It's here. Finally. Cardtarget now includes in-hands.
Now you can buy and sell in-hands and see how they're doing on ebay.
And it's not just plain ol' in-hands. They're also including autographed etopps cards so you can see how they performed on ebay.
I just did a search on how Hanley Ramirez's autographed card sold in the past. I was expecting the past two weeks. Try more than two freakin' months!
It goes back until May for Hanley's standard in-hands, five months of data.
For Adrian Peterson's auto, you can see a list of the last 23 ebay transactions.
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury: this is a goldmine. Cardtarget now has the deepest ebay search you will find.
You can't even go this far back for third-party auction services that require a monthly paid subscription.
Showing posts with label Cardtarget. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cardtarget. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Feedback on the new CardTarget website; Remaining 08 Baseball Ready for Shipping
I was fortunate enough to get a sneak peek preview from Mike for the new CardTarget website yesterday. He asked me to look it over and provide feedback on its overall appearance, navigation and in-hand market capabilities.
You're going to like the way this looks. The biggest and most significant change is the division two sections on the homepage. One for in-port and one for in-hand. As it does now for in-port, you will see a parallel listing of best sellers for in-hands and in-ports.
So with this parallel data, how will you tell one from the other? It'll be obvious on the homepage because they will have a title for each listing (in-port on the left and in-hand on the right). But what about a page for a player's card. How will you know, especially for the newbies once the etopps integration will kick in? If you are on an in-port card page, you will see a briefcase symbol that you won't miss. And if you are on an in-hand card page, a nice picture of a hand on that page.
Besides moving a few of the pull-down menus around, the overall navigation will be similar to how you currently navigate on CT. For the newbies, there will be informational sections on what is etopps and what is cardtarget and how they will be working together. I assume there will be quite a few people getting on CT for the first time after etopps makes the announcement that the integration is a go.
Setting up your in-hand portfolio will be quite easy. It's actually like being on Cloud 9. (Keep in mind, you're going to have to build it card-by-card since there's no XML file to transfer what you have in your collection to CT.)
For each card you will have a search box to type in the player's name. If you type in Griffey, you get to see gallery photos of all of the Griffey card produced by etopps as in-hands. You simply select which one you want by clicking on the select button below the photo.
At first I thought they had scanned each in-hand but that didn't make sense. Brilliantly, they doctored each in-port card to look like the in-hand version. And this works.
They also will give you the option to include other photos for your in-hand in case you're not happy with what they provide, but I don't see how you would not want their photo image for your in-hand. I just can't believe no one cooked this up before for making an in-port look like an in-hand.
If the card is graded or autographed, you can pick these options for the card you select and this is when adding your own image comes in handy.
For graded etopps, you will enter the company that graded the card, the grade, the qualifiers and the serial number for the graded card.
In summary, it's great to see how much cardtarget has been working on this while keeping up with the quality website they continue to provide for us.
You're going to like the way this looks. The biggest and most significant change is the division two sections on the homepage. One for in-port and one for in-hand. As it does now for in-port, you will see a parallel listing of best sellers for in-hands and in-ports.
So with this parallel data, how will you tell one from the other? It'll be obvious on the homepage because they will have a title for each listing (in-port on the left and in-hand on the right). But what about a page for a player's card. How will you know, especially for the newbies once the etopps integration will kick in? If you are on an in-port card page, you will see a briefcase symbol that you won't miss. And if you are on an in-hand card page, a nice picture of a hand on that page.
Besides moving a few of the pull-down menus around, the overall navigation will be similar to how you currently navigate on CT. For the newbies, there will be informational sections on what is etopps and what is cardtarget and how they will be working together. I assume there will be quite a few people getting on CT for the first time after etopps makes the announcement that the integration is a go.
Setting up your in-hand portfolio will be quite easy. It's actually like being on Cloud 9. (Keep in mind, you're going to have to build it card-by-card since there's no XML file to transfer what you have in your collection to CT.)
For each card you will have a search box to type in the player's name. If you type in Griffey, you get to see gallery photos of all of the Griffey card produced by etopps as in-hands. You simply select which one you want by clicking on the select button below the photo.
At first I thought they had scanned each in-hand but that didn't make sense. Brilliantly, they doctored each in-port card to look like the in-hand version. And this works.
They also will give you the option to include other photos for your in-hand in case you're not happy with what they provide, but I don't see how you would not want their photo image for your in-hand. I just can't believe no one cooked this up before for making an in-port look like an in-hand.
If the card is graded or autographed, you can pick these options for the card you select and this is when adding your own image comes in handy.
For graded etopps, you will enter the company that graded the card, the grade, the qualifiers and the serial number for the graded card.
