When I returned to the Hobby in 2007, the very first item I picked up was an issue of Beckett Baseball. One of the very first things I remember from the magazine is reading an article about Burbank Sportscards, the largest card shop in the world. Just how big are they? Currently, they have over 1,000,000 million items listed on eBay!
As impressed as I was with their store, it didn’t take long before I began hearing whispers of cards being sold way above “book value” and almost no card scans in any of their auctions. While I don’t expect them to scan over one million trading cards, failure to do so puts you the collector at risk.
On October 29th, I purchased a 1997 Bowman’s Best Atomic Refractor Jose Cruz Jr. for a great price (link). Today, the card arrived and something occurred that almost never, ever does: I spotted a “ding”. You can see a scan of the card’s damage at the bottom of this post. Normally, I would complain to the seller but it is a card that is going into my personal collection and once inside of a binder, I will probably never notice it again. Now, if this was a card that I purchased with the intentions to sell/trade, it would be a very different story.
It didn’t take long to find out I was not alone. Chad, a “Super Collector” whose Frank Thomas Collection was once featured at Wax Heaven, had the very same experience but to a much more valuable card. Chad paid over 150% book value for THIS 1996 Pinnacle Certified Red, a truly hard to find baseball card. When the item arrived, it had several marks on the front which makes the card almost worthless.
What would you do if your cards arrived like the two cards given as examples? Would you leave negative feedback, demand a refund, block the seller, or do nothing? I have decided to let this one slip by instead of fighting it and possibly ending up with my first negative feedback but next time around will think twice before I buy from Burbank Sportscards in the near future.
Just a note: sellers cannot leave buyers anything but positive feedback. So you shouldn’t be afraid of getting a negative feedback. If you’re not happy with the card, contact the seller.
Sellers can’t leave negative feedback – as stated above. I generally find contacting the seller privately to see if they are willing to work out a mutually satisfactory solution always works better than a public callout, be it on a blog or a message board. If they aren’t willing to work with you, then you can go through other steps – the most expedient way is to file an “Item not as described” claim with Paypal, return the card and get your money back. The company might ignore emails asking for a resolution, but if you do it Paypal’s way, you are covered in most cases.
Also as a note – how can people want it both ways? Complain about how out of touch BV is with the market, and then also complain when people ignore BV when selling their cards.
I’ve dealt with Burbank Cards before and it’s never been too bad. It was mostly to buy vintage cards to complete sets. The only problem is that when you can’t see scans (or they use beckett stock images), it’s up in the air as to what you’re going to get. You just have to trust in the seller that they’re not calling a card with dinged corners and paper loss a Near Mint/Mint. But like I said, I’ve had no huge problems with Burbank and I still buy from him. I’m sure he’d probably take the card back and replace it if you aren’t happy with it. Of course it is ebay so who knows.
Thanks for the feedback, guys.
TheHamiltonian, I am very pleased with the price I paid but I know other people have complained (a lot).
I would ask for my money back if it was a huge problem. I guess when your dealing with millions of cards you can’t be perfect.
I have stopped myself from buying from them a few times since I got back into the hobby. My preference is to see exactly what is being sold – especially if it is a vintage card as they tend to wear down if not properly cared for. Also, I don’t care for sellers that use ‘stock images’. It’s like buying a car out of a brochure without seeing the exact one you’re going to get…
What I do hate is they ask for money if you want to see a scan of the card first. Now, I haven’t had a problem with buying from them before, but I haven’t bought any high end cards yet and if there’s no scan, I move on.
That sucks, especially if the ding wasn’t noted. I have yet to have an unsatisfactory experience through ebay yet, and the once or twice I’ve had a problem I’ve found most sellers to be reasonable. I used to sell bobbleheads, and due to their fragile nature, I made no promises to damage during shipping, but would be extra careful with the packaging and sent pictures to prove it… its not like a digital photo costs any money to email to someone, ya know?
But now, I simply refuse to buy something there is no photo of. I dont care how large a company is, they should take the 10 seconds it takes to post a picture. You don’t buy stuff out of plain, photo-less boxes at Wal-Mart or Target, do you??
Many times when searching for a card I’ve come across one of their listings, and I’ve always stopped short of ever buying from them. I know they’ve got a massive inventory to deal with, but if you can’t show me the actual card I’m buying in the listing, I’m not going to take the risk of just hoping a nice looking card shows up. I wonder how many sales they lose to other collectors who decide its not worth the risk to hand over money without seeing what you are buying.
Like many of you I also tend to lean towards auctions which host pictures in their auctions. I pay close attention to the description and what the card condition is stated as. I wouldn’t hesitate contacting a seller if the product isn’t as described.
As for high prices over book value…book value is a sham (as we all know). The true value of any card is what a buyer is willing to pay for it. They only need one buyer who is willing to put out the dough.
