TwicebakedJake he manages a taco bell and lives in his parent's basement; everything you see is green screen. This is all a big ruse; that is the lore. There's also two people who play Rudy in these videos, the old OG actor stopped doing them I think, you can tell it's a different person if you watch the first vid, think they're related but those two red headed bearded dudes in baseball have me questioning a lot now ;)
I was a patron of Rudy's for around a year … I joined into the Rudy patron army roughly 8 months into him starting it up … and missed a lot of the great early deals (one of the reasons I ended up dropping my patron membership), but I remember buying a commander 2017 set from him and forgot that I had just bought a new house with a different address. Long story short … after attempting to update all my ebay and paypal info the set got mailed to my old address … I got a hold of the shipper and got it stopped and returned before it ever arrived, but due to a hurricane it ended up being shipped to 4 different cities and disappeared. I was really worried that I would end up fucked. Rudy took care of the claim and replaced the commander set with a sealed box of Kaladesh which at the time was roughly the same price as the Commander product (which was sold out … couldn't replace it). I still have no idea if he ever received his product back or was able to recoup his money from the set disappearing over something that was initially my mistake. To this day I appreciate you taking the high road and taking care of me in the past. Glad to know that there are still good people out there.
Wow. Thanks for sharing your story. I love hearing em. If you cancelled cause of lack of the early great deals, there's gonna be more in the future tbh. He just did a neat product he called Rudy's Remains, which was from a bunch of different sets. I would've bought it if I could spare the money.
Last month he did a special for modern horizons shipped 170. It was off the chain. Last year he did iconic and m25 for 130/140 range a box for literally 6-9 months. Stick with Rudy. You’ll get good deals plus he gives pretty good insight to the world of cardboard.
I used to have an Ebay Anchor store and, at its peak, sold $3000-$5000 a month. Between the huge hikes in fees and the invasion of Chinese mega sellers and skyrocketing postal charges, I am down to a couple of hundred bucks a month. How do you complete against companies that literally buy truckloads of cards and have industrial-scale card sorting and distributing methods? But the massive increase in postal rates--especially international rates are what really pisses me off. Chinese sellers can ship a small package to my neighbor (with a tracking number) cheaper than I can do the same! Absolutely killed my once robust international shipping to just about zero. Globalism sucks, especially when your own country sells you out! Rudy is right. Forget about getting into online retail of non-priority products. The big dogs will crush you.
@Matty Zee funny cuz true. i moved my shipping warehouse for my small scale business to china because i can ship at 1/5 of the costs to anywhere in the world.
@@karimbauer8720 It's only possible because global elites agreed on international shipping rates that favor China. Remember, everything from these Chinese "E-Packets" inside the US border is delivered by USPS. So we didn't have to agree to this. Guessing some of our corrupt AF politicians were paid handsomely for this to pass.
@Anthony Lopez Foreign lobbyists have way too much access to our Congress. I wouldn't doubt if there are also a few full blown traitors at high levels of government.
If you now losing 40% then its a no brainer go to EBAY. With shipping, paypal fee and ebay fee its only about 15% and then add a little for fraud you will still come out way ahead of a lgs sale.
There's hope for the future of e-commerce, but it's not going to be centralized platforms like eBay/Paypal. Cut out the middlemen with p2p electronic cash and implement buyer protection in the form of free market escrow agents who take a small cut (much less than Paypal) to arbitrate disputes.
Rudy hasn't even touched on how the post office is also hosing sellers with their rate increases; and how somehow ebay can include the shipping price when they charge your final value fee.
I have been selling Warhammer models for 7 months to a Swedish site equal to Ebay as a hobby projekt and my experience has been great so far. I started of by listing separate models from the Shadowspear boxed set and i net a 30-50% from each box sold. I sold roughly a +30 boxes when they was available so it was a success in my opinion. I had no fixed price but a very high starting bid on each auction so i knew for certain that i would at least net a +25% for each box i sold and the competition among bidders raised the value from the starting price most of the times. The shadowspear boxes are now sold out but i have found a new item within Warhammer i bought 1100$ of for starters to sell and they have been even better than the Shadowspear boxed set. I currently sold 50% of my inventory and recouped all of my expenses and gained 40% net income including my expenses!!! I guess that MTG is a feed up market with some serious competition. But there sure is other things to sell that has potential or is just an untapped market atm i guess.
Here in Europe, I average about 2% bad buyers and fraud on my sales. So overall positive. I should add that I do sell vintage games as well and have about the same amount.
That was harsh. Especially as someone who got in "the game" a few months back. One day you find out your nephew brought home a pokemon booster pack and there you go a week later completely caught in the hobby like you were 15-20 years ago. Funnily enough, I gave myself a year to get to the 100-200€ profit monthly and after 3 months I'm at least not operating anymore at a loss. So that's cool. I'm actually just flipping stuff to build a little something to get on the investing side but eBay is really killing me... I'll hang in there, I guess. Thanks for the video though, regardless of what you say, I'll keep at it as I'm anyway having a lot of fun! :D
4-5 Months later, Corona hit. And ecommerce is exploding even more. This shows, how no one can perfectly predict anything. Still like Rudy's Videos and his Opinions, he's one of the best finance/investing persons I like to hear his opinions! Keep it up you evil investor
I think we are going to see a resurgence of the Flea Market and other in-person CCG vending that was so largely killed off by things like E-Bay so many years ago...
Used to sell online game codes for a living and the amount of people trying to scam or steal money from you online was astonishing. Specially with PayPal and eBay helping them.
God Damn! This channel is phenomenal! Not one youtuber that you can sit and watch for 30 minutes talk about a negative issue... and enjoy every second!
One problem with a lot of buyers on ebay is they think that everyone who sells on ebay is a big time store. It got to the point that I have to put in my auctions that I am just some guy selling off his collection or things I find and am not a big store with hundreds of employees. For shipping, I always pack the item and put in the calculate shipping price based on person location and I add an handling fee to cover any fees or packaging cost. People on ebay seem to think it cost nothing to ship things cause I have had people complain espically if I am shipping something like a box of books, even in media mail shipping can be expensive and I have to explain to them the box weighs 25 pounds and cost money to ship.
