Collectibles: BUYING & SELLING: eBay versus High Profile Auction Houses: An In Depth Analysis!

In this video, we compare BOTH buying and selling on eBay to that of high profile and established auction houses with an online presence. What are the differences? What are the risks? When is it better to use a platform like eBay versus that of a high profile and established auction house? Watch the video to hear my in depth analysis!
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[@nicholaswells3825]

I wouldn't mind Shawn reading a phone book for an hour. Maybe as an April Fools Joke.

[@ty2k]

Great info! I transcribed your whiteboard notes so they are a bit easier to read: eBay Pros: - Do it yourself platform - Anyone can buy and sell on eBay - Can find bargains - Lower fees overall - Good for low value, un-established collectibles - Items can sell very quickly - Buy It Now - Can list items of any value - no lot limits - Can use Buy It Now and reserve price listings to set a floor of value for certain items eBay Cons: - Easy to get scammed - especially as a seller - You do all the work - You handle all issues and shipping, etc - High value items rarely sell for record highs when compared to established auction houses - eBay mostly sides with buyers in disputes - Very easy to have a negative experience because Timmies populate eBay - eBay is generally good for common collectibles that are valued at less than $1,000 each Auction House Pros: - Favorable rates for high profile items and collections - Has a known presence in the trade and online - Does all the work and deals with issues and any Timmies - Handles all packing, shipping, and items are insured at the auction house - Great for consigning most 3rd party graded collectibles - Vast network of known buyers, collectors, dealers, and investors - Ultra low risk for both buyers and sellers - High credibility in the trade Auction House Cons: - Can have high fees depending on item and venue - Can take months to get your items listed and many more months to get paid - Buyer's fees/premiums can be excessive - Lot minimums - most high profile auction houses want $1,000+ items only - Can place limits on what items they accept and what they will take - Auction houses specialize in certain items - this can be confusing to new collectors, sellers, buyers, and Timmies - Can charge hidden fees - Can be difficult to work with, depending on experience

[@brianhickling1867]

Thanks Shawn, this was the most informative video I have yet seen on this subject. I have been collecting all my life and have a truely enormous collection of ancient coins, antiques, stamps, 19th century cigarette cards, antique playing cards, exhibition level collections of rare stamps (valued at 4 million in 1992) and a 65000 volume library of rare books (plus lots more). I have literally spent millions on these items and I am well known to many auction houses and dealers (dealers actually ask for my advice on rare or unusual items). But I am retiring this year and I now have to consider selling most of it... It's scary the collections take up 7 bedrooms (not including the library) of my house and several items are unique and really belong in museums. I am considering setting up a company to sell them.

[@ReservedInvestments]

Enjoy your retirement!

[@collectorsimpact]

Shawn you're simply the best. Another amazing video, thank you!

[@ReservedInvestments]

Thank you!

[@penguinlust6749]

"PWCC" took quite a fall from grace shortly after this was made. That's probably outside the scope of this channel now. Good job -- this highlights one of the major problems of liquidating large collections, namely you will almost certainly have to break it up if you want to maximize your return on it, and for that matter use multiple venues to dispose of it as an auction house is unlikely to want to deal with anything other than the top 5 percent of any market or less. Ebay has improved in recent years with their "Authenticity Guarantee" for certain collectibles being a huge boon to sellers, but this wasn't around back when you made this video either. So much has changed since this video was made, but the fundamental points still stand.

[@ivanroliz4723]

Pure gold! Thank you for explaining the risk of selling items of $1,000.00 or more on eBay. I was afraid of selling high end items through third party auction houses because I like the control but I did not see risk side of the problem.

[@davestevens3252]

I have a soft cap of the value of things I'll sell on ebay. This works as a very convenient way of hoarding nice things. But if I ever do decide to sell anything pricey, the liquidity is unfortunately affected.

