SURPRISING Hobby & eBay Trends w/ Rick Probstein

Probstein Auctions is the largest eBay seller & consigner in the world. CEO Rick Probstein gave us his thoughts on where the hobby is headed, as well as some MAJOR changes coming to eBay. You don't want to miss this one!
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[@iFOMO23]

Great interview! You guys are definitely going places🎉Remember me when your famous😭❤️ Keep it up!

[@SportCardMadness]

Haha thanks! Glad you enjoyed it!

[@clarkprice222]

Auctions suck unless you are Probstein and have shill bidders.

[@TheMusicman95382]

it helps when he is a major share holder of ebay as well. Someone on the inside of ebay spilled that to me. Ive been on ebay for 20 years and havent seen anyone get away with what he gets away with. Its truly criminal.

[@clarkprice222]

@TheMusicman95382 yeah any card they sell goes for more in auction than anyone else. It's obvious but if ebay saw a trend of shill bidding for you or I we'd lose our account.

[@clarkprice222]

Them and DC

[@crazyantny9161]

I've watched and they damned very well shill bid! These clowns create hot auctions constantly and at will. Their account and ebay.... seriously, when comes to losing an account. Ebay WILL NEVER EAT THEIR CASH COWS. They also get far better grades then you or me on cards

[@nolanpaul52]

Rick wants the BIN cards to be auctions and sell because he just needs volume, most sellers are underwater and want profit. Rick profits on every transaction no matter the final sale price..

[@TheMusicman95382]

the concept of 1 million transactions a year at a dollar profit goes very far

[@djflipping6506]

Great idea on the buy it now. Ebay is not a show n tell, its a selling platform. Been buying from probstein since 2014. Always top notch 😎

[@Crom-D]

Rick Probstein bought from my eBay store last night!! I was super stoked when I saw his name!!

[@SportCardMadness]

Awesome! What did he pickup?

[@Crom-D]

1977 RC cola cans lot

[@andrewparry7300]

In the middle of my first consignment with Probstein. They do a great job when the cards arrive and their rates are fair. Only gripe is once the auctions ended I have received no replies to three emails following up on cards that weren't listed yet and status of payment. I think they could use a little bit more labor in the customer care department..

[@ttrogdon]

They won't remove BIN's or enforce item-specific price ranges. More likely, they'd just change the listing fee structure for stores so that only items selling within X time-frame are free, and all others (including ended listings) are charged a significant listing fee. Early ebay had a listing fee structure that incentivized sellers to move stuff, so there's a history to that approach. But honestly I'll be surprised if they do anything.

[@bennystratton7734]

amazon does it but they do it under the guise (and scam) they call the "fair Pricing policy" so what they do is they deactivate your listing send you and email and say you have to change the price of your item to what they BELEIVE IS FAIR its total BS now they are being taken to court by the FTC and 17 State attorney Generals for deceptive business practices and PRICE FIXTING and or Market Manipulation...i have been reselling full lime on eBay since 98' and also on amazon You Cant control what someone is asking for for there item no matter if its 1x or 10x or 100x what it has old for previously Over 25 years i feel the auction concept on eBay is dead it died a decade or so ago is now probably if i had to guess 90% BIN 10% auctions in MOST categories on eBay this is why a decade or so ago eBay could see the writing on the wall with auctions and made that push to be MORE BIN then auctions people do not have the time like they did in the early days of ebay to wait 7 days to put a bid on an item at the very end NOR do they have the patience to wait to own an item (we are in a NEED TO HAVE it THE NEXT day mentality) I was never a big fan of Auctions to begin with always did BIN even when ebay charged an extra fee to add bin. I say if People dont like the price then they can just move on period end of story no one is forcing you to buy. and if ebay does not want to get in the same trouble that AMZAON is now in they will stay away from CONTROLING the pricing of items (that is what it really is market manipulation or price fixing) a seller should be able to ask whatever price they want its up to the buyer to decided if they want to buy it that is why prices go up and or go down also if a seller wants to sit on an item for 10 years so be it never knwo maybe it will sell for what they are asking or next to it (the unicorn buyer) in the 11th year but depending on the ebay store level they have for example if you have an anchor store ($350 per month) you get a total of 101,000 listings (25k in any category, 75k in select categories and 1000 auctions in select categories) if you use all listings your allocated for that $350 per month then it comes out to less then .004 ($350/101,000) per month per listing so if an item sat in an ebay store for 10 years after 10 years that listing only costed you .48 yeah i can live with that i have that much patience. I really dont have any issues with sellers doing that its like stocks Buy low sell high if someone is buying up cards or other collectibles to corner the market dont hate that it is a Selling Model you corner the market in hopes that people cant find the item anywhere else but you so they have to either pay you price or they do not get the privilage to add that item to there collection

