Recently, I started looking to buy again on MOTL and everyone wants paypal gift payment first and that I have to waive all responsibility. If I were to trade with these people, they would be sending me cards first, no questions asked.

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Originally posted by totalkaoz:
In the past, I've had no issue buying on MOTL and having members send me cards first before I pay by paypal gift. Alternatively, I've paid first by paypal goods/services and then they sent me cards but at least I had protection using this method.

Recently, I started looking to buy again on MOTL and everyone wants paypal gift payment first and that I have to waive all responsibility. If I were to trade with these people, they would be sending me cards first, no questions asked.

Looking at pricing in the Sales Thread now, the pricing is same or even slightly higher than ebay except everyone wants you to waive responsibilty. Other than the occasional person desperately in need of funds immediately and selling far lower than ebay, is there any reason to buy on MOTL anymore over ebay?

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You probably see more of those because those are the ones who don't sell much. The buyers with reasonable terms and prices tend to sell relatively quickly.

__________________
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Shop around and find the best price. You'll find that it probably ends up being 50\50 with who has the best price.

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Originally posted by totalkaoz:
In the past, I've had no issue buying on MOTL and having members send me cards first before I pay by paypal gift. Alternatively, I've paid first by paypal goods/services and then they sent me cards but at least I had protection using this method.

Recently, I started looking to buy again on MOTL and everyone wants paypal gift payment first and that I have to waive all responsibility. If I were to trade with these people, they would be sending me cards first, no questions asked.

Looking at pricing in the Sales Thread now, the pricing is same or even slightly higher than ebay except everyone wants you to waive responsibilty. Other than the occasional person desperately in need of funds immediately and selling far lower than ebay, is there any reason to buy on MOTL anymore over ebay?

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Have you seen any of the threads in the BTA section recently? A lot of issues arise when the sender doesn't use any method of tracking. You pretty much have to include that statement into the terms of a deal to avoid being liable and as the only protection to dishonest people. Just negotiate some kind of tracking into the deal if you're that worried about it and pay the extra $2 or so. That amount is almost negligable.

There are always going to be people that want the most value that they can get out of their cards and don't mind waiting a little longer to cash in on that. I too have noticed an increase in the amount of people that are doing this by the amount of sale threads as opposed to buy threads and even in the buy threads the buylists are laughable.

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Originally posted by daner:
Everyone thinks they're a dealer...not many are.

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For once, I agree with daner. That's why I stopped buying cards from MOTLers several years ago; it just didn't make financial sense any more, the protections were lesser, and the members too inflexible.

What I really miss are the days when we had a functional T/A system with fun auctions (e.g. bidding with commons someone collected for half-decent cards) and sensible point values.

__________________
"I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each. I do not think they will sing to me." -T.S. Eliot

RIP Ari

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Originally posted by walkerdog:
I buy from the MOTLers that have good prices. They're maybe 1/4 of the total posts in T/A, but there are good folks out there. EBay/TCGplayer are for when I need a harder-to-find card or something.

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Originally posted by totalkaoz:
In the past, I've had no issue buying on MOTL and having members send me cards first before I pay by paypal gift. Alternatively, I've paid first by paypal goods/services and then they sent me cards but at least I had protection using this method.

Recently, I started looking to buy again on MOTL and everyone wants paypal gift payment first and that I have to waive all responsibility. If I were to trade with these people, they would be sending me cards first, no questions asked.

Looking at pricing in the Sales Thread now, the pricing is same or even slightly higher than ebay except everyone wants you to waive responsibilty. Other than the occasional person desperately in need of funds immediately and selling far lower than ebay, is there any reason to buy on MOTL anymore over ebay?

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This is something Canadian MOTL'ers have to deal with. There is no cheap tracking so, what can you do?

1. Buy only from the best MOTL'ers.
2. And then suck it up and be okay without tracking.

Even though I still trade with some Canadians, I don't ever buy. There is absolutely no need. Plenty of cards in the US.

If someone isn't willing to sell at a competitive price, do a little talking. That doesn't work, just move on. They can bump their lists all they want.

I really do 75% of my sales to overseas. A lot ebay sellers will not sell overseas. You don't receive your item boom chargeback. So most sellers require registered mail and we all know you can't get that for less then 20.00. The fact that you can waive it here on MOTL makes it favorable. So in fact the waiver that you speak so poorly about it is a huge benefit.

