All I want to do is talk about Sportlots

[nam812]

The first 10 days of May have continued to be as slow as the second half of April was. So far in May I have gotten 13 orders for $15.24 total. I appreciate every order I get, and I fill all orders (big or small) with the same attentiveness, but I can't remember a time in the last 12 months where I have gotten so many 75 cents or less orders.

I wonder if anyone has ever gone from a red star to no star in 1 month? lol

[nam812]

Also have gone from averaging between 5 and 10 box orders a week to only 1 box order in the past 13 days. Strange days indeed.

[tribefan26]

Originally Posted by nam812

Also have gone from averaging between 5 and 10 box orders a week to only 1 box order in the past 13 days. Strange days indeed.

I’m down a bit from Jan-Apr, but maybe 30%, not what you are seeing.

[vikingfan101]

There is no way to filter a sellers inventory by price, correct? I buy quite a bit on here but navigating could be infinitely better.

[timber09]

Originally Posted by vikingfan101

There is no way to filter a sellers inventory by price, correct? I buy quite a bit on here but navigating could be infinitely better.

If there is a way to filter that search, I am unaware.

Maybe fill out the support/help form on the site and they can help navigate that portion. It would certainly be handy to have a little more functionality on the site.

[LakeWorthB]

As a buyer, what is the current wait time for sportlot box? How long does it take from time they receive cards, and process them, and how long to ship box after you submit it?

[bryanscs]

Originally Posted by LakeWorthB

As a buyer, what is the current wait time for sportlot box? How long does it take from time they receive cards, and process them, and how long to ship box after you submit it?

Sellers have 10 days to get the order delivered to the Sportlots Box.

Sportlots varies on the time it takes to process the shipments being sent to them. I've had them processed as soon as 2 days, and as long as 6 days.

So your order should show in your box no later than 2 - 2.5 weeks?

As far as how long it takes for Sportlots to actually ship your cards from the box, after you request a shipment, someone else will have to answer that.

[Dalston]

Originally Posted by bryanscs

Sellers have 10 days to get the order delivered to the Sportlots Box.

Sportlots varies on the time it takes to process the shipments being sent to them. I've had them processed as soon as 2 days, and as long as 6 days.

So your order should show in your box no later than 2 - 2.5 weeks?

As far as how long it takes for Sportlots to actually ship your cards from the box, after you request a shipment, someone else will have to answer that.

Bryan's numbers are consistent with my experience as a buyer, with the exception that I think it is more accurate to say that sellers have 10 days to mark the order as shipped, not to get it delivered to Sportlots. I've noticed that some sellers that may not be a scrupulous as he is are either consistently unlucky with their shipping times or will mark as shipped before they actually ship.

At the moment I have four orders from April 25th or earlier that are not in my box (for context, I ordered a LOT of cards from many different sellers between April 15th and 25th). One or two of those may be lost mislaid by either seller or sportlots, but I'm guessing at least 2 and possibly all 4 show up over the next few weeks.

In terms of shipping, in the 4-5 times I've shipped my box I don't think it has ever taken them more than two days to get it shipped. And my last order involved packing up over 100 orders with over 1,400 cards.

[LakeWorthB]

Originally Posted by bryanscs

Sellers have 10 days to get the order delivered to the Sportlots Box.

Sportlots varies on the time it takes to process the shipments being sent to them. I've had them processed as soon as 2 days, and as long as 6 days.

So your order should show in your box no later than 2 - 2.5 weeks?

As far as how long it takes for Sportlots to actually ship your cards from the box, after you request a shipment, someone else will have to answer that.

Thanks, and in fact I have a handful of cards from you going to my box right now.

[nam812]

Well 2/3 of May is gone and I haven't cracked $50 in sales yet. The strange thing is that my eBay sales in May have been better than usual.

[Tom Oates]

Yeah May is sub par so far. I'm down about 33% of normal. Steady trickle of small orders but almost no orders over $2 to $3 so far this month. A trend that I notice is that the first third of the month is good, middle third starts to slow down, and the last third is almost no orders. This pattern repeats month after month.

I have also noticed that I'll get no orders for several days and all of a sudden I get five at once. It feels like they might have some system problems on occasion.

