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.
Affiliate Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. As I am a part of the eBay Partner Network and other programs, if you follow these links and make a purchase, I’ll receive commission. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
While I love eBay, enjoy COMC, utilize Alt, and think there are a lot of great places online to buy and sell sports cards, there is always room for more.
The cool thing is, new entrants don’t even need to reinvent the wheel.
Sure, while most sites are born from ideas to do something better or different, sometimes the thing that sets them apart is a minor detail.
For BuySportsCards.com, you won’t see an innovative interface or a brand new way to buy baseball cards (and sell) that you’ve never seen before. You will see, though, a clean and easy to use platform, lots of cards, great deals, and more importantly, one that offers 0% seller fees.
Let’s get into it.
Easily find a card then dive deeper
Especially in the data age, it feels like a lot of platforms take things way too far – beyond what they need to be – leaving the user experience to languish as a result.
That’s one thing to like about BuySportsCards.com. It’s not “no frills” because it doesn’t want to, but rather, because the focus is on making it as easy as possible to buy and sell cards online.
That starts with search and filtering, to where if you’re looking for a particular player or card, you have a couple of options to do so. Then, once a card is found, you can easily toggle between raw and graded copies available, see a picture if one’s available, and then add it to your cart like other typical ecommerce transactions, or, you can make an offer.
I also like the Desktop experience, with 3-across cards per row and all the details you need in order to make a decision.
0% seller fees
One of the best and easiest ways for new online card platforms to grab the attention of card sellers is to offer zero or reduced sales fees, and that’s exactly what BuySportsCards.com is currently doing.
Enjoy 0% Seller Fees on https://t.co/2CAHIIwdKh ?#TheHobby #SportsCards pic.twitter.com/08rjfRmgYq
— BuySportsCards.com (@buysportscards) July 2, 2023
I say “currently” because as we’ve seen before – and know from basic business principles – sales fees can’t always be zero, or they can, but the site needs to find other ways to monetize.
Also, quick note—for October BSC is offering a “Seller Spooktacular” where you can get paid to list your cards. So, now is a great time to give it a shot!
So, while I have no idea if the 0% fees will remain and if so, for how long, I’d expect for sales fees to increase at some point. But for now, enjoy!
What else I like, and what I’d like to see improved
Ok, so the main event! Here are some things I like about Buy Sports Cards, and some things I’d like to see improved.
Likes
Card First: What I like the most is that with BSC, you’re basically looking for a card first, and then when you’ve found the card, you can dive into the different sellers and prices of the cards being offered on the next screen.
This is similar to the COMC, Beckett Marketplace, and SportLots, where your first step is to simply locate the card you want to buy and then from there you can compare the different sellers and their prices. This is different than a platform like eBay where you search a card and then see the hundreds of listings for that one particular card.
Card Inventory: I also like that the site has a ton of cards listed, and seemingly more and more each day. This is a testament to BSC finding success, getting the word out, and growing. Its feels like a marketplace that is only going to get bigger…
Working Toward Improvements: That is, bigger and better. From what I can tell, the site is receptive to feedback and is constantly working on improvements and upgrades to the site. I’ve seen a handful of other platforms burst on to the scene, only to take their eye off the ball or get complacent.
Suggestions for Improvement
Photos: One thing I’d like to see improved is more actual card photos (instead of stock photos or no photos at all) or a requirement that a card can’t be listed without a photo. A number of times I’ll find a card that’s intriguing, but there isn’t a photo, and and skeptical of condition or even if the specific card that is listed is the one that’s being sold (in terms of parallels, etc.).
Labels: I’ve seen a number of cards mislabeled, typically with incorrect parallel information. This makes it tough for someone like me, who likes to flip cards for profit, and not knowing if a good deal is in fact a good deal because the card is priced favorably, but might not be the correct card.
In fact, in the screen shot above, did you catch the Mike Trout? It’s labelled as a 1/1, and priced at $11.39. Either that’s the steal of the century, or the card isn’t labelled correctly.
Refund Process: With that said, most of my transactions have been problem-free because I tend to buy only those cards with a photo, but per the above, I did take a chance on a card that didn’t have a photo and was priced favorably for the type of card it was.
Unfortunately the card I received wasn’t the one I bought. So, I reached out to the seller, and they offered to make it right by sending another card, but I didn’t really see a way to request a refund, or to enlist BSC to help with the process.
Buggy/Filtering: Last, I still experience issues here and there where the filtering doesn’t reset, or I can’t escape a certain seller’s inventory. I would also love if you could filter by more than one sport, so, for example, you can see all of the “recently added” cards for baseball and football and not just football.
All things considered, I don’t think any of these are blockers, and as mentioned, have received a ton of cool cards through successful transactions.
