How to Sell Sports Cards on eBay: The Investor’s Complete Guide

While there are more options than ever for selling your cards now, there’s still one monster who remains supreme: eBay!

So unless you’re a big influencer who can sell cards at ease to their FB or IG audiences, you’re likely going to do the bulk of your selling there.

So how do you sell cards for good prices when there are so many others doing it?

I’ve sold several hundred cards on eBay and maintained a perfect 100% positive feedback rating. Let’s dive in and I’ll show you what I’ve been doing.

Build Up Your Feedback Before Selling for Profit

First, let me make a note about feedback…

Accounts with few feedback scores are going to suffer. People like to work with experienced sellers who have the process dialed in. Someone with 1,000 feedback, all positive, is likely going to be someone a buyer can trust for a good experience.

Someone with four total feedback…well, they don’t really know yet.

I noticed a significant increase in my card sales once I approached 100. The same week that I hit 95 is the same week that I had several cards receive offers that had been sitting in my account for months!

So if you have a new account and want to sell, there are two things you should be doing:

1. Buy lots of $1 cards
2. Sell lots of $1 cards

That’s it! I’ve sold many cards for $0.99, and while the ROI on my time is dismal, I’m also playing the long game. I wanted more positive feedback. I wanted repeat buyers. I wanted people to remember they had a good experience with me.

And if you’re not into selling cards on eBay? Here are some other options:

=> 17 Best Places to Sell Sports Cards for Cash

The 13-Step Guide to Selling Sports Cards on eBay

Here’s how to maximize your profit selling cards on eBay:

1. Figure Out Which Cards to Sell
2. Take Good Pictures of Your Cards
3. Research Latest Sold Comps
4. “Sell One Like This”
5. Write a Solid Title
6. Disclose Any Damage
7. Fill Out Your Card’s Details
8. Select Shipping
9. Buy it Now vs Auction
10. Time Your Auction
11. Pricing Your Card
12. Ship Your Cards!
13. Err on the Side of Good Service!

1. Figure Out Which Cards to Sell

Here’s how I usually decide:

• Player is at an all-time high card value
  
• I pulled a card from a box that I don’t think will have value later – for example a nice card of a rookie who I don’t think is going to be an all-time great.
  
• A pulled card I don’t care about – I’m not that into baseball, so I sell pretty much all the decent hits I get. Basketball I hold most of the cards I pull.
  
• I pull an insane value card – If I pull a card worth $800, I’m likely going to sell it (or grade and then sell) because $800 is a nice payday. I’m not as much of a risk taker like others might be.
  
• I used to sell everything I thought I could get $0.99 for, but now I’m more in the $3+ range.
  
• I hold onto cards that are: all-time great players (base or insert), rookies with high potential, PC cards (Lakers for me), cards that are too cool to sell for the price, or low-value rookies that aren’t worth selling now but I hope pop later.

For more in-depth info, also read: The Complete Guide to Sell Basketball Cards for the Most Money

2. Take Good Pictures of Your Cards

My main advice here is don’t be a perfectionist, but don’t put up crappy pictures. 

For example, going out and buying the latest Nikon isn’t worth it, but also snapping a pic with terrible lighting while holding up the card in front of your kitchen sink doesn’t do you favors either.

I use my phone (a Galaxy s23) and the pics come out nice. I use the editing feature right there on my phone. In 15-30 seconds, I can have a nice cropped picture and I use the “Auto” feature instead of selecting contrast, brightness, exposure, and more manually. Ebay’s editing feature stinks—just do it from your phone.

As for lighting, I had a heck of a time in the beginning trying to time when the sun would shine nice and bright through my kitchen windows, and then trying to avoid glares, etc.

So I bought an inexpensive lightbox on Amazon! You can certainly buy better ones, but I can get the pics I need with this dirt-cheap product.

Pro tip: If you can’t get the glare off your glossy cards, stand much further away and reposition the camera until there’s no glare. This results in a very small card in the image, but a simple crop fixes that.

