All I want to do is talk about Sportlots

[tribefan]

I just paid 9.50 plus tax to ship 141 cards from the box to me.

[Cliffroach]

Originally Posted by Dalston

Huh.

Curious what the experience of others is on the cost of domestic shipping for +/- 1,000 cards from a Sportlots box.

My last box shipment was 757 cards for $15.50. That was in November. Currently have 230 cards waiting and the estimated postage is $11.50.

[gregpaa]

I paid $12 to ship 65 cards from my box. Thought it was a little strange because prior to the last 2 cards arriving the quote was $7. Added 2 cards and it jumped to $12. Just got a message in my inbox that there was an error in the shipping price and they refunded me $4. I never reached out or anything. Great customer service. Taking care of it proactively.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Dalston]

Originally Posted by Cliffroach

My last box shipment was 757 cards for $15.50. That was in November. Currently have 230 cards waiting and the estimated postage is $11.50.

Very interesting. Do you have a sense of how roughly how many individual packages were in your last shipment?

One factor I am conscious of is that I do have a lot of orders that I probably only average about 6-7 cards per seller per order (always making sure that I have a good number of sellers in every order to split Paypal charges, before anyone jumps on my back for that). So the 831 cards I have in my box at the moment probably come from about 125 different seller orders. Given quite a lot of the sellers pack every box order in its own bubble mailer, it does add bulk to the shipment relative to having a higher number of cards per order.

I could understand the price difference if your order could be fit into one medium flat rate, because I'm pretty sure mine will need something bigger than a large flat rate and that does start to get pricier.

[Cliffroach]

Originally Posted by Dalston

Very interesting. Do you have a sense of how roughly how many individual packages were in your last shipment?

One factor I am conscious of is that I do have a lot of orders that I probably only average about 6-7 cards per seller per order (always making sure that I have a good number of sellers in every order to split Paypal charges, before anyone jumps on my back for that). So the 831 cards I have in my box at the moment probably come from about 125 different seller orders. Given quite a lot of the sellers pack every box order in its own bubble mailer, it does add bulk to the shipment relative to having a higher number of cards per order.

I could understand the price difference if your order could be fit into one medium flat rate, because I'm pretty sure mine will need something bigger than a large flat rate and that does start to get pricier.

There were 25 separates orders in the 757 card box. Ranged from one card to 101 cards.

[Dalston]

Originally Posted by Cliffroach

There were 25 separates orders in the 757 card box. Ranged from one card to 101 cards.

Thanks. Appreciate that and feel that has to explain at least a good part of the difference.

[cowboyfaninlr]

My last sportlots order...72 1979 Topps baseball advertised "NM" ...0 of the cards were "NM" all had corner dings and many were creased...

[sedin26]

Originally Posted by cowboyfaninlr

My last sportlots order...72 1979 Topps baseball advertised "NM" ...0 of the cards were "NM" all had corner dings and many were creased...

That’s unfortunate. Definitely a case where you should report the issue. I’ve had a lot of orders where there will be one or two in a larger order that are mangled but never a wider issue.

Those who care about centering will also be unhappy with many vintage orders of NM cards.

[wubh]

Spent a good chunk of time recently sorting cards that I don't think are worth sending to COMC and now have opened a SL store with 2607 cards inventoried. Reading some of these posts were very helpful in getting started so thanks for those who posted their tips and thoughts.

I'll be pleasantly surprised if I sell anything lol since I'm probably going against the grain a bit (low baseball inventory, more parallels and inserts than cheap base). Plus the zero feedback thing.

I mostly focused on stuff that either was not already listed or had very low inventory and priced most things in the $1-$4 range (plus a chunk of $5-$10 autos, serial #ed, etc) to try to make shipping worth my while since my day job keeps me plenty busy. I imagine I'll be adjusting strategy as time goes on, especially if I can efficiently catalog and organize base cards from cases I've busted.

I also included a bunch of ultra-modern soccer and wrestling since I've been ripping a lot of wax from these 2 sports. And some high-priced and rare non-PC cards because why not?

[longhornjunkie]

Should February payments have come out by now?