In summary, it's great to see how much cardtarget has been working on this while keeping up with the quality website they continue to provide for us.
* * *
| Subject: | Production Update: Cards Available For Delivery for 10/9/08 |
| Date: | 10/08/08 |
The following cards are available for delivery on Thursday, October 9, 2008: 2008 BASEBALL Albert Pujols 2008 We appreciate your patience. Please continue to check eTopps Updates for additional information. Sincerely, | |
Monday, August 4, 2008
An Interview with Cardtarget's Mike Masinick
The following interview occurred via email on Sunday, August 3rd.
EIMW: Mark Sapir told me about a new secondary market for etopps cards for this blog and just made the announcement in the update section about its partnership with cardtarget. For those of us who have been using cardtarget and the cardtarget market already for buying and selling cards, is this anything more than just an "official" endorsement?
MM: The main important change from our user’s persepective is that all CTM transactions will be transferred immediately upon receipt of payment. We’re also going to be sharing much more data between sites, such as eTopps having access to our price data so that their card prices are more accurate as well.
EIMW: How did this partnership happen?
MM: eTopps has supported CardTarget for many years in an unofficial capacity and recently it became apparent to both us and eTopps that an official partnership would be mutually beneficial. Obviously CardTarget would benefit by an increased market share and promotion on the eTopps website, but eTopps would also benefit by having a more stable and controllable secondary market.
EIMW: How do you think Mark is doing as the head of etopps compared to those previously in charge?
MM: The last few years of eTopps have been the best so far. Mark, and all of the Topps staff, have done a great job picking cards and making decisions regarding IPO prices and print runs that will give eTopps the ability to be a sustainable product.
This means that there has been a good balance between price retention after IPO and Topps’ ability to make money at IPO. It’s a tough decision process, but I think Mark has done an excellent job adding other exciting extra sets such as the Mantle set and the upcoming Yankee Stadium set.
I was mentioning to people at eCon yesterday that this is the first year that I have really seen people buying eTopps cards specifically to play the games with them… so that’s a testament to Mark and the eTopps staff too.
EIMW: How is the state of etopps?
MM: Pretty healthy. I don’t know how satisfied eTopps is with the print runs that they have currently, but they do create a healthy marketplace where many of the cards go up in value and only a select few lose much.
There appears to be a great amount of demand in the marketplace and a good mix of investors/speculators and collectors to create a good liquid marketplace.
EIMW: What can be improved?
MM: I believe that the sense of community has eroded greatly in the last few years. Perhaps this is because the community has gotten larger, but it also has to do with the state of the eTopps message boards.
There was a time (2002-2004ish) when you could sign on to the General eTopps message board and see 100 new posts in a few hours time. Now you might get two posts in that same time frame – sometimes none.
That’s because there was no leadership on the message boards and they are moderated by a faceless person who is uninterested in eTopps.
I believe Topps needs to drop that message board entirely or put it into the hands of people who have a vested interest in the success of eTopps.
EIMW: How did you discover etopps?
MM: Cruising eBay in April of 2002. Bought a Hideo Nomo for $7 one night and got hooked.
I had a master set at one point in 2005 and sold it for around $12,000. The value of a master set, even with all of the IPO’s since then, is still under $12,000. My current portfolio is under $1000 and I don’t actively trade much anymore.
EIMW: What is your favorite etopps card?
MM: Hmmm… I guess right now it’s got to be the Joe Saunders 2008. He went to my high school and was on the 1998 Virginia state championship team with my brother. I know his family and it’s neat seeing somebody you’ve known since they were 11 years old on an eTopps card.
EIMW: Do you collect in-hands?
MM: I collect classic autographs. I have about 40 of them signed at this point.
EIMW: What led to cardtarget?
MM: Back in 2002 there was virtually no data about eTopps cards that were being bought and sold on eBay. My first few jobs out of school were programming jobs for dot-bomb companies, most notably musicmaker.com.
I left the programming world in early 2002 for another job and missed programming quite a bit. I saw a whole lot of data in the eBay/eTopps world that needed to be collected and analyzed to see price trends and other data (buyer/seller stats specifically).
So I started collecting the data myself. Turned out that Jason (my CT partner) had started doing the same thing only a few weeks before. I emailed him and asked if he was interested in doing a more detailed and official looking website for this data he was receptive to it.
It’s just grown from there into a real business, but it started as a hobby – which is what still makes it fun for us.
EIMW: How did you come up with the name cardtarget?
MM: It was really a “what domain name is available” thing. We came up with a list of about 20 business names and we thought cardtarget.com was the best domain name available off the list at the time.
EIMW: You seem to be the go-to person for almost everything related to CT. How much is Jason a part of CT? Is it a division of labor between the two of you?
