The Bench - what can we do to ramp up the activity?

[David K.]

A healthy site ...has trading, selling and buying......old sites that mainly only trade lose the older collectors who when it comes time to sell or reducing their collection...they have to leave those trading sites and move to the trading, selling and buying sites or sell their stuff on ebay. My two cent worth! Best regards, David

 

[katester44]

I like the auction idea.

Billy

We tried the auction idea through the chat room and it didn't work out overly well - I am happy to revisit it and anyone who wants their own auction/sell room in chat just has to let me know.

I am honestly thinking about creating one for myself, just to see how it may go.

 

[katester44]

I would love to see more vintage collectors but don't really have any suggestions. Is there such a thing as advertising online somewhere?

agree - would definitely like to see more vintage. but along that line, would like more people to be able to tell the difference between VG and EX and NM.

 

[katester44]

Thanks for the ideas, keep them coming. The fact that we are getting a multitude of responses, fills me with hope!

 

[dragonslayer913]

Why is site one dimensional (baseball) about 80-85% need to promote other sports I can go elsewhere and trade other sports but I don't want to go elsewhere to trade other sports I want to be able to trade other sports right here on the BENCH!

 

[David K.]

Why is it one sided to baseball? For me it's the cost...I'm retired an on a fixed income....so I have to watch my spending.....if I was spending it on football. I would have to cut back on something.... like eating or the Sat contests or buying on this site! This would have a impact on this site..... or cut back buying from my hobby store....instead of two jumbo boxs of topps 1, 2 and updates....maybe one and a few blasters from Target on line. But this would cut back on my trading and mailing cost so this might be the way to go. But if I go this route and nobody is on the football site or every one is selling ....may have to go back to just baseball! Best regards, David

 

[christopher.galle]

I would say create corresponding groups on social media (I.E. Facebook) and send out invites.

 

[katester44]

I would say create corresponding groups on social media (I.E. Facebook) and send out invites.

The Bench does have a FB page - but not many people use it.

 

[katester44]

Why is site one dimensional (baseball) about 80-85% need to promote other sports I can go elsewhere and trade other sports but I don't want to go elsewhere to trade other sports I want to be able to trade other sports right here on the BENCH!

The site has forums for all sports -- just comes down to who collects what. Basketball seems to have picked up a little bit lately, but football and hockey are still definitely lagging way behind.

Just a thought -- when Topps lost the license for football/basketball, it lost all of its appeal to me.

 

[christopher.galle]

Is there a function, where I can list my players I want to collect? And if someone gets a card of that player they can send out to all that want to receive that alert? (Like over a certain BV) or a group distro? Or I could view that page and see who has what? I would suggest that users create a page for specific players they want. Kind of like Wikipedia can be edited by others. Chris

 

[katester44]

Is there a function, where I can list my players I want to collect? And if someone gets a card of that player they can send out to all that want to receive that alert? (Like over a certain BV) or a group distro? Or I could view that page and see who has what? I would suggest that users create a page for specific players they want. Kind of like Wikipedia can be edited by others. Chris

If you go to the bottom of any page, you will see a header that says Members -- under that you will find a tag for Collectors, you can list which players you collect.

As of right now, I believe that is about as close as The Bench gets to what your question asks for. Nothing says you can't start a thread in the Baseball Wants forum and list the player(s) you want and try to create a community of traders for that particular player.

And if the interest is high enough, we can create a player specific chat room for traders to get together and discuss that particular player.

There are a ton of resources here to help collectors out, the info just needs to be spread to the masses.

 

[DaSoxFan]

I have always and continue to enjoy this site because most traders are patient and actually into collecting. I appreciate the vetting of traders to avoid being burned. When the hobby takes an upturn like it is again with shows and such now, it creates the "impatient, I use market value" (typically based on Ebay which has known manipulative practices available to run up value of cards). I have made some trades for great items here and have found some very respectful trading partners.

I feel US postal rates would be a main reason for a slow down in activity.

 

[gordo47]

agree - would definitely like to see more vintage. but along that line, would like more people to be able to tell the difference between VG and EX and NM.

Regarding self-grading, I do admit that there a number of collectors who have different ideas of what vg is for a '50 card compared to a '64 card for example. They keep saying that for a really old card vg should be less strict!!! I have received a lot of badly creased 'vg' cards in trades.

 

[gordo47]

For buying/selling/trading goes, we need more people to stop asking to buy, trade and sell by book value. This forum gets a lot of making fun of on other boards because of that. That doesn't exist anymore in the market. It's previous online sales

I don't check online sales as most vintage cards are graded cards or its group lots. I think BV is OK for trading thou as long as collectors use the same guide. Sales on this site will/should probably be less than the prorated BV

 

[cjay101]

Cut postage in half, add more football and basketball collectors, people also don’t have broad wantlists anymore.

