What's going on with Fanatics Collect pricing?

[90skid]

Just browsing some of the items ending tonight in their auctions...do people not realize these cards can be had for much cheaper?


Example: 1997 Topps Minted in Springfield PSA 10 Michael Jordan

There's two of these on eBay right now, $700 obo and $750 BIN.


Meanwhile, on Fanatics Collect, ending tonight...



+ fees & taxes!

[Spacemanspif]

It could actually be that they don't pay sales tax because it can go directly into their vault.

Auctions getting run up past the price of BINs is rare and sort of dumb, but I see it happen all over the place, not exclusive to Fanatics / PWCC. I have actually seen the opposite on a lot of things I track, where bidding will stop short at like 80-90% of where ebay auctions have been landing for same items.

[90skid]

yeah but even if they don't have to pay taxes there's still the 20% fee

[KhalDrogo]

Attracts more attention to run up MJ on Fanatics or Goldin.

[90skid]

Sold for $990. Wild. The others still available on eBay.

[Xiarmadillo]

If it smells like poopy business, it's most likely poop

[Stockalone242]

As I learned recently from some auctions at Heritage, where a Stockton Exquisite sold for 18k, which usually is far below 2k: Those are (quote): "Market inefficiencies" and buyers there don't use ebay for reference.
Sure. Sure.

[RKH916]

I'd be interested to see how often ebay sales break records vs. Fanatics & Goldin. Seems like every other week cards are doing new numbers on Fanatics/PWCC, especially Jordans.

I find it hard to believe that if you're dropping that kind of money that you're not doing your due diligence across the market place, but hey, maybe not.

Or maybe we're missing something, and that particular slab has something the others don't. Older slab/newer slab/noticeable card differences via scans

[Archangel1775]

Could also be collectors from outside the United States. So no customs fees, shipping, etc.

[MavsRChamps]

To those unaware - you can purchase cards on eBay and have them sent to their vault totally free to save on sales tax (may be $3 now though if kept there but still) … so that’s not really a reason for the price difference.

I’ve often done this. On a $500 card I save about $35, and it costs just $3 to sent to fanatics. Mailing it back to me is way less than that, or they can even grade it directly for less than the $35 so it’s essentially free grading if you look at it like that for raw cards you win that are pricier.

I just chop it up to auction randomness. Wouldn’t think too deeply about it.

[boxbuster7]

Originally Posted by 90skid

yeah but even if they don't have to pay taxes there's still the 20% fee

20% buyer premium?

[90skid]

Originally Posted by boxbuster7

20% buyer premium?

Yeah, so that card didn't get any more bids (stopped at 19 bids). With buyer's premium it became $990.

The $700 PSA 10 slab on eBay got bought up now, lol.

[Xiarmadillo]

Originally Posted by boxbuster7

20% buyer premium?

there is no fee if it is connected/internal inventory being sold. Left hand to right hand.

[bub838]

Could be a lot of things. Shilling, Fanatics straw purchasing, rich people who don't know any better, international, etc.

[PuddleMonkey]

Manipulation and shilling, standard operating procedure.

[Nomad]

It is not shilling if you sell a reasonable prospect strong. I would say its better to wait until the uptide, but of course some have taken out highly leveraged loans to purchase cards. They can't afford to wait.

Call shilling then outgrowth of the forward contract, the committed capital fallacy. I mean, for Nesmith I was really interested to see it occur for the first time last month. Some sellers now consider him a strong enough position to try and drum up auction interest, not selling for under a certain point (and not living in Indiana). Eventually I think a reasonable sale did go through. Morally I disagree with this action. Still, I admit nothing to kill an uplift sigma run like a "Reserve not Met" script. On an Ant.

Meanwhile, the Absolute 3-panel RPA trash /5 that couldn't even garner a $18 bid a few days ago and went unsold is being organically bid up to $38 with 3 days left. A really low price for such a rare piece, though I understand basketball-rubber, sticker, non-GU Nesmith is not the ultimate hunt.

Anyway, yeah let's call shilling a bum move. It really feels bad to lose auctions on pieces you want by bids that are not actually legit sales. You are not willing to pay more than market value, even if it's a find (don't-want-to-be-the whale syndrome). An organic trend-line increase in value feels way more positive than a seller who doesn't respect the buyer (who justifiably takes the low price on the screen at face value).

What I do wish though is that eBay would make an "ignore this auction" button next to items, so you don't constantly need to see them when they relist again.