Really enjoyed. I believe this is a pivotal time and Rudy is highlighting the transitioning eCommerce world. I have never been a Patron but I have been a subscriber from the near beginning of the channel. Think positive be positive.
I agree with you 100%. Take for example weather news. I get my weather on Facebook from a local guy 30 miles down the road. I don't have to turn on the TV and watch ads upon ads before I get the weather from someone. And this guy is no non-sense, he isn't being pushed by the station to instill fear in people to keep them glued to the channel forced to watch ads.
It really is crazy when you think about it. Look at selling a $100 sealed box on eBay. Seller has to pay $15 in fees and $10 shipping, buyer has to pay $10 in sales tax. That's 35% of the value just wiped out right off the top. Sales are going to continue to move off these platforms and more onto sites like Facebook, craigslist, forums, etc.
One thing I didn't hear mentioned is now with eCommerce states are pushing sales tax on vendors without brick and mortar stores and sales across state lines. That adds an extra 6-8% on average. People consider that part of the price so they factor it into their selling price and the seller tends to lose a portion of that amount as well.
I’ve been on eBay since 1999, sometimes selling hobby and game stuff, although not CCG stuff. As a small seller, I’ve experienced exactly what Rudy has said - as one of the little guys, I have been priced out of doing business there any longer. The fees and rules are heavily stacked against small sellers. Too often, the profit, if it’s there at all, is not worth the effort any more. I agree that the golden age of eBay is over. This applies to UA-cam as well - the days where you can make it big here just by talking about anything have passed. No matter what your subject or passion is, there is someone with more followers already doing it, and your chance of getting an audience is remote now, no matter how good you are or aren’t.
Really enjoyed this one, Rudy. A lot of people dont realize what it's like to sell online and in turn, are shocked when they're offered a truly fair amount for a card considering what they would go through to sell it online.
I started selling on Ebay about 4 years ago after quitting my office job. The postal increases are ridiculous. It used to be free to ship anything under 2 ounces. Now you can't ship anything under $3.60. I started shiping via pwe (plain white envelope) and stopped after 3 buyers saying they never got their cards in a 2 week span. I know that doesn't seem like much but out 3 out of around 8 sales was enough to deter me from selling anything under 8 dollars because of the shipping costs. I joined facebook groups and found another selling outlet. I found that its harder to deal with all the amount of low ballers and people who ask for tons of pictures but never respond back when they aren't getting cards for ridiculously cheap.
this is why i watch your content you dont sugar coat anything if something sucks and your gunna get hosed on it you tell us. On the other hand if no ones buying something that you believe will go up you tell us.
I'm a Pokemon Collector, and don't really collect Magic, however I went ahead and subscribed because this has been a fantastic video with so much info. I'm a fairly new seller on eBay and it's very difficult to make money. eBay fee, paypal fee, shipping costs. It's rough...
This video hits home, man. I started cracking booster boxes and selling on eBay 2 years ago. With all the b.s. you described, overall it has NOT been profitable for me. It's just let me crack packs for a cheaper price, if nothing else. I think it's time I close up the account and call it good. Time to move more into the stock market and real estate for me.
Rudy, you make a really solid point towards the end of this video. People who run large companies are not looking at long term success. Rather, they are looking at short term gains to cushion their pockets. I see this outside of the magic and e-commerce world. I work at a Home Depot part time in addition to my full time job. Ever since I started working at home Depot 5 years ago in college, I have noticed a significant decline in the quaulity of environment for the employees AND customers. This is because the run on a skeleton crew almost always. They only hire under qualified part-time employees (so that they don't have to pay benefits). They provide little to no incentive to employees to improve in terms of financial gain. These are only a few of many issues I have noticed. The only reason for any of these things is to increase the value of their stock. This is at the expensive of their employees and customers. This makes the stock look very good but it is at the expense of employees and customers. Obviously, the high up people benefit from making the stock look good but in the long run these things are not going to be good for the company as a whole. Sorry for the rant but what you said really struck a chord. Keep up the great videos we all appreciate the work you do!
As a person who has 2 different eBay stores (one random reselling, the other graded cards) to manage along with his 50hr a week warehouse job, these vids are always so great to get into
I agree about Ebay and the fees, as a casual seller on Ebay, I pay 10% to Ebay, and 3% to Paypal. Fees are only going up, eventually their business model will collapse under all the fees.
You're lucky. Me, being forced by market conditions to pretty much only sell internationally, out of Europe, I get VAT added to eBay's 10% for a total of 12.3% and PayPal charges 2.9 standard fee + 2% "cross border fee" + in about half of the sales 3.5% in FX fee as I have to convert the dollars the buyer paid to euros before PayPal let's me withdraw it. That's more than 20% in fees!
I played magic in the 90’s and really enjoy the content even though I have no idea about the cards anymore. As someone who consumes a great deal of reseller content and sells on eBay and Amazon this was quality video.
Thanks Rudy great video! I've been selling on eBay since 2007 with just under 5k sales and 1500 feedback's. Everything you say is true, I used to sell for friends and family but had to stop it's just gotten painful and less and less profitable over the last few years. It is my belief that if a new seller is not organized and johnny on it they will most likely struggle and have a terrible experience. I barely sell on eBay now about the only thing i do is a few cards a month, sadly it used to be my favorite hobby but no longer. Thanks again.
Finally, co_operative markets. Aka members are owners/investors. Are the future of reasonable sale that keeps money in the community, regulates price , beats big companies, and reduces pollution ie waste
The no refunding PayPal fees thing is a complete joke. It’s straight up greed and thievery from PayPal. You know how many times people don’t have the correct shipping address and then you need to refund them so they can change it?? Ridiculous
Visa /MC fees are non refundable and actually sometime the card agreements can have higher fees on refunds. So like 2.5% to take that capital one rewards card and 3% to send a refund to it.
@@oldskoolbmw so why does PayPal have the same rules of a buyer here in Portugal uses Multibanco who charges NO feds for payments or refunds? You're just trying to justify PayPal's greed
Thank you for this. I've been a "hobby" - ebayer now for the past decade now and I consider myself kinda lucky that our German Ebay policies aren't this bad. I have my fair share of annoying customers too, if not on a weekly and monthly basis.