 

[horfin]

agree - would definitely like to see more vintage. but along that line, would like more people to be able to tell the difference between VG and EX and NM.

@katester44 I tend to send pics of older cards to traders to ensure there is no issue. If I traded for them I would requests scans..

We tried the auction idea through the chat room and it didn't work out overly well - I am happy to revisit it and anyone who wants their own auction/sell room in chat just has to let me know.

I am honestly thinking about creating one for myself, just to see how it may go.

I think only way an auction works is if you have a set time that they end, if you try doing it in chat or live it won't work. But if you set up auctions that they end 8 pm EST on every saturday night or something like that it may work better.

Why is site one dimensional (baseball) about 80-85% need to promote other sports I can go elsewhere and trade other sports but I don't want to go elsewhere to trade other sports I want to be able to trade other sports right here on the BENCH!

TO me this is simply supply and demand. THere are more people collecting baseball than other stuff. The same is true on Beckett, SCC and another one I am on. Football is a far 2nd place followed by fewer in NBA and NHL

Is there a function, where I can list my players I want to collect? And if someone gets a card of that player they can send out to all that want to receive that alert? (Like over a certain BV) or a group distro? Or I could view that page and see who has what? I would suggest that users create a page for specific players they want. Kind of like Wikipedia can be edited by others. Chris

See Page 1 - last post by me, this is what I am thinking

I think that if you are automatically "following" any thread you post in and you get notifications to your email then it would keep people involved. (Require people to unfollow a thread instead of requring people to follow a thread).

Bill

 

[mechjo16]

I have to agree with David’s points. Part of the problem really has nothing to do with the forum. The cost of cards and shipping have sky rocketed. This leaves collectors buying less and being very selective on trades. I tend to do what I can to help fellow members. Postage does add up though.

Case and point on prices, I purchased Tier one last year for just over 1500 for the case. This year is just under 3000. Gypsy queen is about the most reasonable product this year in my opinion.

 

[jweech]

I have to agree with David’s points. Part of the problem really has nothing to do with the forum. The cost of cards and shipping have sky rocketed. This leaves collectors buying less and being very selective on trades. I tend to do what I can to help fellow members. Postage does add up though.

Case and point on prices, I purchased Tier one last year for just over 1500 for the case. This year is just under 3000. Gypsy queen is about the most reasonable product this year in my opinion.

I've noticed (thanks to David's post in another thread) that the cost of 2021 Topps is about half of what it was initially. I know I paid 1600 for a case of series 1 2021. It's 700 ish now. I see the same for 2020 and even 2019. I think this may be the last year I purchase "on time"

 

[seawolf17]

I have to be honest, this used to be my go to site, but I rarely log on anymore. Back in the day, there were more true set/team collectors on this board and those are few and far between now. As mentioned already in this thread, there could be multitudes of reasons for this, including narrowing one’s card focus, cost of postage, cost of opening cards, other interests, etc, etc.

It takes two to tango as well as to make a trade. We might have something another wants, but they have nothing we need, and vice versa. That seems to be a common issue. I‘m sure it’s not the easiest to maintain, but having a readily available want/tradelist handy would definitely make trades easier for both parties.

For me personally, it’s the constant the lack of follow through on threads where I see others reply but no follow up by the initial poster. It just seems to be too difficult to make a trade, esp when many are insistent on BV. If it’s not a high valued card and both sides are happy with what they are getting, what is the big deal?

Finally, this site is called thebenchtrading and I’ve always used it as such. It’s not the bench FS, or Bench auction, and the like. Just my two cents.

This is where I am, too. I've been a member here since 2006 (!), and even spent a while on the mod team. However... I slid over to TCDB a few years ago because their collection/tradelist/wantlist function has been amazing. I've made almost 750 trades in two and a half years there, exchanging over 11,000 cards in total. It's obviously made massive dents in my wantlists! In the past year here on the Bench, I've made seven trades. (I've completed 168 trades in 2022 alone there, and have *thirteen* active ones right now.)

(EDIT: 14. Just confirmed another one.)

I think my biggest points of frustration here are lack of response, as Torcato says, and the loss of some of the folks who made this place so engaging back in the day. I know the hobby changed, and that is what it is. I'm not a big-dollar collector; I don't buy thousand-dollar boxes or chase hot cards, but it feels like that's a lot of the focus these days.

I will say this, though. This place takes care of its members. If a trade goes bad here, the person is dealt with and removed if necessary. I've always been appreciative of that.

 

[Matt Page]

We need team trades of any year. This includes the high production late 80s and early 90s. A Priority Mail Flat rate padded mailer that can hold a 400 count box is $9.65.