Sellers are offered rewards for maintaining continuously excellent DSR ratings and thus offering buyers great customer support. Among these benefits are that they are given consideration for the Powerseller Program, and when they’re added as a Power Seller, discounts on their monthly final value fees they owe to eBay. They can also receive Top Seller status in which they have a special logo appear next to all their listings indicating they are a top rated seller and their listings are given a higher priority in eBay’s default search results.

At the same time, sellers are susceptible to penalties as well when their seller scores aren’t sufficient for a given length of time. This includes losing their Powerseller status and also getting lower priority in search results. Additionally, if any seller lets their DSRs drop low enough, they can be restricted from selling for up to 12 months or, in some cases, permanently.

As a buyer, you need to be aware of the DSR system on eBay, and how to use it properly so that you can do your part to help the overall community (as well as make your experiences count). You aren’t forced by eBay to leaving all 4 rating types in every transaction, so if you only want to leave them occasionally you can still leave general positive / negative feedback without adding them. Here is a description of each DSR rating categories. I gleaned a lot of this from my personal experience but also got some of the info from various baseball cards buying guides I read on the Cardboard Connection:

• Accuracy of the Item Description – This is where you rank the accuracy of the description given by the seller for your purchase. Naturally, if the card was as described you’d score 5 stars. Bear in mind that shipping damage is not always the sellers fault. Many times damage of cards can occur during the shipping process. The key it to communicate and work with the seller to work out a mutually fair solution. It is always worth giving the seller the benefit of the doubt and communicating with them to clear up any short-sightedness before you leave a low rating.
• Fairness of the Shipping and Handling Charges – This is one of the most common problems you see as a discussion point among hobbyists. At what point is a shipping price reasonable, and at what point is it gouging? Some sellers put the price of their time and gas to the post office as part of their shipping and handling. Others disagree. Regardless, to maintain a high score here, shipping shouldn’t equal a hidden pathway to added profit or people WILL see through it. To get an idea of what shipping rates should roughly be, use the online rate quoter on the USPS or UPS websites.
• Seller’s Level of Communication – This is an uncomplicated one. The majority of card based transactions on eBay have no follow-up communication after payment, and the card just shows up in the mail. Many sellers do still offer the personal touch though, and it’s worth rewarding these people by leaving them a high rating if you appreciated their communication with you. Low ratings can come from scenarios where you found an issue with an item and the seller took a very long time to respond, or failed to respond at all to attempt to fix the situation.
• Speed of Shipment – The most significant factor to keep in mind is the fact that this isn’t necessarily for how long it took the item to reach you. Canada Post, for example, set new all time lows for customs turnaround time in 2008. Items that took 5 days in the past were taking up to 5 weeks to arrive. This rating is specifically for how long it took for the seller to ship the item after you paid. If you paid on the 16th of the month, and find an envelope in your mailbox postmarked the 23rd with no communication from the seller as to why it was so late being shipped both in email or in the item description (make sure you check this first, as some sellers do state that because of their proximity, or personal commitments, they can only periodically ship in intervals such as weekly) don’t be afraid to leave them a lower rating. A seller taking his sweet time to ship an item to you at his leisure without communication is the kind of unacceptable behavior eBay aims to cut down on by implementing this program.

Jockey Calvin Borel leaned toward Javier Castellano, pointed, and just like that, the winner’s circle at the Breeders’ Cup morphed into a boxing ring. “Three-time Kentucky Derby winner Borel and Castellano tussled at Churchill Downs just moments after tangling during the $500,000 Breeders’ Cup Marathon in an ugly, chaotic scene that left Castellano shaken and Borel pleading with security officials to let him go so he could “kill” his rival.” How awesome is that?  Never would I think to see a boxing match after a horse race.  Yes, lots of money can bring out the best and obviously the worst in people – including men who are well below the 5 foot range and would not for a split second consider to be very manly (sorry if I offend any jockeys out there).

The 43-year-old Borel waited for Castellano after the Marathon; angry over a mid-race move in which Castellano and mount Prince Will I Am unwittingly cut off horses ridden by Borel and Martin Garcia.  Apparently, that move nearly sent Garcia tumbling to the ground and blunted Borel’s momentum.  Drama is all I have to say.  Wish I had actually been watching the race or the award show.  I never knew that horse racing could get so heated.

Of course, I don’t see why it wouldn’t.  It’s a sport with a winner and many losers, lots of money and testosterone. You are going to have many ticked off people if their horse doesn’t win.  Oh boy, after that debacle I can’t wait to see what happens with other races.

Also discussed is a review of Panini’s new Rookies Stars Football

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Product Discussions

We review the contents from our box of Panini’s Gold Standard Basketball and run down the list of newly released product previews available to collectors, including;

2011 Certified Football

2011 Donruss Elite Football

2011 Bowman

2011 Tristar Obak

2011 Tristar TNA Impact

2011 Ace Authentic Hidden Treasures Series IV

2011 Roger Federer Grand Slam Box Set

2011-12 Upper deck Series One Hockey

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Product Discussions

Russ Cohen joined us for the second half of the show to discuss Upper Deck Ultimate Hockey, a high risk, high reward product geared toward high-end collectors, Hit collectors, Patch auto collectors, and 2010-11 NHL rookie card collectors. We also take a peek at the tribute product, Boston Bruins Stanley Cup Champions box set.