MM: We complement each other very well. I believe that we could each do all parts of CardTarget if necessary, but over time we have taken on duties of the site more in line with what we are both best at.
Jason is a better programmer than me and I’m better at the business and customer service, but we do consult each other on nearly everything. We’re both very active in the day to day operations, although you’ll usually get more emails from me.
EIMW: Will the Partial Shares Market ever offer more cards?
MM: Not in its’ current form. We’re not going to rule anything out for the future, but for now we’re concentrating on improving our eTopps offerings.
EIMW: For you and Jason, how has the CTM changed without ebay?
MM: It’s more work. But eBay was not easy to work with either. So it takes a little more time to get things done on the tradepost, but it’s much less stressful.
Our new partnership with eTopps should make all of that obsolete within a month as all cards will be transferred immediately upon receipt of payment.
EIMW: Will we ever see a cartarget market for in-hands?
MM: With any luck you’ll see it soon. We have been planning an in-hand/auto market for eTopps for over a year and it has turned into a much larger project than we anticipated.
I don’t want to give a date for a market opening, but hopefully we should be able to beta test in the early Fall. When you’re dealing with shipping of cards there are a whole new set of problems that we have to account for in order to have an automated marketplace.
EIMW: Mark Sapir told me about a new secondary market for etopps cards for this blog and just made the announcement in the update section about its partnership with cardtarget. For those of us who have been using cardtarget and the cardtarget market already for buying and selling cards, is this anything more than just an "official" endorsement?
MM: The main important change from our user’s persepective is that all CTM transactions will be transferred immediately upon receipt of payment. We’re also going to be sharing much more data between sites, such as eTopps having access to our price data so that their card prices are more accurate as well.
EIMW: How did this partnership happen?
MM: eTopps has supported CardTarget for many years in an unofficial capacity and recently it became apparent to both us and eTopps that an official partnership would be mutually beneficial. Obviously CardTarget would benefit by an increased market share and promotion on the eTopps website, but eTopps would also benefit by having a more stable and controllable secondary market.
EIMW: How do you think Mark is doing as the head of etopps compared to those previously in charge?
MM: The last few years of eTopps have been the best so far. Mark, and all of the Topps staff, have done a great job picking cards and making decisions regarding IPO prices and print runs that will give eTopps the ability to be a sustainable product.
This means that there has been a good balance between price retention after IPO and Topps’ ability to make money at IPO. It’s a tough decision process, but I think Mark has done an excellent job adding other exciting extra sets such as the Mantle set and the upcoming Yankee Stadium set.
I was mentioning to people at eCon yesterday that this is the first year that I have really seen people buying eTopps cards specifically to play the games with them… so that’s a testament to Mark and the eTopps staff too.
EIMW: How is the state of etopps?
MM: Pretty healthy. I don’t know how satisfied eTopps is with the print runs that they have currently, but they do create a healthy marketplace where many of the cards go up in value and only a select few lose much.
There appears to be a great amount of demand in the marketplace and a good mix of investors/speculators and collectors to create a good liquid marketplace.
EIMW: What can be improved?
MM: I believe that the sense of community has eroded greatly in the last few years. Perhaps this is because the community has gotten larger, but it also has to do with the state of the eTopps message boards.
There was a time (2002-2004ish) when you could sign on to the General eTopps message board and see 100 new posts in a few hours time. Now you might get two posts in that same time frame – sometimes none.
That’s because there was no leadership on the message boards and they are moderated by a faceless person who is uninterested in eTopps.
I believe Topps needs to drop that message board entirely or put it into the hands of people who have a vested interest in the success of eTopps.
EIMW: How did you discover etopps?
MM: Cruising eBay in April of 2002. Bought a Hideo Nomo for $7 one night and got hooked.
I had a master set at one point in 2005 and sold it for around $12,000. The value of a master set, even with all of the IPO’s since then, is still under $12,000. My current portfolio is under $1000 and I don’t actively trade much anymore.
EIMW: What is your favorite etopps card?
MM: Hmmm… I guess right now it’s got to be the Joe Saunders 2008. He went to my high school and was on the 1998 Virginia state championship team with my brother. I know his family and it’s neat seeing somebody you’ve known since they were 11 years old on an eTopps card.
EIMW: Do you collect in-hands?
MM: I collect classic autographs. I have about 40 of them signed at this point.
EIMW: What led to cardtarget?
MM: Back in 2002 there was virtually no data about eTopps cards that were being bought and sold on eBay. My first few jobs out of school were programming jobs for dot-bomb companies, most notably musicmaker.com.
I left the programming world in early 2002 for another job and missed programming quite a bit. I saw a whole lot of data in the eBay/eTopps world that needed to be collected and analyzed to see price trends and other data (buyer/seller stats specifically).