Then, make sure to take pics front and back, always. If it’s a nice card, I’ll have a close-up of each corner. For a damaged card, take a close-up of the affected area. 

3. Research Latest Sold Comps

I go into much greater detail about valuing your cards in this article: How Do I Find Out How Much my Football Cards Are Worth?

For now, pull up the eBay app on your phone and double check that you have the right price.

4. “Sell One Like This”

One of eBay’s great features is allowing you to copy completed listings! Filling out everything by hand can be tedious, so doing this can save you time.

In the last step, you’re looking up sold comps already. Click on one and then select “Sell one like this.”

Now it’s going to create a listing for you with the same fields filled out that the previous seller did.

In a perfect world, that previous seller will have filled out everything completely and correctly…but that’s not always the case. So I try to choose the comp that sold for the highest. Doesn’t always mean it’s a well-filled out listing, but it’s a place to start.

5. Write a Solid Title

The typical format for an eBay title goes like this:

Year – Brand – Player Name – Parallel/Insert – Serial Number – Card Number – Grade – Autograph – Rookie – Team

If you mix up the order a little, you’re fine, but this is how I normally do it. You’ll also notice that not everything on there is relevant to every card.

Also, if it’s an autograph, I’ll try to put “auto” for sure because most people type that (rather than autograph) in the the search. For rookies, I try to put in both “rookie” and “RC” as both are common.

Here are a few examples:

• “1996-97 Topps Kobe Bryant #138 PSA 9 Rookie RC Lakers”
• “2020-21 Prizm LeBron James Silver #1 Kobe Tribute” (this one’s a bit different as it’s known as the “Kobe Tribute” card, so definitely add that to the description)
• “2020 Select Justin Herbert Blue Field Level Die Cut #344 Rookie RC Chargers SP” (SP means short print…if I have space I may put that in, but it feels just extra at this point)

Now, I HIGHLY recommend leaving out misleading titles like “eBay 1/1” (because it’s the only one on eBay) or a card that isn’t graded and say “PSA?” “SGC?” because all they do is break trust. I know plenty of people that will scroll right over your listing for saying those things.

6. Disclose Any Damage

“But they can look at the pictures!”

Not good enough. If you’ve got a sought-after card but it’s in poor condition, make sure to disclose it…or you’ll for sure have to deal with a refund and likely poor feedback later.

I recently sold a Topps Kobe rookie in terrible condition. I took close-up pics of all the corners and I put “*READ” in the title. Then in the description, I outlined the damage to the card. 

It’s true I sold the card for about $50 below comps because of the awful condition, but good feedback and a good reputation are worth much more in the long run.

7. Fill Out Your Card’s Details

As you continue to fill out your listing, you’ll come across a section with 50+ parameters that you can fill in!

If the person’s listing that you copied was thorough and accurate, then great! But more often than not, I find myself adding or correcting mistakes.

If it’s a very cheap card, I’ll spend little time on this part and fill out only the most obvious stuff. If I’m selling a $300 card, I’ll go through and add as much as I can here.

8. Select Shipping

Here’s how I do my shipping:

• Single, non-relic card under $10 – I select eBay standard envelope and set it for 2 ounces. I then charge a flat $1.50, which covers my top loader, penny sleeve, envelope, team bag, and tape costs. I then ship it PWE (plain white envelope). I put together a complete guide to shipping PWE that you can read here!
  
• Any relic card or singles over $10 – The relic cards are too thick to ship PWE. The only two issues I’ve had with hundreds of PWE shipments were with cards with jersey patches. I ship relic cards and any singles over $10 using First Class, and set the weight to 3-5 ounces. I don’t think it really matters—a single card should be fine. I have eBay just calculate the shipping charge.
  
• Very expensive cards ($500+) – You can still do the option above, but I like to ship these in a box for some added protection. You can also purchase other types of shipping if you’d like more protection/guarantees on the shipping.
  
