Episode 203: Timeless Moments – How to Safely Sell Cards

Selling cards can be rewarding, but doing it the right way is key. In this Timeless Moments episode, we break down essential tips to protect yourself when making deals.

💰 Keep records & use tracked postage
 🚨 Don’t deal in blind faith—research buyers & get vouches
 💳 Never post until the cash arrives
 📦 Packaging tips to keep your cards safe
 🤝 Meeting in person? Stay public & use a PO Box for returns

Protect yourself & your cards—tune in now!

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 https://open.spotify.com/show/70w10XxmGviovd5T0LUFFc

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Transcript

00:08.72
Adz
Welcome everybody to episode 203 of the You Can't Comp This NBA Trading Card Podcast. We're your hosts, Adam, Amy and Russell Gibson.

00:20.83
Adz
We're back with another timeless moment. And we're flipping the script this week a little bit. um we we've We've told buyers to beware of scam sellers.

00:36.88
Adz
But we kind of want to put the shoe on the other foot this week and said, let's educate our, I don't know, aspiring sellers, those that want to dip their toe into the the world of selling cards.

00:48.96
Russell Gibson
Yeah.

00:52.24
Russell Gibson
yeah Cause I think as you move through your hobby journey and as you start to buy more cards, you soon realize that a, you can't possibly keep all of these cards.

00:55.36
Adz
Yep.

01:03.12
Russell Gibson
And then often too, you'll realize that there's maybe a different or better card that you'd like to purchase instead. So it's, it's something that you have to deal with at some point in your hobby collecting career, which will be selling cards and can be daunting.

01:17.99
Russell Gibson
It can be stressful and it can be, ah unfortunately, fraught with peril.

01:19.41
Adz
Very.

01:25.49
Adz
Yes.

01:26.45
Russell Gibson
So we'd just like to maybe talk about some of the, you know, the really big red flags that if you can avoid the easy ones, if you want to say it like that.

01:33.85
Adz
Yeah. Yeah. And it it's, it is. it So these these are sort of our, I guess we call it our five, our key five tips with a couple of little bonuses for for what you're doing, especially if it's a first time, your first time as a seller.

01:42.77
Russell Gibson
Yeah.

01:48.06
Russell Gibson
Yeah.

01:48.96
Adz
um I can kick it off with number one.

01:52.79
Russell Gibson
Yes, I think you were mentioning this and I probably think you're more passionate about this. I think this is definitely better for you to talk about this one.

01:59.58
Adz
I think the the simple one is good record keeping, keeping, keeping records.

02:02.03
Russell Gibson
Hmm.

02:03.50
Adz
Um, If you're selling one card, you know where your one card is and what you sold your one card or what you want to sell the one card for and that's great. However, if you're looking to sell 20, 30, 50, 100 cards, I would recommend having some kind of database, tracking sheet, record keeping tool.

02:21.22
Russell Gibson
Hmm.

02:29.25
Adz
Obviously, if you're doing it on eBay, eBay tracks all a lot of this stuff for you.

02:33.57
Russell Gibson
Yeah. And the tools on that are very good because it'll tell you where each order is up to.

02:37.29
Adz
Agreed.

02:37.39
Russell Gibson
If you have shipped it if it's tracked, if it's delivered, dah, dah, dah, dah.

02:39.81
Adz
Spot on.

02:41.47
Russell Gibson
Yeah. So that's, yeah.

02:41.78
Adz
In fact, you can buy postage labels and everything through eBay. like it's It's very automated these days. However, um for your own record keeping, um this is something I do personally with the cards that I sell.

02:47.03
Russell Gibson
Hmm.

02:54.21
Adz
I actually have the cards, like give them a ah like a reference number and keep them in a you a specific area so that I know where they are and as they sell, where, where I get them.

03:10.56
Adz
And if they're gone off the list kind of thing.

03:12.04
Russell Gibson
Yeah.

03:13.30
Adz
So that way I'm like, Oh, okay. What was the, what, what card did I sell off my list? Bang. What did it sell for?

03:19.58
Russell Gibson
Yeah.

03:20.27
Adz
Where, where's it located? Cause that's embarrassing. Obviously. ah no, I haven't got the card anymore. um Legitimately of course, but correct.

03:29.39
Russell Gibson
You don't want end up on a scammer's page because you can't find your cards.

03:32.84
Adz
Yeah, because you've stopped. Don't ever try and sell it twice. We've covered this on an episode. um No, it's like a genuine it can be ah a genuine record-keeping mistake where you're just like, what cards am I selling, keeping track of where things are, especially if you're not doing it on eBay, and I'm alluding to things like marketplace sales, auctions, and things like that when you're putting up multiple cards.