So I started collecting the data myself. Turned out that Jason (my CT partner) had started doing the same thing only a few weeks before. I emailed him and asked if he was interested in doing a more detailed and official looking website for this data he was receptive to it.
It’s just grown from there into a real business, but it started as a hobby – which is what still makes it fun for us.
EIMW: How did you come up with the name cardtarget?
MM: It was really a “what domain name is available” thing. We came up with a list of about 20 business names and we thought cardtarget.com was the best domain name available off the list at the time.
EIMW: You seem to be the go-to person for almost everything related to CT. How much is Jason a part of CT? Is it a division of labor between the two of you?
MM: We complement each other very well. I believe that we could each do all parts of CardTarget if necessary, but over time we have taken on duties of the site more in line with what we are both best at.
Jason is a better programmer than me and I’m better at the business and customer service, but we do consult each other on nearly everything. We’re both very active in the day to day operations, although you’ll usually get more emails from me.
EIMW: Will the Partial Shares Market ever offer more cards?
MM: Not in its’ current form. We’re not going to rule anything out for the future, but for now we’re concentrating on improving our eTopps offerings.
EIMW: For you and Jason, how has the CTM changed without ebay?
MM: It’s more work. But eBay was not easy to work with either. So it takes a little more time to get things done on the tradepost, but it’s much less stressful.
Our new partnership with eTopps should make all of that obsolete within a month as all cards will be transferred immediately upon receipt of payment.
EIMW: Will we ever see a cartarget market for in-hands?
MM: With any luck you’ll see it soon. We have been planning an in-hand/auto market for eTopps for over a year and it has turned into a much larger project than we anticipated.
I don’t want to give a date for a market opening, but hopefully we should be able to beta test in the early Fall. When you’re dealing with shipping of cards there are a whole new set of problems that we have to account for in order to have an automated marketplace.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Know Your Inventory (Don't Be Like Me)
Whenever I get a set of three new emails in my inbox for an in-hand transaction on ebay -- the acknowledgement to the buyer ("you won!"), the acknowledgement to me of the in-hand sold, the paypal payment notification) -- I'm a happy camper. I send my acknowledgement to the buyer and later that day, mark the paypal email in my inbox that it's ready for shipment and later that day I get prepare the shipment of the in-hand which begins with fishing the card out of the monster box that lives under my office desk.
But there are a few times each year that when I go fishing I come up empty. I double check: no bites. Then I triple-check: uh-0h.
Yes, ladies and genltemen of the jury: I have accidentally sold a card (or two) I didn't have. It's not something to boast about and it's down-right embarrassing especially when it's time to fess up to the buyer. It's so much easier at a card show when this happens: "Sorry, sold out."
So how can this happen to me? Or to you? If you do not have an ebay store, you probably do not have much to worry about.
If you have an ebay store, listings last 30 days. At the end of 30 days, you get a notification that the listing has ended. Simple, right? You re-list for another 30 days and so on. There is also another option for listing - you can keep it going indefinitely until you end the listing manually. For one card, this is fine. Ebay just charges you for the re-list and it continues until you want it to stop. Which is fine, too.
The problem is if you have multiples of a card (or any item), by default ebay will re-list the card with the quantity you started with. In other words, if you have a store listing that shows you have 3 2005 David Wright in-hands and 1 sells in that month, unless you manually change the quantity to 2 that are available the next time you re-list or when it re-lists automatically, the listing will say you still have 3 of that in-hand rather than 2.
And to add to this when you list a store item, you better make sure you have it listed for 30 days because by default it's set for "end when notified." So if you created a store listing of an in-hand which you have multiples of and forget to change the time of the listing from forever to 30 days, you'll come up empty on a card in your inventory...eventually.
If this happens to you, I recommend the following: curse ebay under your breath, refund the buyer fully as soon as you can and then email the buyer through ebay saying that you simply screwed up with your inventory, apologize profusely, recommend other cards you have that they may be interested in, etc. The longer the apology the more understanding they will be...hopefully. I have never received negative feedback for making this kind of mistake. I handle it professionally and the buyer is usually more appreciative of my actions than frustrated.
The lesson to all of this is to know your inventory, especially if you have an ebay store. It's always a good idea to make sure you have everything that you have listed and you may be surprised that you have that Derek Jeter you thought you had listed but missed.
Another good tool to keep track of your in-hand inventory is to create a new portfolio on cardtarget. Simply enter each card manually. It helps a lot and you can keep track of what you paid for each in-hand as well to calculate to figure out your margins. This may take time depending on how many you have but in the long run, it's worthwhile and could prevent your monster box from eating that in-hand you just sold.
