General Forum

This is a broad general inquiry for those who have sold on Sportlots, preferably current sellers and those who have sold on the site in the last year or two. I have bought on Sportlots both from the 1,2,3 auctions which can be addictive, and the seller's "stores". For several years I have toyed with the idea of selling on the platform. I have sold on Ebay and COMC.

I'd like to know the pros and cons of selling on Sportlots.

As someone with a full-time 9 to 5er a "Con" for me is I can only ship out on Saturdays. That is packages that require tracking. I can ship out a PWE anytime like everyone else. Shipping 1, 2 or 3 cards via PWE I don't mind too much (but never do it with my Ebay selling)

Is there anything that absolutely has to be printed out? I have a bit of a technology handicap by not having a printer hooked up at home. For Ebay I only hand print mailing labels and go to the post office, sometimes I print an address or two via a word document at work but rarely and don't buy the postage online. Yeah I know I spend too much on postage right there.

In attempting to research in recent weeks there doesn't seem to be any sort of tutorials or tip guides from experienced sellers. I have heard that the most recent releases sell best as pre-sales around the time those sets come out and regular sales of them a few weeks after release. Apparrently that is all buyers are interested in? The current brands during the release rush?

Fees! 

The absolute biggest con, take an example $ amount and do the math.

Their auction platform isn`t bad but it can be weird and lengthy with that 1-2-3 format(unless they have changed that recently) 

I do have a number of items listed on Sportlots (although currently shop is off) but have sold items some items there dating back to Oct. 2019.  I probably listed only about 20% of what is shown for trade here (mostly basketball, but some hockey/baseball).  Some cards within the last couple years but many in 90's/00's.  Since then, I have had approx. 80 transactions and 252 cards sold.  That said, these were pretty much all commons so none of them are bringing in much dollarwise, but have had some traffic.  I'd imagine would be more if I had spent time to list more and provide more options for those buying.  

The fees can be high and unless you sell "x" amount they start out by taking 75% of the card sale (the 75% does not include shipping and whatever you charge for shipping appears to be returned in full).  Then as you sell more the percentage drops to 50%, 25%, etc.  It is set up to list more, sell more, less fees (which does make sense as long as you have cards which are selling/moving).  I wasn't making anything of note selling there, but I would exclude it either as gave me an opportunity to just turn around and use the sales/credit to purchase cards from sellers I wanted.  It was a more involved trade process essentially for me.

The only time I have found in my sales when I was required (I say required as their instructions say to print - but not sure you need to 100%) is when a buyer requests cards be sent to the sportlots box.  In those cases, the seller is supposed to print the invoice and send along with the cards to the sportlots box address.  Again, does make sense so sportlots can be sure to match those cards up to the right buyer when they receive.  One thing I noticed as well - since I didn't have orders flooding in, sending orders to the sportlots box actually cost me more than just sending to buyer direct (If you have tons of orders it wouldn't).  As sending to box required the printing and double packaging.

One item which is a pain, is if you have cards listed here for trade and there, it is a constant back/forth of inventory.

Hope that helps.

Thanks guys.

@ntlwhir Yes That helps a lot. Yes that box thing does make sense. To avoid the real pain you mentioned about double listing (there for sale and here for trade) I would not list in both places. I try to avoid doing that anyway. 

Not sure it would be for me as most of the stuff I was thinking of putting up there is more common low price stuff. Then again some people say they are surprised as to what sells there.

cons lately is 17 day waiting period for payment. Before you can cancel and ask for your fees back.  i dont put a lot up there for sale, but have been burned over the last couple of months a handful of times.  This is especially timely during new releases if you put a bunch of commons up there, by the time you wait almost a month 1-2-3 process plus 17 day waiting period for a hot item, the "winner" may not pay and there is no way to contact 2nd place to see if they want it, or you are just out of luck.  and these are not newbs to the site these are people with many successful transactions and many failure to pays.  i wish the threshold for keeping those people from bidding was higher, but its not.  

I love Sportlots and Baseballcardstore.ca! Since I've abandoned trading here for various reasons, these two places are my go-to places for filling holes in sets.

I was selling on it, but currently have it turned off since I don't have all my inventory at my fingertips.  I am also from Canada, so it makes the sportbox a bit different for me.  I charge the same for a box order as I do for US customers. 
The worst part is the fees.  Not only the tiered fees charged by Sportlots, but the paypal fee.  If you get a single order of a single card, you could end up owing Sportlots money.  That's why alot of sellers have extra margin in thier s/h.  Sometime you get lucky and someone pays for several sellers at once, thus reducing your portion of the Paypal fee, or they buy with Sportlots credit, thus no fees.  
A pain is keeping your inventory up-to-date if are active on TCDB or other sites as well.
I see it as another way to reduce my inventory, although I would prefer to sell or trade on here.

captkirk42

"Not sure it would be for me as most of the stuff I was thinking of putting up there is more common low price stuff. Then again some people say they are surprised as to what sells there."

What exactly do you mean "by "low price common stuff"?  Sportlots is exactly what that's for.  Don't list low price commons on COMC or eBay.

I tried selling there once.  Sold four cards for a net profit of nine cents.  No thanks.