[@MikelTulp]

Just won 4 of his auctions, plus Probstein auctions ship fast and well protected

[@OregonDuck02-r1y]

unsung heroes Probstein's shipping team

[@anthonymcdonald3167]

This is where we need to be with this man consign your cards probably easier and you probably won't get ripped off thank you for your video I would like to see more we love information I would have never known about your company if you want to stepped on KZbin thank you for stepping out into the light most likely will use your company awesome video thank you very much

[@TheMusicman95382]

ohh there are thousands of horror stories about sending your cards to him. A couple of searches will result in a lot of interesting things.

[@robertcremeens3166]

Yah I agree with comments that Buy It Now on Ebay is tough. I don't sell a bunch but when I do it is usually by Buy It Now. I usually look for the same or similar card sold prices and go at that price or lowest Buy It Now of the same. It still takes me a long time to sell and even though because I price reasonable and low I don't list them as make me an offer, but I will get offers by message anyway. Actions sometimes do better but also sometimes do worse. Many times I have seen the card I sold then being relisted on Ebay by the buyer later on at double what I sold it for so I know my prices are fair. Just the environment you are in.

[@doug_sports_collector]

Great interview, could have gone on for another hour. New subscriber to the channel.

[@SportCardMadness]

Thanks

[@DRUDO28314]

Probstein says basically has.30 or so employees in which only 5 know what they are doing. That explains why they have 1322 NEGATIVES as of August 3rd.

[@ACollectorsDream]

Great conversation, thanks for sharing

[@jessmansportscards]

Great interview!

[@philrendon7719]

I would have thought that Alan Rosen MR mint would have been his mentor back in the day. Mr mint had the best find ever in the hobby the 1952 topps find back in 1986. 75 1952 Mickey Mantles in the lot of 1952 baseballs cards.

[@SportCardMadness]

Wow I need to check this story out!

[@hudsonfan15]

If eBay mandated payment, perhaps as an escrow function, to place a bid I would go back to running auctions. But with the current system as is the only reasonable way to operate as a seller is fixed price BIN to ensure payment. Money talks, BS walks.

[@robmckay7289]

I'm a huge Jordan collector also, I would have liked to hear Rick's opinion about the 84 Star Jordan , if he has any and also does he think that's a better investment long-term than the 86 Fleer

[@SportCardMadness]

Thats a great question. I'm an MJ collector as well. You can't really go wrong with star and remember they made about 250K 86 Fleer cards per player and only about 3000 for Star. Scarce assets tend to do well in the long run ...

[@SportCardMadness]

@ig_high_speed_card_chase I’ve got my eye on a raw signed 101 from the same collector I got my signed 86 Fleer MJs from🤞

[@zacrazyone]

Thanks Guys, Great Interview..... I agree there are way too many over inflated prices and these are simply to make their eBay store look good with high priced cards. I knew of one dealer that was buying up cheap (virtually unknown player) PSA10 Mosaic Basketball, outbidding collectors at around $10 to $20 and relisting them within hours as a BIN for over $100. At the time they had over 200 of these cards listed (some bought for as low as $7)...... so many others do the same thing and make cards unaffordable for Player Collectors (I myself being a victim of this practice).

[@The_regulators]

It's called capitalism. Live with it.

[@zacrazyone]

@@The_regulators it's called a Hobby and obviously your in it just for the money and not a collector

[@te2edgesportscards177]

Great episode guys!

[@SportCardMadness]

Thanks!

[@richardstarr4932]

Burbank sports cards just announced they are pulling all of their listings off of ebay.

[@SportCardMadness]

@@richardstarr4932 He did it here! “The CardFather” BREAKS HIS SILENCE On Choosing Fanatics OVER eBay kzbin.info/www/bejne/q4KZkqiOj52sh8k

[@trader5777]

im all for getting rid of BIN. So many sellers have unrealistic asking prices...