If you consider selling all of your in-hands, you can always make this portfolio public similar to selling an online portfolio to make it easier for potential buyers.
But there are a few times each year that when I go fishing I come up empty. I double check: no bites. Then I triple-check: uh-0h.
Yes, ladies and genltemen of the jury: I have accidentally sold a card (or two) I didn't have. It's not something to boast about and it's down-right embarrassing especially when it's time to fess up to the buyer. It's so much easier at a card show when this happens: "Sorry, sold out."
So how can this happen to me? Or to you? If you do not have an ebay store, you probably do not have much to worry about.
If you have an ebay store, listings last 30 days. At the end of 30 days, you get a notification that the listing has ended. Simple, right? You re-list for another 30 days and so on. There is also another option for listing - you can keep it going indefinitely until you end the listing manually. For one card, this is fine. Ebay just charges you for the re-list and it continues until you want it to stop. Which is fine, too.
The problem is if you have multiples of a card (or any item), by default ebay will re-list the card with the quantity you started with. In other words, if you have a store listing that shows you have 3 2005 David Wright in-hands and 1 sells in that month, unless you manually change the quantity to 2 that are available the next time you re-list or when it re-lists automatically, the listing will say you still have 3 of that in-hand rather than 2.
And to add to this when you list a store item, you better make sure you have it listed for 30 days because by default it's set for "end when notified." So if you created a store listing of an in-hand which you have multiples of and forget to change the time of the listing from forever to 30 days, you'll come up empty on a card in your inventory...eventually.
If this happens to you, I recommend the following: curse ebay under your breath, refund the buyer fully as soon as you can and then email the buyer through ebay saying that you simply screwed up with your inventory, apologize profusely, recommend other cards you have that they may be interested in, etc. The longer the apology the more understanding they will be...hopefully. I have never received negative feedback for making this kind of mistake. I handle it professionally and the buyer is usually more appreciative of my actions than frustrated.
The lesson to all of this is to know your inventory, especially if you have an ebay store. It's always a good idea to make sure you have everything that you have listed and you may be surprised that you have that Derek Jeter you thought you had listed but missed.
Another good tool to keep track of your in-hand inventory is to create a new portfolio on cardtarget. Simply enter each card manually. It helps a lot and you can keep track of what you paid for each in-hand as well to calculate to figure out your margins. This may take time depending on how many you have but in the long run, it's worthwhile and could prevent your monster box from eating that in-hand you just sold.
If you consider selling all of your in-hands, you can always make this portfolio public similar to selling an online portfolio to make it easier for potential buyers.
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
How To Identify Dishonest Etopps In-Hand Sellers On Ebay
The following topic was originally submitted on ebay as a guide and quickly became the most viewed and approved guide about etopps.
In a recently posted Q & A on the etopps website, a question was raised that has been asked many times in the past along with the same answer by etopps:
So it's clear that etopps will not release how many in-hand cards have been taken out of online circulation.
Years ago, though, Cardtarget developed a voluntary tracking program for in-hands in which you can submit which cards have been "taken out of port."
When listing an etopps in-hand card, some sellers include the total print run in the title of their listing. I would recommend this if the print run is less than 1,000.
My reason to post all of this is to note that there are etopps in-hand sellers who are taking the number of in-hands reported on the CT website and claiming this is how many cards are available. "Only 12 available according to Card Target!" writes this etopps seller in the listing description, claiming they aren't making this up. What they fail to do is explain how inaccurate this is because the in-hand project is strictly voluntary. Usually these sellers, ask for inflated asking prices for their fictitionally-deflated print run total.
The sad part is there are buyers on ebay who fall for this. They bid up these inaccurate listings or purchase the exorbitant Buy-It-Now prices. A few of these buyers have posted on the etopps community message board to complain they were ripped off after checking the card online or seeing on the back of the card that the total print run is in the hundreds or thousands.
When the complaining picks up on the message board, some etoppers point the finger at CT and want the project abolished while others want ebay to do something.
Etopps has not turned a blind eye to this. They have been supportive of the fight against this and have reported these sellers to ebay. From what I recall, one seller who wouldn't stop listing their etopps in-hands inaccurately eventually became NARU'd either from the complaints, negative feedback from buyers or a combination of the two.
Here's what you can do:
While I can understand how some sellers want to have an edge in making more money from their etopps cards, this is not the way to do it. Why not take a better photograph of the etopps card for sale, improve customer service, guarantee satisfaction, offer refunds within 7 days or lower shipping fees.