[@unstoppableExodia]

Oh boy. As soon as I saw the whiteboard up there filled with notes I knew we was in for a schooling. But this makes crystal clear the differences between eBay and premium auction sites like heritage. Down under the video game market has caught that speculative fever in a big way. We got speculators who’ve seen the record prices paid for WATA graded games in USA and the bull market for Pokémon games here. They’ve put one and one together and came up with eleven and are now paying big bucks for every sealed Pokémon game they can find. I’d like to share with them the reasons why that might not pay off the way they think it might but I’m a little preoccupied with selling into the market as much as I can while the prices are in the stratosphere relative to the pre COVID era

[@unstoppableExodia]

@@dabradmp1 oh wow that’s absolutely crazy. The closest I’ve seen to that is people getting into heated arguments over game pricing on buy swap sell groups. It gets bad enough without a site like heritage over here but it feels like there’s an inevitability that some opportunists will manage to establish a local grading authority for video games and an Aussie equivalent to heritage will emerge at some stage. There’s a very passionate collecting scene that been going strong for a number of years but the pandemic has brought in a lot of new speculators and the additional money they bring to the market could be enough to get a few high net worth individuals to try and emulate the WATA and heritage combination over here. Just need to have the pieces in place and then have a few rich people buy graded items off the premium auction site, get that into the news and then it’s Dutch tulip fever all over again.

[@kenerdbotta9739]

Thank you Shawn I’ve been watching all you shower i meant shows there’s lots I personally am getting out of these!

[@shadowsinsomniacs9943]

Great work on the vid as usual, I'm learning a lot from you, thank you very much!

[@Mitjitsu]

13:30 - I generally look at pictures of the items to determine the condition. Rather than relying on what the seller has listed the condition as. 24:30 - Not true, Ebay have gone back to pre PayPal days and now send funds to your bank account. From the buyer making the payment. To the funds appearing in my bank account. It took 5 days.

[@unstoppableExodia]

He mentioned the managed payments system, he’s definitely aware of eBay finalizing its divorce from PayPal. Pictures are definitely more important in assessing the item. Sellers are always inclined to be very generous in how they rate the condition of the item in text form. Of course the pictures have to be accurate without being photoshopped or doctored in any other way.

[@WondyCoin]

Excellent video and information. Thanks.

[@tubernery]

Took a screenshot of the white board lol Thanks!

[@Cookiedon15]

Ya, this one time I auctioned an LRG Switch game on eBay. It was sold to someone in Europe. They contacted me to let me know the game was damaged during shipping. I had bought insurance (because it sold so high) but it didn't matter because it went through another shipping company over seas. I just gave the person a refund and let them keep the game. I didn't want to bother with the return. Anyway, I no longer ship globally because of that reason. I also try to sell games for charity auctions when I can.

[@philipchiu9835]

Great video as always Shawn. I never thought about using auction houses before since I always used eBay the past 20 years. Now that I've been building up a sizeable collection of old magic cards and collectibles, I'll check out auction houses. One thing you didn't mention about eBay is the buyer/seller feedback rating. Whenever I sell really expensive items over $1000, I always include a statement to potential buyers that they contact me first before bidding if they have less than 10 total feedback within last 6 months and/or if their feedback rating is less than 99%. There hasn't been a problem yet for me and my eBay transactions have all went well.

[@Ontario100]

An excellent video! I learned so much!! Thank you for doing this. 👍

[@patrickellsworth5427]

Great video. Thanks.

[@JonnyRoboto]

Thank you because i just posted something for high item

[@jedirun]

awesome information in this one :)

[@Jmillz181]

Great video, yes auction houses better for high profile items for sure.

[@happyb6443]

This is a great vid - thanks!

[@charless6602]

Love that Red marker, just right in your face like Shawn’s facts!!

[@jbouchard1780]

GREAT TOPIC!!!

[@Achjakommaherkommadu]

As much as i like you: i would recommand a Lenovo ThinkPad. You will love it!

[@TOSStarTrek]

Gotten many items on eBay that were mislabeled, fuzzy, listed wrong at a good price. My brother just got some rare machine tools that the seller did not know what they were for a good price because they were mislabeled.

[@ChipHunter3]

Thanks for the video! Could you give us an idea of what a favorable consignment rate might be for an auction house? Are we talking 20-30%? I'm sure it variable but could you give us an example? Maybe what's the best consignment rate you've negotiated?

