Friday Marketwatch - November 28

As of today, November 28 the following are stats covering the last 7 days on ebay for etopps in-hands:

Quantity of etopps in-hands listings: 190
Sell-Through: 60.53%
Average starting price: $3.33
Average final price: $14.55

Highest Single Card Sale: 2008 Allen and Ginter Barack Obama, $99.99
Highest Mult-Card Sale: 2008 Allen and Ginter Yankee Tribute Set, $145
Highest Graded Sale: 2001 Albert Pujols, BGS 9, $56.09
Highest Non-Graded Autograph Sale: 2007 Adrian Peterson, $155
Highest Graded Autograph Sale: None

Other best sellers:

* 2001 Albert Pujols
* 2008 Allen & Ginter Presidential Candidates Hillary Clinton
* 2008 Daniel Murphy
* 2001 Tom Glavine

In-hand listing (not including graded or autographed) that received most bids that sold well: 2008 Barack Obama: 15 bids

Gearing Up For The Holidays

Unless you live under a rock, you're aware that Black Friday and Cyber-Monday are approaching fast. The theory is retailers are poised to get out of the red while consumers are forming lines after sitting down for turkey to get the sweetest deals.

Online, Cyber-Monday (12/1) is supposed to be a reaction by consumers who will have searched high and low for deals from Friday through Sunday without finding what they're looking for, sleep off their frustration and wake up Monday morning to surf the internet and find better deals than their local brick-and-mortars.

Can you guess I'm not buying this either?

The whole Black-Friday/Cyber-Monday/holiday shopping thing has already started on ebay. Over the last two years I've had more sales on Thanksgiving than the day after or on the Monday after Thanksgiving.

In preparation for this time, here are a few questions to see if you're ready for this time period:

• Do your Buy-It-Now listings have best offers?
• Have you set parameters for your best offers?
• Are your margins enough for the prices you're asking (if you're using BINs)?
• Are you offering anything other than a lower price to buyers?
• Are you selling Obama?
• If you have more than one of a card in a BIN listing, does this match your inventory?
• Are you buying etopps Baseball?
• If you are using auction-format listings, are they ending on the right day and the right time of day?

Autograph Offering: Bo Jackson

For Thanksgiving, etopps will be offering 25 Bo Jackson Baseball Classic and 25 Football Classic cards at $39.99 a pop. Unless there is a mistake in the listing, the Baseball Classic will be offered at 1PM EST and the Football Classic at 3PM EST.

I was surprised an autograph offering would occur this week because of the holiday. Mark either forgot or shrewdly knew that this would be a great day to offer these cards because no one's day job would get in the way, only the distance from your dining room chair to the computer.

But what about the ones like myself who are traveling and will be guests at someone else's home? This is when the fun begins. Luckily, I'm not going after either card so I don't have to think about this. I'll be stuck in traffic somewhere in NYC while both are being offered.

But besides me, what's a good excuse to use the computer at someone's home that's not yours? You're in a social situation where computers and the internet are more for topics of conversation than sitting online and clicking the refresh button in your Sunday-best clothing. The more you're observed hitting the F5 button, the more addictive you look for knowing what you're doing.

You have two approaches, depending on how sports-minded the room full of people or hosts are. If they've never heard of Bo Jackson or couldn't care less about football or sports just say you need to check something online. You could say email but if they walk in the room that you're in with the computer, they'll know you were lying.

If they've heard of or like Bo Jackson, be honest and tell them what you're doing. If you get one of the 50 autos, let them be happy for you...after all, it's Thanksgiving.

Aside from this potentially awkward situation, ebay hasn't been the most kind with etopps autographs of late or the hobby as a whole, considering the reported fewer views last month and the current economic unraveling taking place in this country. It's no wonder we are more selective in our gotta-have-it buys on ebay.

With this in mind, it is no wonder that Bo Jackson's autos are going for under $100 as of late unless it's something special, whether a low auto run or with another retired athlete or something more than a card such as a jersey or a framed flat.

If you're considering flipping this, the question you may be asking yourself: will this auto be deemed special enough to sell more than $100?

Friday Marketwatch - November 21

As of today, November 21 the following are stats covering the last 7 days on ebay for etopps in-hands:

Quantity of etopps in-hands listings: 235
Sell-Through: 67.23%
Average starting price: $3.58
Average final price: $15.35

Highest Single Card Sale: 2008 Allen and Ginter Barack Obama, $129.99
Highest Mult-Card Sale: 2008 Allen and Ginter Yankee Tribute Set, $199.99
Highest Graded Sale: 2003 LeBron James, BGS 9.5, $48.95
Highest Non-Graded Autograph Sale: 2003 Tom Brady, $199
Highest Graded Autograph Sale: 2007 Adrian Peterson, BGS 9.5/10 $598

Other best sellers:

* 2003 LeBron James
* 2008 Allen & Ginter Yankee Tribute Mickey Mantle
* 2008 Daniel Murphy
* 2005 Ryan Howard

In-hand listing (not including graded or autographed) that received most bids that sold well: 2008 Barack Obama: 19 bids

Obama: Spike-Sleeper

If you haven't figured it out already, The Spikes of 2002 will never happen again.