In a recently posted Q & A on the etopps website, a question was raised that has been asked many times in the past along with the same answer by etopps:
Q: Fellow Etoppers in the community feel very strongly about the reporting of in-hand as it is a key in determining how much of that particular card is out there in the market. So my question is When will in-hand # be disclosed and why hasn't this be done already as this issue has driven many true etoppers away | |
A: We have discussed this often and we have been clear: we have no intentions of releasing this information, it was never intended to be released and we don’t plan to change direction. We have done a lot of work to stabilize the platform by adding value, improving service, building membership and we expect to continue to expand. BUT we don’t think the answer to making this platform viable is to release this data. | |
So it's clear that etopps will not release how many in-hand cards have been taken out of online circulation.
Years ago, though, Cardtarget developed a voluntary tracking program for in-hands in which you can submit which cards have been "taken out of port."
As stated on Card Target:
The In-Hand Project is a tool for the eTopps community to accurately compile confirmed in-hand numbers. It is completely voluntary. If you have taken any cards in-hand you are encouraged to enter your eTopps ID and password below. We will ONLY use your information to record the cards you have taken in-hand. When we store the information we will only keep the tracking number to identify each shipment. We will not keep any of your personal information. The tracking numbers will never be seen by the public. We will ONLY publish the total number of confirmed in-hand cards for each card. The numbers will be published on the card details page for each card.
Note: Only deliveries with tracking numbers will be added. So if your order is pending please come back after it has been sent to enter your cards.
It's a great tool and gives an inkling of how many have been taken out of port. Inkling because only a minority of etopps users (most likely the hard-core bunch) who use CT and only a small percentage of these CT etopps users have volunteered data about how many cards have been taken in-hand for any particular card. There can be many people who have taken their cards out of their portfolios who never report this in the voluntary program either by choice or because they've never heard of either this program or Card Target.When listing an etopps in-hand card, some sellers include the total print run in the title of their listing. I would recommend this if the print run is less than 1,000.
My reason to post all of this is to note that there are etopps in-hand sellers who are taking the number of in-hands reported on the CT website and claiming this is how many cards are available. "Only 12 available according to Card Target!" writes this etopps seller in the listing description, claiming they aren't making this up. What they fail to do is explain how inaccurate this is because the in-hand project is strictly voluntary. Usually these sellers, ask for inflated asking prices for their fictitionally-deflated print run total.
The sad part is there are buyers on ebay who fall for this. They bid up these inaccurate listings or purchase the exorbitant Buy-It-Now prices. A few of these buyers have posted on the etopps community message board to complain they were ripped off after checking the card online or seeing on the back of the card that the total print run is in the hundreds or thousands.
When the complaining picks up on the message board, some etoppers point the finger at CT and want the project abolished while others want ebay to do something.
Etopps has not turned a blind eye to this. They have been supportive of the fight against this and have reported these sellers to ebay. From what I recall, one seller who wouldn't stop listing their etopps in-hands inaccurately eventually became NARU'd either from the complaints, negative feedback from buyers or a combination of the two.
Here's what you can do:
- Don't buy from the etopps in-hand sellers who use "fuzzy math" when listing the print run
- List the total print run in your listings and include something like "the total number of in-hands available for this card is most likely a small fraction or percentage since so few are taken out of online circulation:
- Include in your listing a buyer beware note, encouraging the buyer to compare other listings of the same etopps in-hand card, specifically comparing the total print run listed and suggesting anything less than [total print run of the card] is inaccurate and deliberate deception by that seller.
While I can understand how some sellers want to have an edge in making more money from their etopps cards, this is not the way to do it. Why not take a better photograph of the etopps card for sale, improve customer service, guarantee satisfaction, offer refunds within 7 days or lower shipping fees.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Kudos to CardTarget: The Indispensible Etopps Tool
Thank God for cardtarget. If it wasn't for this website, I probably would have given up on etopps back in 2002 by selling my port within months of joining.
In a word, the site is an amazing tool to help you organize and evaluate your on-line portfolio and see how your cards performs not only in the last week but since the card was released at IPO with an easy-to-read bar graph. Rather than using the portfolio service for my in-ports, I've used it for my in-hands. Sure, it's a little time consuming to manually enter each card rather than use an XML file as with the in-ports. But it's well-worth the effort to help track your sales and (hopefully) your profits.
I like to use the "Watch" tracking tool to keep an eye on which cards I'm going after to have delivered. Right now, for example, I'm watching the 2007 Joba Chamberlain and the 2001 Albert Pujols to see how they will do as the baseball season nears.
Without CT, I would kick myself each time an autograph is offered if I didn't have the card in-port. With CT, I can buy the card immediately thanks to the CardTarget Market (or CTM) and get the card transferred to my portfolio within half an hour. Awhile ago, CT found a way to get CTM orders tranferred to their portfolios faster through the eTopps Trading Post.