[nam812]

Originally Posted by longhornjunkie

Should February payments have come out by now?

It's usually by 10AM or 11AM EST since sportlots is located in CST.

[longhornjunkie]

Originally Posted by nam812

It's usually by 10AM or 11AM EST since sportlots is located in CST.

Thanks... in some of the past months I had gotten the notice by now, so I thought maybe I had done something wrong. Still learning.

[smanzari]

Originally Posted by longhornjunkie

Thanks... in some of the past months I had gotten the notice by now, so I thought maybe I had done something wrong. Still learning.

He's usually pretty good about getting them out before lunch. Sometimes there are some outliers (I recall one around 5p one time a few years ago). You can tell he's working on it, if you check your Orders/Orders Filled - somethings may be zeroed out as he does it.

[longhornjunkie]

Originally Posted by smanzari

He's usually pretty good about getting them out before lunch. Sometimes there are some outliers (I recall one around 5p one time a few years ago). You can tell he's working on it, if you check your Orders/Orders Filled - somethings may be zeroed out as he does it.

Mine arrived at some point. Stupid Paypal app didn't notify me.

So it sounds like he does it basically manually? Hopefully he gets some system upgrades that makes it easier for him.

[smanzari]

Originally Posted by longhornjunkie

Mine arrived at some point. Stupid Paypal app didn't notify me.

So it sounds like he does it basically manually? Hopefully he gets some system upgrades that makes it easier for him.

I think there is a manual aspect to it, but not sure - just from what I gathered through prior messages/conversations with them

[dave416]

Just starting to load some cards on SL to start selling a little there - trying to figure out good prices for all the shipping options/thresholds - any tips there would be appreciated!

[ScottBreaks]

Originally Posted by dave416

Just starting to load some cards on SL to start selling a little there - trying to figure out good prices for all the shipping options/thresholds - any tips there would be appreciated!

When I was setting mine up, I went to the list of top sellers and sort of poked around to see what everyone else was doing. Then I adjusted as I saw fit.

[longhornjunkie]

Buyer to take note of - user ID 13002021

Left me neutral feedback over the player content of one of my lots when I clearly stated it did not contain any stars.

[dave416]

Originally Posted by ScottBreaks

When I was setting mine up, I went to the list of top sellers and sort of poked around to see what everyone else was doing. Then I adjusted as I saw fit.

Yep, that's a good way to go - thanks!

[nam812]

Question for the sellers. When you get in some new inventory of sets you already have listed, how do you handle the "adding it in" of it? That's a terrible way to phrase my question, so I'll give you the example I just went through. I got in about 650 2004 Topps base cards from series 1 and series 2, and already had about 200 from each series. Do you:

A) Just list the new ones with no regard to any matches from the current cards you already have listed from the same set and put them in a different bin since the bin the current ones are in is full?

B) Put the new cards in numerical order and add the ones you have doubles of to your inventory report and list the unique ones from the add new inventory tab, then marry the two batches together (old inventory and new inventory) and put them all in a new bin (leaving a 400 card opening in the old bin)?

C) Throw them away because you'll only ever sell 2 of them for 18 cents each? lol

I'd love to know how you guys handle getting new inventory of a set you already have listed. Mostly from the how you add it in to old stock and also the bin manipulation.

For those interested, I did option B and it took a while.

[Dalston]

Originally Posted by ScottBreaks

When I was setting mine up, I went to the list of top sellers and sort of poked around to see what everyone else was doing. Then I adjusted as I saw fit.

I'm a buyer, not a seller. But I will say many sellers on the site don't seem to understand that the lower the box shipping, the more box orders you'll get. And its much more economical to send 20 bundled packages to Sportlots every 10 days with (say) 50c shipping than one order with $2.50 shipping that you then feel compelled to put tracking on. Or that buyers will pay materially higher percentages per card to save shipping costs.

I will say that there is a huge variation in how sellers deal with larger box orders. If you do decide to go with low cost box shipping, it might be worth ordering 1-4 cards from a range of tops sellers with free or very cheap box shipping and seeing which of their techniques from shipping low value box orders makes most sense for how you can efficiently ship in a safe, well-labeled fashion.

