eBay Sports Cards Selling Guide #6: General Advice And Pro Tips

At CardLines, we get hundreds of monthly inquiries from collectors. Nearly half of them are about selling cards on eBay. The need is apparent, and to help, we’re putting together an eBay guide to dive deep into selling cards on eBay.

Start selling on ebay!

This is the sixth article in the guide. Be sure to look back at the previous article about best shipping and post-listing practices.  We’ve also covered everything from how to title your listings, how to fill out the extra data, and how to pick between BIN or auctions.

Enjoy this article, and be sure to read the rest of our eBay selling guides to ensure you’re getting max profit for all your listings. 

Want to see a summary of the guide in one spot? Check out our Ultimate eBay Sports Card Selling guide.

General tips for selling on eBay

The Cardlines team are experts in selling sports cards on eBay. Combined, we’ve sold tens of thousands of dollars on the marketplace and have decades of experience. We’ve seen it all.

The good, the bad, and the ugly.

So, to conclude our eBay listing series, here are some general pro-tips and lessons learned throughout our eBay careers. Learn from our mistakes (and successes) as you list your own collection on eBay.

The eBay Standard Envelope

eBay has realized just how essential sports cards are for its ever-growing business, and with that in sight, they’ve taken some steps to reward sports card sellers.

One of the best additions is the eBay Standard Envelope, which we wrote about here. It allows sellers to ship raw cards that sell for $20 for less than $1, as long as the packing meets the following criteria: 

• The maximum weight is 3 oz.
• The maximum thickness is 0.25.”
• Minimum dimensions are 5″ x 3.5″
• Maximum dimensions are 11.5″ x 6.125″
• The destination address must be parallel to the longest side
• Envelopes must contain no clasps, strings, buttons, or similar closure devices
• The envelope is not enclosed or made of any plastic material
• Bubble mailers or any packaging made of plastic are not supported

For a long time, it wasn’t worthwhile to even sell $20 cards on eBay because shipping and fees ate away the vast majority of this profit, but this addition helps make these sales worthwhile. 

Read more about this eBay offering right here. 

“The Buyer is Always Right”

On eBay, the buyer is always right. At least, that’s what it feels like. And that’s not always a good thing.

Here’s an example. One time I sold a 2018 Prizm blaster and the buyer immediately opened a case on receipt, uploading a picture of the blaster without its shrink wrap and basically said, “What the hell, this guy sent me an opened blaster with a missing pack.”

I definitely did not do that and it felt like a punch in the face when eBay sided with the buyer, despite my long line of positive feedback and top-rated status. I had to refund the purchase price to the seller, and besides blocking him and reporting him on my various scammer Facebook groups, there was very little that could be done. 

After that, I took a break from eBay sales for a while. That one stung.

The takeaway is that, despite all the success to be had on eBay, occasionally ran over by a bus with very little you can do about it. Go in with those expectations. 

There’s a time of year to sell

We’ve talked a bit about this over the course of my eBay listing guides, but there is absolutely a time to sell your cards (and a time to buy).

You can make the perfect listing, but if you do it at the wrong time of year you’ll be cutting yourself out of a lot of potential profit.

In short, the easiest thing to remember is this: always sell in-season, always buy during the off-season. If you have cards of players that will be playing in the playoffs, that’s the peak time to buy and sell.

With sports based on a calendar and card value depending heavily on in-season and out-of-season, it’s almost a hack to making a lot of money. 

Imagine if there was a rule that said, “Always buy Apple stock during November and sell in June. You’ll make 30% consistently.” That’s almost how sports seasons work. 

Here’s an article where we took a deep dive into the cycle of values. 

There’s a time of day to sell

Lastly, don’t overlook that the time of day of your listing makes a big impact on selling price.

This is particularly related to auctions. 

There’s a reason why primetime TV shows and sports are on during “prime time” – because the average person is most likely to have more free time in the late afternoon and early evening. 

With that in mind, you should have all your cards end at that time, too. That means either listing your auctions during prime time so they’ll end that way, or scheduling them to launch at prime time.

Whichever way you take it, you’ll get more bang for your buck by making that simple adjustment. 

Here’s an article we wrote about this listing strategy. While it’s written more for the buyer, the same info can help you as a seller. 

It’s your time to shine with eBay Sports Cards sells

If you’ve made it this far, you’ve completed our guide and are basically a master of eBay sports card listings (we’re very humble at Cardlines).

If you still have questions about the listing process, be sure to send them our way on Twitter @card_lines. We’re here to help!

Other guides for selling sports cards on eBay

• eBay Listings Guide #1- How To Title Your Listings
• eBay Listings Guide #2 – Filling out for your listings
• eBay Listings Guide #3- Best way to sell on ebay – Auctions vs Buy It Now
• eBay Listings Guide #4 – Pricing your listing
• eBay Listings Guide #5 – What to do after a sale