Hi all, an English collector here. I’m looking for insight into the European Market. I’ve noticed on Ebay there’s a premium on goods for sale compared to that of the American Market. Is this sheerly down to prices of delivery and import taxes or is there something else I’m missing?
1 Like
I’ve noticed this a lot recently and I was going to post about it myself. I think it’s more a supply thing, there are a LOT less cards in circulation in Europe than there are in America, which drives the prices here up.
It’s really frustrating as a collector because you have to pay customs/import tax on anything of significant value, but the cards themselves are much cheaper. I think if you’re a serious seller who has trips to America you can make a fair bit of money bringing lots of cards back with you to sell.
A great example is Rusty (TCAGaming), he has so many cards that I want to buy. I actually bought about 15 WOTC promos from him, but had to pay about £30 in customs/handling fees. It probably still worked out a little cheaper than what they were listed in the UK, but still they could have been even more cheaper.
I think there’s a big gap in the market for big time UK sellers to sell cards because there seems to be so much demand, but little supply.
Import tax is definitely an issue which affects the cards I buy.
I’m in the UK and have to pay import duty on anything valued over £15. Not only that, but the duty at £15.01 is pretty extortionate due to admin costs imposed by shipping companies. On a £15.01 item I’d have to pay somewhere in the region of £12 import tax for an item from outside of Europe. That means that I’d be better off spending £27 on a card from Europe than £15.01 on a card from the US. As a seller I’m also aware of this. If I list a card for sale which only has one other listing and it’s outside of Europe, I’ll charge more than what the US seller is asking simply because I know a UK/European resident would rather pay that than have to pay the import charges.
Import charges only get worse the higher the value of the item. If I import a £1,000 item, I’m looking at around £280 or so in import charges. That means at those levels I’d also much rather spend £1,100 or even £1,200 on an item posted from within Europe than £1,000 for the same item from outside of Europe.
Furthermore companies like PWCC declare their cards as “playing cards” even if they’re in a PSA slab (which they shouldn’t), which warrants an additional 10% duty on top of the import charges. I’d much rather avoid those where I can.
I’ve also had a lot of rejected offers on cards outside of Europe which are for sale for £20 that I try to win for £15 instead to avoid the duties. Unfortunately it’s not in the sellers best interest to reduce the price in most cases.
4 Likes
Overall prices are higher in Europe. People can ask a higher price on eBay because being within Europe it attracts buyers from other European countries because then they don’t have to pay import taxes and / or high shipping costs.
This doesn’t only apply on eBay, but everywhere. Sealed product for example is ridiculously more expensive than in the US.
I could get almost 2 booster boxes of new sealed product from the US for the price I would buy one here in Finland. It’s crazy. (but the reason I don’t do it is 24% import tax + expensive shipping for heavy products).
4 Likes
It hurts. Is there a site which holds data on past purchases is Europe? Looking at sites which shows mainly US sales like pokemon price makes me feel a bit sick sometimes haha
I just used sold eBay listings as a good guide to be honest, it’s the only non-America thing I could find lol.
Yeah I recently started using ebay sold listing. It doesn’t go very far back in comparison to those other sites though, so it’s hard to get a strong comprehension on prices especially for the rarer 10 grade cards.
… and still I see many sellers from UK and Germany on Ebay, who doesn’t shipp to elswhere in Europe. Idk whats the point? We are technically on same market area.
1 Like
It is the not the default on eBay.
1 Like
I’m from the uk and I feel your pain.
I now have a list of trusted sellers on Ebay that are happy to declare £15 value for fot much higher value items. Saved me so much money.
European market:
Boxes are more expensive when bought at the distributors.
More taxes.
This results in a higher price.
Perhaps you should try www.cardmarket.com.
Only EU sellers and most time no taxes because those are already paid.(but Swiss sellers have to charge them)
1 Like
Try a middle man or mail forwarder/package consolidation company, then you can buy from the US and mail to yourself with your own customs declarations.
2 Likes
underdeclaring might work if chief wiggum is doing the customs, but realistically those guys are not that stupid, they get suspicious if they see a booster box declared 20$. They only need to catch you once and you can bend over. I had them once asking me the invoice of an item I bought from the US.
I’m a UK seller, and find the graded card market to be much less liquid in Europe than it is in the US.
I price most of my cards based on recently sold items (regardless if EU or US), so there isn’t really a premium other than the global shipping programme postage costs. I even tried doing manual international shipping to Europe for a while and saw no particular increase in sales as a result, so reversed back to GSP. In the end, I just kept my cheapest cards in the UK and sent 80% of my stock for consigment in the US as it gets sold at lightning speed in comparison.
So yeah, the graded card market in Europe may be limited for buyers, but from my perspective it is equally limited for sellers.