Assuming you can't get your head around free box shipping immediately, a good structure that makes me look for more cards from a seller is shipping that is reasonable for small orders but gives me an incentive to make a larger order. Just to make up an example, something that looks along these lines will make me at least have a quick look at seller inventory to see if I can turn a 1-2 card order into a larger order of things I want:

1 card - $0.75
2-4 cards - $0.60
5-10 cards - $0.30
16+ - free

In general, other than needing to account for the maximum you can get into a PWE for direct selling I think that sellers too often disincentivise buyers from making larger orders.

[nam812]

Originally Posted by Dalston

I'm a buyer, not a seller. But I will say many sellers on the site don't seem to understand that the lower the box shipping, the more box orders you'll get..............

I can only use my personal experience, and for reference I am a seller with only 102,000 cards listed, but free box shipping does not always equate to more sales.

About 8 weeks ago I went to free shipping on orders over 16 cards and got a 31 card order that same day, but not another one in the next 8 weeks. In those same 8 weeks I have gotten 43 box orders between 1 and 16 cards.

Strange but true.

[longhornjunkie]

As a buyer it's just a lot of information to piece together to have all the sellers in the cart and then think about looking at each seller to see what their shipping rates are. Plus, in my mind, more cards is going to equate to higher shipping, not cheaper/free shipping.

The information is well-presented when you think to go look at it, just kind of a psychological hurdle. I'm more interested in maxing out the shipping level I'm already at than looking to see what the next level gets me.

I am not a particularly large quantity buyer so I may be speaking out of turn.

[Dalston]

Originally Posted by nam812

I can only use my personal experience, and for reference I am a seller with only 102,000 cards listed, but free box shipping does not always equate to more sales.

About 8 weeks ago I went to free shipping on orders over 16 cards and got a 31 card order that same day, but not another one in the next 8 weeks. In those same 8 weeks I have gotten 43 box orders between 1 and 16 cards.

Strange but true.

Actually I don't think this is all that strange as your shipping structure penalises adding more cards up to 10. I've bought from you a couple of times and if I have anything between 1-10 cards from you in my card when I make an order I'm not that incented to look for more. With the pricing structure I suggest I might spend 5 minutes on it as I'm going to come out ahead on shipping even if I can only find a couple of cards I want.

Originally Posted by longhornjunkie

As a buyer it's just a lot of information to piece together to have all the sellers in the cart and then think about looking at each seller to see what their shipping rates are. Plus, in my mind, more cards is going to equate to higher shipping, not cheaper/free shipping.

The information is well-presented when you think to go look at it, just kind of a psychological hurdle. I'm more interested in maxing out the shipping level I'm already at than looking to see what the next level gets me.

I am not a particularly large quantity buyer so I may be speaking out of turn.

Totally get where you are coming from, but its amazing how often a quick look at the chart can be beneficial. I have a policy of throwing cards I want into my cart without looking at shipping. And quite often I will find that looking at the shipping chart can help. Example - I have 5/6 cards in my cart from a seller and don't want to pay $4.50 shipping. Quite often by deleting the 1/2 I want least I can reduce that to something more like $1.50. Since about 60% of what I buy on SL is for resale, it all adds up.

But I'm an over-optimizer and agree that it's not presented in an intuitive way, so not suggesting anyone else should think this way.

[nam812]

Originally Posted by Dalston

Actually I don't think this is all that strange as your shipping structure penalises adding more cards up to 10. I've bought from you a couple of times and if I have anything between 1-10 cards from you in my card when I make an order I'm not that incented to look for more. With the pricing structure I suggest I might spend 5 minutes on it as I'm going to come out ahead on shipping even if I can only find a couple of cards I want.

First of all glad to hear that you are a repeat buyer. My ears are always open as a seller so please expand on the way I penalize those that add more card up to 10. My box rates are:

1 card - 44 cents
2 - 4 cards - 74 cents
5 - 10 cards - $1.09
11 - 16 cards - $2.17
16 - 102,896 - Free

Thanks, Nick