The Current Situation of the Secondary Market

[jsh139]

Wow, they sure do make some dough off of these auctions.  I agree on the extended bidding.  You shouldn't be able to extended-bid on something that you were never a part of before it originally ended.  In fact, I think that every lot should have its own 10-minute timer.  That would be the most fair for the buyers, and how it would be in a real physical auction.  But, the more time the lots stay open, the more bidding that occurs and the more money the sellers and auction houses make.

[Devilsguy]

5 minutes ago, jsh139 said:

Wow, they sure do make some dough off of these auctions.  I agree on the extended bidding.  You shouldn't be able to extended-bid on something that you were never a part of before it originally ended.  In fact, I think that every lot should have its own 10-minute timer.  That would be the most fair for the buyers, and how it would be in a real physical auction.  But, the more time the lots stay open, the more bidding that occurs and the more money the sellers and auction houses make.

Bingo.  The current format is more fair to the sellers/auction house.  The buyers won't go away as where else you going to get some of the jerseys that they have in each auction?  They don't appear on any of the FB groups or forums anymore and rarely on eBay.  So up on these auction houses they go and they know they got buyers by the you know what.

Also keep in mind this is the same auction house who on GW.net years ago made no bones about saying publicly they don't mind consignors bidding on their own stuff.

[jsh139]

1 minute ago, Devilsguy said:

Also keep in mind this is the same auction house who on GW.net years ago made no bones about saying publicly they don't mind consignors bidding on their own stuff.

Shill bidding at its finest.

[Devilsguy]

12 minutes ago, Dr_Puck said:

Having just won a Meigray auction (not on eBay) I can confirm there's no hammer fee. Oddly though, they charged me $20 for shipping when their normal shipping charge is a few bucks lower. 

From what I have heard, GWA will probably hit me with a $25-30 shipping fee for a single jersey.  Consider yourself lucky then haha.

[jsh139]

52 minutes ago, Devilsguy said:

From what I have heard, GWA will probably hit me with a $25-30 shipping fee for a single jersey.  Consider yourself lucky then haha.

It would be easier to just go and pick it up for me.  Their phone number has a Philadelphia area code.

[Devilsguy]

5 minutes ago, jsh139 said:

It would be easier to just go and pick it up for me.  Their phone number has a Philadelphia area code.

I think they allow that but they will still ding you for the sales tax.  They are in Richboro, PA.

I will have them ship it as if I pick it up (they are a 40-ish minute drive from me) they will waive the shipping but hit me with the sales tax.

[jsh139]

1 minute ago, Devilsguy said:

I think they allow that but they will still ding you for the sales tax.  They are in Richboro, PA.

I will have them ship it as if I pick it up (they are a 40-ish minute drive from me) they will waive the shipping but hit me with the sales tax.

Ah, yeah, then that's a no-brainer for you.  Maybe I'll ask them about it, though. Thx.

[mfitz804]

I look at the hammer fee this way; if you weren't being charged the hammer fee, the seller would make their items 19.5% more expensive to cover the fee. You'd be paying it either way. 

In any event, its fully disclosed beforehand, so all you have to do is some simple math to figure out what you want to bid, i.e. 19.5% less than your max price. 

Of course, I lost mine so I didn't have to pay the fee so I have no reason to be upset by it. 

[Brilliant!]

Gameworn isn't based out of Pennsylvania anymore. I think they're down in Florida somewhere now. Also, just so you know, if you would have gone there to pick it up, being that the sale then took place in the state of PA, they'd have to charge you 6% Pennsylvania sales tax on the final value of the item. On a thousand dollar piece, that's $60 in taxes plus the cost to get there. I'd rather just deal with the $30 shipping fee in lieu of the tax garbage.

[Devilsguy]

So got the UPS notification that my jersey from GWA "shipped", but the status on the UPS website is still saying label created waiting to be picked up.  Delivery ETA is tomorrow and I am in NJ and the package is in FL.  No way I am getting it tomorrow.

This is probably the 3rd or 4th time in a row that UPS has missed their ETA by quite a bit.  I know it depends on when the person actually hands it over to UPS, but in that case why can't UPS not list a delivery ETA until it's first scan?  Also the last package I had shipped to me via UPS the sender shipped it the day after I paid and while it was making progress, the package still missed their delivery date ETA by 4 business days.  I have to say I have never had this issue with USPS.