I've been using Cardsphere a lot to buy/sell cards. If Ebay/ Tcg gets worse, I invite people to get on CS to grow the community. The admins are fair and protect both buyers and sellers. I had a dude send me a fake dual land on there and the admins sided with me. They monitor the platform and do care about buyers/ sellers with a MTG perspective in mind.
I'm stuck in bed with eBay (non-collectible, high value, highly specialised items) and I'm having a nightmare of a day with them. I can't complain too much, they made it possible for me to make a lot of money over the years, but it's so hard dealing with not just the changes that have happened over the years but the way they implement changes. The way they change isn't hostile but it's an overwhelming level of pressure to do what they're in trying to optimise on any given day. They want free shipping on everything because people who buy phone covers are more likely to buy them if the shipping costs are built into the sale cost. That's great for phone covers but I send awkward, large, heavy items. Nobody buying from me cares if it costs $200 shipping they just care that I can get the item from my warehouse to their workshop. I sell to people who understand that 'free shipping' really means 'we overcharged you for the cheapest service we could get and merged the shipping line of the invoice into each items base cost'. When you have a breakdown on a machine that makes $10,000 an hour and you're paying a workshop full of people to do nothing you don't want to see the words free shipping. Then there's things like their promoted listing system where they want me to compete with the people selling similar products for the best listing placements by offering eBay as big a percentage of our sale as possible. I'd never be able to grow my store from scratch today because all the money that led to expansion would get sunk in that trap. They know that system is only going to result in stores over committing the second they feel desperate for sales but they're so comfortable with the idea that new sellers replace dead sellers that it doesn't even register as a problem. I mean that's what really bothers me. The system worked but I wake up every morning wondering if today is the day they're going to nonchalantly kill my business with a change that has nothing to do with my products. My seller status plummeted a while back because they implemented a new performance metric that couldn't handle DHL tracking numbers. Everything I sent left on time and met their criteria with ease but their automated system didn't plug in to the DHL tracking page correctly so instead of 100% on time scanning I had 0%. eBay support could read the 0% and they understood that it was wrong but it was also the number the screen was telling them so I could hear their brain stuck in a loop. To most buyers complaining about seller status is met with a bit of a 'oh, it's just a dumb score nobody looks at' but the temporary drop in status lost me a significant amount of money. It reminds me of when UA-cam decided that ten minute Let's Plays twice a day were the ideal content and accidentally wiped out a large portion of the stuff that made UA-cam fun to browse. I feel like the guy who was doing fine making short form animations for UA-cam right before the algorithm turned against him. Sorry to vent but I just need to get that out my system today and I rarely get to hear blunt opinions from people who have worked with eBay on a similar level to me during a similar time frame. Sometimes I'll speak with people doing the same thing I do but we all pretend we're fine because we have to. Likewise plenty of people with large platforms will talk about it but it's usually 'eBay is the devil! Here's why I hate them...' instead of actually talking about how the machine moves and what it's like to move with it.
I myself have been selling on eBay since 2008. A few years ago, I decided to completely offload my vast collection of classic retro videogames (NES, SNES, Genesis, Atari) and vintage 1980s Transformers figures. I think I dodged a bullet. Having sold the majority of my collections before eBay and PayPal split and the ridiculous hike in fees that followed.
Some people build up a Twitter presence and sell on there. Heard Cardsphere is an option for people (esp in the US) though still 10% fees via Paypal to cash out (i think). Others use local/national Facebook pages to sell. There are alternatives but i guess if you want to scale like Rudy, that's a different level of challenge.
EBay fees are usually factored in and passed along to the customer. It is hard to sell just sealed mtg on there because of the margins. Flipping thrift store fines you can buy for $1 and sale for $20 is still a pretty good return after fees.
Cardboard seller posts youtube video & causes mass store exodus on eBay On a serious note; thank you for your entertaining videos long term viewer - also been on ebay since 2003 & way overdue on a future plan. Here in Australia eBay may still be in its infancy as some of our largest retailers are just starting out i.e. Bunnings, Coles. Also no coupons for us. Keep at it Ruby*
Last time I called eBay for a problem I had gotten a robot that did absolutely nothing beneficial. I would love nothing more than to talk to a real person. Robots will inherit the this earth. Peace and love with you, Rudy.
The era of craigslist style e-commerce will probably become popular again, offerup/letgo/facebook market place, that kind of thing. More local, no fee transactions.
100% of the time, eBay favors the buyer(s) and screws the seller(s). Is that, in combination with about 20% fees and shipping costs, worth reaching tens of millions of people? Maybe... eBay is a true monopoly, more so than Amazon and Google, and they certainly capitalize on that fact.
I've sold coins, magic cards and video games on ebay off an on for 20 years. What I've learned is you can't sell the super cheap stuff anymore. To really come out ahead with shipping & all fees you need items that are $40 to $100 in retail price. I don't ship anything without tracking now so I don't sell anything that's under about $40 period. It is what it is. The other issue is when looking for inventory is you have to offer way less then years back because of the new system. If something retails for $100 I can offer $50-$60 at most because of the fee/shipping structure I have to overcome to turn a 10-20% profit. Margins on this stuff are so tight, that for a newcomer it can be very challenging to deal with this again it is what it is, and e-commerce is not for everyone.
Rudy. It's not just the horrific "make profits now, damn the future!" but buyers demanding the lowest price they can get, regardless of what the product actually costs... The buyers appreciation of customer service and quality are gone, it seems... Without going into a diatribe on economic foolishness, a big part of the latter was built by the rise of the former; *and* especially that the minimum wage hasn't gone up for, what, 30 years! Unless people have a top level job (tech, healthcare, finance), they're getting paid scraps...and that's BS. Society would collapse if the janitors, garbage men, and store clerks went on strike!! Yet we treat them like dirt... :-( Love your long-form videos. :-) Stopped selling in eBay this year because I value my time more than the pittance of profits I was making. But it wasn't terrible. I was making above minimum wage while working from home! - Admiral Timmy :-)
The middle men have been increasing fees. This has resulted in many people looking to avoid these systems and sell directly or through sites where the middle man does not take a large share. If the fee is low like in europe it is not an issue. However, ebay and tcgplayer is just to high and it is unjustifiable. I think the golden age will be in the future where more efficient systems with lower fees come into existence.