If you haven't figured it out already, The Spikes of 2006 thanks to the fantasy games of baseball and football probably will most likely not happen again.

And if you haven't already figured it out, we're in a one-card spike right now: the Allen and Ginter Presidential Candidate Barack Obama.

Spikes do not happen that often anymore in etoppsland thanks to pumping and dumping and less seldomly, heavy ownership/accumulation by one or more etoppers.

I'm trying to recall when was the last time we had a one-card spike that occurred at least 6+ months afterwards (excluding cards of players that have been offered as an autograph).

I think it was the 2001 Albert Pujols. His spike did not occur until 2003.

There should be a name for this etopps phenomenon: spike-sleeper.

Which card will be next? It's either sleeping or it hasn't been issued yet.

Autograph Offering: John Beck

John Beck is on hold thanks to the Dolphins (or Bill Parcell's) quick acquisition of Chad Pennington duirng the off-season and so should you if you buy this at $19.99 on Thursday.

He had some playing time last year and showed potential. Like all back-ups, he's a starting quarterback's injury away from taking snaps at the line of scrimmage.

And there are plenty of quarterbacks who started this way. In recent years, names like Brady, Roethlisberger, and Romo come to mind. And most recently, Kerry Collins.

At $19.99 with free shipping, you don't have much to lose. Time could be on your side if you wait this one out and see how he does when Beck has his next opportunity.

You may still be skeptic that you're throwing your money away. I don't blame you. His autos on ebay have sold for under $5 to over $30 for the high-end autos. Bottom line it's a risk but not that big.

Friday Marketwatch - November 14

As of today, November 14 the following are stats covering the last 7 days on ebay for etopps in-hands:

Quantity of etopps in-hands listings: 210
Sell-Through: 62.38%
Average starting price: $4.71
Average final price: $18.33

Highest Single Card Sale: 2008 Allen and Ginter Barack Obama, $129.99
Highest Mult-Card Sale: 2008 Allen and Ginter Presidential Candidates Set, $142.49
Highest Graded Sale: 2003 Dwyane Wade, BGS 9.5, $38.30
Highest Non-Graded Autograph Sale: 2007 Adrian Peterson, $162.50
Highest Graded Autograph Sale: None

Other best sellers:

* 2007 Joba Chamberlain
* 2003 LeBron James
* 2008 Joe Montana Allen & Ginter SB Champions
* 2008 David Wright

In-hand listing (not including graded or autographed) that received most bids that sold well: 2008 Barack Obama: 12 bids

Learn From This Ebay Seller: Waxpackcity

A few years ago in my search for picking up a Big Ben etopps auto before Super Bowl XL, I stumbled upon an ebay seller who had sold one of these autos for a decent price. I looked at his other listings but none of them were etopps autos. Instead they were high-end sports cards, all with buy-it-now prices and subtitles under the titles of all of the active listing. Almost every subtitle ended with the same words: Don't Wait.

What made this seller's listings so appealing was the homework he did. He uses two third-party ebay search services that allows him to dig deep into ebay's completed listings - terapeak and price miner.

In the subtitle he will include what the card sold for in the past and his buy-it-now will be around 40-50% less. I keep this seller as one of my favorites because he gets to me even if the past sale of a card occurred 6-8 months ago. Without clicking on his listings, I can read the title and subtitle for all of his listings and there's usually one or two which tempt me.

I've saved him as a favorite all this time because even after two years, his business model works of ebay, he's successful and he's got a good source of inventory.

You don't have to look far to find his inventory source. It's ebay. He's nearing 5K 100% positive feedback. And this feedback is not from selling alone. What I do to sober up from a listing that looks tempting is I peruse his feedback from sellers who sold him the cards he's currently listing just to see what he paid for them.

When you do this, you can see who really bought the steals. You may have to go through a few pages of feedback to find the card you want but you'll see that the margins for this seller is there.

With all due respect to one particular etopps member who low-balls many listings, waxpackcity is a high-end moemule. They both do what they do well.

Autograph Offering: Brady Quinn

Without a doubt, this autograph is probably one of the best timed offering you could ask from etopps.

It would be hard to believe Mark had planned Quinn for this week.

It's the opposite of what has been the case for the 2007 rookie auto offerings: players who either never reached their hype and in their second year weren't reaching it either or players who had been hyped last year and we missed this boat because we had to wait until this football season.

This is the perfect opportunity so enjoy riding this wave. I'm sure there has been a spike of Quinn cards (and autos) since Thursday's game against Denver.

So a week after his debut as the Browns' starting quarterback, etopps will offer 100 at $59.99 each.

As of this writing, when you type in 2007 Brady Quinn auto on ebay, there are 132 listings, the high being a 2007 Upper Deck Exquisite Gold 2-color patch auto # to 25 and has an asking price of $2999.99 or best offer.

While this is fine and dandy, I added /100 to the search and looked at the completed listings. In the last two weeks, four were listed and only two of these sold: one for $50 and another for $85.