[mfitz804]

Like you already said, it's not UPS's issue. They have no control over when the seller renders the package. Their estimate assumes the seller will do what they are supposed to. 

You think instead of telling you, they should just not tell you how long it will take until they get it? For me, I'd rather look at the estimate, see that it's 4 days, and know that I can expect the package about 4 days after UPS has it, even if it's not the same date. 

[Devilsguy]

8 minutes ago, mfitz804 said:

Like you already said, it's not UPS's issue. They have no control over when the seller renders the package. Their estimate assumes the seller will do what they are supposed to. 

You think instead of telling you, they should just not tell you how long it will take until they get it? For me, I'd rather look at the estimate, see that it's 4 days, and know that I can expect the package about 4 days after UPS has it, even if it's not the same date. 

In the issue with the auction, yes I realize that it is the sender that is causing it.

However, in my other example that is just UPS being terrible at their ETA's.  How come a failing, psuedo-government agency like USPS can post much more accurate delivery ETA's than a multi-billion dollar shipping company like UPS?  I would rather either UPS fix that problem (hasn't happened yet from what I have seen) or do not post a delivery ETA until they can get one that is accurate.

[LAK74]

I have had far worse luck with postponed delivery dates with the USPS than with UPS.  I don't get how the USPS quite often sends a package in the other direction, farther from the destination, causing delivery delays of up to 5 days.  I just sent a 1-day Priority Mail package to someone who lives just a few miles away, and the package was sent twice outside of the County and took 4 days to arrive.  I've also had stuff sent to me which went 1000 miles in the opposite direction from me before heading back to me.

However, my last UPS delivery from MeiGray, 1 week ago, did not have the status updated from "Order processed- ready for UPS," for almost an entire week, which seemed strange.  (Packages from the East Coast usually take around 6 days to get to me in LA.)  I was just going to contact MeiGray to see if they had forgotten to ship it, when finally on the specified delivery date it suddenly updated to "On truck for delivery," and it did arrive on the original scheduled date.  But I don't remember having delivery delays with UPS before; you seem to be having rotten luck.

[mfitz804]

My worse luck has been with USPS also. One month from New York to Boston, recently. 

The worst, though, is this "UPS Mail Innovations" bulls!t, where you have to wait for UPS to deliver to your local post office, then for the post office to deliver to you. Takes at least 3 days longer than necessary. Its probably very cheap for them to use. 

My MeiGray shipments only take one day, I suppose I'm lucky. 

[TheKevinShow]

Don't even get me started on UPS pawning off the delivery onto the USPS. I have never had problems with the USPS. However, about six months ago, I ordered a bunch of Funko Pop figures off of eBay and since the bog standard one First Class package per Pop mailing method wouldn't work for an order of six figures, the seller shipped them via UPS. It was handed off to the USPS for final delivery. The package came in absolutely mangled. Now, I have no way of knowing for sure since I didn't see the package until it arrived on my doorstep, but there's about a 99% chance that UPS f*cked it up because in all the times that I have had Pops shipped to me via USPS First Class, the boxes have arrived unblemished and all of the Pops that I ship have always arrived to my buyers without complaints. So, I'm pretty sure that the aforementioned mangling of the package was thanks to UPS. I called their customer support line and they refused to take responsibility for it because the USPS had done the final delivery. I mean, for f*ck's sake, I watched the tracking and it said that it was handed off to my local post office less than 24 hours before it was delivered to me. What chance is there that within that short time frame, someone at my post office had done what they have never done before and absolutely destroyed one of my packages? Fortunately, the seller was very understanding and offered me a refund for the four Pops that weren't salvageable (I collect and keep mine in their boxes, and while I'm not the type to demand pristine boxes, I like them to be decent) and I sent them back, but it was absolutely infuriating that UPS would just refuse to take responsibility for their actions.

Thankfully jerseys aren't quite as fragile.

Edited December 15, 2016 by TheKevinShow

[Devilsguy]

Interesting how people can have wildly different experiences between the main shipping companies.  USPS and FedEx have been decent in my area, but UPS not so much.  Also UPS has a knack of delivering my packages pretty late in the day, and I am mean like 8-9PM late in the day so if I don't expect the package that day and it arrives at that time, it is staying out all night.  That's just lousy.

