Happy Sunday everyone!
I'd like your opinion on this one, if you will:
So, I'm a collector of the 1948 Leaf Set, and have been contemplating the purchase of a Ruth PSA 8 on EBay offered by Memory Lane. So, I sent this email to Memory Lane on 10:30 PM on Thursday night:
Hi (Name...you all know it),
Hope you're well. I'm interested in this card here:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/350627891334
I'm wondering how much is the cost if I pay you direct, cash?
Additionally, is this card still available at $4200 here:
http://ownitnow.memorylaneinc.com/gallery.aspx?id=1212
Please LMK on both, thanks.
NOTE: At the time of sending this email, the Ruth PSA 8 on EBay was listed at $5000 exactly. When you look now, you will see $5750. This will come into play later on.
So then, I receive a reply a day later from Memory Lane, first thing in the morning on Friday from (A guy you all know):
The one on eBay I can do for 4750 cash and the one in own it now I can so for 4450. The price in own it now didn't include the buyers fee of 15%. Lmk
I'm thinking, OK, fine, fair enough. The only weird thing, I must admit, was the fact that there was now a buyer's fee on the Own It Now. I don't know why you'd show a
fixed price on a website for a card where the real price is actually higher. Frankly, if that is the case and I'm not getting screwed, they ought to make that clear.
So, you know, I'm thinking about the one on EBay for $4750. I like it. It's an OK price, I suppose. So I take a WHOLE day to think about it. Wow. One day. On Saturday, I decide to buy. I send this email to Memory Lane:
I thought about it today and I've decided I'll do it at $4750. Please let me know how to proceed.
Then, this morning, I get a reply from (Name you all know) at Memory Lane:
I can no longer do the one on eBay for 4750 as the consignor re priced it yesterday.
Might I add, in addition, all of a sudden the EBay price on the Memory Lane EBay store as you see, has magically risen to $5750. That price changed yesterday I suppose at some point.
In subsequent emails, as you can imagine, I told him I thought this was BS and he in essence told me 'tough.'
So, there are two things I'd like to say about this:
1 - My suspicion is that Memory Lane saw the auction results of the HA auction this week, and noted that a 1948 Leaf Ruth PSA 8 sold for $5600 or so, with the Buyer's fee, and quickly realized that they could squeeze me or someone else for more money, so they went ahead and rescinded a deal they made to me a whole single day earlier. Mind you, they didn't proactively TELL me they were rescinding the deal, they just waited until I said I'd buy the card to bait and switch me.
2 - Yes, I do understand that there is probably a consignor involved. Does that genuinely mean that Memory Lane is going to back out on a deal that they offered in writing (albeit email)? Know what a reputable auction house would do? Go through with the sale and eat the commission on the one card among the hundreds of others it earns money on, for sake of maintaining a pristine reputation. Do you think any other major auction house would pull a stunt like that?
I mean, let's be honest, we already know that dealers are in this for money. That's no secret. But I've never been treated this way by anyone else in the "hobby."