Virtual Trading On Listia

So the general consensus on Listia seems to be:  no consensus.  I myself can't decide if I like it or not, although my recent experiences have all be great.  Several of my first transactions had, shall we say, issues, and left a bad taste in my mouth.

But I've been feeling better about Listia lately.  I think with a little luck and some good strategy, you can make out well on Listia.

Case in point-  a few weeks ago I "sold" a Yasiel Puig 1971 mini card for 4,000+ points.  I was extremely please to get that much for it, and I think my timing for selling it was good.

I spent those 4,000+ points on a couple of cards that came in this week.  The first is a card I've wanted for a while:

This manu patch card of Razorback Legend Darren McFadden is mega cool, dude.  If I were just making trades, I would have gladly given up the Puig for it alone.  Instead, it cost me 2,600 points.  With my remaining points I was able to get a card of another 2013 hot rookie:

This is some kind of "Father's Day" promo card, but I don't know (or care) the story behind the promotion.  I'm just happy to get a numbered card of Myers..... WHO I'VE BEEN ON A BASEBALL FIELD WITH!!!!  I would have taken this card straight up for the Puig as well.
  

Listia-ing Wins, And Some Are Not Crap!

Wow, I've only written 9 posts this month.  This will be my lightest month by far since I've started this thing.  I don't know if I have just hit a max on my bandwidth this month, or if my interest is starting to fade in keeping up this blog.  I don't think it's the latter.  I think I'm just maxed out, but bear with me while I list out what I think are the contributing factors to my slow-down for my own benefit:

• The Rangers are playing horrible baseball this month in general.  It seems likely that my boys will be on the outside looking in for the post season this year.   That kind of dampens my enthusiasm for anything baseball right now.  However the Rangers did give me at least one more thrill last night.
• We had the inside of our house painted last week and I had to move all my cards into storage temporarily.  Out of sight, out of mind, no posts.  The cards are back out now, ready to be played with.
• We are two people short at the office and at the same time we are wrapping up the fiscal year.   Lots of projects, ridiculous timelines and pressure.   DING DING DING, we have a winner!  I guess work truly has had my full attention, which explains the lack of desire to post, or do anything with cards right now.  I haven't even been to Cleve's in 3 weeks.  Now that I'm coming out of the work black hole, I'm starting to feel my interest in cards picking back up.

Something else that's been nagging at me is that I feel like my blog has become stale.  I need something new and different to do, but I don't know what that is yet.

So allow me to be stale for at least one more day and simply show my recent Listia wins, some of which are really great cards:

 

 

I need to figure out how to get my scanner to stop cropping the hell out of my cards. That way you could better view this great lot of Adrian Beltre cards I won.  The top 3 are all rookie cards that I didn't have.

This Manny Machado was the most "expensive" card I got, at around 2,000 credits I think, but I'm still happy to have it.



 These "Greats" inserts from 2013 Topps are fantastic.  I think I managed to get this Ernie Banks for only a couple hundred credits.

 

 

I also won a lot of Texas Ranger cards, but this Ian Kinsler base card was what I was after.  I realized after looking through my Kinsler album, that somehow I didn't have this base card from 2012.

Ah, that felt good.  I think I'll go to Cleve's now.

Sweet Listia Win

Happy Thursday evening to you.  It's not earth shattering, but I was extremely pleased to pick this up off Listia recently:

I have no plans to try to complete the whole set of Archives Relics, but it's hard to argue with getting this beauty for free off Lisita.  That's all I've got tonight!

Listia Wins: I'm Napkin Doon and I Approve This Post

...but please note this Listia win is not a political statement or endorsement of any political party:

Clearly, based on my admiration of George Will, it's probably easy to surmise that I lean to the right.  I absolutely do fiscally, but not much socially, and besides that- I honestly just don't like Republicans that much.  I don't like Democrats much either, but if a Democratic party pin shows up on Listia I'll go after it too.  I wish the Libertarian Party carried more cache' because I think that is the tent where a whole lot of folks belong, but have been pigeon-holed into two parties that are more and more controlled by their fringe elements.  Ok, that's as far into politics as I'm going to get and I'll probably regret even broaching the subject tomorrow morning.

The point is I got this cool pin off Listia recently, and I'd love to find one of the Dems too.   And the Libertarians, and the Tea Party, and the Green Party, and the Socialist Party, etc. etc.

Listia Pin Wins

I've sold a few things on Listia, with some aggravating results, but still have enjoyed the experience overall.  I have been able to pick up a few free additions to one of my periphery collections: pins.

 Mostly, my small collection of pins is baseball related.  So I was thrilled to get this Ichiro Jersey pin to add to it.

