General Forum

Where do you guys purchase older hobby boxes on eBay? Is the best place DACardWorld and Steel City Coppectibpes but I wanted to know everyone else's opinions.

I wouldn't focus so much on the seller's name as I would the price of a quality product.  I seem to remember that you were looking to start up an online card shop.  The best deals don't come from big name sellers that are patient in waiting to get the price their looking for; they tend to come from random sellers trying to get rid of excess product really fast.  The sellers you named are reputable, but are asking top dollar.  Just do some searches and see where the deals are.

 A few years back was the last time I bought boxes.   I had good luck with Kruk Cards on Ebay.  No harm in checking them out.   I am not associated with them in any way.     They had a good variety and decent prices/S&H.  

Thanks guys, and you remembered correctly, I just started my eBay and it's going great, and I'm looking at a lot of garage sales, flea markets, online, etc. for cards to sell and find gems, I'm really enjoying it but need some boxes to open to sell stuff, I'll go and check out Kruk cards, thanks for the feedback.

I'd also check local auction houses.  I've had decent luck in finding cards there that I get fairly cheaply.

I agree with RTD. When I am looking to buy more recent stuff I wait for sales on dacardworld, Steel City or Blowout cards but for anything older, particularly junk wax where I just want a cheap box of packs to open with my kids or a box to finish off a partial set I am working on I just watch ebay for good prices. You really just need to watch and know the market for the particular thing you are looking for.

baseball card exchange has a ton of older product

https://www.bbcexchange.com

I don't buy a lot of hobby boxes but when I do, its Dos Equis.... wait, I mean its DaCard World.  I've thought about ebay, but never done it before.  When I buy online I make sure I read feedback and feel comfortable with ordering from them first.

Ebay would be where I start. Just be careful about some older product as there are some that are very likely to have stuck together (the Collector's Choice cards instantly come to mind). Do yourself a HUGE favor - shop around before buying. See what boxes are selling for on ebay before you buy. Remember also, some sets are so oversaturated on the marketplace that even if a card "books" at $4-5 you may not even see $1 for it. If you're buying to bust, check out the prices being realized on ebay for the key cards before busting. If it's product that has inserts, check them out too, but be careful, you probably won't hit the big cards there.

When I jumped back in the hobby and needed wanted to fill in the sets I was missing, I created an excel speadsheet with a tab for each year. Then I looked at the history of sales only (not ended, but sold) and logged them. Then, I tracked sales for the next little while (at least a month, more if no good deals popped up). Whenever I bought a set, it was for the best price seen on ebay (or really, really close to it) during the past 3-6 months.

I hope you do well with the ebay thing. It's not easy. But it can be fun.

I would definitely check ebay, D&A, Steel City and Blowout first and compare the prices you find. DON'T FORGET ABOUT SHIPPING PRICES THOUGH!!! That could quickly change a good deal to a mediocre deal, or worse, raise the lower price above someone else's price. If you are spending a lot of money at once, you really need to know the threshold to get free shipping b/c each company differs in how much you have to spend to get free shipping. That's the main thing I can add that no one else has really mentioned. As for ebay, don't buy from the big card shops on ebay. The prices are higher to account for the fees to ebay and Paypal. Buy direct from the store's website instead. Smaller stores may not have their own site, so ebay is their only route, but they may still beat another store's price. You can check the Beckett Marketplace too. A lot of dealers list boxes on that site too. Auction houses are really a toss-up. They mostly will deal with collections instead of factory-sealed boxes. But you never know when they could come across a warehouse from a former shop-owner or a collector who kept sealed boxes in their collection. Good luck with however you do it and I hope we have all given you just the right amount of info to make your venture successful!