@@ZenosOsgorma The prices are also 10-15% cheaper on facebook and cardsphere. Often most of the benefit goes to the customer. In effect if there is 15% of fees total saved you will often find the customer gets 2/3 of the benefit and the seller 1/3. There is some dodgy people on all platforms but it also seems ebay has a higher scam rate than other sites.
@@ZenosOsgorma the cardmarket website price average is ruined because it averages ALL the languages of item being sold. Most of the time non-English (or non-Japanese) is valued at less.
Decent Video but my biggest issue is you don't consider the convenience of being able to gain access to millions of customers with next to nothing in terms of initial investment (as a platform). 12% (ebay + paypal) is nothing if you factor in you are not paying over head for a brick and mortar store that will get 1/100th of the traffic. This is on a sale too, you don't have to open an ebay store. You can list something for free and pay nothing if it doesn't sell. It is also up for sale around the clock. And quite frankly if you can't survive 12% paypal and ebay fees your business structure was never surviving a brick and mortar, foot traffic business.
All correct i was a very happy little ebay seller for vintage product toy cards ect back in 02 up until 09/10 i was making a good amount of money help me for family and home cost,but for me now is impossible ebay as become a corporation,i understand very well your words about frustation they are very real,i just quit But there are option never forget that everyone Great video thank you
I totally agree with you, Rudy, but I have one big question: if e-commerce isn't where it's at any more, where's the greed monster going to be looking to put up its ivory tower now, and in the future? Obviously, you can't answer that matter-of-factly, but where do you reckon everyone will go?
i've been on ebay for since 2001 or so. I never bothered with eBay branded boxes. I always ordered the Flat Rate Priority Mail Boxes and Envelopes from USPS website, they are all free. If it's over a pound you get priority flat rate box or envelope! My favorite is Legal Sized, 15x9, I've shipped things from Computer Power Supplies to Vintage Marbles to Hard Drives to Rare Video Games to a Fat Pack Box full of cards in them, if you can close it and its 70 lbs its a flat rate! If they still had FREE Tyvek Shipping Tape, I would be in heaven!
I'm a very new ebay buy/seller. About 40 purchases and 6 sales, all pokemon. I currently have 6 cards that I've paid for that should have been here a week ago at the latest and they haven't arrived. I don't know what to do because obviously if l contact ebay about this I'll ill suspicious. None of the sellers have responded to me. I just want my cards!
Pros and cons to everything. With the way sales tax nexus laws are going i think selling on platforms like eBay might be better for big sellers. Honestly once you hit 200 sales in a state you have nexus there, and have to remit certain sales taxes for different states and either have to get sales permits in all those states individually or abide by 50 different sets of rules, some including sending sellers letters directly about sales tax. But eBay is now starting to handle the sales tax automatically (i think in 3 states).
I only discovered this channel recently. Hard to believe how much content I missed out on. Anyone want to fill me in on the Rudy lore thus far?
He's a creepy scammer with a high female subscriber base and a very high customer rating.
That sums it up.
TwicebakedJake he manages a taco bell and lives in his parent's basement; everything you see is green screen. This is all a big ruse; that is the lore. There's also two people who play Rudy in these videos, the old OG actor stopped doing them I think, you can tell it's a different person if you watch the first vid, think they're related but those two red headed bearded dudes in baseball have me questioning a lot now ;)
The cards are augemented reality cgi
Rudy sells resealed pokeman packs and deletes videos while eating tacos
rudy has lost his tacos
I was a patron of Rudy's for around a year … I joined into the Rudy patron army roughly 8 months into him starting it up … and missed a lot of the great early deals (one of the reasons I ended up dropping my patron membership), but I remember buying a commander 2017 set from him and forgot that I had just bought a new house with a different address. Long story short … after attempting to update all my ebay and paypal info the set got mailed to my old address … I got a hold of the shipper and got it stopped and returned before it ever arrived, but due to a hurricane it ended up being shipped to 4 different cities and disappeared. I was really worried that I would end up fucked. Rudy took care of the claim and replaced the commander set with a sealed box of Kaladesh which at the time was roughly the same price as the Commander product (which was sold out … couldn't replace it). I still have no idea if he ever received his product back or was able to recoup his money from the set disappearing over something that was initially my mistake. To this day I appreciate you taking the high road and taking care of me in the past. Glad to know that there are still good people out there.
Wow. Thanks for sharing your story. I love hearing em. If you cancelled cause of lack of the early great deals, there's gonna be more in the future tbh. He just did a neat product he called Rudy's Remains, which was from a bunch of different sets. I would've bought it if I could spare the money.
Good story, thanks for sharing.
Last month he did a special for modern horizons shipped 170. It was off the chain. Last year he did iconic and m25 for 130/140 range a box for literally 6-9 months.
Stick with Rudy. You’ll get good deals plus he gives pretty good insight to the world of cardboard.
Rudy isn't good people
Large hard phyrexian tower
Oh, that was the other video. Still worth saying again though.
Rudy, didn't you have a video of you sitting at a table eating tacos for 10 minutes straight? Where did it go?
I used to have an Ebay Anchor store and, at its peak, sold $3000-$5000 a month. Between the huge hikes in fees and the invasion of Chinese mega sellers and skyrocketing postal charges, I am down to a couple of hundred bucks a month. How do you complete against companies that literally buy truckloads of cards and have industrial-scale card sorting and distributing methods? But the massive increase in postal rates--especially international rates are what really pisses me off. Chinese sellers can ship a small package to my neighbor (with a tracking number) cheaper than I can do the same! Absolutely killed my once robust international shipping to just about zero. Globalism sucks, especially when your own country sells you out! Rudy is right. Forget about getting into online retail of non-priority products. The big dogs will crush you.
Sad to hear. Welcome to globalisation, the calling card of Capitalism.
@Matty Zee funny cuz true. i moved my shipping warehouse for my small scale business to china because i can ship at 1/5 of the costs to anywhere in the world.
