Buying from a BIN or waiting it out?

[ls7plus]

Originally Posted by Leon

This phenomina seemed to start happening around 8-10 yrs ago when prices went through the roof and then came back down. Everyone always wants to steal a card in auction but it rarely happens. No one seems to want to pay a list type price because no one has bought it already .
If you see a BIN and you have done your homework, and still want it, it might not be a bad buy just because it's sitting there. I bought my T213-3 Red Cobb from Mike Wheat on ebay because it was there for years with no takers and I got tired of seeing it (and I always liked red Cobbys too). I paid around 1300 for it. Even then it was a good deal but no one bought it because it was a "has been seen already for a long time" BIN........

Leon, I did something similar with my 1907 Wolverine News Ty Cobb portrait. I had a continuing ebay search for this card, and, except for the PSA 5 which sold in the PWCC auction for just under $11,000, none of the portrait versions had come up in several years except Tony Arnold's poor to fair example, which had gone unsold over and over again at (I believe) $2,250. It was actually a pretty nice card, with a crease across it which did not really detract that much from the eye appeal, and nice corners. Still, believing the card was overpriced, I contacted Tony and we worked out a deal.

Generally speaking, however, if I feel that the BIN is within reasonable striking distance of the fair value of the card, I'll pull the trigger then and there, and not have to worry about snipe software should the item go through auction. I lost a really nice 1939 R303A Ted Williams Mike Wheat had that way, with 6 or 7 seconds left in the auction. Nothing quite pisses you off as watching the closing moments of an auction for a card you really, really want as having it so sniped out from under you.

If, on the contrary, the card I'm interested in is one which I believe is significantly overpriced at the BIN level, I'll put it on my watch list to see if it is relisted (as it often is) as a more reasonable price. This, especially, if the card's condition presents any significant eye appeal problems.

Good post guys,

Larry

[Leon]

Yeap, sometimes the BIN's need to be evaluated as they can be good deals (most still aren't though).... If you buy a vintage Cobb right it's hard to go wrong .

Originally Posted by ls7plus

Leon, I did something similar with my 1907 Wolverine News Ty Cobb portrait. I had a continuing ebay search for this card, and, except for the PSA 5 which sold in the PWCC auction for just under $11,000, none of the portrait versions had come up in several years except Tony Arnold's poor to fair example, which had gone unsold over and over again at (I believe) $2,250. It was actually a pretty nice card, with a crease across it which did not really detract that much from the eye appeal, and nice corners. Still, believing the card was overpriced, I contacted Tony and we worked out a deal.

Generally speaking, however, if I feel that the BIN is within reasonable striking distance of the fair value of the card, I'll pull the trigger then and there, and not have to worry about snipe software should the item go through auction. I lost a really nice 1939 R303A Ted Williams Mike Wheat had that way, with 6 or 7 seconds left in the auction. Nothing quite pisses you off as watching the closing moments of an auction for a card you really, really want as having it so sniped out from under you.

If, on the contrary, the card I'm interested in is one which I believe is significantly overpriced at the BIN level, I'll put it on my watch list to see if it is relisted (as it often is) as a more reasonable price. This, especially, if the card's condition presents any significant eye appeal problems.

Good post guys,

Larry