Buy/Sell/Trade Forum

I've used ebay for a lot of years to purchase cards and have been looking for alternatives. Has anyone used sites like etsy or other platforms?

For me, I almost exclusively use COMC to sell and purchase cards.  The only time I use ebay to purchase is if it is a product that is tough to get in the United States, or if there is a collection of stuff priced very attractively.

At this time I'm using (in order)  COMC, Becket Marketplace, Sportslot, Here,  Shows, Personal contacts,  E-bay and other trading sites.  Order may change from year to year.  

I have been mostly buying collections locally found on local facebook sale sites. I also trade here. That is the majority of my activity.

Oops forgot to mention I also am pretty active on Upper Deck e-pack.  However that platform is exclusively for Upper Deck current products.  I have gotten some pretty nice cards on there as I like their hockey, Marvel and Goodwin products.  Lots of good trades on their as well.  Prices aren't the greatest unless you are willing to wait for a sale to come around.

I have used Webstore in the past....

Is Upper Deck e pack anything like etopps was?

Not sure what etopps was, however, on Upper Deck epack you can buy packs of current Upper Deck products.  Most base cards are digital.  On epack you can combine digital copies of cards to make physical cards.  For example in their regular hockey series if you collect 10 digital copies of a base card you can combine then into a silver foil physical card.  The 10 digital cards go away and you get the silver foil in your collection.  Packs also contain physical cards like relics, autos and some insert sets are already physical.  Physical cards can then either be transferred to your COMC account if you have linked it on epack or you can have them mailed to you.

Both digital and physical cards can be traded with other users on epack.

Ah ok, it sounds as if it might work better than etopps did. Etopps was launched bt Topps back in 2000 or so. They offered ipo's of cards at a limited print run that were kept in your account at an inhouse vault. You could trade them in house or take them in hand. Lots of good looking refractor cards but Topps really dropped the ball on it.

I will check out the Upper Deck thing.

Best is always going to eBay for new release.

COMC, Beckett are okay if you don't have very specfic PC needs (like I do). I've never bought from either, because I only super-PC A's and they never have anything I am after. And COMC's prepaid system is bordeline lillegal, so buy there with caution.

Sportlots is great for base, inserts and for the set/team collectors. Just be careful to limit how many buyers you buy from to save on shipping costs. They also offer a box option to "store" your purchased cards, similar to COMC.

I'd avoid FB, as it's rife with scammers. Twitter is a good source, although it'd take a while to get enough followers and fellow hobbyists to get a good stream of buyers/sellers.

There are other options as well, but this covers most of them. Unfortunately, eBay will always be King...