 The other theme is corporate/business logos.  The Kelloggs Olympic Pins group I showed a while back is an example. This CAT pin only cost a few hundred points. Crap, this iPhone image rotation baloney is pissing me off to no end!

Listia Win: Bowman Platinum Di Cut Lot

When I started piddling around on Listia, I figured a might get a few cool cards here and there, and since it's all free, I was fine with a low expectation.  But, I've been picking up some pretty good stuff and have been getting some good winning bids for the stuff I've been "selling."

One recent win was this lot of 5 die cut cards from 2012 Bowman Platinum:

This not only gave me a couple of good Ranger cards (Cruz and Kinsler), it's a pretty decent start if I ever decide to chase this cool insert set.

Important Blog News: The End Is Here

For my 2012 Archives 3D insert set:

I got the final two I needed this week- the Mantle from eBay, and the Kemp from Listia, which I'm enjoying quite a lot these days.

This was only a 15 card checklist, but wasn't that easy to put together.  It's pretty swell looking though, now that it's complete:

These cards aren't numbered, so I just put them in almost alphabetical order. 

A Listia Enemy Already?

I’ve bought and sold on eBay for years (over 600+ transactions) and never had a conflict.  I’m one week into Listia.com and I’ve already got an imbecile giving me trouble.  Over freaking points.  Not money… but points.  Fictional.  Free.  Points.

Let me back up.  My first batch of Listia auctions included a A&G mini gold border card of Daniel Hudson.  I listed  it with a 0 starting price.  Meaning, if only one person wanted it and bid 1 point, I would have shipped it to them, free of charge, for one measly point.

There were two bidders for this card, and the winning bid wound up being 204 points.  I’m no expert yet, but that  seems about right for that card.  So I sent the seller a note asking for his address so I could ship his card.  His reply was, “refund please.”

I was a little confused by this, so I asked, nicely why he wanted a refund.  I explained I was new to Listia (as was he it looks like) and didn’t know where to find his address (the other winners addresses showed up on the item page after the auction was over).  The auction had only been over for one day, and it’s not like I’d been sitting on the card for a week or more.

I then get an email from Listia that the auction was in dispute.  The reason?  I quote again:  “I don’t want this anymore.  A waste of 204 credits.”

I understand I can be very dense at times but I didn't understand this at all.   I had the option to either grant the refund, or dispute his “claim.”  Again, these are freaking free points, and it’s not like money I’m giving back, and I could have easily granted the refund just to not have to deal with this idiot.  But I had to dispute it on principle.  The way auctions work, as I understand them is:

1)      Seller lists item

2)      Seller sets opening price (which again was 0 on this and all my auctions)

3)      Buyers look at the item

4)      Buyer decides if they want the item

5)      Buyer places a bid for how much they are willing to spend on the item

6)      The buyer with the highest bid wins.  They don’t necessarily pay the full amount they bid, just the next amount over the second highest bidder.

7)      Buyer pays seller

8)      Seller ships item to buyer

9)      If the product is not as advertised, or there is something wrong, buyer requests refund from seller

10)   Seller grants refund if the request is valid

11)   Everyone is happy

Again, I hadn't even shipped the card yet and the doofus was wanting a refund.  What am I missing?  The dispute is being reviewed by a moderator, and I’m going to need a very good explanation if I have to give a refund.

For you listia sellers out there send me a note and I will give you the buyer name so you can beware.  I won’t mention it here….yet.

Truth is, if he had just said something like, “hey I’m sorry I’m new and didn’t know what I was doing” or “I thought this was a different player, sorry,” or something like that I would have gladly given him his pretend money back.  But “waste of 204 credits” rubbed me the wrong way.   Not only is it a sentence fragment, it was stupid.

On a positive listia note, this weekend I received a couple of more cards I purchased.  And paid for.

So despite my dealings with a serial idiot, I'm generally enjoying the site.

Breaking the Seal On Listia With Darren McFadden

I've seen a few folks around here dabble with Listia, and since I'm making a half ass effort to curb my spending, at least this month, it seemed like something I should check into.  Basically, Listia is ebay, but with no money exchaning hands, just points.  You get points for selling stuff, and you use points for buying stuff.  In essence, it's a big trading post.

I'm a horrible person and didn't sign up as a reference from another of the bloggers out there with an account, which would have given them extra points, as well as myself.  I was just checking out the sight one day and got impatient and signed up.  Sorry to those that could have used the points!

Anyway, my first "purchase" came in the other day:

A very cool "tall boy" mini from Topps 2012 of Darren McFadden, former Razorback stud.  I've since sold a few cards and bought a few and it's jolly good fun.