Quote:
Originally Posted by richo
Can you guys explain to me then how these dealers make money? As a collector, I really do sometimes wonder when I see base sets and other inserts listed at what appear very low prices immediately post release.
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Case breakers enter and leave in waves. Most of the good established ones won't sell that low. What you are seeing is people who are buying product on credit card and need to sell fast to pay the bill as it comes. Believe me, they are not making money at some of the low prices you are seeing. What they are doing is losing 30-40% on their breaks but don't feel it as much because of the attrition balance that is rising on their credit card.
The problem is, when they finally max out all their credit cards and drop out of the case breaking, a whole new wave of credit card case breakers enters in the market and sells low right off the bat. It's just a viscous cycle.
Edit to add: I was never a big case breaker myself 3-5 cases on average. But I NEVER put anything on a credit card. If I couldn't pay for it with funds I had available then I wouldn't mess with it.
The reason you see prices so strong on releases like Fleer Retro Marvel is not a lot of the case breakers bought it, and it was rather limited as well which kept the prices high. I can bet you anything if some of the low sellers we see on Mars Attacks and GPK bought Marvel Retro it would not have the high marks for insert singles that it does.