This worries me. I’m expecting some low-end cards from them to fill some sets any day now. They do charge above BV but at least they have a flat $2.00 S&H fee no matter how many cards you buy.
I wouldnt let that go – if you dont report it then how would the next buyer know? I feel its your duty as an eBayer to report this so fellow users don’t get burned.
If you have a problem with a card you received with Burbank Sportscards, you should contact them and explain the situation and I am sure they will take care of you. I live in the Los Angeles area and was a frequent customer of them in the early to mid 90′s when I initially started collecting. I don’t live as close to them now, but I will still make occasional visits to this truly impressive store. If you want to see more cards then you have ever seen in your life, you must pay Burbank Sportscards a visit, because their in-store inventory is absolutely unbelieveable and is organized well beyond belief. The owner’s name is Rob Veres, and he used to give me good deals when I would come in buying multiple boxes or if I was buying handfuls of singles trying to complete a set. No matter how rare the set, if I am missing singles, they are always the first one I think of for help in completion. If you find the cards you are looking for and they are listed above book value, you should contact them personally and explain the difference. They probably just haven’t had the time to update their prices because of their enormous inventory, and I’m sure they will give you fair market value for your purchase.
You know, there’s a greater question of professionalism here. They may have more than 1,000,000 items listed, but I’d wager many of those are lots and packs and etc. But if you’re a business, and you’re going to put so much effort into eBay (which they obviously are), hiring a person solely to scan or upload pictures of cards is kind of a no-brainer. Sure, it’s an added expense, but they should have thought of that before they decided to list all those cards.
I rarely buy anything on eBay I can’t see an actual picture of.
once from beckett i ordered an angel sanchez auto and they sent me the base rookie w/ no auto i give them -5*
I explained to them the situation and they wrote me back apologizing and offering a refund. I am not so upset anymore. I am not going to leave a negative or neutral, instead I will leave no feedback.
I received my cards from Burbank Sportscards today. I ordered 8 insert cards from 2003 Fleer Platinum Guts and Glory and they all came in a thick topload and padded envelope and were all in good condition. I spent a total of $11.30 on the cards but figure I saved some money since I didn’t have to buy just one or two cards from different sellers.
Do you guys really expect a dealer to waste time scanning cards that book under $5???
It’s all about customer service, and fighting for what is undoubtedly going to be even scarcer dollars for the hobby in 2009, and maybe beyond that.
Scans have an incremental cost of nearly nothing, other than the time to do them. There are ways of being clever about it, to process them quickly to get the number of images per hour as high as possible.
Having millions of cards (or anything) is not an excuse for lame quality control and customer service. My fiancee uses Zappos.com constantly, and their customer service is without equal–and they seem to have millions of shoes, slightly more than my fiancee.
Anything can be returned, like new, a year after purchase. Returns are easy and at no additional charge. Burbank Sportscards needs to up their game, if they hope for repeat business through the mail.
As for the Frank Thomas card, I don’t care how “rare” the card is–there are more of them out there. I would call Burbank, and see how they want to fix the situation, with a couple suggestions:
1) Keep the card, and offer a partial refund based on condition;
2) Since the cheapskate nature of some dealers make it unlikely to do #1, demand a full refund, return the card, and be patient for the next opportunity to find the same card again.
As for the Cruz card, I would do the same process as above. I’ve bought collectible video games on eBay, only to find that so-called “original” case inserts are actually photocopies, ruining their collectible status by a considerable amount. I demand a refund and return the game, and have yet to have someone stiff me on that. Cards are not much different.
If Burbank ships cards that are described as mint, but are clearly off-grade, there are two explanations:
1) They are lazy (don’t care, ignorant shipping staff, or don’t notice)
2)They are consciously ripping you off (unlikely, but always possible)
It’s word of mouth like this that counts for a lot. I’m not sure if they know that–really. Based on this post, I am far less likely to ever buy from them, and continue to send my dealer-in-the-mail money to Larry Fritsch instead.
We sell on the Marketplace. Stock photos are provided to us at no extra charge. We scan most vintage cards that are priced $20 and up but don’t spend the time to do it on commons. The time involved does not justify doing it at that price point.
However scan or no scan does not have anything to do with accurate grading and customer service/quality control. It is our belief that we’d rather undergrade a card and have a buyer be pleasantly surprised than overgrade and have an unhappy customer requesting a return. Are we perfect? Of course not but it isn’t for lack of trying to be.
Just had a terrible experience with these guys. Rude and unprofessional in response to a problem that was *their* fault (didn’t have cards in stock they listed on eBay). I’d dealt with them before and had no problems, and I was shocked by their demeanor. Will never deal with them again.
I would never pay 1.5 to 2 times Beckett for a card they do not bother to scan – period! When I see a listing that’s theirs, I keep looking. You cannot even ask them a question through eBay any more – if you can’t find it in their listed answers, it tells you that you cannot contact them? Jim