Ebay vs. Sportlots

[xholdourownx]

I have bought from both. Just wondering what your opinions are of one versus the other. You can base this on price, selection, service, etc.

I like ebay more for selling. Sportlots for buying. Sportlots has a lot more flexibility in prices of what you want I think. I haven't really tried selling on sportlots but I like selling on ebay because I have sold things on ebay for a few years.

[Mike D.]

For buying individual cards, I go with Sportslots 9 times out of 10. The card prices are usually lower than eBay, and the shipping is usually a LOT less. I have found that sportlots sellers ship just as quickly as eBay sellers.

I still use eBay for buying boxes, packs, sets, etc.

I have sold on eBay off and on for years, and I find that with the auction format, you only get a decent price for something if you're selling the hottest thing. Otherwise, you often don't get any bids, or end up selling the item for a song.

I *just* started selling on sportlots. I have about 1,000 cards listed, with no sales yet. Everything I'm selling is for the minimum 18 cents. The fees are high, but I think I can make enough profit on the shipping to make it worth selling low-value cards on there.

Advantages I can see to sportlots is that the cards are up there until they sell, no time limit, and I can list cards that aren't the hottest and newest things and hope someone needs them for a set or something. The fact that it doesn't cost anything until you sell something is nice, as well. A disadvantage is that there are a good number of sellers. Some cards I entered for sale there were already 100+ available. Thankfully, a few, there were only 1-3 available.

I plan to report back on my Sportlots experience once I get some time as a seller under my belt (and hopefully a few sales).

[xholdourownx]

I will definitely agree with ebay prices being very up/down with the popularity of a set or a player. I have a Joba Chamberlain/Felix Hernandez co-signers auto I'm thinking about selling. But I need to decide if I want to sell it now or wait a little and see if the value goes up.

I have bought a few things on sportlots and will agree that the shipping time is about equal. But I think that ebay has much better prices on card lots.

Good luck with selling on sportlots. Let us know how it goes.

[Extra Innings]

[QUOTE=xholdourownx;1190117] I have a Joba Chamberlain/Felix Hernandez co-signers auto I'm thinking about selling. But I need to decide if I want to sell it now or wait a little and see if the value goes up. /QUOTE]

If your worried about not getting what you want from the card you can always place a reserve on it. I think ebay is great to buy lots of cards and sometimes you can catch a good deal on a set, but for individual cards it can be a little steep. Since I started doing TTM my ebay buying has declined, which might be a good thing for the pocketbook.

[Swankee21]

I like Ebay because I haven't used Sportslots yet, buy I'll have to try it. I've heard it's really good, especially for the variety of different individual cards both common and rare.

For buying baseball cards I recommend www.NAXCOM.com, they have good prices if you can find the item you want. This is because there are less people on the site to bid, so you could get a really good deal easily. They also hold specials each month geared toward the buyer. For example, in March they offered free shipping for everything over $25.

For the seller I still recommend Ebay because of amount of bidders on site.

[xholdourownx]

So far I think I have spent way too much on ebay. I have only been buying game used or auto cards, but have spent 2-3 dollars on each one. I have also gotten 3 blaster boxes of heritage and turkey red for about 10 dollars each with shipped. I have definitely found it better to buy boxes on ebay rather than separate cards. Although the cards I have been buying are just because I can't really find them cheaper anywhere else, I will admit that sportlots has better prices on many cards.

I just find that ebay is full of people who aren't that into collecting and overpay for the cards they are buying. Most of the time this works against me.

[Mike D.]

Sportlots is especially nice when you need 1-2 cards to complete a set or for TTM purposes. I've also found it can be cheaper to get stars/rookies individually, again, because the shipping isn't as nasty as on eBay.

I just placed a Sportlots order today, actually....got a 2005 Topps Update Jacoby Ellsbury for $12, 4 2007 Bowman Draft Future's Game Prospect Jacoby Ellsbury for only 25 cents each, and an '07 Bowman Heritage Chris Carter for 65 cents. Shipping was $2.55 for everything (from several sellers).

The Ellsburys I'll keep, the Carter will probably be used for TTM use.

[kearns643]

I use Sportlots almost exclusively now...

It is perhaps a little more limited than EB but the pricing is better.
I have never had an issue with S/L and have had a few with EB...that being felt that I was lied too....

With S/L there are a few little tricks to make it work better...you learn those as you go...

I will be placing an order soon there for more MiL coaches and Mgrs and "Family" players...

[DaClyde]

I've bought a ton of cards for my player collections from Sportlots and love it. I've only recently started selling and have had pretty good success so far. Mostly I've just been selling minor league stuff from 1975-1992, but have been surprised at what has sold. I've already upped my prices a bit on the older stuff it because of demand.

I really wish Naxcom had the search result system like Sportlots, rather than the eBay-style result listing that is so cluttered. Naxcom also has a lot of extra junk cluttering up their screen.

As others have said, I still use eBay for buying boxes and lots, but don't want to sell there due to the time limit and posting fees.

Sportlots main drawback from my perspective as a seller is having to wait for them to enter the set listings for cards I'm hoping to sell (largely non-MLB stuff). I've shot them an email asking if there's anyway I can help by providing checklists for the sets I want them to add, but haven't heard back yet.

I do wish Sportlots had the vacation notification that eBay has, though. There's currently no way to automatically notify buyers or suspend your inventory if you go out of town.