@@karimbauer8720 It's only possible because global elites agreed on international shipping rates that favor China. Remember, everything from these Chinese "E-Packets" inside the US border is delivered by USPS. So we didn't have to agree to this. Guessing some of our corrupt AF politicians were paid handsomely for this to pass.
@Anthony Lopez cheap labor, controlled government, what does not global elites love about china?
@Anthony Lopez Foreign lobbyists have way too much access to our Congress. I wouldn't doubt if there are also a few full blown traitors at high levels of government.
Im sick of selling cards for 40% at my lgs when they are worth more. I was thinking about ebay and this video helps. Thank you
If you're selling on ebay without having an account for very long your listings will sell for much less than market price.
What?!
You can't sell babies on Ebay.
If you made it you have to sell it on Etsy.
Sell onmercari or instagram or facebook groups. You wont lose 40%.
If you now losing 40% then its a no brainer go to EBAY. With shipping, paypal fee and ebay fee its only about 15% and then add a little for fraud you will still come out way ahead of a lgs sale.
@James Brincefield The only way i make profit of selling is when i go to events and sell to vendors or sellin to people who needs a card
There's hope for the future of e-commerce, but it's not going to be centralized platforms like eBay/Paypal. Cut out the middlemen with p2p electronic cash and implement buyer protection in the form of free market escrow agents who take a small cut (much less than Paypal) to arbitrate disputes.
yea, escrow for Magic cards and Pokemon.. people will start to go back to there local hobby store if that shit happens
@@michaeledwards1644 lol shut up boomer
@Matty Zee agree, they are the flame in the saying like moths to a flame
That sounds like some mighty fine capitalism you have there. Would be a shame if someone.... changed it
Rudy hasn't even touched on how the post office is also hosing sellers with their rate increases; and how somehow ebay can include the shipping price when they charge your final value fee.
Final value fee on shipping cost is one of the bigger crocks of shit they throw at us, tbh
I have been selling Warhammer models for 7 months to a Swedish site equal to Ebay as a hobby projekt and my experience has been great so far. I started of by listing separate models from the Shadowspear boxed set and i net a 30-50% from each box sold. I sold roughly a +30 boxes when they was available so it was a success in my opinion.
I had no fixed price but a very high starting bid on each auction so i knew for certain that i would at least net a +25% for each box i sold and the competition among bidders raised the value from the starting price most of the times.
The shadowspear boxes are now sold out but i have found a new item within Warhammer i bought 1100$ of for starters to sell and they have been even better than the Shadowspear boxed set.
I currently sold 50% of my inventory and recouped all of my expenses and gained 40% net income including my expenses!!!
I guess that MTG is a feed up market with some serious competition. But there sure is other things to sell that has potential or is just an untapped market atm i guess.
Good on you, all the best with it.
Don't let Games Workshop find you out. They will shut you down.
Here in Europe, I average about 2% bad buyers and fraud on my sales. So overall positive. I should add that I do sell vintage games as well and have about the same amount.
I found a guy who screwed me over on ebay, I called his house and talked to his mom
Lmao
Fun times.
Oh boy, tell me about it! After that It was like I'd never hear the end of it!
That was harsh. Especially as someone who got in "the game" a few months back. One day you find out your nephew brought home a pokemon booster pack and there you go a week later completely caught in the hobby like you were 15-20 years ago. Funnily enough, I gave myself a year to get to the 100-200€ profit monthly and after 3 months I'm at least not operating anymore at a loss. So that's cool. I'm actually just flipping stuff to build a little something to get on the investing side but eBay is really killing me... I'll hang in there, I guess. Thanks for the video though, regardless of what you say, I'll keep at it as I'm anyway having a lot of fun! :D
4-5 Months later, Corona hit. And ecommerce is exploding even more. This shows, how no one can perfectly predict anything.
Still like Rudy's Videos and his Opinions, he's one of the best finance/investing persons I like to hear his opinions!
Keep it up you evil investor
the only youtube channel i hardly ever write mean comments to
I think we are going to see a resurgence of the Flea Market and other in-person CCG vending that was so largely killed off by things like E-Bay so many years ago...
Used to sell online game codes for a living and the amount of people trying to scam or steal money from you online was astonishing. Specially with PayPal and eBay helping them.
Listened to the end. Very thought-provoking. The commentary on the short-term-gains mindset is chilling.
God Damn! This channel is phenomenal! Not one youtuber that you can sit and watch for 30 minutes talk about a negative issue... and enjoy every second!
Speaking of ebay, your shirts are sold out in most sizes still.
Yeah. Would appreciate, if there would come some new charges. Greetings from germany
One problem with a lot of buyers on ebay is they think that everyone who sells on ebay is a big time store. It got to the point that I have to put in my auctions that I am just some guy selling off his collection or things I find and am not a big store with hundreds of employees. For shipping, I always pack the item and put in the calculate shipping price based on person location and I add an handling fee to cover any fees or packaging cost. People on ebay seem to think it cost nothing to ship things cause I have had people complain espically if I am shipping something like a box of books, even in media mail shipping can be expensive and I have to explain to them the box weighs 25 pounds and cost money to ship.
Really enjoyed. I believe this is a pivotal time and Rudy is highlighting the transitioning eCommerce world. I have never been a Patron but I have been a subscriber from the near beginning of the channel. Think positive be positive.
I agree with you 100%.
Take for example weather news. I get my weather on Facebook from a local guy 30 miles down the road. I don't have to turn on the TV and watch ads upon ads before I get the weather from someone.
And this guy is no non-sense, he isn't being pushed by the station to instill fear in people to keep them glued to the channel forced to watch ads.
It really is crazy when you think about it. Look at selling a $100 sealed box on eBay. Seller has to pay $15 in fees and $10 shipping, buyer has to pay $10 in sales tax. That's 35% of the value just wiped out right off the top. Sales are going to continue to move off these platforms and more onto sites like Facebook, craigslist, forums, etc.
If it's a used or open box item you still pay sales tax? That's a scam if I've ever seen one
You pay sales tax on any transaction if it's part of a business, except for tax exempt stuff like groceries.
@@franksinatra5181 even the Draconian VAT in the EU only applies to new goods or services, no matter if it's a business selling or not
That's all fine and dandy but that's how sales taxes work in the US.
