When I started collecting as a kid, the quest of building a complete set of Topps baseball was a challenge I took on every summer. I had rows of Velveeta boxes full of cards in numerical order lined up in my room, and a pad of lined notebook paper listing the cards I was missing. With no card shop in our little town, and the internet being only a twinkle in Al Gore’s eye, the only two options my friends and I had were to trade with each other or to buy more and more packs, hoping to get those elusive missing players.
Thankfully, today we have some online options which are perfect for set builders.
When I starting collecting again I wanted to finish off the 2013 Score Hockey set and the 2016 Topps Series 1 baseball set. I checked at my LCS, the Collectible Corner, and found what I could there, but I stumbled across Sportlots.com and they took care of everything else.
What Sportslots lacks in bells and whistles and a slick modern design, it makes up in practicality. It is a functional, economical way to purchase base and insert cards needed to complete sets. There are millions of cards listed, and it is very easy to filter by your favorite player and get a list of every one of their cards on the site.
Sellers list, price, and ship their own inventory, while Sportlots plays the role of aggregating the available cards and processing the payments. As a buyer, you can save on shipping costs by buying multiple cards from the same seller, and the site’s filtering criteria assist with that strategy.
Many of the more popular releases have hundreds of each card listed which leads to many cards selling for .18, the lowest allowed price. Even many cards of superstars like Mike Trout, Kris Bryant, and Aaron Judge can be found for less than a quarter.
They have a seller report card which shows the number of transactions a seller has completed, how quickly they process orders, and the percentage of positive feedback they have received. This allows you to buy with confidence from reputable sellers. If problems do arise, they have a process which allows you to work with the seller to resolve the issue or receive a refund.
Overall, I love using Sportlots to build sets and add cards of my favorite players to my collection. If you haven’t already used the site, I’d recommend giving it a try!
A segment of today's collectors view base cards as a worthless nuisance. In my opinion they are way off the mark, and Sportlots is the perfect site to sell your unwanted base and inserts. Sellers have the ability to list their inventory of cards, set their price, and select the shipping rates they want to charge.
There is no fee to list, and the sales commissions are tiered based on the volume of sales you generate. If you only sell a handful of cards the commissions can be fairly steep, however I've been able to generate in the neighborhood of $300-$500 in sales per month and my net commissions are now comparable to ebay + PayPal. It is important to keep in mind that the minimum listing price is .18. So even if you feel the commissions are high, you have to remember that you are paying that commission off of a pretty substantial base price.
Organization is key to effectively selling on Sportlots, but if you put in the effort it can go a long way to helping you offset the cost of this hobby we love!
Feel free to comment if you have any questions, and if you are new to SportLots click here to set up your account!