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*Dumb Question Alert* Re: Facebook Groups


Chazberg

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59 minutes ago, jsh139 said:

I still think it's greedy of these auction houses to charge both buyers and sellers.  When you sell your house, you pay a commission to the realtor.  The buyer pays nothing.  The onus of the sale advertisement is on the seller/consignor.  You are paying a fee for your merchandise to reach the eyes (and wallets) of millions of people (MFitz says this all the time about eBay).  It's wrong (IMO) to make money off of both parties.  I can't think of another system in which it works this way. 

Will it stop me from buying from these places? Probably not.  Will I continue to complain about it? Absolutely.  Maybe if the fee were less (5%) I wouldn't care as much. But 19.5%? Come on.

Btw, I have it on good authority that MGG never plans to charge a buyer's premium for their auctions.  And, they will probably do consignment auctions sometime in the future, FWIW.

Most auction houses do this.  You will find more who charge a premium than those who do not.  I really do not get the continued complaints about it since it is spelled out in the buyer's agreement TOS and it's been done that way forever.  When the latest Classic Auctions closes and people get their invoices, I am prepared to see the usual complaints about it from the same people over and over again like clockwork.  Every collector I know basically tells me they factor in the premium into their final price/bids and that's the end of it.

19.5% is actually about in the middle.  I have heard auction houses charging in the mid to upper 20's as a premium.

MGG auctions is still young so hard to say where it will go in the future.  If they do plan on doing consignments in the future that would give them an edge if they do not charge buyer's premiums.   However, when I hear the words "always" and "never" in this hobby I start to get nervous and this is coming from someone who loves Meigray.

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2 hours ago, jsh139 said:

I still think it's greedy of these auction houses to charge both buyers and sellers.  When you sell your house, you pay a commission to the realtor.  The buyer pays nothing.  The onus of the sale advertisement is on the seller/consignor.  You are paying a fee for your merchandise to reach the eyes (and wallets) of millions of people (MFitz says this all the time about eBay).  It's wrong (IMO) to make money off of both parties.  I can't think of another system in which it works this way. 

Will it stop me from buying from these places? Probably not.  Will I continue to complain about it? Absolutely.  Maybe if the fee were less (5%) I wouldn't care as much. But 19.5%? Come on.

Btw, I have it on good authority that MGG never plans to charge a buyer's premium for their auctions.  And, they will probably do consignment auctions sometime in the future, FWIW.

This is a good analogy. If the third-party is taking a fee on the front end AND the back end, I think that's totally unfair. Its completely like what I am always saying about eBay, they charge the seller 10% and you get amazing exposure. If they charged the seller 10% AND the buyer also had to tack on 10% on top of the bid price, then I would disagree with it, unless of course it was 5% and 5%, which is the same net result and nowhere near as unfair as 19.5% and 19.5%. 

BUT, its their site, their rules, and there seem to be no shortage of people willing to pay...

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17 minutes ago, mfitz804 said:

This is a good analogy. If the third-party is taking a fee on the front end AND the back end, I think that's totally unfair. Its completely like what I am always saying about eBay, they charge the seller 10% and you get amazing exposure. If they charged the seller 10% AND the buyer also had to tack on 10% on top of the bid price, then I would disagree with it, unless of course it was 5% and 5%, which is the same net result and nowhere near as unfair as 19.5% and 19.5%. 

BUT, its their site, their rules, and there seem to be no shortage of people willing to pay...

That's what it boils down to.  Every time one of these auctions closes you see people get their invoice in and are all pissed about the charge and then vow to never buy from them again.  Guess what happens in the next auction, especially when one of their "grails" happens to be in there?  Well those principles they say they follow go right out he window.

Like I said before these auction houses know they are dealing with addicts and that they got us by the balls.  It will take a large portion of collector's and the general public to not bid on these for the auction houses to even feel a hit.  I think it will be a cold day in hell before that happens.

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It looks even worse when you do the math.  Let's say fees are 20% and an item sells for $1000.  House pays out $800 to seller and charges buyer $1200 (plus potentially gouge-y shipping charges).  So the house walks away with $400 - 50% of what the seller receives.  50%!  It's a nice scam if you can pull it off... 

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25 minutes ago, furiousd said:

It looks even worse when you do the math.  Let's say fees are 20% and an item sells for $1000.  House pays out $800 to seller and charges buyer $1200 (plus potentially gouge-y shipping charges).  So the house walks away with $400 - 50% of what the seller receives.  50%!  It's a nice scam if you can pull it off... 