Hey Rudy, big fan of the long form videos- the behind the scenes perspective is really interesting and useful. Thanks!
One thing I didn't hear mentioned is now with eCommerce states are pushing sales tax on vendors without brick and mortar stores and sales across state lines. That adds an extra 6-8% on average. People consider that part of the price so they factor it into their selling price and the seller tends to lose a portion of that amount as well.
Totally love the video. As an investor you have to be able to evaluate, diversify and pivot when needed. Education at its finest.
I stand on the street corner and sell my Magic Cards! Gangster Style!
Slangin paper on the corner is dangerous.
@@ThisHandleIsNotAvailable. Got any snappys or damnations at street corner prices?
Benis style
@@theequivalanceofammotheory I got bulk rares at $10 a gram. It's only trimmed with the finest Sharpies.
Yeah things got scary when I got surrounded by a crew of 9 year old Pokemon players who said I was on their turf! lol
I’ve been on eBay since 1999, sometimes selling hobby and game stuff, although not CCG stuff. As a small seller, I’ve experienced exactly what Rudy has said - as one of the little guys, I have been priced out of doing business there any longer. The fees and rules are heavily stacked against small sellers. Too often, the profit, if it’s there at all, is not worth the effort any more. I agree that the golden age of eBay is over. This applies to UA-cam as well - the days where you can make it big here just by talking about anything have passed. No matter what your subject or passion is, there is someone with more followers already doing it, and your chance of getting an audience is remote now, no matter how good you are or aren’t.
Really enjoyed this one, Rudy. A lot of people dont realize what it's like to sell online and in turn, are shocked when they're offered a truly fair amount for a card considering what they would go through to sell it online.
I started selling on Ebay about 4 years ago after quitting my office job. The postal increases are ridiculous. It used to be free to ship anything under 2 ounces. Now you can't ship anything under $3.60. I started shiping via pwe (plain white envelope) and stopped after 3 buyers saying they never got their cards in a 2 week span. I know that doesn't seem like much but out 3 out of around 8 sales was enough to deter me from selling anything under 8 dollars because of the shipping costs. I joined facebook groups and found another selling outlet. I found that its harder to deal with all the amount of low ballers and people who ask for tons of pictures but never respond back when they aren't getting cards for ridiculously cheap.
Wow, as someone that just opened a Mtg eBay store these are some really great tips! Thankyou for your amazing work as always Rudy!
Nice video. Ebay and PayPal are terribly run companies with major flaws. You nailed this.
Absolutely 100% on these points! Sold for years and it still messes with me.
Rudy, l really have so much admiration for what you’ve doing. You’re brilliant human being.
Rudy...Stop walking off-camera, watching us, watching you! Lol. Thanks for the informed perspective.
this is why i watch your content you dont sugar coat anything if something sucks and your gunna get hosed on it you tell us. On the other hand if no ones buying something that you believe will go up you tell us.
Rudy could get way more patrons, if there be a possibility to ship overseas
You should play Steem Monsters, its the new Magic.
I'm a Pokemon Collector, and don't really collect Magic, however I went ahead and subscribed because this has been a fantastic video with so much info. I'm a fairly new seller on eBay and it's very difficult to make money. eBay fee, paypal fee, shipping costs. It's rough...
Love the knowledge and perspective! Thanks Rudy!
I love cheap stuff and your channel is entertaining and educational I find value in that.
This video hits home, man. I started cracking booster boxes and selling on eBay 2 years ago. With all the b.s. you described, overall it has NOT been profitable for me. It's just let me crack packs for a cheaper price, if nothing else.
I think it's time I close up the account and call it good. Time to move more into the stock market and real estate for me.
I co-owned a comic/gaming shop for a decade. I wish these videos were around back then, I think I would have made different choices
Rudy, you make a really solid point towards the end of this video. People who run large companies are not looking at long term success. Rather,
they are looking at short term gains to cushion their pockets. I see this outside of the magic and e-commerce world. I work at a Home Depot part time in addition to my full time job. Ever since I started working at home Depot 5 years ago in college, I have noticed a significant decline in the quaulity of environment for the employees AND customers. This is because the run on a skeleton crew almost always. They only hire under qualified part-time employees (so that they don't have to pay benefits). They provide little to no incentive to employees to improve in terms of financial gain. These are only a few of many issues I have noticed. The only reason for any of these things is to increase the value of their stock. This is at the expensive of their employees and customers. This makes the stock look very good but it is at the expense of employees and customers. Obviously, the high up people benefit from making the stock look good but in the long run these things are not going to be good for the company as a whole. Sorry for the rant but what you said really struck a chord. Keep up the great videos we all appreciate the work you do!
As a person who has 2 different eBay stores (one random reselling, the other graded cards) to manage along with his 50hr a week warehouse job, these vids are always so great to get into
I agree about Ebay and the fees, as a casual seller on Ebay, I pay 10% to Ebay, and 3% to Paypal. Fees are only going up, eventually their business model will collapse under all the fees.
You're lucky. Me, being forced by market conditions to pretty much only sell internationally, out of Europe, I get VAT added to eBay's 10% for a total of 12.3% and PayPal charges 2.9 standard fee + 2% "cross border fee" + in about half of the sales 3.5% in FX fee as I have to convert the dollars the buyer paid to euros before PayPal let's me withdraw it. That's more than 20% in fees!
I played magic in the 90’s and really enjoy the content even though I have no idea about the cards anymore. As someone who consumes a great deal of reseller content and sells on eBay and Amazon this was quality video.
Thanks Rudy great video! I've been selling on eBay since 2007 with just under 5k sales and 1500 feedback's. Everything you say is true, I used to sell for friends and family but had to stop it's just gotten painful and less and less profitable over the last few years. It is my belief that if a new seller is not organized and johnny on it they will most likely struggle and have a terrible experience. I barely sell on eBay now about the only thing i do is a few cards a month, sadly it used to be my favorite hobby but no longer. Thanks again.