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Product Discussions

As always, we also discuss recent product releases including 2010-11 Zenith Hockey. This product is geared toward fans of 90′s card design, collectors looking for something different,and collectors intrigued by the possibility of pulling a National Treasures Auto RC. In addition we discuss our thoughts on 2010-11 Totally Certified Basketball which caters to set builders, parallel set builders, collectors looking for on-card autographs of the 2010-11 rookie class, collectors intrigued by Panini HRX video cards, and fans of mid-sized hobby boxes (6-packs).

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New Sports Card Sets to Look For

There were tons of new products announced this week. For football collectors we have the higher mid end sophomore release 2011 Topps Prime Football which sports 2 autographs and 2 memorabilia cards per $100 hobby box.  2011 Topps Chrome Football, the perennial mid-end NFL rookie themed powerhouse, will for the second year in a row incorporate the Bowman Chrome brand into the mix. On the lower end of things is 2011 Panini NFL Sticker Collection. This low end set is geared towards kids and consists of 354 regular stickers, 100 Holographic Foils and 40 Micro-Etched stickers.

Next up is 2011 Press Pass Showcase, a high end NASCAR release that features 3 hits and 12 inserts / base cards per $180 hobby box. Rounding out the list is 2011 Topps WWE. In addition to the popular Divas and Legends insert set, Topps WWE will include a 50-card Heritage style Legends insert set based on the design of 1962 Topps Baseball.

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2010 Bowman Chrome
Harper will be added to the recently-announced Autographed 2010 Bowman Chrome USA BUYBACK program. Cards will be sequentially numbered with foil stamping to 100 and will also include James Taillon, Yasmani Grandal, Drew Pomeranz, Michael Choice, Christian Colon, Manny Machado and Bryce Brentz. These on-card autographs will be available via redemption.

2010 Bowman Draft Picks & Prospects
Harper’s 2009 AFLAC Autographed cards will be inserted into packs of 2010 Bowman DP&P. Each of Harper’s on-card autographs from the 2009 AFLAC All-American Game will be sequentially numbered with foil stamping. (image attached)

For those who want to know more about Harper, there is a good bio here.

The exclusive set features 15 different subjects:

• Jason Heyward Rookie
• Austin Jackson Rookie
• Stephen Strasburg Rookie
• Mike Leake Rookie
• Buster Posey Rookie
• Starlin Castro Rookie
• Ike Davis Rookie
• Carlos Santana Rookie
• Mike Stanton Rookie
• Tyler Colvin Rookie
• Babe Ruth Legend
• Lou Gehrig Legend
• Jackie Robinson Legend
• Ty Cobb Legend
• Mickey Mantle Legend

Wrappers should be sent to:

The Topps Company
PO BOX 2230
Duryea, PA 18642
ATTN: Chrome Promotion

Fast forward 20 years to the world where everything needs to be bigger, better, and in the case of sports cards, “shinier” and more valuable. Nearly any card with more than a single copy is just a click away. Young collectors don’t seem as interested in the stats on the back as they are about how many colors of patch are on the front. They no longer seek the card they need, but are after the card that everybody else considers the big pull.

At the heart of it all is the base card. What was the essence of collecting when I began has been furiously pushed aside by inserts, parallels, serial numbering, memorabilia and autographed cards. It would seem that base cards have evaporated into little more than pack filler or fodder for the die-hard player collector. I recently received a trade where the collector had taped SPX and SP Game Used base to the top loader for added protection. It’s hard for me to fathom that what was once considered high end product could be reduced to such a fate.

Base cards really only ever had two purposes; to fill sets and to fill player/team collections. As such, the decline in their relevance is directly related to the decline in set building, and the focusing of player collectors. They still serve the exact same purpose today, but on a much smaller scale as sets tend to be put together more from case breaks than old school collecting, along with player collectors limiting themselves to only autos or game used. Prior to Superlative’s Reason Number Seven if someone had asked me if I thought base cards were anything more than an afterthought for the majority, I would have said no. Then the “where’s the beef … Errr … Base?” catcalls surfaced and it got me thinking. No one REALLY collects base anymore, but a good deal of people seemed pretty upset that Dr. Price had made the resolution to release a product without any. Maybe that was because for many  base is really the only thing to go after in the ultra high end sets because of my limited budget. Or maybe, just maybe, collectors have a twinge in their heart for what started it all.

Personally I enjoy base cards. They are generally easy pieces to add to player collections, both in terms of availability and the cost associated with them. The issue is that collecting has evolved from a pure labor of love to an investing mentality fueled by million dollar auction after million dollar auction. While base cards are synonymous with small dollars, they often are the least exciting cards in a given set. But in a time when dollars are short and collectors are visibly tired of manufacturer complacency, rehashed designs and no name autos and game used cards, collecting base cards or sets seems like it could be a nice refresher (much in the way sets are bringing back the long pull inserts). I, for one, could use a rekindling of my love for the hobby, so why not do so with what got me going in the first place?