We're Changing Our Auctions Strategy
Card buying has been a bit slow for us these last two weeks, so we’re making a change to our auction buying process. Instead of prescreening and bidding on the same day, we’re now prescreening auctions three days out: giving us more time to evaluate cards, request pictures, and decide what’s worth bidding on.
Auctions vs. BIN
Auctions generally come with more risk than Buy It Now. Usually when we buy a card on Buy It Now, we buy it for a really good price because we get to the card before other graders find it. When it comes to auctions, clean gradable cards tend to get found. Experienced buyers are running the same searches we are, and a well-centered PSA 10 candidate rarely sells for cheap. Pre-screening 3 days out doesn’t lower what you end up paying, but it gives you more time to decide whether we really want to pay a premium for a card.
Getting Extra Pictures
Importantly, if you want to compete for these cards, you need to get the right pictures. We generally ask for this on auctions anytime the card is in a top loader, especially if the top loader is scratched (which makes it impossible to tell the condition of the card). Doing the prescreen days in advance, and sending your picture requests days in advance, gives the seller time to respond.
If I don’t get a response, I follow up with a seller about a picture request one time. At that point, if they don’t respond to either message, I usually don’t bid on the card. While some sellers understandably don’t want to send extra pictures, some sellers know the card isn't a PSA 10 candidate and choose not to respond.
Minimum Price Filters
To keep the search manageable, I always use a minimum price filter. Without one, the volume of listings is too large to work through. I usually set this somewhere between $70 and $100. The one adjustment I’m making now is to lower that floor when I’m looking at listings ending further out, since those cards will have fewer bids and the current price won’t reflect where they’ll settle. For auctions ending in 24 to 48 hours, I’ll usually lower this to about $50.
Added Flexibility
The last advantage is flexibility. If I don’t have time to look at auctions one day, I don’t fall behind since I’m already 3 days ahead. This makes it easier to place bids on auctions every single day.