Finally, co_operative markets. Aka members are owners/investors. Are the future of reasonable sale that keeps money in the community, regulates price , beats big companies, and reduces pollution ie waste
The no refunding PayPal fees thing is a complete joke. It’s straight up greed and thievery from PayPal. You know how many times people don’t have the correct shipping address and then you need to refund them so they can change it?? Ridiculous
Visa /MC fees are non refundable and actually sometime the card agreements can have higher fees on refunds. So like 2.5% to take that capital one rewards card and 3% to send a refund to it.
Isn't Ebay and PayPal splitting ways in the next couple years? Maybe ebay will set in place a better system.
i do not have any fees with my student regions card so i must be lucky on that side
@@oldskoolbmw so why does PayPal have the same rules of a buyer here in Portugal uses Multibanco who charges NO feds for payments or refunds? You're just trying to justify PayPal's greed
Thank you so much, for your honesty !!
It's always a pleasure to listen to how you see the big picture of things
Preach it brother.
Rudy for you it almost seems logical to set up your own website and pay $200/month for someone to update it etc.
unpopular opinion: this is your best video on youtube.
Thank you for this. I've been a "hobby" - ebayer now for the past decade now and I consider myself kinda lucky that our German Ebay policies aren't this bad.
I have my fair share of annoying customers too, if not on a weekly and monthly basis.
@@oldbordergeek Never heard of this bonus programme thingy. Is it really worth it?
I've been using Cardsphere a lot to buy/sell cards. If Ebay/ Tcg gets worse, I invite people to get on CS to grow the community. The admins are fair and protect both buyers and sellers. I had a dude send me a fake dual land on there and the admins sided with me. They monitor the platform and do care about buyers/ sellers with a MTG perspective in mind.
Love your long vids, keep them coming.
I am going along the Long hard phyrexian tower thing just to show appreciation.
Thanks for the info Rudy. This is good information.
Always informative
Dude this is a great vid!! I am glad you made this one! So good! Wow, walking away from ebay, craziness but yeah fees are bad.
This was a great video. Very helpful.
Great historic video Rudy!
I'm stuck in bed with eBay (non-collectible, high value, highly specialised items) and I'm having a nightmare of a day with them. I can't complain too much, they made it possible for me to make a lot of money over the years, but it's so hard dealing with not just the changes that have happened over the years but the way they implement changes. The way they change isn't hostile but it's an overwhelming level of pressure to do what they're in trying to optimise on any given day. They want free shipping on everything because people who buy phone covers are more likely to buy them if the shipping costs are built into the sale cost. That's great for phone covers but I send awkward, large, heavy items. Nobody buying from me cares if it costs $200 shipping they just care that I can get the item from my warehouse to their workshop. I sell to people who understand that 'free shipping' really means 'we overcharged you for the cheapest service we could get and merged the shipping line of the invoice into each items base cost'. When you have a breakdown on a machine that makes $10,000 an hour and you're paying a workshop full of people to do nothing you don't want to see the words free shipping.
Then there's things like their promoted listing system where they want me to compete with the people selling similar products for the best listing placements by offering eBay as big a percentage of our sale as possible. I'd never be able to grow my store from scratch today because all the money that led to expansion would get sunk in that trap. They know that system is only going to result in stores over committing the second they feel desperate for sales but they're so comfortable with the idea that new sellers replace dead sellers that it doesn't even register as a problem. I mean that's what really bothers me. The system worked but I wake up every morning wondering if today is the day they're going to nonchalantly kill my business with a change that has nothing to do with my products. My seller status plummeted a while back because they implemented a new performance metric that couldn't handle DHL tracking numbers. Everything I sent left on time and met their criteria with ease but their automated system didn't plug in to the DHL tracking page correctly so instead of 100% on time scanning I had 0%. eBay support could read the 0% and they understood that it was wrong but it was also the number the screen was telling them so I could hear their brain stuck in a loop. To most buyers complaining about seller status is met with a bit of a 'oh, it's just a dumb score nobody looks at' but the temporary drop in status lost me a significant amount of money.
It reminds me of when UA-cam decided that ten minute Let's Plays twice a day were the ideal content and accidentally wiped out a large portion of the stuff that made UA-cam fun to browse. I feel like the guy who was doing fine making short form animations for UA-cam right before the algorithm turned against him.
Sorry to vent but I just need to get that out my system today and I rarely get to hear blunt opinions from people who have worked with eBay on a similar level to me during a similar time frame. Sometimes I'll speak with people doing the same thing I do but we all pretend we're fine because we have to. Likewise plenty of people with large platforms will talk about it but it's usually 'eBay is the devil! Here's why I hate them...' instead of actually talking about how the machine moves and what it's like to move with it.
Breaking news: rudy accused of inproper disposal of taco
I myself have been selling on eBay since 2008.
A few years ago, I decided to completely offload my vast collection of classic retro videogames (NES, SNES, Genesis, Atari) and vintage 1980s Transformers figures.
I think I dodged a bullet.
Having sold the majority of my collections before eBay and PayPal split and the ridiculous hike in fees that followed.
Some people build up a Twitter presence and sell on there. Heard Cardsphere is an option for people (esp in the US) though still 10% fees via Paypal to cash out (i think). Others use local/national Facebook pages to sell. There are alternatives but i guess if you want to scale like Rudy, that's a different level of challenge.
EBay fees are usually factored in and passed along to the customer. It is hard to sell just sealed mtg on there because of the margins. Flipping thrift store fines you can buy for $1 and sale for $20 is still a pretty good return after fees.
Its not just in cards, its in everything on Ebay.
Cardboard seller posts youtube video & causes mass store exodus on eBay
On a serious note; thank you for your entertaining videos long term viewer - also been on ebay since 2003 & way overdue on a future plan. Here in Australia eBay may still be in its infancy as some of our largest retailers are just starting out i.e. Bunnings, Coles. Also no coupons for us. Keep at it Ruby*
feeBay
They peaked years ago and are on the downhill slide which is accelerating due to more and more states forcing them to collect sales tax. RIP
Last time I called eBay for a problem I had gotten a robot that did absolutely nothing beneficial. I would love nothing more than to talk to a real person. Robots will inherit the this earth. Peace and love with you, Rudy.