03:56.90
Russell Gibson
Yeah.

03:57.37
Adz
Just keep track of who gets what. because I've been on the receiving end of receiving the wrong card from an auntt from a marketplace sale.

04:05.22
Russell Gibson
Yeah. And it happens like, the you know, those things happen a lot.

04:07.11
Adz
Completely genuine. We worked it out.

04:08.51
Russell Gibson
Yeah.

04:08.75
Adz
There was no problem.

04:09.27
Russell Gibson
Yeah.

04:09.92
Adz
I sent the card on to the correct person. the Correct card got posted out to me.

04:11.88
Russell Gibson
Yeah.

04:13.24
Adz
There was no there was no issue.

04:13.74
Russell Gibson
yeah

04:14.72
Adz
There was no drama. Just a bit inconvenient.

04:17.45
Russell Gibson
Yeah, it is. It is, definitely. So I think the other thing to add to record keeping too is that I've had people who have bought cards off and they'll actually record the process of the cards going into a bag

04:30.63
Adz
yep yeah yeah mm-hmm

04:30.91
Russell Gibson
So you see each card and then he puts it into the envelope and he seals up the envelope. So I would say that's like the gold standard. and The other one I've seen online too is people when they're shipping high value cards, they'll actually record the whole process of them packing it in.

04:44.26
Russell Gibson
So then they've got like proof. So if something, you know, does get claimed back, okay, this is the process. This is what I did.

04:49.77
Adz
mm-hmm

04:50.34
Russell Gibson
I've also seen some people weigh the package so that... In USPS, it's a bit different in Australia, but they'll actually weigh them at particular points along the line. So if you see the weight change and you go, okay, clearly the parcel was tampered with at this point and I know how much it started off with.

05:04.17
Adz
Yeah.

05:05.32
Russell Gibson
so that's like that's something else.

05:07.17
Adz
Yep.

05:07.58
Russell Gibson
ah The second thing in our sheet is tracked postage. So basically what that's alluding to is that you you pay for tracking and then that way you get a delivery, a message as it's going along. You also get a message when it's delivered

05:20.10
Adz
Yeah.

05:20.72
Russell Gibson
Australia Post also offers $100 worth of insurance on regular tracked parcels.

05:26.05
Adz
Yeah. Yeah.

05:26.95
Russell Gibson
So that also gives you a little bit of peace of mind in terms of particularly parcels sub 100, you're 100% covered.

05:32.81
Adz
Yep.

05:33.18
Russell Gibson
Once you get greater than 100, that's I think a conversation you need to have with the person who's buying the card from you. Would you like to purchase extra insurance? So that is a little bit of a prickly one because some pages now say that the insurance is on the seller.

05:48.69
Russell Gibson
However, if you specify postage at buyer's price, insurance at buyer's cost, that's a way to sort of you know manage that cost, I suppose, unless you're going to factor that into your price.

05:51.08
Adz
Mm hmm.

05:55.52
Adz
Yeah.

05:58.84
Adz
It's one of those fine print T's and C's. Yeah.

06:04.28
Russell Gibson
ah The third one that we had was don't deal in blind faith. And this is very similar to what we're saying with the the buyers from the other week is that

06:12.36
Adz
Hmm.

06:13.01
Russell Gibson
You need to do your vouchers check on someone. If it's a fresh face that's just popped up in the community, you don't know them, they've not got many friends on their profile, that would be a bit of a red flag.

06:20.94
Adz
Correct.

06:24.78
Adz
Yep. Scams go two ways.

06:26.29
Russell Gibson
if the name If the name doesn't match the payment details, that's another bit of a red flag.

06:27.17
Adz
Yeah, scams go two ways. Mm-hmm.

06:30.99
Russell Gibson
Okay, we better do a voucher check on this guy. And then for eBay, the obvious one is just the number of vouchers that they've got and also look reading through.

06:33.53
Adz
Yep.

06:38.95
Russell Gibson
So you were talking about with me,

06:41.13
Adz
Yeah.

06:41.57
Russell Gibson
maybe it was off the air. You're talking about checking someone's feedback because the person had a ah history of doing chargebacks.

06:46.61
Adz
Yeah.

06:48.95
Russell Gibson
So.

06:49.45
Adz
Yeah, yeah. and and matt And I think as far as the scam alert side of things go, when you're the seller, there it's not all sunshine and rainbows in buyer land.

07:00.10
Adz
There are buyers out there that do target people that ah that don't keep records, that aren't

07:00.44
Russell Gibson
Yeah.

07:08.08
Adz
having signature on delivery or tracked postage and then claiming they haven't received items.