Of course, its not a scam since they disclose it to you up front...

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Just now, furiousd said:

Oh, go bill some hours, Webster.

I'll send you a PayPal invoice. 

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1 hour ago, Brilliant! said:

Oops, probably shouldn't have this bar association logo here either.

I was just thinking that. 

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Of course you were. Because you are a scholar such as myself. Someone in my office made reference to a vibrating chair this morning. So, I looked at him and said, "The Spinemelter 2000??"

Effing crickets. Come on man.

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I want a horn here, here, and here.  You can never find a horn when your angry and it should play la coucaracha.

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On 3/2/2017 at 3:56 PM, Devilsguy said:

That's what it boils down to.  Every time one of these auctions closes you see people get their invoice in and are all pissed about the charge and then vow to never buy from them again.  Guess what happens in the next auction, especially when one of their "grails" happens to be in there?  Well those principles they say they follow go right out he window.

Like I said before these auction houses know they are dealing with addicts and that they got us by the balls.  It will take a large portion of collector's and the general public to not bid on these for the auction houses to even feel a hit.  I think it will be a cold day in hell before that happens.

I never say never, but with gameworn I would ONLY bid on something if it was a rare must have. With the other auction houses I am far less discriminatory, that said, I have only bought anything from gameworn once, and that was my Rangers TBTC jersey that is very rare. I wish sellers would stop consigning to them and use one if the others. The gameworn guys not only have the least justification for charging what they do, but they also have the worst customer service, because it is not their main business. If you run it like a side business, your charges should be commensurate.

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26 minutes ago, Hollywood Cannon said:

15th Grail Day Mail Day in a row....

His enthusiasm for players I've never even heard of is almost adorable. 

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OK - so, after 18 pages of this thread (all very entertaining) I thought I'd have a look at the source. Didn't scroll down too far - that way lies madness. But I did notice a few things, in the first few posts:

- Stuff that sold in Meigray $99 eBay auctions recently for $99 (or little more) being offered on the Facebook page for considerably more (I remember the prices because I lost out on two of them).

- No rhyme or reason to half the pricing of jerseys.

- 100 sticks for $1000 dollars. What's that about, it's a jersey group? Also, there's only a picture of like 10 of the sticks. Who would want 100 sticks? That you can't even view? If you were looking to sell them on, well, you don't yet know what you're buying to be able to sell. Maybe if someone really wants to get into stick collecting yet can't actually be bothered to find the sticks they want to collect. And shipping on 100 wood sticks? Not cheap I guess...

I don't think I'll go back there (and apologies if anything mentioned above is being sold by someone on here), but I like that this thread gets updated with their most 'choice' offerings, to save having to look at the rest of the Facebook group (there's always a danger I'd see something I want).

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13 hours ago, thebiggoalie said:

His enthusiasm for players I've never even heard of is almost adorable. 

I don't think he understands the definition of grail. They are not grails if you are getting that many that often!

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35 minutes ago, lhg39 said:

I don't think he understands the definition of grail. They are not grails if you are getting that many that often!

:lol:

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9 hours ago, lhg39 said:

I don't think he understands the definition of grail. They are not grails if you are getting that many that often!

"Every day, I log onto Grailbook! I have friends there!"

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10 hours ago, lhg39 said:

I don't think he understands the definition of grail. They are not grails if you are getting that many that often!

I think one of his posts last year was what sparked a big post by one of the Game Worn.us radio people to write a post in the FB group ranting about the overuse of the word "grail" and later going on the show to defend himself.  I think he does have a very good point and yeah it's like the boy who cried wolf when you declare every item you get in as a grail.  I really wonder if the language or culture barrier has anything to do with his misuse of it as he is from Europe.

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6 minutes ago, DJ Rhea said:

I'd doubt it, Europeans can speak English better than most people who have English as their first language.

I wouldn't be so sure about that (well with the exception of those living in the UK).  I think some of the nuances of the language get lost among those who live there and I also think some cultural things get in there as well.

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I agree it may be a cultural thing.  Slang doesn't always translate from one culture to another.

Taken in its literal form, the word "grail" means: The object of an extended or difficult quest.  So, in theory, you could have multiple grails.  However, I think that we as Americans take it to be synonymous or as slang for "Grail", which is The cup or platter used according to medieval legend by Christ at the Last Supper and thereafter the object of knightly quests.  The latter definition describes one and only one thing.  But, the former, well, you know what I'm getting at.

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