How Ghost Inventory Can Hurt You on TCGplayer Direct

Рет қаралды 2,039

Ай бұрын

In today's video, we uncover the hidden world of ghost inventory - those elusive cards that mysteriously disappear from your TCGplayer, Ebay, or other marketplaces due to inventory mismanagement.
Join us as we delve into the reasons behind ghost inventory, the impact it can have on your business's bottom line, and most importantly, how to prevent it from haunting your store in the future.
🔍 Discover the chilling truth behind inventory mismanagement!
💡 Learn practical tips and strategies to keep your inventory in check.
🛒 Avoid the costly mistakes that could be lurking in your online store.
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Share your experiences and thoughts on ghost inventory in the comments below. We'd love to hear from you!
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Пікірлер: 54

@cinnatoastkrunch6638 Ай бұрын

Just dawned on me that this October will be a year of me selling on TCGplayer using your tips, and being an inventory specialist for UPS going on 2 years now. I still have so much to learn and am so glad my job uses tools I can transfer over to my TCGstore!

@TCGBulkKings Ай бұрын

Congrats! 🎉

@viyami 23 күн бұрын

So easily, the worst thing I've ever seen happen to somebody in my five years selling, in terms of ghost inventory, is that they weren't paying attention to which pricing section they were under and thought they were setting up buylist prices. They listed something like 11 of each item they wanted for $0.01/ea under the normal inventory pricing section. Brother didn't have just ghost inventory, but the entire damn graveyard.

@TCGBulkKings 23 күн бұрын

oof that's rough

@YokoBeLoco Ай бұрын

My most common ghost invintory issue is. I open the pricing tab to check and reprice a set like modern horizons 2, for example. And while im changing prices on the pricing tool, i get sales. Say i sell one of my 2 ragavans while im pricing. When i hit save. The tool will see that i have 2 in the quantity slot for ragavan, but i sold one while i was listing so i should only have one. But i pulled the number back up to 2 when i saved. That happens to me a lot. Every card you sell while your pricing will be incorrect invintory if you dont reduce the quantity manually as you get sales.

@TCGBulkKings Ай бұрын

I've never run into this problem :o at least that I'm aware of

@FernandoHStevens Ай бұрын

Can confirm, I've managed to sell a single copy of a card I had to two different people because one bought it while I was updating inventory for that set (and I hadn't gone to my orders tab, printed the invoice, or checked my email so I didn't even know yet it had sold), and the second bought it later, after I clicked save with the 1 still in the quantity box. It wasn't a hyper-valuable card whose quantity I would know by heart like a Ragavan or anything, so I didn't catch the issue until I printed the second order, checked the box, and had an oh crap moment. It's always real bad feels to issue refunds with the ghost inventory explanation.

@YokoBeLoco Ай бұрын

@TCGBulkKings oh yeah. I've had to refund hundreds of orders because of this. Not to mention all the RI discrepancies for not having the card. I get so many sales that It's impossible to correct everything when im done pricing, so i just have to take the hits.

@atxtreasurechest Ай бұрын

Would hiding your inventory for the few minutes or hours whatever it takes to reprice help at all?

@FernandoHStevens Ай бұрын

@@atxtreasurechest That is the kind of solution so simple and obvious I feel like a real moron for it never crossing my mind before

@toddn6119 Ай бұрын

I only have 55,000 cards listed, but everything you stated in this video was almost 100% me. I keep a very tight inventory. When I list, I either list one set a day, or if it different sets, I keep a box of small mixed sets organized by colors and alphabetical. I keep all foils in a seperate box and rares in another seperate box. Only commons, uncommon and lands go in a set box. So much resonated with me. It is very Rae that I have ghost inventory, most of the time it is figuring out what box it's in. LOL

@TCGBulkKings Ай бұрын

Glad to have the validation from someone else in the trenches

@leekichang8359 Ай бұрын

For me, the problem is entering the wrong set than the wrong card. It would be game changing if the quick list has an option to show set number rather than set name

@leekichang8359 Ай бұрын

For example for yugioh, you have to remember all of the set names and the process of double checking becomes very tedious

@TCGBulkKings Ай бұрын

YGO is so hard for me, partially because it's not easy to distinguish sets, because the set code is so tiny, can be in a couple places, &c Definitely an issue with automation is listing things from the wrong set, I should have been more clear about that in the video. Things like The List reprints or different sets using the same art for reprints. Same with special sets in Pokemon like Paldean Fates using identical reprinted cards from other sets but just with different set symbols throws off the AI detection sometimes

@agentbarron9768 Ай бұрын

Cross listing gets me , i work full time and im super tired when i pack orders for 5 different platforms, things can happen.