07:10.98
Russell Gibson
yeah

07:14.13
Adz
And that's their scam, so to speak. So be wary of that. And that's why obviously we said suggest the other things. So scamming goes both ways.

07:20.79
Russell Gibson
yeah Yeah, definitely. Don't post until your cash arrives. I think that's a really simple one.

07:27.40
Adz
That's a big one.

07:28.19
Russell Gibson
Yeah.

07:28.24
Adz
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

07:29.17
Russell Gibson
So I think the rule on that on eBay is a little bit different because sometimes your funds will go into a trust and that's to do with eBay's own sort of policies around making sure that, because it really protects the buyer more than the seller per se.

07:35.50
Adz
Mm-hmm.

07:45.46
Russell Gibson
But I think if you've got a massive company like eBay holding your funds,

07:46.12
Adz
Yep.

07:51.10
Russell Gibson
That's not an issue.

07:51.54
Adz
It's not going hold for long.

07:53.13
Russell Gibson
That's completely different to buyer not paying you and you've already sent off the parcel. that That's something that you should absolutely avoid you know at at all costs.

08:02.58
Adz
Yep.

08:02.57
Russell Gibson
And look, we've all sent off packages without checking for payment. like it It happens from time to time, but I think probably the the main message there is don't make it a routine thing because...

08:14.75
Russell Gibson
It'll just be a matter of time it' until you get burnt.

08:14.81
Adz
Yeah. Yeah.

08:17.32
Russell Gibson
I've just changed the list order just to keep you on your toes, Adam. But I think this for me, this is probably the big one for me is packaging.

08:20.16
Adz
I've seen that.

08:22.92
Russell Gibson
So... I'm going to keep this really simple because you can go down a rabbit hole on this and there's actually a fair bit of content out there now about this.

08:33.09
Russell Gibson
i think maybe three or four years ago, that wasn't the case, but now you can just go onto YouTube and there's heaps of stuff.

08:34.11
Adz
Yeah.

08:38.83
Russell Gibson
But this is the way I think about it. If someone wants their cards posted out cheaply, then it just goes into a bubble mailer. It costs you two stamps, which I think is $3 And then off it goes. If they want registered post, what I just do now is I just put it straight into a satchel because by the time you buy your registered post sticker, you buy your stamps, you buy your padded envelope, you're looking at around sort of $9 or $10.

09:06.49
Russell Gibson
You can get a satchel for $10.

09:08.84
Adz
Yep.

09:09.40
Russell Gibson
With the satchels, you can bundle it all up either in a small box or you can, this is what my preference is, ah just wrap it up with a thick layering of bubble wrap.

09:13.61
Adz
Yep.

09:19.73
Adz
Yep.

09:20.13
Russell Gibson
And it goes in. So my argument for that is is that in my experience, when cards have been damaged in the post, it's because they've gone in envelopes and they go through the roller process that Australia Post does to to process their envelopes, which I think is, by the way, I'm not having a go at Australia Post on this.

09:31.24
Adz
huh

09:33.61
Adz
yeah

09:37.68
Russell Gibson
I think it's the combination of Australia Post's rollers in addition to us trying to put cards through them.

09:44.05
Adz
I think us using packaging and we'll say envelopes because some envelopes are used for letters not for trading cards I use padded mailers because they're a type they can

09:52.20
Russell Gibson
Yeah, correct. Correct. But even the pattern mails can sometimes get damaged. And this is what I'm saying. So it's like once you sort of go over that $100 mark, put it into a satchel, then it gets handled as a parcel, not as a letter.

10:01.86
Adz
Yeah.

10:06.07
Adz
what do What do you pack cards in?

10:07.12
Russell Gibson
Yeah.

10:07.59
Adz
And this ah this is, I want to keep this super quick. I use a little bit of cardboard. I use obviously top loaders. I put them in. I make sure the card's packed. So if I was sending it to me, I would like it protected.

10:20.18
Russell Gibson
Look, if i'm if I'm being honest here, i actually don't think cardboard does a thing. All it does is it just like soothes people's obsession with it.

10:30.20
Russell Gibson
The fact of the matter is if it goes and gets stuck in the roller clamp, that thing is going to be bent no matter like how much cardboard you put onto it.

10:36.53
Adz
True.

10:37.21
Russell Gibson
Yeah.

10:37.74
Adz
True, true.

10:37.89
Russell Gibson
So that's why I'm saying like my like my honest opinion here is if you have a card of value, just pay for that little bit extra, chuck it into a satchel. You can wrap that thing up to like high heaven and it still costs the same amount because as long as it fits in the satchel, it it's all gravy.

10:48.57
Adz
True. Yeah.

