Sunday Question
Where do you go to buy your cards?
There are so many different outlets to get cards with eBay, Sportslots, COMC, the local card shop and so one, I want to know where go you get your stuff.
Some people use different outlets for different reasons. I want to know them all.
Tell me now.
I buy most of my stuff from eBay just because it’s easiest for me and has the most cards. Every once in a while I go the Check Out My Cards route.
I had to stop buying on Sports Lots because they banned me. Seriously. They had a glitch in their system. After updating my new address and then buying cards, they still sent the seller my old information and a bunch of cards went to my old address and I never got them. After emailing Sports Lots about the situation they tried to blame me even though they admitted to there being a problem with their system updates.
I guess they had enough of me at that point and just blocked my account and I wasn’t allowed to order from them anymore. That’s not exactly good customer service. I decided after that – even though I created a new account with a different name and IP address – that I didn’t want to purchase from them anymore, anyway. I stop going to places with bad customer service.
Anyway … long story short, where do get your cards?
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Local card show / card shop – because I enjoy actually looking through the cards and being able to have my purchases right away
eBay – because it's the easiest way to order a single card online.
CheckOutMyCards / Beckett Marketplace – because sometimes you're looking for cards that really aren't worth listing on eBay.
I was banned from SportsLots for a little while myself and it was also due to technical issues on their end. I had cards listed on there for sale and had a good amount of sales under my belt with no complaints. One sale went through and I never got an e-mail notification and so didn't know to send anything out. I got banned without any type of notification and didn't find out until I tried to log into the site. I got my account back, but only to buy, not sell. The guy running the site uses the fact that he's doing it all himself on a limited budget as an excuse for every issue that comes up and never owns up to his site screwing things up.
I like COMC, but as more and more card flippers join the site, the fewer deals there are to be had. I still enjoy browsing the site and it's great for cheaper cards that make no sense to pay shipping for on eBay. The fact that you can see the cards you are getting has been a huge help for me with a couple of sets I'm collecting that have the same number, but different fronts.
I've been getting more and more annoyed with eBay lately. I'm hoping for a favorable result in the class action lawsuit in regards to the double fees from eBay and PayPal, but I'm not holding my breath. It's the best place to sell hot cards, but I don't find myself buying too many singles there due to shipping costs unless the closing price is really worth it.
I use most of the same places you mentioned. There's no card shop near by, so its all online for me. For team sets and older cards, I'll use ebay. For common singles, I've had good luck with Sportlots (sorry you haven't been as lucky). Beckett Marketplace is my site of last resort; if I can't find a card elsewhere, Beckett usually will have it, though at a higher price.
I'm very limited to where I can get my cards since they don't sell them anywhere in the UK. I buy mostly through Ebay and also COMC and private sales on various forums.
Ebay is great but shipping can be very expensive sometimes. One seller can charge me $3 shipping for a few cards and another will charge up to $10 for the same amount of cards. The sellers that charge higher shipping still send it the same way as the people that charge me $3. Its annoying receiving a package that cost me $10 to send only to see that they only paid $3/4 to send it my way.
COMC is great for shipping but there's not a great deal of choice for what I'm looking for.
Forum sales are pretty good but it can be tricky finding the cards I want and it can be hard finding sellers who are willing to send overseas.
On top of all this there's the risk that the card may never arrive due to it getting lost in the mail Or maybe never being sent. I also have to keep purchases below $30 or I sometimes get charged import taxes. Last time I ordered from COMC I picked up $35 worth of cards and was charged £13 (roughly $20) in import taxes.
The majority of my cards still come from retail.
But if you'r talking about looking for specific cards, it's COMC and card shows. My card shop would never have anything I specifically want.
Most of my single cards come from shows. I would guess at least 75%.
Next there is Beckett's site. Shipping is cheaper than COMC and the search engine is better than SportsLots.
Lately I have bought a few cards from this auction site.
http://www.baseball-cards.com/
So far I have had good luck and the guy (Joe) that runs it seems like a good guy. He even volunteered to send me some free stuff when I talked to him on the phone.
I spread it around, actually.
I buy maybe once or twice a year from either Blowout or DA, mainly if I know I want to spend well over $150, maybe 2+ boxes of something.
I still love to go to my excellent local card shop. I can scratch that vintage itch (all the way back to the 19th Century!), pick up some hobby packs, supplies, and chat with actual, interested, hobby humans.
When I'm looking for something specific, it's always eBay. When I want to buy a 1977 Topps cloth sticker set, that's where I'll go.
I'm also an avid eTopps collector, so a portion of my budget is "direct" to Topps.
Lastly, I can't pass up the occasional blaster / cereal box / handful of packs from Target. Usually when I make a run for household items, a pack or two manages to sneak into my basket.
I shop at Target like I play golf–carry with no cart. Makes me buy less, too. For percentage overall annual dollars, I guess It'd be about:
15% – Blowout or DA
30% – Card Shop
30% – eBay
15% – eTopps
10% – Retail
I've never used Checkoutmycards, but I'm not adverse to trying.
COMC and the local Friday night card show for my sinlge Autos and Game Used cards. COMC is for slooooow days at work when I'm bored, and I generally never spend more than $2 per relic, unless it's $3 from something high end like Topps Tribute. No matter how much I spend per card, I keep purchases to $20 (delivered). It makes it fun to see what I can put together, and I start with a 50 card shopping cart and eliminate cards one by one.
There's a weekly Friday night card show about 10 miles from my office which I like to check out once a month or so. Great $2 relic/auto bin! Priced about the same as COMC for even non-$2 cards but I can pick up a couple more since I'm not paying shipping.
I use my LCS for supplies and storage. They've got crazy low prices on everything that I can't even beat online. I can never leave the shop without picking up a couple packs or a junk wax box from the clearance table! I've bought 'full price' hobby boxes maybe twice, but only because they had them listed on their ebay site and I could use free local pick up as an option, thus paying the same as I would from Blowout, etc.
I rarely use ebay, mostly for large lots of GU and collated sets. I don't like 'lots' as much because I can't pick and choose what I want and I'm forced to take the crap along with what I'm looking for.
Me I like it all. When I was living in remote Alaska it was Ebay. But now that I moved to the big city I love heading to the card shops here. I guess I'm lucky that way there is one dedicated card shop and a comic shop with a card section and another comic shop that has cards and sells boxes and packs but no singles. I've tried COMC but while shipping is reasonable handling just eats up my dough. I have found some nice dealers on ebay that have great service and I trust for boxes. Seeing as I can't get cheap UPS shipping up here I haven't tried Blowout or DAC. But they assure me that they will ship Post office only if I buy more than one box I have to pick the UPS option. But I still love the ebay for singles and pick lots to finish sets or add to my player collections. And of course there's always trades.
I'm personally addicted to COMC's… I'd say 70% of my purchases are on there… mainly b/c of the shipping aspect.
Depending on my mood, I also do a lot of trading on Sportscardforum. Some months, I complete 30+ trades… other months I complete 3 or 4.
I'll also make 3 to 5 eBay purchases a month.
I rarely buy cards from my local shops, but I'll buy most of my supplies from them. If I buy wax, it's usually online from DA, Blowout, or one of the other major stores.