Follow-up: eBay Sports Card Sales Down?

Hi collector friends,

A short follow-up to my Monday article about eBay sports card sales being down. I received a lot of great feedback, and I want to highlight some of it.

First, an email from Tim, whose eBay store’s declining sales I featured. After being below $1,000 in September, he hit $3,000 again in October and then just shy of $5,000 in November.

He writes, “I hadn't purchased a lot of new products because the prices had been so crazy. Limited amounts of Chrome, no Bowman period, no Cosmic Chrome, really nothing until Update came out, both flagship and Chrome Update. So those items started selling. It's like the shelf life for a listing is short. Basically until the next release. Sure I get onesies and twosies of other sales, but for the most part it looks like people buy all the stuff from the latest release and then it's dead. Then the other occasional sellers see a card for a few bucks when it's a print run of /170 so they list it for $2 too. Been seeing a lot of that lately.”

Dan left a comment on the post, from the perspective of a buyer: “Since I do not sell cards, I can tell you sales are down based on how many cards are NOT disappearing from my Watch List AND how many sellers who never offer discounts are offering them. One guy I buy from has an 80% off sale. I have picked up a few cards here and there but I am not fully taking advantage during these times because gifts need to be purchased and the house needs to be warmed.”

I feel that, Dan.

Mitch also wrote in:

And John wrote in from the perspective a non-eBay retailer:

“I've owned an online retail business for 11 years and sales crash every November there is a presidential election. The weeks leading and the weeks after until the end of the month typically. Every other online retailer I know has experienced the same thing to varying degrees. I'd assume this translates to eBay, but I could be wrong.”

But perhaps the most compelling datapoint, brought to us by legend auburn35 tagging me on Twitter:

That shows that eBay sports card sales were down 9.4% in November from October, according to Card Ladder.

One month is one month. I still don’t think it’s a trend, but more of a seasonal blip. I couldn’t find year-over-year data, though.

Find The Error

Keith sent me this cool autograph rainbow that he has. Can you spot the error? (The answer is below…)

That appears to be a Joey Wiemer autograph sticker on the yellow parallel. Keith says he sold this batch on eBay and didn’t even notice until he listed a second batch of the same and someone messaged him.

Keith is excited that he just completed the first complete 155 card Bob Ross set all graded in PSA 10. He thinks he’ll list it on his eBay store soon, in case you’re interested.

I’ll be on the 4 Collectors channel live Sunday night at 9pm.

Yes, 9pm.

I’m just as surprised as any of you who know that I like to be in bed ahead of 9pm. Theo convinced me. I’ll regret it at around 7pm, as I’m winding down my day.

Join us live!

As Your Favorite Seinfeld Fan, I Endorse This Amazing Topps Commercial

And in a different way, I appreciated this Geoff Wilson video:

I have been critical of Geoff and his lack of sports knowledge for someone who portrays himself as an expert (and that doesn’t change with this video), but I respect that he posted a video that shows him spending a ton of money on wax in his own shop and getting an absolutely atrocious return on investment.

We Are In The Good Old Days

Thinking about this quote as I watch the downfall of LeBron.

(The downfall is the good old days.)

Signed, a Celtics fan.

(Of course, now LeBron will go on a 30-game tear where he averages 30/8/8 and the Lakers win 25.)

As always, thank you for reading! See you again Monday morning.