Super Bowl XLII: Upset Schmupset - Take Advantage of the Market Reaction

After an upset as big as last night's Super Bowl, it's easy to see how the market is reacting to these two teams. Now is the time to do a few things: sell Giants, buy Patriots and get ready for baseball.

That's right, buy Patriots.

Why? Because I think a team that was undefeated during the regular season and had one of the best statistical seasons of any NFL team is a team worth collecting even if it did not win the big one. Take advantage of the dumping that's happening right now ( read buy low) for March when all 2007 football playoff cards are available for delivery.

Sell Giants if you still have them. It was the most watched Super Bowl ever. Think of all the kids (like my 5-year old son) who have decided that the Giants are now their favorite team and now their parents are shopping on ebay right now for what to buy them.

Regarding the changes that will be introduced on ebay, while some of the changes are hard to swallow at first, the one thing that seems to be overlooked is free gallery. Statistically, this helps the sell-through rate for any item. In other words, you'll get more eyeballs and the more gallery listings of in-hands, the more newbies to in-hands.

Since most etopps cards do not sell that high, having a higher final value fee is not going to take that much coin out of your net. Focus more on buying low than the fees.

I'm glad there will be feedback changes. I have no problem with it. If you sell in-hands and do the following, your feedback should go up as well your Detailed Seller Ratings (DSR):

• Charge reasonable shipping. If shipping is your lowest DSR, offer free shipping and watch it go up. If you offer a card at a fixed price with best offer and it's over $50, I would recommend free shipping to sweeten the deal.
  
• Always give positive feedback after receiving payment.
  
• Ship the in-hand no later than the day after receiving payment in a bubble-lined mailer.
  
• Email the buyer after receiving payment to cover the following: acknowledge payment, thank them for choosing you as a seller, let them know the card will be sent tomorrow and positive feedback will be given. (I also encourage them to visit my ebay store for in-hands relevant to what they just bought from me. In marketing, this is the up-sell.)
  

On another note, recently I received emails in response to this blog asking me how to sell an in-hand set. The first place I would try is the etopps message board and sell it in the "Sales" category. It's easy to register on this MB if you're not yet. You can get a lot of information about etopps from this board and it can be quite entertaining.

When posting a for-sale thread, start at a price you're willing to accept at a minimum and give parameters: payment method (most likely paypal), how long you will accept offers, your email address (since some bidders may not want to reveal what they're offering and would prefer to remain anonymous since it is nobody's business). It will be your job to post the highest offer to keep others informed.

If this doesn't work for you, there's always ebay. If not ebay you can try a few other auction sites: overstock, onlineauction, and blujay. The last two have very low fees (if any).

What Are You Buying Now?

If you're selling etopps in-hands of New England Patriots and New York Giants, what are you doing with the money you're making?

If you plan to buy more in-port and get them delivered from etopps prior to the Super Bowl, the window of time to get the cards via UPS Ground is closing depending on where you live from Delaware. I'm lucky that I live in the same zone as their warehouse so UPS Ground means 2 days max delivery time for me.

If you haven't yet, buy baseball right now while the Super Bowl hype is building.

You can still get good prices on 2007 Baseball because once the Super Bowl is over, pitchers and catchers start reporting to Spring Training within two weeks. This is not a lot of time to get all of your baseball ducks in place.

So who do you buy? Since performance is one of the main factors that drives demand for a player, it's tempting to think this demand starts in April on Opening Day. In reality, demand during the off-season is based on performance of the previous season.

For example, in 2006 Nomar Garciaparra had a good year in his first year with the Dodgers. I bought one of his cards under $5 around this time last year. I listed his card in the beginning of March and sold it within 24 hours for $25. In fact, the off-season is ripe to sell players who had a good previous season until Opening Day (unless they get injured during spring training).

There's a degree of risk if you buy players you or anyone predicts will have a good year. I'm tempted to conclude that Albert Pujols will have a good year after what happened last season, paralleling A-Rod's stats between 2006 and 2007. At least this is what my crystal ball tells me.

Sell Giants Football Cards Now

Now is the time to sell any New York Giants etopps in-hand cards.

Anyone who sells Patriots cards have been doing this since before they beat the Giants in the last regular-season game. But now is the time to react to the newest trend: New York Giants football. I already listed their 2004 team card and Eli Manning's rookie card. I will probably list other Giants non-etopps cards and sports memorabilia.

So the question you may be asking is do you sell asap or wait to list so it ends right before the Super Bowl? My advice is to sell asap: there will always be those who will want to flip whatever they buy right now of the Giants. Your sell-through rate (chance of selling) will be higher now before the hype machine starts with the Patriots being the best team in NFL history (which they may well be). To be on the safe side, you can try both ways. Let me know which worked better for you.