Sunday, December 16, 2007

98-cent Experiment Update

(Note: Photos represent cards actually listed, but did not necessarily get purchased)


Just a quick post to update you all on the "Great 98-cent Experiment." I listed approximately 360 cards during the experiment. Of those, 221 went unsold in any form or fashion. To recap, here is what I did: I listed the cards at $.98 total starting bid (free shipping). Most of the cards that did not sell at the $.98 starting bid were then relisted with a starting bid of $.05 with a shipping matrix (basically $2.00 for the first card and $.25 for each card after that). Only ONE card (A 2007 A&G Mini Lance Berkman) sold at the $.05 matrix.

What does this mean?
  1. First of all, unless you have great inserts/game-used/vintage, you are probably not going to retire selling cards on eBay. LOL, not that I was trying to accomplish that, but hey, if it works....
  2. Second, my experiment was not without its flaws. The main is that to be truly accurate, I would need to sell the SAME cards at the $.98 and at the $.05 in order to have true card-based representation.
  3. Third, It seems the appeal of free shipping attracts more buyers and more POTENTIAL buyers. What brings me to this conclusion? I had many more "watchers" for the $.98 items than the $.05 items. Again, this is flawed because the same cards were not used throughout both types of sales.
  4. And, finally (for the purposes of this experiment anyway), I thought way too long and hard about all this. :-)


The highest-priced item during the experiment was a Serially-numbered Topps Gold Rookie of Albert Pujols. Many items went for the starting bid of $.98, and as I mentioned before, many items did not sell at all, which leaves me with about 11800+ cards still to go before completely selling off the huge "Dealer Store Closed" lot I bought... Well, that's not exactly right. After all, I *DID* pull out the Indians cards, and some Braves cards going to dayf in another "riddle-type" offering (more on that in a later posting).

All in all, the experiment was fun and put some change in my pocket for my trouble. Not too shabby, I'd say.


4 comments:

  1. Would be interested in trading for some of your Braves, Devil Rays, Falcons that you still got lying around.

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  2. I got in this weekend off the road (truck driver) and will be updating the Cincy Reds Card page. I was going through a stack of cards and came across 3 I wanted to see if you want. From 2005 Donruss cards 32. Mariano Gomez Red Press Proof 92 / 200
    38. Ivan Ochoa
    38. Ivan Ochoa Red Press Proof 44/ 200

    If you want them my email is oljoe73@gmail.com

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  3. Rocco, I am ALWAYS intered in trading for Tribe cards!

    Bay Rat North! I guess I missed your truck drivin' profession, so my apologies for bugging you about updating your blog! Definitely interested in trading!

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  4. obviously i know you would be looking for Indians cards, I'm a little short on those right now but email me at lees.ra@gmail.com if you have anything else that you are looking for.

    ReplyDelete