For those of you that go to card shows, do you ever try to haggle with the sellers? I never have when it comes to prices on boxes. I'm planning to go to a show this Saturday and was wondering if this ever works.
There's definitely an art to haggling so that you don't offend the dealer and shut down any possibilty of striking a deal. And boxes can be kind of tricky. If you're looking at current stuff, you won't do much better than MSRP at shows. But if you go back a couple years, a seller might be trying to just unload something he's been sitting on for too long and/or doesn't want to lug home.
I've had more success bundling things together than asking for a flat out discount, especially if a guy has different kinds of stuff. Ask if he'll throw in such and such card from his singles case if you buy a box. Or a pack of penny sleeves. Instead of trying to get a $50 box for $45, I'll try to get a $55-60 value for my $50. A dealer probably knows he's got to sell that box for $50 to break even or clear a small profit but he might not miss that $5-10 card.
Or maybe get a $60 box and a $50 box for $100. The dealer might be willing to break even on one box if he's making a small profit on the other.
Just a different way of thinking about things. Good luck!
There's definitely an art to haggling so that you don't offend the dealer and shut down any possibilty of striking a deal. And boxes can be kind of tricky. If you're looking at current stuff, you won't do much better than MSRP at shows. But if you go back a couple years, a seller might be trying to just unload something he's been sitting on for too long and/or doesn't want to lug home.
ReplyDeleteI've had more success bundling things together than asking for a flat out discount, especially if a guy has different kinds of stuff. Ask if he'll throw in such and such card from his singles case if you buy a box. Or a pack of penny sleeves. Instead of trying to get a $50 box for $45, I'll try to get a $55-60 value for my $50. A dealer probably knows he's got to sell that box for $50 to break even or clear a small profit but he might not miss that $5-10 card.
Or maybe get a $60 box and a $50 box for $100. The dealer might be willing to break even on one box if he's making a small profit on the other.
Just a different way of thinking about things. Good luck!