I’m not an MMA fan per se. I don’t buy Pay Per Views, seek Online streaming of events or even care really about who’s the champ of their weight class in whatever promotion.
But unless you were living under a rock last night there was no chance you were going to avoid the hot topic: Ronda Rousey getting knocked out by Holly Holm with a kick to the neck and a succession of punches to the face and head to end the fight and Rousey’s reign as baddest woman on the planet.
You’ve all seen the video or still images. No need for me to go there.
I watched this madness unveil on Twitter via countless reactions and a seemingly endless barrage of bandwagon jumpers.
But what started to upset me, as a card collector, was when discussions started to center around how a Ronda Rousey 2012 Topps Finest autograph sold on eBay for $1,300 before the fight and how blazing hot Holly Holm’s rookie cards immediately after the fight.
Rovell is not a hobby guy. He’s a sports business reporter, so he’s always looking for a numbers angle. I don’t fault him for that.
While what he tweeted is true if you believe what you see on eBay, the perception of actual worth of a card gets misconstrued before, during and after big events such as the Rousey-Holm fight.
The reaction to Rovell’s tweet included mostly discussion about how the Rousey card is seemingly worthless now and how dumb collectors are.
Additionally, this conversation about the Rousey card then leads to a discussion about Holm’s card(s).
During the minutes that made of the entire fight, Holm’s card went on eBay from just a few dollars to one hitting triple figures.
While this is all true, what you won’t hear from the mainstream media outlets or via their reporter’s Twitter streams is that many of the immediate high sales on eBay for cards of people involved in significant events often go unpaid and the “worth” or “value” ends of being incorrectly reported to the masses.
True, Rousey cards lost value generally speaking and interest for Holm’s card increased based on the outcome of UFC 193. But they surely are not to the extreme that some would have you believe based on the immediate numbers shown on eBay.
Collectibles by nature are volatile and what’s important for everyone to understand is that the value of a card is determined in the exact moment a transaction is actually completed. And a deal it’s not actually complete until cash or goods are exchanged and the items is delivered.
cardboardicons.com 
Are your card packages being received? A reminder for buyers and sellers.
Posted in Commentary, Misc. with tags baseball, baseball cards, Collectors, eBay, sports, tips on January 27, 2018 by Cardboard IconsThese packages were pretty standard card packages — bubble mailers that could have been shoved into the secure mail slot in the garage door. However, the postal carrier decided to leave them on the step, in plain view of the street — available to any person who wanted to take the items.
Fortunately for me I got to the cards in time. But not less than a week later I received a message from a buyer who claimed that he did not receive a card I sold him last month.
The buyer told me that he never received his card, which he had purchased for more than $150. I promptly checked the delivery confirmation number and it showed that it had been delivered some 30 days before I received this message.
The buyer and I went back and forth, and the buyer opened a EBay case against me, which automatically tied up my PayPal account until the case was resolved.
I provided the buyer and eBay any documentation I had. And after calling eBay myself, the auction site took my side and agreed that I followed the right steps. I won the case and my PayPal account and funds were unlocked.
While I had come out on the positive end of both cases discussed above, it is unfortunate that things even had to get to this point. Mail theft is so rampant these days that it’s common for pieces to go missing, and sometimes the bad guys winds up with someone’s $150 Card.
But these examples prove that it’s a good time to share these precautionary tales with fellow collectors.
If you’re buying something, keep an eye out for mail. Use the tracking numbers, and if it’s expensive ask the seller to consider using a signature confirmation service — at YOUR expense. And do all you can to provide a secured area for a postal carrier to safely deliver your package.
And If you’re a seller, make sure you document your tracking numbers and keep your records (I.e. postal receipts and customs forms, etc) for several months. If you can show eBay that the item you sold was delivered to the confirmed address you should win your case should one be opened against you. Whether or not it actually was received by the buyer isn’t your problem.
Obviously this system would work better for everyone if thieves didn’t exist, but that’s not the case. And whichever side of the buyer-seller relationship you fall on, you have to do what you can to protect yourself.
Ben,
Former Beckett Baseball columnist.
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Collector of Hall of Fame tobacco era and Rookie cards.
Collector of Roger Clemens and Clayton Kershaw.
You can reach me on Twitter and Instagram @cardboardicons. You can also e-mail me at cardboardicons@yahoo.com
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