Besides the CardTarget Market, the guys behind CT created the Partial Shares Market in which you can invest in professionally-graded vintage sports cards such as the 1968 Nolan Ryan rookie card graded PSA 9.
CardTarget also has been vital in providing information to the etopps community for each year's eCon, the annual etopps community convention that occurs at each year's National Sports Collectibles Convention (aka "the National).
There are also four different subscription services ranging from discounts on selling fees on CTM to unrestricted access to buyer/seller data on a per card basis.
The best thing about CardTarget is it's for free. Take advantage of it if you haven't yet.
In a word, the site is an amazing tool to help you organize and evaluate your on-line portfolio and see how your cards performs not only in the last week but since the card was released at IPO with an easy-to-read bar graph. Rather than using the portfolio service for my in-ports, I've used it for my in-hands. Sure, it's a little time consuming to manually enter each card rather than use an XML file as with the in-ports. But it's well-worth the effort to help track your sales and (hopefully) your profits.
I like to use the "Watch" tracking tool to keep an eye on which cards I'm going after to have delivered. Right now, for example, I'm watching the 2007 Joba Chamberlain and the 2001 Albert Pujols to see how they will do as the baseball season nears.
Without CT, I would kick myself each time an autograph is offered if I didn't have the card in-port. With CT, I can buy the card immediately thanks to the CardTarget Market (or CTM) and get the card transferred to my portfolio within half an hour. Awhile ago, CT found a way to get CTM orders tranferred to their portfolios faster through the eTopps Trading Post.
Besides the CardTarget Market, the guys behind CT created the Partial Shares Market in which you can invest in professionally-graded vintage sports cards such as the 1968 Nolan Ryan rookie card graded PSA 9.
CardTarget also has been vital in providing information to the etopps community for each year's eCon, the annual etopps community convention that occurs at each year's National Sports Collectibles Convention (aka "the National).
There are also four different subscription services ranging from discounts on selling fees on CTM to unrestricted access to buyer/seller data on a per card basis.
The best thing about CardTarget is it's for free. Take advantage of it if you haven't yet.
Monday, January 28, 2008
IPO Watch, Marshawn Lynch Auto and How The Autograph Program Works
At 1PM EST today, etopps offered the following cards:
Allen and Ginter Super Bowl Champions:
Joe Namath Print Run: 999 $9
Tom Brady PR: 999 $8
Troy Aikman PR: 999 $8.50
2007 Basketball
Greg Oden PR: 1,499 $8
Javaris Crittenton PR: 599 $5
Ray Allen PR:699 $4.50
As with last week's A and G SB Champs offerings, these are a great buy to collect the set and re-sell to all of the Allen and Ginter set collectors. As stated in a previous post, these are the first Allen and Ginter football cards. The outlier in the set is Brady because he's active, some people can't stand him but it's hard not to consider him after what he's done and what he could still accomplish with a win next Sunday in Arizona.
For Basketball, I ordered the Oden for the flip. I don't expect it to hold much and can easily pick these up when they become available for delivery at a lower price than $8. Think September.
While the Terrell Davis autograph offering on the website hasn't sold out yet at $69 each for a total of 49, it's nice to see they are still doing football autographs. I thought they would be winding down by now. They had a good football autograph season - Reggie Bush and LaDainian Tomlinson to name a couple.
Today they posted the offering of Marshawn Lynch. He signed 98 and they will sell out at $59 each. The offering will be Thursday, January 31 at 8PM EST.
You want to be quick to make money on this one on the flip. When doing a comparison on ebay for other autographed cards of this player that were limited to 100, the best price in the last month was what's being offered by etopps. Quick because the first few listed will probably earn something while others will barely break even (and this is without taking the price of the card into consideration before the autograph). I say this because the card won't be shipped until at least the middle of next month when any lingering appeal to the football season is waning while baseball is waxing. And this doesn't look good especially for a small market like Buffalo. Unless you are doing a pre-sale or want to make a few bucks on the flip of the online card before the autograph offering goes live, save your money.
Regarding the above photo, I always like signatures that include the player's jersey number. As usual, etopps chose a thin blue marker for the signature even though there's plenty of blue in the card already. Why can't they use a color that doesn't appear on their cards that often like gold or silver?
I assume the reason both offerings on the home page (and previous offerings too) are not sold in a round number quantity like 50 or 100 because the player signs right on the card rather than a sticker and I'm sure one or two do not make the final cut.
In the future to qualify for the autograph program, one has to meet the following criteria:
Autographs are now announced ahead of time (few days in advance) on the etopps home page. If you don't have the card, you may have to pay an inflated price on cardtarget or ebay because the demand for the card goes up to have it in one's online portfolio in time before the autographed card is offered.