"when my first house was built in my uhh mid 20s" ... jeez rudy way to brag
Does he not realize the magnitude of that statement to some of us. A LOT of us
@@textture8651 He very likely does but it's not right for us to be upset at his casual tone. He earned it.
The era of craigslist style e-commerce will probably become popular again, offerup/letgo/facebook market place, that kind of thing. More local, no fee transactions.
Well said. I couldn't agree more.
I've bought from rudy on ebay several times. always does a great job
100% of the time, eBay favors the buyer(s) and screws the seller(s). Is that, in combination with about 20% fees and shipping costs, worth reaching tens of millions of people? Maybe...
eBay is a true monopoly, more so than Amazon and Google, and they certainly capitalize on that fact.
I've sold coins, magic cards and video games on ebay off an on for 20 years. What I've learned is you can't sell the super cheap stuff anymore. To really come out ahead with shipping & all fees you need items that are $40 to $100 in retail price. I don't ship anything without tracking now so I don't sell anything that's under about $40 period. It is what it is. The other issue is when looking for inventory is you have to offer way less then years back because of the new system. If something retails for $100 I can offer $50-$60 at most because of the fee/shipping structure I have to overcome to turn a 10-20% profit. Margins on this stuff are so tight, that for a newcomer it can be very challenging to deal with this again it is what it is, and e-commerce is not for everyone.
Thank you.
Great video Rudy-san!
Rudy. It's not just the horrific "make profits now, damn the future!" but buyers demanding the lowest price they can get, regardless of what the product actually costs...
The buyers appreciation of customer service and quality are gone, it seems...
Without going into a diatribe on economic foolishness, a big part of the latter was built by the rise of the former; *and* especially that the minimum wage hasn't gone up for, what, 30 years!
Unless people have a top level job (tech, healthcare, finance), they're getting paid scraps...and that's BS. Society would collapse if the janitors, garbage men, and store clerks went on strike!! Yet we treat them like dirt... :-(
Love your long-form videos. :-)
Stopped selling in eBay this year because I value my time more than the pittance of profits I was making.
But it wasn't terrible. I was making above minimum wage while working from home!
- Admiral Timmy :-)
12 years on ebay here. everything he is saying is true.
Can we get a Rudy's reading list video?
Rudy kinda looks like a mixture of Badger from Breaking Bad and Ethan from h3h3
I remember first seeing your channel and thinking, "that's the guy from Ebay". Congrats on your continued success selling floppy tacos!
The middle men have been increasing fees. This has resulted in many people looking to avoid these systems and sell directly or through sites where the middle man does not take a large share. If the fee is low like in europe it is not an issue. However, ebay and tcgplayer is just to high and it is unjustifiable. I think the golden age will be in the future where more efficient systems with lower fees come into existence.
Yes, we in Europe use cardmarket and they only charge 5% fees. Ebay with 10% is just another level^^
@@zzafrica87 ya but the EU card market website is flooded with people tanking the prices averages.
The prices are good & fair, no idea what u mean^^ I am in first place a player btw.
@@ZenosOsgorma The prices are also 10-15% cheaper on facebook and cardsphere. Often most of the benefit goes to the customer. In effect if there is 15% of fees total saved you will often find the customer gets 2/3 of the benefit and the seller 1/3. There is some dodgy people on all platforms but it also seems ebay has a higher scam rate than other sites.
@@ZenosOsgorma the cardmarket website price average is ruined because it averages ALL the languages of item being sold. Most of the time non-English (or non-Japanese) is valued at less.
Decent Video but my biggest issue is you don't consider the convenience of being able to gain access to millions of customers with next to nothing in terms of initial investment (as a platform). 12% (ebay + paypal) is nothing if you factor in you are not paying over head for a brick and mortar store that will get 1/100th of the traffic. This is on a sale too, you don't have to open an ebay store. You can list something for free and pay nothing if it doesn't sell. It is also up for sale around the clock. And quite frankly if you can't survive 12% paypal and ebay fees your business structure was never surviving a brick and mortar, foot traffic business.
All correct i was a very happy little ebay seller for vintage product toy cards ect back in 02 up until 09/10 i was making a good amount of money help me for family and home cost,but for me now is impossible ebay as become a corporation,i understand very well your words about frustation they are very real,i just quit
But there are option never forget that everyone
Great video thank you
I totally agree with you, Rudy, but I have one big question: if e-commerce isn't where it's at any more, where's the greed monster going to be looking to put up its ivory tower now, and in the future? Obviously, you can't answer that matter-of-factly, but where do you reckon everyone will go?
To be fair starting now in any market is always going to a massive uphill struggle, for most people its really not worth the time.
I really enjoy these style of videos. Thanks for sharing your thoughts, I find them interesting.
Thank you rudy much love :)
i've been on ebay for since 2001 or so. I never bothered with eBay branded boxes. I always ordered the Flat Rate Priority Mail Boxes and Envelopes from USPS website, they are all free. If it's over a pound you get priority flat rate box or envelope! My favorite is Legal Sized, 15x9, I've shipped things from Computer Power Supplies to Vintage Marbles to Hard Drives to Rare Video Games to a Fat Pack Box full of cards in them, if you can close it and its 70 lbs its a flat rate! If they still had FREE Tyvek Shipping Tape, I would be in heaven!
Great tip! Thanks for sharing :)
As things become more digital, services will become way more in demand than goods will be
Never known about you but this is some good info. Pretty much what i said a few times about blocking
I'm a very new ebay buy/seller. About 40 purchases and 6 sales, all pokemon. I currently have 6 cards that I've paid for that should have been here a week ago at the latest and they haven't arrived. I don't know what to do because obviously if l contact ebay about this I'll ill suspicious. None of the sellers have responded to me. I just want my cards!
this says alot about society
One of the best vids ever, Thank you !
14:00 ..... veiled threats.... I see you Rudy :)
Pros and cons to everything. With the way sales tax nexus laws are going i think selling on platforms like eBay might be better for big sellers. Honestly once you hit 200 sales in a state you have nexus there, and have to remit certain sales taxes for different states and either have to get sales permits in all those states individually or abide by 50 different sets of rules, some including sending sellers letters directly about sales tax. But eBay is now starting to handle the sales tax automatically (i think in 3 states).