[jamcas997]

Originally Posted by nam812

Well 2/3 of May is gone and I haven't cracked $50 in sales yet. The strange thing is that my eBay sales in May have been better than usual.

When standard envelope came out i removed most of my SL inventory . I think I have less than 200 cards there now out of the 1000 card inventory I had. I was only getting about $15 a month there and with SE a lot of that inventory has been sold off now. Over 2500 sales with SE since Feb 1 so im done with SL

[nam812]

Originally Posted by Tom Oates

.........Steady trickle of small orders but almost no orders over $2 to $3 so far this month..........

Exactly.

[RL 1953]

last 6 weeks, I bought quite a bit through sportlots.

hope some of my buys were from blowout members

[timber09]

It is weird how much variance there can be - this will end up being one of my better months and nearly 2x sales from April. Certainly some of that is due to entering some newer products however the bigger spike has been from, guessing, baseball TTM collectors - lots of 80s stuff - and lots of 90s hockey which hasn't seemed to move a ton in the past.

[LakeWorthB]

I know their name doesn't fit, but why doesn't sportlots list pokemon cards? I see some on the auctions, but can't look at the sets. Would be good to find specific base cards for sets, etc.

[sedin26]

Originally Posted by LakeWorthB

I know their name doesn't fit, but why doesn't sportlots list pokemon cards? I see some on the auctions, but can't look at the sets. Would be good to find specific base cards for sets, etc.

They've mentioned adding non-sports several time sin the past but it didn't seem like a priority. It takes a loooong time for new features, etc... to come out.

I know very little about Sportlots but my assumption is it's mostly a 1 man operation. Perhaps others can come in and correct me if I'm wrong....

[Tom Oates]

Originally Posted by sedin26

They've mentioned adding non-sports several time sin the past but it didn't seem like a priority. It takes a loooong time for new features, etc... to come out.

I know very little about Sportlots but my assumption is it's mostly a 1 man operation. Perhaps others can come in and correct me if I'm wrong....

Definitely a small operation but not "1 man". The site could be so much more if they put in the time and effort. I don't know... actually do some marketing?

I do just enough in sales to not walk away from all of the time it took me to list 150k cards.

2016 $459 (the year I opened and was still listing inventory)
2017 $1114
2018 $745
2019 $510 (Inventory was clearly picked over pretty well by now looking at the 3 year trend 2017 to 2019)
2020 $1063 (COVID influence? Added some Panini Team USA to my inventory and it sold well but not $500 in Panini sales)
2021 $453 (YTD)

Disclaimer 1: These are total sales. Not factoring in Sportlots and paypal fees so my net profit is about 35% less)

Disclaimer 2: These numbers don't factor what I spent on some packs and boxes that were added to my inventory.

With all of the problems with COMC, I'm really surprised we're not seeing more of an uptick. Again... marketing is needed to raise site visibility.

Tom

[Bobby]

Max is retired from his real job now, so who knows what his plans are for the future of sportlots. Im sure he's always thinking about ways to make more money. I assume the box experiment is here to stay. I know a lot of sellers do well with it, dont participate with lower pricing myself, but have already had 3 box orders in the first 3 days of June. I usually have 10-15 a month. Hopefully Max will come up with new ways to generate more business, so he doesn't have to raise sellers fees. There's hundreds of sellers now and that would be an easy money grab for him.
As for sales on the site, the last 3 months have been the best 3 month span for me since I joined in 2005. Didn't really have much inventory until 2006. Each of the last 3 months, I've rolled at least 25 orders into the next month, because I knew I couldn't reach the next fee drop. Orders for last 3 months, 195, 191, 176. Cards sold, 2482, 2843, 5916. This month I had rolled 26 orders in on the first and I'm now at 43, with over 1100 cards sold. So, between the speculators, autograph chasers, player collectors, and set builders, the sports card boom continues. Im certainly not in Bryans neighborhood, but since the 1.4 million that I have listed are just sitting in boxes, some for years, a card sold is better than one collecting dust.
For you newer sellers, dont get discouraged, just keep loading! For me the key was buying collections when you get the chance, take out the cards you want, and load the others as quickly as you can. Load even the cheap stuff, you never know what folks are looking for. I recently sold 32 1991 Fleer baseball(ugliest cards made). You have to build inventory to keep repeat buyers, they'll stop viewing your stuff, if it continues to look the same. Of course newer stuff sales the best, so try to find some local guys that bust boxes and only want the high end stuff. They usually dont want the base or cheap inserts. Check Craigslist or marketplace on Facebook, local sales only. Sometimes a nice lot will show up, but don't buy the over produced stuff, 80s-90s. Just try to find away to get cards you dont already have, so you can replenish your inventory with new stuff, it will keep your regular buyers checking, hoping you have something they want.
Just keep loading!

