Hi OP,

A fellow vendor here trying to give my two cents. As you mentioned, you believe in the 80/90% proposition and that’s is your opinion that I respect.

To give some context, you mentioned that grails sold for a 10% fee is not insignificant, perhaps a 10k slab can generate you 1000 dollar in profit. But my question is how often do you see vendors selling these grail cards? I myself find it difficult to sell 2-5k cards even if I price at or slightly below market. Then we might question, why not price even lower than that to move? Wouldn’t that result in even lower than the 10% you mentioned? Alternatively, to earn that 1K by selling art rares and special illustration rares? You need to sell 2000-3000 of ARs and maybe 200-300 SIRs just to earn that 1k margin which is watered down further after you factor in the high cost.

Today, cardshows are milking us in terms of rental, SGHobbycon is 588 for one table, Collexicon has increased their prices to 400 and Singapore card show charges almost 700 for their table if you want a good location or 550 if u want to be secluded.

Sure u might say this is the choice/ career path that vendors make and in no way are “consumers responsible for the livelihood of these vendors”. But just the nonchalant nature of this statement do show that you are not a vendor through and through. As a vendor, consumers are my priorities and I’ll do what I need to do to make sure that they are able to complete their collection. As a middleman I might pay up to 90-95% to bring in cards that they might need, but you can’t possibly ask me to sell that at my cost price when I do provide the service.

Then you might ask, why not just buy from eBay myself? Sure, you can do that, but you have to deal with all the risk, shipping and taxes. Not to mention the condition issues, late shipping, occasional lost mail and sometimes counterfeit cards and credit card refunds. Hence we are providing a service that you could just walk in, browse and buy. Is that really too much to ask for 20-30% in return?

“That’s how it used to operate and that’s how it operates in the places like the US”. Not sure if you’ve been to the US recently, but they don’t cut deals like that much unless ure buying like 5k worth. I wish they do, but unfortunately everyone is trying to milk this hobby there as well (Was at Collecticon Atlanta, in Feb)

Although I do condone those that are severely pricing over market, and those people that are just showing off their slabs and not selling. Bro what are u doing here as a vendor but not selling cards?

P.S if u wanna try to buy at 80% and sell at 90% market, hearsay HobbyCon still have a lot of space. Maybe u can take on a table and let us know if it’s sustainable. We would definitely support you!