotic. c) most don't seem to offer what i'm interested in. it's always the same stuff - a $60k gehrig glove, a $10k jeter world series jersey, a $15k pie traynor bat. it's hard to crack that $2million mark with common jerseys each in single lots. auctions seem ideal for those trying to build a collection to rival cooperstown.

rudy.

[mr.miracle]

Re: Ripken items on ebay auction

I appreciate the feedback Jimmy. It was very insightful and helpful. You are correct, market value is whatever the market/consumer is willing to pay. I try to determine fair market value for items I am listing but searching previous auctions ebay, Lelands, Mastronet, Grey Flannel, Robert Edwards, American Memorabilia, Vintage Authentics, Memory Lane, etc. etc. I do searches for similar or the same type of item that I am selling and see what these items have sold for over the past year. I use those prices to determine what I would call a fair market price.

While I have not been trying to sell items that would be an A-10 graded Babe Ruth game used bat or anything similar, I am not sure how I am not getting realistic offers of any sort. I am not even trying to make a profit on some items, in some cases I have had to take a loss due to financial issues that have come up so I don't want anyone to think that I bought something for $1000 and tried to make a $500.00 profit six months later.

You are right on I think in your assessment that ebay really does bring out the bargain hunters. I am simply hoping that using an auction house will outweigh the lowball ridiculous offers from ebayers and even with the seller consignment fee will end up netting me either a small profit or help me to break even. I do agree with you as I have never yet won anything from an auction house as you are right, often the LOA is not worth the paper it is printed on. So that alone means nothing to me in terms of the auction house providing an LOA for the item. The buyer fees are usually rather ridiculous to say the least and having done homework myself or with others help I usually can find really good deals on ebay where I would have paid a bit more plus the buyer premium using an auction house.

Thanks again Rudy for the valuable feedback.