Good price for starbursts? (1 Viewer)

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upNdown

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I got these purple(?) starbursts on eBay. Listed at $200 or b/o, I offered $150 - the price I thought would be a good deal. He countered with $175, a price I though might be fair, so I took it.
Was it a good deal? I think it was at least fair, based on today’s market.
9091ED5E-C613-48F4-9B38-7E5CA1CCD276.jpeg

Starburst pricing is frustrating because
1) there’s no “baseline” price for them - like, there’s never been a big chiproom sale on them
2) price varies HUGELY based on color desirability (which is pretty subjective in and of itself)
3) condition, of course

I post this as much in sympathy for noobs as for opinions on market prices. Because in trying to decide how much to bid, and in evaluating whether I got a fair deal, it occurs to me that if I’m unsure about this, newbies must feel completely clueless.

By the way, these will work great as fracs with the Foxwoods chips.
2730048F-ADAA-4B18-83A4-AA0BF7A7EE81.jpeg
 
If your a consumer: in all honesty if you are really happy with them, then you got a great price. by the way they look great and love that foxwood set

If your a reseller: then I just dont know I am a consumer. however the test will come when you put them up for sale.
 
I agree with @TeamNapoli. But for context, I spent $250 on GS fracs which are the same color (I believe) and similar condition (I believe). So that makes the difference between a starburst and a hot frac $75. That "feels" about right.
 
I think it's high...but it's eBay...and those are pretty.
I made an offer to a guy for some 36mm chips that I thought was fair. he had them WAY marked up. He just said flat no. Asked him if he could come down at all. Again, he just says no. I'm like "why did you say 'or best offer' then?" He tells me it's hard to make money selling chips. I told him maybe it's because he charges too much. he blocked me. :LOL: :laugh:
 
upNdown said:
I got these purple(?) starbursts on eBay. Listed at $200 or b/o, I offered $150 - the price I thought would be a good deal. He countered with $175, a price I though might be fair, so I took it.
Was it a good deal? I think it was at least fair, based on today’s market.
View attachment 651801
Starburst pricing is frustrating because
1) there’s no “baseline” price for them - like, there’s never been a big chiproom sale on them
2) price varies HUGELY based on color desirability (which is pretty subjective in and of itself)
3) condition, of course

I post this as much in sympathy for noobs as for opinions on market prices. Because in trying to decide how much to bid, and in evaluating whether I got a fair deal, it occurs to me that if I’m unsure about this, newbies must feel completely clueless.

By the way, these will work great as fracs with the Foxwoods chips.
View attachment 651804
Click to expand...
Dibs at $175.

:)
 
When I started collecting starbursts about six months ago, I dug into historic pricing based on the PCF classifieds and concluded that they sometimes sold as cheap as $1.00, sometimes as high as $1.50, and usually around $1.20.

Since then, I've found that actual prices today are a bit higher than that. I haven't made a lot of purchases, but the few I have made were between $1.50 and $1.80.

That doesn't count the lucky score where I got 300 in an original retail case for $300, and doesn't count the ones that have been sitting on eBay for $4 without actually selling.

It's hard to judge the market because they just don't come up for sale that often. As a buyer, I've passed on a lot of sales because they were overstamps, the quantity offered was too small, they were a color I didn't like, they were a color I already had, they were close to a color I already had, or were clearly priced far above market value. I've learned to be patient because I've had to be patient. Accordingly, when something comes along that looks right (good condition, a color I like, and a full rack) I'm willing to pay somewhat more than "market value" because who knows how long it'll be before I see another rack like it.

If I had seen those purples first, I might well have paid the asking price of $200. I would have hated doing it, because "about a dollar" is my mental anchor for these things, but I'd probably still have paid it because a) that color is amazing and b) I don't have that color yet.
 
I'd say $1.75 per for that color in what appears to be excellent condition is OK, not a "deal" but not overpaying too much. I've paid north of $2 a chip for some of the more rare starburst colors, and as little as 25¢-50¢ per for more common. As others have noted, it depends highly on the color, condition, stamp condition and venue.

Starburst hunting is a labor of love and insanity lol
 
I've bought and sold thousands of starbursts over the course of 6 months and I can say $1.75 for what you got there seems to be relatively fair, especially considering it's eBay. It's nothing to write home about, but you didn't get taken for a ride. To @BSteck's point above, if you posted those here for $175 they'd be gone almost instantly I think.

If you're playing the loooooooonnng term chipper waiting game, sure you'll probably stumble along something for closer to $1.50/chip at some point, but it might be a while. I know starting out and even now long-time members advised starting somewhere in the $1/chip range and go up or down from there based on color, condition, etc. but in my recent experience, the starting point is somewhere closer to $1.40/chip for near mint. Maybe it's slightly less for super common colors (white, green, red), but it goes up real fast for more difficult to find colors (blaze, yellow, hot pink).

I think $175 for a rack of excellent purple is totally fine.
 
This thread hasn't exactly cleared things up, but hopefully it's given some people clarity that there is no clarity with starburst pricing?
I guess for my purposes, the very first comment summed it up - I'm happy with them, so it's a good deal.
As a guy who's only interested in excellent+ leaded Paulsons, paying $175 for a rack I can actually use - that is a great deal for me.
 
CrazyEddie said:
starbursts are terrible and everyone should stop buying them
Click to expand...
Right?
Just continuing my above thought - if you don’t mind not having numbers on your chips, starbursts are probably the best bang for your buck, by far. I could definitely get on board with a limit set. But it would probably take a while to find 1,000+ of the same color.
 
upNdown said:
Right?
Just continuing my above thought - if you don’t mind not having numbers on your chips, starbursts are probably the best bang for your buck, by far. I could definitely get on board with a limit set. But it would probably take a while to find 1,000+ of the same color.
Click to expand...

The best starburst limit set would be a 1000+ set with a rack of each color ;)
 
Did someone say Starbursts? Been looking for a few...
 
I'd keep in mind the convenience of finding starbursts that you like and being able to buy them.
This sort of listing is pretty uncommon: Example eBay Listing
Usually, if you want specific starburst colors.. you ask around, are basically waitlisted, and likely need to settle for a different color than you wanted because you're tired of waiting for your color to be available in the quantities that you need..
So I'd say you're on the winning end of things - You'd always find someone on the pcf to take them off your hands at this cost..
That's enough for me to call it a good deal
 
So how many of us here are going to bid on that 999 set? Think one of us will win on PCF and just part it out?
 
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