[@davestevens3252]

If you have to ask yourself "am I a Timmy?" the answer is always yes.

[@wilsvgaddiction4456]

Good video. I think a lot of people don't bother to read up on the excessive fees auction houses can charge on both the buyer and consigner ends.

[@zmunk]

Nice video, as always! Good lord, what do you feed that red marker??

[@ReservedInvestments]

That's a trade secret... ;) Think Viagra...LOL!

[@littlehelix]

Imagine somebody by the name of Tim Pointdexter is watching the video 😅🤣 Poor guy

[@brockalbert5111]

Timmy Poindexter stole my girlfriend!!

[@markotey2896]

The jumbo sharpie of scorn.

[@timreierson26]

Shawn, I just viewed this video. I have a question. Heritage charges a 20% buyer’s premium on their comic auctions. Based on my own buying experience on Heritage, I will bid much less than the current FMV because I know the actual bid price will be 20% higher. I am assuming that the seller only receives the pre-buyer’s premium sales price (net of the sales commission). Why would any seller use Heritage based on this scenario? Am I misunderstanding this situation or missing something? I am assuming that the buyer’s premium goes to Heritage and not the seller.

[@jacobmarley2417]

Nice talk about Ebay and Other auction houses. Couple Questions for you about the new Robosen Optimus Prime authorized by hasbro for 700-800 retail. 1.Do you see that having any short term holiday resale value ? I have seen them “sell” in Ebay for between $1100 to $1300 for the preorders.They are mostly on Backorder right now and most scheduled to be delivered around October or November. 2.The product is advertised in many spots on its videos and website as a “Limited Collectors Edition” item, yet despite my best efforts to contact Hasbro or Robosen have not given me any production numbers. They did tell me they would be numbered in some way. My question is whether there is any legal precedent that limits the amount they can produce given the verbiage ? Could a manufacturer claim something is “limited” and manufacture 10,000,000 units with no intent to stop making them until they stop selling? Thank you for your time.

[@jacobmarley2417]

@dabradmp1 Oh i def agree its niche, but it is a big niche right now because 35+ somethings have a lot of cash to burn. This item is definitely NOT targeted at the kids and I am honestly surprised you even hold that position. Dads buy this for themselves. Also i find it interesting you acknowledge that the Ps5 xbox market is preferred since you see it as a currently limited product yet do not acknowledge this item is an intended limited product. Any limited product goes up in value if it exceeds demand. That is precisely where the speculation comes in and the relevance of my historically “limited” production question.

[@BasTHoorn]

Hi Shawn, very interesting video. I would argue also that you can find bargains at Auction Houses or Auction websites besides Ebay. Because Auction Houses take in stuff what they dont kow about. You said that about high profile auction houses with an online presence, and I dont talk about Heritage Auctions level. In my marketeer eyes the suck at 'online' presence. Maybe they have a big email lists, but the social media and websites are in my opinion not good.

[@MagazzurSR]

Wow! I learned a lot. This should be a paid lesson!

[@richardlisiura3025]

Sending CBCS slabs to auction houses. What are your thoughts?

[@carnivalhands2884]

Shawn. You’re wrong. Most of us would enjoy an hour video from you.

[@heyhonpuds]

Seconded

[@brockalbert5111]

How do you look 25 and 45 at the same time?

[@ReservedInvestments]

Lol!

[@sunnohh]

Can’t wait for the hidden fees!

[@lennywright5655]

I called Heritage Auctions to sell my gold & silver Mario Amiibo and they laughed at me!! 😆😂🤣😅🥲 (JK)

[@fuzzywuzzy3841]

eBay for speculation and auction house for established collectibles?!?

[@dom19945]

Honestly, Ebay is nowhere near as risky as you make it seem. I’ve sold well over 5,000 items this past year and only got scammed by a buyer once or twice.

[@bargaintuesday812]

Were they worth several thousand dollars each though?

[@dom19945]

@@bargaintuesday812 No, but I’ve sent tons of $20 MTG cards via stamp and envelope, no tracking, and haven’t been scammed. I don’t send stamp and envelope anymore because Ebay offers a new service, but there was plenty of opportunity to be scammed.