As for raw cards, I find singles prices to be quite decent in Europe, and have purchased entire collections for a fraction of what they would cost in the US, the question is more about chosing the right channel. Cardmarket.com and facebook groups have treated me very well in terms of acquiring ungraded product.
2 Likes
about what kaldoverde is saying. Im from Denmark and have been on the norwegian market alot as well. The graded card trend the past few years in Norway but also in Denmark is going up! Before that graded card market was from my experience not existing.
Raw card market. I haven’t been selling in the US but I feel like the consumer in my home markets are willing to pay more than the prices I see on ebay(US).
@pichufan and @xzini basically summarized it already. To quote @KingPokemon :
When I buy anything, whether it’s a Pokémon card or product, Yu-Gi-Oh card, twisty puzzle, or whatever, I always look at the total price. This usually includes the two obvious things:
- the price of the product itself
- shipping fees
But in addition I’d have to keep in mind:
3. import fees when buying (usually only applies to eBay auctions from the US)
4. potential import fees on arrival. Anything above 22 euros value for which I hadn’t already paid import fees when buying, could potentially add import fees as costs. This could be around 15 euros if the value was just 25 euros for the item; or even 325 euros I once had to pay for a 2000 USD item from Japan.
5. middleman fees. When buying from Yahoo Japan, or asking online contacts/friends to buy cards for me, I either help them with cards, or add some additional money as a thanks for the help and time. I right now have four middlemans who help me pretty often: one in Brazil for Portuguese releases; one in the US for sellers who aren’t shipping worldwide; one in Indonesia for the new Indonesian releases; and one in China for the new Chinese releases. I also used to have a Russian and Korean middleman in the past (and Italian, German, and Australian contacts who helped me once or twice), but I’ve completed all Russian cards in my collection, and unfortunately my Korean middleman doesn’t respond anymore (which is why it’s my least complete language in my Pikachu collection right now, and I’m looking for a new South Korean contact…)
5b. middleman shipping fees (both from the seller to my middleman as well as from the middleman to me)
6. PayPal or shop/website fees. On CardMarket this is usually 10% of the buy-price. And PayPal/eBay has a general fee as well usually.
7. Currency conversion PayPal fees. Never much, but can still add around 0.50 cents here and there for purchases in US $, Canadian $, Australian $, UK £, etc. (anything non-€)
So yes, most prices of the products themselves are (way) more expensive in Europe than in the US; but the total price of all points above is comparable or usually still cheaper in Europe for us than from the US. Especially for sellers from the US who use eBay’s default international shipping options, which is 22-28 USD shipping even for 5 USD items…
The first time I used eBay back in 2013 for a twisty puzzle I really wanted and was willing to pay 180 USD for, I lost when it ended at 140 USD due to the 65 USD shipping fees the seller had listed for the 150 grams puzzle (and who knows how much additional import fees on arrival I’d have to pay)… I remember being pretty pissed at losing a rare puzzle I was willing to pay 180 USD for by seeing it end at 140 USD… But buying online for the past 10+ years I’m used to it tbh.
And there is also shipping time to consider I guess, although in general I personally don’t care about that anymore. I’m used to waiting 2-6 weeks for anything, and have 5-25 products incoming at any day of the year tbh. I’m still willing to pay a bit more to buy from a Dutch seller, since I know it would have arrived within 2 days, but if I can get something cheaper from Canada or Australia, I don’t mind waiting a few weeks.
Greetz,
Quuador
2 Likes
It’s quite a tough market to be a buyer in. Supply is quite short for sought after PSA rated cards.
However occasionally you do find some raw gems for cheaper given the lesser competition from North America etc. thanks to import fees etc.
I have sold alot of my stuff in the past to European’s who suffer the same issue.
Hey Guys,
I’m in the US right now and thinking about what to bring back to Germany so I keep comparing prices. Especially for WOTC: And all I see on the sold listings are very similar prices between Europe and the US:
The last Jungle Boxes on eBay Europe sold for unlimited 1600€-1800€ 1st Edition 2700€-3200€
The last Jungle Boxes on eBay US goes for 1700-2500$ ( more on the 2000+ range) 1st Edition 2900$-3600$
The last Fossil Boxes on eBay Europe sold for unlimited 1300€-2000€ 1st Edition 2000-2900€
The last Fossil Boxes on eBay US sold for unlimited 1400-1900$ 1st Edition 2300-3500$
I saw the same things for Base set Cards. 1st Edition graded card were even more expensive in the US
Are only single cards significantly more expensive in Europe or did I miss something?
You should check out Evolutions Booster Boxes. Last time I Checked they were around 80-90 $ on eBay US and around 150-180€ on eBay Europe. I might be wrong though.
Its not exactly WOTC but if you get a few you might be able to save decent money 