| Some
Stories
How I came up with my pricing stradegy over the past 15 years or so. They should give you some insite into my pricing and buying methods. |
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| First
story. It was about 1988, I was selling old baseball cards full time.
I guy in his 30's walked in to a real small show I was doing, with an 800
count box of cards and asked if I was buying old baseball. I said
sure and asked what he had. The box was full of 67-69 Topps in Ex/Mt
to nm/mt condition. He had pulled all the stars and placed them in
the front of the box. Beckett on the stars was about $300 dollars.
We did a little negotiating and he decided to keep the Bench (about $100
at the time) rookie and I gave him $80. I had a lot of customers
for commons at the time and figured I'd make my money on the commons.
Well the show got slow and I decided to go through the box and see what
I had bought hoping maybe he had a few 67 high numbers or something exciting.
In the box I found 2 Ryan RC and a Jackson RC total Beckett on everthing
was closer to $1500 at the time. I felt pretty bad about
ripping the guy off. No really I did. If I had gone through the box at the time I would have offered him more. So anyway, later that night I went to the bar with a couple other dealers. The guy who sold me the cards was there. He was laughing and drinking with his buddies about how he had just sold some idiot (his term) a bunch of baseball cards for $80. The lesson I learned was money has value, everything else is relative, he thought $80 was ripping me off, just give people a price they're happy with and you can live with, otherwise pass on the deal. Second
story was later that same year at a big show with lots of autograph guests.
This older couple comes up to me and wants to know if I buy older autographed
baseballs. I said not usually but if it was interesting I might,
and I'd like to take a look at it anyway. They pulled out a beat
up, almost black, little league baseball that looked like a dog had owned
it for the last 30 years. Barely legible, and I mean barely, was
a faint outline of a Duke Snider autograph. They told me this ball
had been aquired by his mother in Brooklyn in the 50's and wanted to know
what it was worth (By the way Duke Snider was appearing at the show and
signing autographs for $8). I sent
Third Story happened a couple years ago. A guy came up to my table looking to sell a bunch of 96-97 BAP's. Nothing special just a bunch of commons about $200 in beckett. I'd mark the cards at $100 and discount 20-25% off that, plus they'd sit around for a long time waiting for a buyer. He wouldn't give me a price he wanted, In fact damn near refused. I just sensed this was going to be a tough negotiation, with hurt feelings and accusations of rip offs, and there was no way I was going to get those cards at close to the .50 a card I would need to break even. So, I sent him away. He was a little upset I wouldn't even quote him (see #7 on my T's and C's) but I just didn't feel it was worth the effort. A short time later a regular customer stopped by. He had about $400 in beckett in decent new star cards. I asked him what he wanted. He said $80. I paid him. He said thanks a lot. Lesson learned, pass on the bad deals because there's always a decent one around the corner. So if you've read this far tell me which was your favorite story and I'll give you an extra 15% off. Paul |
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