I've made a few bucks flipping in-port cards that are announced on the home page as future autograph offerings. Emmitt Smith's event card usually sells below $3. I recall selling two at $35 each on ebay after scooping them up on Cardtarget for $6-$7 right after the offering was posted on the etopps homepage.
Rule of thumb: if an auto offering is underpriced, it's likely the difference between what the auto usually goes for and the etopps offering price will be what you'll get flipping the card quickly after the offering is announced. But you have to be quick.
There's no gain in listing it so it ends an hour or two before the offering goes live. When an etopper wants an auto and they don't have the card, they will pay for it even if it's cheaper to buy on cardtarget.
Before the beginning of the current football season, for example, there was an online article on Beckett's site that mentioned a few upcoming autographed cards on etopps. This article was posted on the etopps message board. Some etopps members bought these cards ahead of time while others didn't see this article or see the posting on the etopps message board.
Once you place your order, the card will be removed from your online portfolio and the signed card will be shipped to your provided mailing address that you give when you register your account via UPS anywhere between 2-5 weeks.
Allen and Ginter Super Bowl Champions:
Joe Namath Print Run: 999 $9
Tom Brady PR: 999 $8
Troy Aikman PR: 999 $8.50
2007 Basketball
Greg Oden PR: 1,499 $8
Javaris Crittenton PR: 599 $5
Ray Allen PR:699 $4.50
As with last week's A and G SB Champs offerings, these are a great buy to collect the set and re-sell to all of the Allen and Ginter set collectors. As stated in a previous post, these are the first Allen and Ginter football cards. The outlier in the set is Brady because he's active, some people can't stand him but it's hard not to consider him after what he's done and what he could still accomplish with a win next Sunday in Arizona.
For Basketball, I ordered the Oden for the flip. I don't expect it to hold much and can easily pick these up when they become available for delivery at a lower price than $8. Think September.
While the Terrell Davis autograph offering on the website hasn't sold out yet at $69 each for a total of 49, it's nice to see they are still doing football autographs. I thought they would be winding down by now. They had a good football autograph season - Reggie Bush and LaDainian Tomlinson to name a couple.
Today they posted the offering of Marshawn Lynch. He signed 98 and they will sell out at $59 each. The offering will be Thursday, January 31 at 8PM EST.
You want to be quick to make money on this one on the flip. When doing a comparison on ebay for other autographed cards of this player that were limited to 100, the best price in the last month was what's being offered by etopps. Quick because the first few listed will probably earn something while others will barely break even (and this is without taking the price of the card into consideration before the autograph). I say this because the card won't be shipped until at least the middle of next month when any lingering appeal to the football season is waning while baseball is waxing. And this doesn't look good especially for a small market like Buffalo. Unless you are doing a pre-sale or want to make a few bucks on the flip of the online card before the autograph offering goes live, save your money.
Regarding the above photo, I always like signatures that include the player's jersey number. As usual, etopps chose a thin blue marker for the signature even though there's plenty of blue in the card already. Why can't they use a color that doesn't appear on their cards that often like gold or silver?
I assume the reason both offerings on the home page (and previous offerings too) are not sold in a round number quantity like 50 or 100 because the player signs right on the card rather than a sticker and I'm sure one or two do not make the final cut.
In the future to qualify for the autograph program, one has to meet the following criteria:
- You have to be a registered member of etopps
- You must have the card that will become available for autograph already in your online portfolio by the time the offering goes live on the site.
Autographs are now announced ahead of time (few days in advance) on the etopps home page. If you don't have the card, you may have to pay an inflated price on cardtarget or ebay because the demand for the card goes up to have it in one's online portfolio in time before the autographed card is offered.
I've made a few bucks flipping in-port cards that are announced on the home page as future autograph offerings. Emmitt Smith's event card usually sells below $3. I recall selling two at $35 each on ebay after scooping them up on Cardtarget for $6-$7 right after the offering was posted on the etopps homepage.
Rule of thumb: if an auto offering is underpriced, it's likely the difference between what the auto usually goes for and the etopps offering price will be what you'll get flipping the card quickly after the offering is announced. But you have to be quick.
There's no gain in listing it so it ends an hour or two before the offering goes live. When an etopper wants an auto and they don't have the card, they will pay for it even if it's cheaper to buy on cardtarget.
Before the beginning of the current football season, for example, there was an online article on Beckett's site that mentioned a few upcoming autographed cards on etopps. This article was posted on the etopps message board. Some etopps members bought these cards ahead of time while others didn't see this article or see the posting on the etopps message board.
Once you place your order, the card will be removed from your online portfolio and the signed card will be shipped to your provided mailing address that you give when you register your account via UPS anywhere between 2-5 weeks.
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