@TCGBulkKings Ай бұрын

I do sell on lots of platforms, but I don't cross list anything unless I have a service up that handles it for me, like Mascot to go between Ebay and MyCardPost.

@TheeTalkingTree 27 күн бұрын

Just wanted to say i have had 3 orders canceled on TCG where they canceled the whole orders (2 from the same seller btw) and one where they had to issue a partial refund. I have only made 9 orders 🙃

@BuckGT Ай бұрын

The biggest culprit I've run into and this is on me is having two windows or tabs even on different computers open for your store dashboard and uploading a CSV for new inventory and it ends up doubling your cards you're adding that has been catastrophic for me over the last 2 years

@TCGBulkKings Ай бұрын

Ooof that sounds like a rough situation. I'll have to address some of these to TCGplayer at some point

@moshebaum7612 Ай бұрын

Just happened to me a couple of days ago. Randomly added some Sorcery beta boxes when I was repricing stuff

@serafingarcia7024 Ай бұрын

Have had this issue for awhile and I can say doing a double check it key. Once a year back we had a high rarity version of a Yugioh card Online but when it sold we only had the other rarity so kinda gave me a scare to pay attention a bit more when listing to prevent ghost cards

@RenaissanceGameSupply Ай бұрын

I quit Direct just as EBay bought them. My reasoning was conditional issues. I’d send in nice cards and they’d be returned with damaged corners. I also got super tired of paying all the shipping costs and only getting 50% at best for each card. Filling 2-3 reimbursement orders a week was killing all my spare time and the $ wasn’t that great considering my inventory was depleting faster than I could fill it.

@bronzgod321 Ай бұрын

I blew up my whole inventory to re-list and recondition b/c of the changes, and although I know what I am doing, I find myself nervous and second guessing my self more. I wonder how you have handled the change, In addition how to you sort? like do you do a condition sort, then set sort? I'd be curious to know. I also sent an email of some excess i'm trying to liquidate. Great video as always 👊

@TCGBulkKings Ай бұрын

Completely reasonable course of action. I've done so a couple times myself. But as I said in the video, my inventory management practices already in place do most of what I need to keep from getting burned by this. When I saw people reacting so negatively to the 98% requirement, my first thought was that it was a very reasonable metric to meet. I've done videos about how I sort, but the basic rundown is that I category sort first (i.e., c/u, rare, foil v. non-foil, or whatever for whatever game) and cull non Near Mint while I'm doing that. Then I set sort, and cull non Near Mint while I'm doing that. Then I alphabetize within the set, and cull non NM while I'm doing that. I don't have a single condition sorting step, but it's very difficult for cards below Near Mint to end up being listed on TCGplayer by this method. I will reach back out to you about your email. Thanks so much for watching and for your kind words!

@PokeManPro1 Ай бұрын

I am having the same dilemma. I recently turned off my direct because i had shoulder surgery but am considering deleting a lot of my direct inventory to relist and recondition just to be 100% sure. Will i be kicked from tcgdirect if my direct-eligible inventory drops below 3k even if it isn't live? Please weigh in to @TCGBulkKings if you could

@bronzgod321 Ай бұрын

@@PokeManPro1 no, I confirmed this with tcg and a discord i'm in. I have to wait fot my RI to trigger, once it does i'll pull it and start the process. but you will not bet booted

@PokeManPro1 Ай бұрын

@@bronzgod321 Than you so much for the insight! Relieved:)

@atxtreasurechest Ай бұрын

I've had plenty of issues and deleted my magic inventory to relist it because i was having too many lost cards.