The USPS handoff is a terrible system.  FedEx has it too and I think it is called Smart Post (or something like that).  These services are attractive to sellers because they are dirt cheap (so cheap that often UPS and FedEx do not spend a dime on advertising those services to the general public) and they can hand them off to USPS in locations that UPS and FedEx generally do not want to service.  Every time I have had someone ship to me with them they get hung up at the post office and then it looks like they treat the item like crap.

[mfitz804]

2 minutes ago, Devilsguy said:

Interesting how people can have wildly different experiences between the main shipping companies.  USPS and FedEx have been decent in my area, but UPS not so much.  Also UPS has a knack of delivering my packages pretty late in the day, and I am mean like 8-9PM late in the day so if I don't expect the package that day and it arrives at that time, it is staying out all night.  That's just lousy.

The USPS handoff is a terrible system.  FedEx has it too and I think it is called Smart Post (or something like that).  These services are attractive to sellers because they are dirt cheap (so cheap that often UPS and FedEx do not spend a dime on advertising those services to the general public) and they can hand them off to USPS in locations that UPS and FedEx generally do not want to service.  Every time I have had someone ship to me with them they get hung up at the post office and then it looks like they treat the item like crap.

They do do that. FedEx Home does as well. 

I have everything shipped to my office; my UPS guy is a personal friend who knows our hours and always delivers during them. And we always have someone here to sign, even if I am out.

[jsh139]

I have great experiences with UPS, FedEx, and USPS. Even UPS SurePost and FedEx SmartPost work well. 

It's definitely a regional thing.

[jsh139]

And I guess I missed this week's GWA shipping. ? Hopefully it'll get shipped next week.

[LAK74]

What, they only ship once a week???

Update: Just got an e-mail confirming shipping and updating the delivery date.

Edited December 16, 2016 by LAK74

[Devilsguy]

My package from GWA is finally moving and the update delivery ETA is now 12/20 for me.

[jsh139]

12 hours ago, LAK74 said:

What, they only ship once a week???

Update: Just got an e-mail confirming shipping and updating the delivery date.

The guy I talked to said they ship once or twice a week. I mailed my payment in on Monday but I guess they didn't get it in time. Oh well. 

[Devilsguy]

Another wonderful example of the state of the hobby.

I was selling a game worn Devils jersey on ebay using a low starting bid and a reserve of $300 (btw I got hot with a $12 charge on ebay for using a reserve when it used to cost about $3-6 only a few months ago.  Now they are asking 4% of reserve price).  With about an hour left in the auction and the bidding up to only about 1/2 of my reserve I get a question from another user.  His question was "does it come with a Meigray LOA and do you still have the original Meigray box."  Not only did I already state in the listing that the Meigray LOA is included, but why the flying does the stupid box matter?  Is this what the hobby has become?  Is it now like the others where the stupid packaging is the difference between making the sale and not.

Of course he didn't bid on it anyways.  Next time I will respond to that question that yes I do and that if it means so much to him I will sell him the empty box separately to put the jersey in.

[amonte78]

14 minutes ago, Devilsguy said:

do you still have the original Meigray box.

Say what?

[mfitz804]

2 hours ago, Devilsguy said:

Another wonderful example of the state of the hobby.

I was selling a game worn Devils jersey on ebay using a low starting bid and a reserve of $300 (btw I got hot with a $12 charge on ebay for using a reserve when it used to cost about $3-6 only a few months ago.  Now they are asking 4% of reserve price).  With about an hour left in the auction and the bidding up to only about 1/2 of my reserve I get a question from another user.  His question was "does it come with a Meigray LOA and do you still have the original Meigray box."  Not only did I already state in the listing that the Meigray LOA is included, but why the flying does the stupid box matter?  Is this what the hobby has become?  Is it now like the others where the stupid packaging is the difference between making the sale and not.

Of course he didn't bid on it anyways.  Next time I will respond to that question that yes I do and that if it means so much to him I will sell him the empty box separately to put the jersey in.

I just got a MeiGray delivery today, I put the box in the garbage. Anyone wanna buy it? I can still retrieve it, and its before lunch so it hasn't yet been sullied...