The Best Place to Sell Basketball Cards

Online Auction Sites

• The auction site eBay is the biggest marketplace of its kind on the internet, and it's one of the first places to consider selling cards. However, eBay does have some drawbacks. The listing fees and "final value" fees, which charge a percentage of the final selling price, cut into the profit margin. With so many sellers on eBay, competition for bidders is high. Even highly collectible cards may not garner enough attention or suitable bids because there could be several copies of the same card available on the site.

  Selling on eBay often requires sellers to hold auctions with a low starting bid, in order to encourage early bidding and get other bidders' attention. Unfortunately, this causes many items to sell for far less than their market value. Sellers can set a reserve -- a minimum price that the bidding must reach -- but this often discourages bidders. In order to maximize profits, many sellers group cards into lots -- by player or team, for example -- which is often more attractive to bidders.

  Other auction sites, such as eBid.net, where listing is free, are popular alternatives to eBay. "Final value" fees at eBid are also lower, but the site does not yet have as many bidders as eBay.

Sports Memorabilia Sites

• Sports memorabilia sites are popular options for dealers selling basketball cards. Among the best are Beckett.com, the website for the Beckett sports memorabilia price guide magazine, and Sportsbuy.com, a site offering many hard-to-find cards for discriminating collectors.

  Beckett.com is largely a news site and price guide, but its "marketplace," featuring a number of the nation's best dealers, is very popular, as many hard-core collectors already visit the site. To become a Beckett dealer, sellers must go through an authorization process. If approved, the online store lists their inventory, and Beckett handles the transactions. Fees do apply.

  Sportsbuy.com is free for sellers to join and list their cards, and the site charges nominal fees (lower than eBay) for every item sold. Sportsbuy collects the money from the buyer and transfers it to the seller's account.

Retail Sites

• Some retail sites, such as Amazon.com, allow sellers to list just about any item, including basketball cards. To list an item, sellers must be a "Pro Merchant," with additional monthly fees. If the item is already listed (and thousands of cards are), anyone can sell theirs under the same listing. The only drawback is the high "final value" fees, which are among the highest rates of any site.

Offline Alternatives

• There are options to not selling online. Dealers have found success selling basketball cards at sports card shows (still a popular venue), community events (like arts and crafts festivals), and basketball events such as Hoop-It-Up.