For more data, I replaced /100 to /99 and this gave me 12 completed listings and 7 of these sold ranging from $47 (Trilogy Signature Future) to $374.99 (Upper Deck Exquisite Patch). (FYI: 4 listings in between these two were BGS graded).

So what to do? Buy it. You may do better with a pre-sell if Quinn tanks against Buffalo on Monday night or you may be better if Quinn continues to make a difference for the Browns by the time the Big Brown truck gives you your Browns auto (couldn't resist).

So for the secondary market, your timing of your listing may determine if you will make a decent profit or an awesome profit.

Nevertheless, hats off to etopps for choosing Quinn this week, a no-brainer.

Friday Marketwatch - November 7

As of today, November 7 the following are stats covering the last 7 days on ebay for etopps in-hands:

Quantity of etopps in-hands listings: 261
Sell-Through: 67.82%
Average starting price: $3.15
Average final price: $7.70

Highest Single Card Sale: 2008 Allen and Ginter Barack Obama, $199.99
Highest Mult-Card Sale: 2008 Allen and Ginter Presidential Candidates Set, $130
Highest Graded Sale: 2001 Albert Pujols, BGS 9, $75
Highest Non-Graded Autograph Sale: 2006 BJ Upton, $200
Highest Graded Autograph Sale: None

Other best sellers:

* 2003 LeBron James
* 2008 Allen and Ginter Mickey Mantle
* 2008 Evan Longoria
* 2008 David Wright

In-hand listing (not including graded or autographed) that received most bids that sold well: (tie) 2008 Barack Obama and 2003 Walter Payton: 12 bids

Got Barack?

We want to make money from etopps.

We want to buy the cards low and sell them high.

And now there's a card that can give you this.

Thanks to the election of our 44th President, Barack Obama.

If you have a Barack Obama in-hand card, now is the time to sell. At your (fixed) price and by offering free shipping you get the free subtitle below the listing title.

If you have the Barack Obama in-port, sell it as well but just be prepared if the buyer has no clue about etopps and just wants the card.

And kudos to all of you who took the risk of buying this card on the secondary market when it was under $40 in hopes of doubling your money. Because now you can.

Autograph Offering: Joe Montana

The ebay issue about listing in-port etopps cards is resolved.

Earlier today I was cc'ed an email that was sent from ebay to Mark of etopps. In the email, ebay admitted this was a mistake: "I dug into this one a bit, this listing should not have been pulled. Our policy enforcement team will ensure the rep that pulled the listing understands the reason why this listing complies with our policy."

Glad this is over and has a happy ending. If anyone gets their listing pulled by ebay due to this cockeyed digital delivery policy, please forward the email to me and I can forward it to Mark.

Kudos to Mark for taking action so quickly on this.

* * *

Around noon today, seeing the two images of Joe Montana on the etopps home page made me say out loud, "Wow." After a few weeks of boring offerings since Brett Favre, etopps opens their so-called second half of the football season with a bang by offering not one but two Joe Montana cards in their autograph program.

























You have the choice of either the Football Classic or the more recent Allen and Ginter Superbowl Champions for $149. The difference is quantity. There will be only 29 Classics offered and 50 Allen and Ginter.

So the question you may ask yourself if you can afford this autograph is which one to choose.

I gave this a lot of thought today, walking to lunch from my job and during my drive home. On the one hand you have more of the A and G but they're the hot set right now thanks to the Allen and Ginter baseball sets since 2006 but the autograph for the Classic looks better and Joe may have had to abbreviate or squeeze his signature on the A and G card compared to the Classic.

Another thing to take into consideration is the Classic was signed by ecardautographs for the same quantity. I don't recall what was the going price when Eric offered these. But I do know that the going rate to have Joe Montana sign a flat at a card show would cost you somewhere in the ballpark of $175.

I remember selling at the East Coast Football Spectacular in NJ when Joe Montana was signing. Fans of him had flown in from all over the country to have him sign whatever they were bringing in person. What I remember is Montana cancelling and seeing the expressions on people's faces who had made the investment to be at the show.

But I digress...

The secondary market may be kind to you. The best sales for a Montana auto were the ones that were signed by someone else besides Montana like Steve Young, Dan Marino or an active quarterback like Peyton Manning or Tom Brady. Others that sold well included game-used jersey swatches in the card.

When you push aside all of these extras and see how other Montana autos at /50 or somewhere close to /29 do, it's hard to get a good assessment from ebay. Most autos on ebay are stickers.

If you do consider selling this card, by all means offer free shipping so you can include the free subtitle and emphasize this autograph is not a sticker. Since ebay does not break down this important autograph characteristic, let potential buyers know immediately and the subtitle is the perfect real estate for this.

Going back whether to choose Classic or Allen and Ginter, I don't think it matters. You don't have much to lose with either one, whether it's 29 or 50. Let potential buyers deal with this dilemma and hopefully they'll like the choice that etopps has given us. It's too bad this problem doesn't happen for each autograph offering.