• Card Lots (10+ cards) – First class, and I charge $5.95 because I’m going to need more penny sleeves, team bags, and whatever else will be needed. If I have under 30 cards, I can fit those safely in a bubble mailer. If more, than I’ll usually ship in a box.

Also, I always offer combined shipping just to make it easier for someone who purchases from multiple listings. You shouldn’t be looking to make a profit while shipping—that’s a good way to alienate a buyer.

9. Buy it Now vs Auction

Ahhh…the never-ending debate! 

I like to do Buy It Now (BIN) for…

• Higher end cards that I don’t want to risk selling for too low
  
• Other not-time sensitive cards, even lower-end ones, to see if I can get a bite

I like to do auctions for…

• Cards that I want gone within a week and guaranteed to sell. I had two Donruss Mac Jones rookies during the height of his rookie season. I wanted to sell them before more hit the market so I put them at auction.
  
• My lower end cards after a few weeks on a Buy It Now with no bites. The reason is that some people only look at Buy It Now, but lots of people sort by “Ending First” which will show them auctions. I sell more of my $1-$3 cards this way.

10. Time Your Auction

Once you’re set on doing an auction, then let’s make sure we get the most eyes on it! My main rule of thumb is to have it start around 7:30 PM Pacific and have it run 7 days.

In a perfect world, I’d start/end all my auctions on Saturday or Sunday night…but for low-end cards I usually don’t worry about it.

Another consideration is if the player has something big coming up! For example, let’s say that you want to sell a Patrick Mahomes rookie card, but he has a big playoff game coming up. You could have it end Sunday or Monday and hope he has a big game.

EBay will also relist your auction several times without you having to do anything, so if it’s a low-end card that might not sell, it will keep running for months before having to manually relist it. Some cards take 6 months to sell, some sell on the first week of listing, and some never sell and I pull them from eBay.

Also with auctions be sure to avoid ending on a holiday!

11. Pricing Your Card

I handle all auctions the same way—start at $0.99! This gets more people bidding in the beginning. When I’m looking at a card, I’ll always just put in a bid so that it’s on my radar. More people will do this if you list the card at $0.99.

If you’re selling a $200 card and you start the auction at $175, you might get no bidders until the very end. You want a lot of early bidders who come back and fight for it at the end.

No reserve, no BIN on auctions.

Straight BIN can be a little trickier, but I always start with by researching eBay Sold listings. If you want to move the card fast, then underprice it by 5% or so.

One thing I like to do is to list a card for much higher than it’s currently worth if I believe the card will go up later.

Let me explain:

I buy a Topps Kobe Rookie PSA 9 for $300. Let’s say my target for a flip is $450. I’ll go ahead and list it at that price on eBay even though no one in their right mind would pay that at the moment!

This way I’m already set to sell it if there’s a spike. I don’t have to hustle to get my card up. I also use this as sort of an inventory for my cards I’m flipping. I can sort through my own listings and see good pictures, a clear title, and the price I want to sell it for. All in one place!

I also always allow offers, unless it’s a card under $5. People lowballing me under $5 can find someone else to bug.

12. Ship Your Cards!

I wrote an in-depth article about what materials I use and how I pack them. Read that article here!

13. Err on the Side of Good Service!

You’re inevitably going to run into obnoxious people. I had someone return a $4 card because it had slightly more damage than they could see in the picture. They had to pay to ship it back to me, and then I refunded them without a complaint. This isn’t the kind of thing to fight over—refund and move on.

I see sellers get all worked up, and truthfully, I do too sometimes. 

However, in the end, I always try to preserve every relationship I can. EBay will 99% of the time favor the buyer, so you have to be extra careful in how you run things. You can’t leave negative feedback for a buyer, but they can leave negative feedback for you.

I always try to overcommunicate, and I give people freebies, or even just let them keep the card and I’ll refund if something goes awry.

And if the buyer was annoying, just finish up the transaction and then block them from seeing any of your other listings.