Ryan Barone (@ballcardgenius, Card Expert) is a lifelong member of the hobby. He has been quoted in PSA Magazine, and his content has regularly been mentioned in “Quick Rips” (the Topps RIPPED Newsletter) and across other hobby publications. hello@ballcardgenius.com; Last Time Ago LLC dba Ballcard Genius.
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To increase your online card sales, reach more people by listing cards on multiple platforms. Also allow offers to be made, and track your watchers if you can. Appeal to those most interested in your cards by lowering the price, charging less for shipping, or offering free shipping altogether.
- List Everywhere
- Enable “Best Offer”
- Lower the Price by $5
- Track Your Watchers
- Change Your Selling Format
- Offer Free Shipping
- Offer PWE/Standard Envelope Shipping
1. List Everywhere
We live in a card world where eBay is no longer the only game in town. Sure, they still get your cards in front of the most people, but you also pay a big fee for doing so.
Check it Out: eBay Sports Card Profit Calculator
There are a number of new and reputable platforms where you can try and sell your cards, and many with much lower sales fees. Give these a shot:
Some are “list it yourself” websites while others are more of a consignment style platform (where you send your cards to them and they sell/ship for you). Of course, for those that are “list it yourself” you can go all out and list to multiple platforms, while the consignment route would require you to list with that one single platform.
The good thing about consignment options like COMC and Alt, though, is that these platforms automatically cross sell your cards on eBay, so you’re getting quite a bit of visibility.
2. Enable “Best Offers”
I sell a lot of cards, but I buy a ton as well. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve moved on from a particular card because I had no way to make an offer. Reason is, the market moves fast, while also fluctuating for seasonality over time.
An eBay comp from last month might not hold true today, which makes it really tough to determine the “right” price for our cards when selling. So, in case you didn’t hit the price on the head, why not let people tell you what they’re willing to pay?
Yes, you’ll get lowball offers, but frankly, it’s part of the game. Ignore them and move on (and don’t let them stop you from making the sale).
3. Track Your Watchers
On eBay, it’s pretty easy to check how many people are watching your card; same as Alt, MySlabs, and others. I’m not going to go through every online card platform, but you get the point.
(That said, Watchcount can be really helpful for when you do use a service like COMC or Alt, because again, when your cards are cross listed on eBay, they aren’t listed under your personal account, but theirs.)
Here are some of my cards that I have listed on COMC, that are cross-listed to eBay.
@ballcardgenius #stitch with @ballcardgenius Lets see some results! Lets hear some success stories.
♬ original sound – ballcardgenius
A watcher should be treated like a lead, and while you can’t really nurture the lead like you could an email campaign, you can get their attention in order to…
4. Lower Your Price (By at Least $5)
Going along with the above, lowering your price is a great way to get the attention of the people already watching your card. On eBay, these watchers will typically receive an email or notification saying the item has been discounted.
Better yet, did you know you can send offers to people watching your cards? In fact, it’s become common practice for interested buyers to not offer on a card, but to watch the card and then wait for the seller to send them an offer.
Plus, with “Best Offers” enabled, you might find that lowering the price brings the price down below the threshold for a particular buyer who didn’t want to “low ball” and now they feel comfortable passing something along.
5. Change Your Selling Format
I’m guilty of always listing cards at a “buy it now” format with “best offer” enabled. I’m also guilty of having cards sit around for literal years waiting to be sold.
So, when I have a card where it’s clear my set price isn’t cutting it, I’ll send the card to auction just to try and break even or recoup something before it’s too late.
The reverse is true too, and I see this mostly with people starting their card auctions at high prices. While it requires you to be OK with taking less than what you hoped for, starting an auction at $.99 is a much more enticing format.
6. Offer Free Shipping
Such a simple yet powerful move. There is no rule against raising your price $5 and then changing your $4.49 shipping cost to “Free.” There is something psychological that happens when someone sees “free” shipping compared to another $5 “added cost.”
If you don’t want to offer free shipping on all items, here are some tips on when it might be most useful:
7. Offer PWE/Standard Envelope Shipping
Have a card you want to sell for less than $20? Have you considered eBay Standard Envelope shipping? If you’re not familiar, it’s a cheaper shipping method for lower value cards. And instead of using BMWT, you’re using a PWE (plain white envelope) or semi-rigid document holder to send your card.
@ballcardgenius eBay selling mistakes/standard envelope discussion part 2 #greenscreen
♬ original sound – ballcardgenius
Yes, this method doesn’t protect the card as well as a bubble mailer, but it does attract people who don’t want to spend $5 on shipping when buying, say, a $5 card.
eBay’s Standard Envelope option is available for cards that list for less than $20, but you need to configure it as a shipping option before the card sells.