@TCGBulkKings Ай бұрын

I've definitely done full inventory wipes a couple times, but they've always been because I've made mistakes that had to be corrected, or through normal inventory management decisions

@sterlingwingard4298 Ай бұрын

Definitely come across where I put the cards in the wrong set. And I only have 3000 in inventory. So apparently, I gotta channel the adhd hyperfocus and pay better attention. 😂 luckily when the order came in for the cards in question, I was able to search for and find it. But gee whiz. That was a stressful few minutes

@TCGBulkKings Ай бұрын

Yeah, I HATE that feeling, I get retail nightmare flashbacks "Sorry ma'am, I know you got a ride here and drove 2 hours to get this sensor which is the only thing you need to make your car go, but we don't actually have it in stock, and another one won't be here for 3 days." I hate disappointing customers, especially when they've gone out of their way to purchase from ME, gives me the big feel-bads

@jnnyboyitouch Ай бұрын

I swear quicklist is my biggest issue. it messes up so much.

@TCGBulkKings Ай бұрын

I'm hoping the new version is better, only heard promising things about it so far

@VA-ng2ve Ай бұрын

Who has been kicked out of tcgplayer direct? I haven't been able to find anything. Like what percentage did they get down to?

@TCGBulkKings Ай бұрын

I don't have any official details, but there were several people in some Facebook groups and elsewhere staying they were already removed from the program. Mason's video about the new direct requirements references this as well

@cashmerefire7335 27 күн бұрын

It happens to me way more frequently than id like

@TCGBulkKings 26 күн бұрын

I about wet myself when I heard a district manager say, "that's not bad, only $250,000 of missing product in this store", it happens to us all

@TachibanaTengoku Ай бұрын

To be fair, I have definitely had situations where I sold a card, couldn't find it in inventory so I refunded the customer, I double check to make sure it still shows 0 on tcgplayer...and then it sells again a week later. If that's now the system glitching out, idk what it is.

@TCGBulkKings Ай бұрын

That's never happened to me, nor have I heard about it before. Every time I've had something missing, or helped someone look for something that was missing, whether in a card inventory or a store inventory, the issue has always been traceable to a human error of some kind. I can't speak to your specific issue, but I've never been able to settle on an error being systemic rather than human

@TachibanaTengoku Ай бұрын

@@TCGBulkKings It's happened to me maybe 2 or 3 times, but most of the time it's because I sent the wrong card to someone. The only reason I can tell it had to be systemic is because it was a card I hadn't listed since then and yet it sold again. I also only list same set, and I even keep track of a spreadsheet of what set I list to calculate rough value of what I just listed, so I definitely didn't just accidentally list it

@zzaacchhman10 16 күн бұрын

Question - what do you do as a solution when people order 40+ cards to get right over the $5 free shipping margin and then i have to pay $4.60 in shipping. Is there an alternative to this?

@TCGBulkKings 15 күн бұрын

I ship in what is known as a large envelope or a flat. Still untracked shipping, but closer to $1.50-2.50 depending on the distance

@TCGBulkKings 15 күн бұрын

Doing a video about this soon 😁

@jacoblabatore6183 Ай бұрын

Personally, I think 98% is a bit too strict. I think 95% cut off should be a more realistic cutoff for TCG to have Direct Members to hit. I have consistently had a # of cards marked as discrepancy, and I request a second review on them, and nearly half of them come back as "misconditioned" by the 1st reviewer! TCG and their inconsistent review guideline I think should warrant a % leeway on BOTH sides not just theirs, hence a 95% would be more appropriate.

@TCGBulkKings Ай бұрын

I get it, I feel it. But if that's the standard, that means that TCGplayer is committing to having one in twenty of their Direct transactions have to be repaired in some way, either by finding correct replacement cards or else by issuing refunds or something. Probably eventually depleting their warehouse of the cards they are wanting to stock. And the 2-3x extra work involved in managing all of that process. I just don't see how Direct functions if the standard is a 5% discrepancy rate. I know that at retail store inventory counts the management staff freaks the hell out if the number is off by more than 1%, because that stuff adds up really quickly

@jacoblabatore6183 Ай бұрын

@@TCGBulkKings No ya, you are totally right. Explaining it like that definitely makes sense.

@Chalice4One Ай бұрын

This whole video could just say, ‘stop making mistakes’. It’s not rocket science. Let’s call it ‘ghost inventory’ and not accuse anyone of anything 🤔

@TCGBulkKings Ай бұрын

I guess the main point of this video is that people oftentimes start blaming platforms or systems rather than themselves. They are unwilling to admit that they are making mistakes, and as a result, don't ever fix their problems. If you can admit you are making mistakes then you can work to fix them and eventually prevent them