[@rippingandflippingcards4135]

plenty of wander franco base topps rookies for 5 bucks still. list it and forget it.

[@blakeknower]

It will be interesting if they truly remove the BIN. They still have 3200 + on the Prob store.

[@SportCardMadness]

I got that sense that they were very serious about it and plan to lead the charge. We'll see!

[@mikethibault31]

He’s a 10 on the douche-o-meter.

[@CraigsCards62]

The BIN cards that are ridiculously overpriced need to be removed IMO.

[@yestonymontana2257]

problemstain

[@yimmydeep]

Probstein auctions sucks!!

[@yestonymontana2257]

cringe weird low energy corrupt probstein

[@andrewdavenport1669]

Send me my card Rick. Your crap company owes me the card I won. Your company has a history of doing shady business.

[@troyanderson7351]

Buy now is NOT GOING ANYWHERE Nice try bud

[@DanWalls-q4f]

Buyers have definitely NOT stopped searching on ebay because of BIN

[@TRUECOMPS]

This guy is a narcissist with all his shill bidding 😂😂😂😂

[@jmilb10053]

Rob "Rabbit" Pitts died recently. He was banned for life from Ebay for less than this guy does everyday. Why give him a platform?

[@leonardtabone8670]

Great interview! I have been selling on ebay for a little over 3 months and i have only done BIN. I price between 100 and 120 comps and have sold 203 items. I know not lighting the world on fire 🔥 but solid numbers for a side business. I think it needs to stay but some guardrails applied by ebay would be fine by me. I love the message "whats your lowest" i respond "whats your highest" 😂 cuts off the 🐂💩🤣

[@SportCardMadness]

I might have to try that! What’s your highest? 🤪

[@richardbianco9674]

Just nope, there's always Somerton called setting the market. The right buyer hardly ever sees a short week auction

[@richardbianco9674]

Even at 10-20 existing, those may not come up once in a decade so even that is ridiculous to think of waiting

[@sportscardwinterhaven]

Ppl list High ebay bin cause they don't wanna actually sell it unless someone offers moon $$$

[@randomrips2112]

Businesses do not remove options that draw more clients. BIN is not going anywhere. If they could eliminate the BINS that are much higher than recent comps that might be something they do. Eliminating BIN entirely... never.

[@SportCardMadness]

I agree. Something that is 100X to just show off a card they have and promote their website needs to go though.

[@DanWalls-q4f]

So basically if you are a prospect collector why would you ever send your cards to Probstein. I price high to hit potential ...i had 7 Mookie Betts Chrome autos first listed on ebay in 2014 for $200....they sold in 2020 for $1k. Totally worth the wait for me

[@SportCardMadness]

I have about 50 cards in a box collecting dust and am way too lazy to list myself. Was thinking of consigning them this way. Not big ticket stuff by any means. Sort of a "convenience fee"

[@DanWalls-q4f]

... he meant to say Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

[@tudofett]

Narcissist

[@fear0]

Dudes. Very well conducted with great questions!

[@michaeldenzer6024]

Nice!

[@mofomoco]

Probstein will run uo your ebay bid to your max every time. No other REAL bidders but somehow their auctions always run up to my max bid. Accidentally bid more than that card sells for and you will see. I dont trust Probstein auctions anymore. Fool me once...

[@Cornmolio]

It’s as if they know somehow.

[@chazwickjeffriesvonbronswi9922]

11 years old 🙄

[@David_Mussari]

Great interview and I totally agree on eliminating BIN or at least restricting it.

[@TheMusicman95382]

just so people could shill bid even more. Sure

[@razamian7379]

Rick is the Jordan of card collecting

[@JoeKyser]

6:45 I call BS because I see too many titles that are lies. Rookies to be specific. I can absolutely give an example. They sell Caleb Williams Rookie cards. RC in the title. When did he get drafted? Its a college uniform. So she isn't as sharp as dude thinks she is. Just go look at some of the titles for yourself

[@twocents8738]

He has multiple people scripting his titles.

[@JoeKyser]

@twocents8738 Yeah and? Whats that mean?

[@boobooboogoo]

Just found you guys. Amazing, astute questions! Thoroughly enjoyed this! Subscribed!

[@SportCardMadness]

Thanks!