10:52.99
Russell Gibson
There's no weight limits.

10:53.17
Adz
Yeah. But no, no, I think the biggest thing is no plain white envelopes and no unprotected cards.

10:54.90
Russell Gibson
The size limit.

10:59.68
Russell Gibson
Sure. Yeah. I mean, specifically that I actually have glossed over that. I was i suppose I'm just saying that as like, that's kind of obvious at this point.

11:05.48
Adz
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Like I i personally, i use, i yeah.

11:08.11
Russell Gibson
And then boxes after that, then too, then you just go straight to like the small registered post box, which and I think now costs $11.

11:11.26
Adz
Yep.

11:15.55
Adz
ye

11:16.00
Russell Gibson
um You can get an absolute load of cards in there for 11 bucks. Actually, it's very good value when you say it like that.

11:21.75
Adz
Yep.

11:22.44
Russell Gibson
So, yep.

11:22.47
Adz
Yep. A lot of the extra cost is coming with insurances and tracking and things, but but if the the higher the sale, use common sense. Can you afford to get the charge back if you haven't paid tracking?

11:32.83
Adz
That's the big big part that goes back to that anyway.

11:33.64
Russell Gibson
Yeah. Yeah, that's another yeah another thing, isn't it? But it all fits in, doesn't it?

11:38.07
Adz
Yeah. um

11:39.44
Russell Gibson
I think the last one we've got here, unless we've missed any, is just meeting in a public place if you're doing a face-to-face sale.

11:44.93
Adz
Yeah, that's kind of a bonus tip. If you're if you're doing this face-to-face and you're selling a thing, do it in a public place so that you're not you're not going to get jumped.

11:52.94
Russell Gibson
Yeah.

11:53.19
Adz
So you're safe. that's It's a big thing.

11:54.81
Russell Gibson
Having a little bit of separation from yourself, from the the buyer, you know, you look, I'm not saying that the card collecting community is filled up with peanuts who are trying to attack you.

11:55.36
Adz
where Yeah.

11:59.50
Adz
Yeah.

12:04.25
Russell Gibson
Like that's not the case at all, but it is always just nice to have that little bit of separation between yourself. And the other thing you can do there is get a PO box. So then again, that gives you that little bit of separation from your personal address to, you know, where you're getting your, your cards shipped back to

12:12.22
Adz
yeah

12:16.02
Adz
For posting. Yeah.

12:19.19
Adz
Yeah.

12:19.31
Russell Gibson
And then also too, if you're trying to hide your card purchases from your, your partners, This also gives you an extra layer of security in terms of that too.

12:27.30
Adz
It does. It does. When you said meeting in a...

12:29.10
Russell Gibson
Not that any of our collectors would be doing this though.

12:31.31
Adz
Not at all. What about meeting in a public place?

12:31.85
Russell Gibson
Yeah. yeah

12:33.42
Adz
All I thought of was like you having an envelope with the cards in it and me coming with a briefcase full of cash to the cafe and switching it over.

12:38.72
Russell Gibson
Yeah, for sure. Right. Doing some dodgy deal. Yeah. I mean, the difference is you've got just like middle-aged grade head guys who, you know, they've still got all their teeth. So clearly they haven't been on the meth pipes.

12:50.65
Adz
like it pulls out of the jacket with an envelope. I'm like, oh it's it is it evidence?

12:53.11
Russell Gibson
Yeah.

12:54.35
Adz
Am I paying a bribe? No.

12:59.49
Adz
It's Luka Dontic rookie card.

12:59.78
Russell Gibson
All right.

13:01.00
Adz
Anyway, nothing.

13:01.27
Russell Gibson
What have we missed here?

13:03.07
Adz
I'm sure there's there's some things.

13:04.48
Russell Gibson
Showing me something.

13:04.94
Adz
If we've missed anything, if you got everyone chuck if you're watching, pop a comment and put something in the comments.

13:05.46
Russell Gibson
Yeah.

13:12.19
Adz
We'll we'll respond.

13:13.39
Russell Gibson
Yeah.

13:14.02
Adz
um But I think that's a really good starting point. Just to remember, as a seller, yeah there are also buyers out there that might try and scam you. it's ah it's a It's a two-way street.

13:24.64
Adz
um

13:24.69
Russell Gibson
Yeah.

13:25.25
Adz
Just be safe out there. if you've got any other tips for the audience, please pop them in the comments. And yeah, I think that's ah that wraps up another Timeless Moment.

13:33.96
Russell Gibson
Timeless moment.

13:35.59
Adz
Thanks everyone for for watching. you liked the video, give it a big, big like and we'll see you in the next one.