People on ebay don't grade with a damn. Most are lazy and just list the cards in Excellent condition which could be NM or could be major play. Most are stock photos of items. You could send a message and may or may not get a response back. some may or may not have bought it by then. You can haggle the price on MOTL, sure you can submit an offer on some stuff on ebay but it doesn't go so well.

Do I buy off ebay sure, do I buy off of MOTL sure. I prefer MOTL because of the communication. For those of you who like to shop the local businesses that is what I feel like when I buy off of MOTL. When you are looking for say a foil dark confidant from modern masters, well ebay or tcg is your only choice.

If you are looking for one card or two ebay is usually the way to go. Here at least you can buy lots of cards from the same seller and save. For those sellers who say man I used to sell a lot more a few years back. The kicker was that the euro was like 1.85 and now it is around 1.31. Cards don't sell as well because their money doesn't go as far. Shipping has ruined a lot of people as well as 6.55 for the cheapest padded envelope shipping is outrageous.

in my opinion, MOTL is better for standard and vintage items. take a stroll down ebay you wont find moxes as cheap as you can on here. You won't find buy it nows for duals as cheap on ebay as you can on MOTL. Pick any standard card and you can do better on MOTL.

Price:
I search ebay and price at or slightly under what the average auction ends for. It just depends on the cards. No reason to under price dual lands, etc. I typically price well enough where semi-dealers will buy a couple hundred at a time; works out well for both of us.

Shipping:
Pay for tracking or give me a waiver. I charge for tracking when I sell on ebay, at least you have a choice on MOTL. I typically don't offer PWE for the US because tracking is so cheap. Its a hassle for me to go buy a stamp when I could instead ship from home w/ a bubble mailer and tracking.

However, some cards I want to shop around for cheaper copies. Either I'm not 100% sure I want them or I know I can find them $5-10 cheaper per card if I look for a week. For these, I'll look at MOTL a couple times and save eBay auction searches. 95% of the time, the eBay saved auctions comes in for me with a solid BIN. However, some times a good MOTL sale comes up that happens to have the card I'm looking for. However, if it is a good enough price for those conditions, odds are that someone else on here can purchase them in a larger purchase that makes it easier for the seller.

I think my prices are pretty fair, but I basically do ~5-10 seconds of browsing completed listings on eBay to price my cards, so they aren't always entirely accurate. And most (90%) of my sales are to the same people these days. There are several repeat international buyers that waive responsibility for PWEs getting lost and, well, we've never had a problem (and they've never gotten lost, so let's hope that track record keeps going). It's much less of a problem with people in the US because they just pay the $2 for bubble envelope+tracking and we're good to go.

For buyers: Look on eBay, TCG, and here and buy whatever is cheapest. If a seller is priced too high, make an offer that reflects what you can get it for elsewhere.

Last 3-4 months though, I've probably made 80% of my purchases from TCG and eBay. There's more selection from the bigger stores and usually the shipping is free and I don't have to deal with Paypal gift (although I usually pay the fees for non gift... so another 3-4%)

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Originally posted by gaeacradle:
Now that I have a better understanding of what I want to do with my cards, I just put up my first sale list in over a year.

I am not selling any Constructed staples since those are very easy for me to move locally and get better value in trades. I am though selling all those EDH/casual type cards that I can pick up for cheap locally. I am pricing them at or below TCG Player Low for the most part, which also fall between dealer buy prices and eBay prices. So far, it has been successful since I probably have sold about $600 in less than a week.

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This and "2/$1, 5/$1, etc" grab bags are nice ways to move some stuff. People will buy those random rares/uncs/commons that have some value but aren't exactly sought after when they are priced well.

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Originally posted by walkerdog:
Oh man, I am noticing it a bit more now - for example, if you search for Mind Funeral for in sales, some people are selling ~ TCG low, and some people are selling for a buck higher, which is a bit comical.

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I thought I'd throw it out there, since so many other people are buying on ebay. It also gives you the ability to filter on set, foils, price, bids, etc.

DEMO: MTG Scavenger

I'm working on a brand new version as well, so if you're interested in helping me beta test, hit me with a PM.