[Tom Oates]

Originally Posted by Bobby

Max is retired from his real job now, so who knows what his plans are for the future of sportlots. Im sure he's always thinking about ways to make more money. I assume the box experiment is here to stay. I know a lot of sellers do well with it, dont participate with lower pricing myself, but have already had 3 box orders in the first 3 days of June. I usually have 10-15 a month. Hopefully Max will come up with new ways to generate more business, so he doesn't have to raise sellers fees. There's hundreds of sellers now and that would be an easy money grab for him.
As for sales on the site, the last 3 months have been the best 3 month span for me since I joined in 2005. Didn't really have much inventory until 2006. Each of the last 3 months, I've rolled at least 25 orders into the next month, because I knew I couldn't reach the next fee drop. Orders for last 3 months, 195, 191, 176. Cards sold, 2482, 2843, 5916. This month I had rolled 26 orders in on the first and I'm now at 43, with over 1100 cards sold. So, between the speculators, autograph chasers, player collectors, and set builders, the sports card boom continues. Im certainly not in Bryans neighborhood, but since the 1.4 million that I have listed are just sitting in boxes, some for years, a card sold is better than one collecting dust.
For you newer sellers, dont get discouraged, just keep loading! For me the key was buying collections when you get the chance, take out the cards you want, and load the others as quickly as you can. Load even the cheap stuff, you never know what folks are looking for. I recently sold 32 1991 Fleer baseball(ugliest cards made). You have to build inventory to keep repeat buyers, they'll stop viewing your stuff, if it continues to look the same. Of course newer stuff sales the best, so try to find some local guys that bust boxes and only want the high end stuff. They usually dont want the base or cheap inserts. Check Craigslist or marketplace on Facebook, local sales only. Sometimes a nice lot will show up, but don't buy the over produced stuff, 80s-90s. Just try to find away to get cards you dont already have, so you can replenish your inventory with new stuff, it will keep your regular buyers checking, hoping you have something they want.
Just keep loading!

well stated, I'm in the process of discussing trading for/buying out my friends surplus commons. He's getting up there in age and not really computer savvy. He's looking to dump them in bulk so I may have an influx of inventory coming soon. My wife will love that! ;-)

[cardsrus1]

Originally Posted by sedin26

They've mentioned adding non-sports several time sin the past but it didn't seem like a priority. It takes a loooong time for new features, etc... to come out.

I know very little about Sportlots but my assumption is it's mostly a 1 man operation. Perhaps others can come in and correct me if I'm wrong....

If site sales are similar to mine recently, he should have plenty of time to start adding non sport sets now. I completely understand being unable last year as sales were beyond crazy.

[Tiger23]

I got my second box order in. It was 24 different orders. Overall, I think it is great as a buyer. The one thing that is always going to hold SL back is you cannot see the cards and rely on the sellers. 3 of my orders were canceled due to the cards not being in stock. I had 4 orders where a card sent was not the same parallel ordered. I’m not sure there is a great way to fix that and always an inherent risk on the site.

[nam812]

Has anyone ever had an order stay in pending payment for 20 days? That's where I'm at, and it isn't a big deal, just more curiosity because I thought they only stayed about 16 or 17 days?

[bryanscs]

Originally Posted by nam812

Has anyone ever had an order stay in pending payment for 20 days? That's where I'm at, and it isn't a big deal, just more curiosity because I thought they only stayed about 16 or 17 days?

I'm not 100% positive, but I think Sportlots allows a month, which is ridiculous! It should be 4-5 days max.

[Bobby]

Sportlots allows 17 days on pending orders for buyers in the states, and 21 days for international buyers. Some folks still use checks, they have to clear. I was told that future plans will eliminate cash/check payments and pending orders will be no more. Hopefully, this will happen.