28 January 2010

Burbank Sportscards: good for the hobby or just plain greedy?

Anyone who has ever spent hours searching eBay for steals and deals on cards of the players and teams they collect know the name all to well.

Burbank Sportscards is one of the largest eBay sellers and, possibly, one of it's most greedy.

Burbank has a very large inventory of cards, with most of them being extremely rare and low numbered. Some are just plain tough to find (like mid to late 90's parallels and inserts that rarely ever hit the auction block), while others are more prevalent, but still overpriced.

Just searching their store on eBay you can see how they value their cards, which is usually 200-250% of what the going rate is on the open market for most cards.

Now why do I bring this up? I was doing my daily search that I do for a few players and became incensed when pretty much all of the low numbered cards I found of one of my guys was strictly sitting in Burbanks store. This wouldn't be so bad, if they were willing to negotiate prices (I collect the guy, I know his going rate and I am not trying to screw anyone out of money), had scans of their cards (according to the guys running the show, with so much inventory, they do not have the means necessary to scan in every card) and better communication.

Not to mention, I have talked with a few people who have been to their store and they said that if you are interested in seeing any of their cards, you basically have to commit to purchasing said card because they have to dip into their extensive inventory just to find the card(s) you need.

Now, am I saying don't buy from the guys? No. Sometimes they do have cards listed with the price lower than the going rate or at a very competitive price, making it worth the time to buy it.

I am just saying they are a pain in mine and many others asses. If you have bought from them in the past and were happy with your purchase, congrats. I personally don't see myself making any purchases from them any time soon.

Now, if I happen to win the lottery.......

1 comment:

  1. Burbank Sportscards is great if you are looking for a hard-to-find card. They probably have it, though I doubt you'll be thrilled with the price.

    It's tough to argue that they're overpriced when they're often the only ones selling a particular card, though.

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