they have a right, but it still annoys me

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Posted By: cmoking

People have every right to do this, but it still annoys me. I don't like it when someone outbids me for a card in a catalog auction or an ebay auction, only to see it re-offered on ebay, BST or in private forms at a higher price. These people have every right to do this, surely they think they are buying cheap and trying to make a profit. I don't have a problem with their motivation or their business acumen but it still irks me. Without the reseller trying to make a buck, I'd have that card for my collection at the price I wanted!

Is anyone else annoyed by this or do I need to find inner peace?

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Posted By: Peter Spaeth

King, I think you should seek inner peace. It isn't worth it.

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Posted By: Bob Pomilla

Since I obviously want EVERY card I bid on, it "irks" me to lose no matter what the motivation of the high bidder. The famous horse player of a hundred years ago, Pittsburgh Phil, said that the gambler, of necessity, must have ice water in his veins. Or "inner peace" I suppose. Same applies here. Not that I'm any example: see the holes in the wall above my computer from my head after losing bids, as evidence.

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Posted By: Anonymous

The inverse of this is that there is a liquid market for cards you may wish to sell, enabling you to get a higher price than if you were only able to sell to "collectors." Take the good with the bad.

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Posted By: warshawlaw

"A contented man does not encounter disappointment"

Card #57

Gotta love the old TV cards from Topps; the answers to many of life's mysteries are there.

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Posted By: Joe D.

I can change my mind pretty quickly about the cards I am looking to collect.

I recently picked up a card on eBay, offered it up on BST, and probably will put it back on eBay soon.

--Sometimes I buy the cards before I really know if I want them. I know that is backwards, but thats just the truth. It worked out great for me with my recent pickup of a 1921 Walter Johnson Exhibit card, which now that I see it in person - I am pretty sure I will hold onto it for a while.

--Sometimes I think I want to start collecting a certain type of card and then realize it is not as high a priority as others I would like to collect.

--Lastly, I have come to accept that these cards were around before me and will be around after I am gone. To maximize the number of cards that get to pass through my hands, I either have to become super wealthy overnight, or be willing to sell cards to acquire new ones.


Just a point of view from a person who is guilty of what you mentioned.

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Posted By: Joann

I've bought cards that don't fit my collection, and then quickly resold them, just because I wanted to see them in person. I did that with a T206 Oberlin just to see what the pink background looked like, and also with an E90-1 Oakes. The Oakes was in a lot w/another card I wanted, and that one almost backfired b/c I liked it so much I seriously considered keeping it.

But I often sell them for either less than I paid (although not much) and less than I could have gotten.

FWIW.

Joann

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Posted By: Scot Reader

We're getting off cmoking's original topic but I can't resist chiming in. Collecting for me is a grand experiment. I will buy one card from a set, hold it for a few months and decide whether I like the card a lot or just a little. If I like the card a lot I will often buy more cards from the set. If I only like it a little I will sell the card off--sometimes at a loss. One has to live with something a while before one can commit to it ....

As for cmoking's rant about "the middleman," I sympathize but think his anger (maybe anger is too strong a word) is misplaced. The middleman who won the card is basically a gambler who is making a bet that he/she can flip the card for more than he/she paid for it. cmoking of all people should respect--and indeed champion--the God-given right to place a good bet!!!

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Posted By: cmoking

I'm not angry...just frustrated.

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Posted By: David Vargha

Bid higher. What a person does with his cards after he wins them is his business. If I buy a card from you for $200 and then sell it two weeks later for $1,000 you should be mad at yourself, not at me.

DavidVargha@hotmail.com

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Posted By: RayB

You'll pull that inside straight soon enough! Don't sweat it friend.
RayB

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Posted By: Jeff Lichtman

King, there is a more painful corollary to your situation: when you lose out on an auction for a card you need to someone you know and you offer to buy it for like 200 bucks more - and they refuse, asking for like 500 more than the auction price.

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Posted By: Cobby33

I'm with Jeff. Typically what happens after they refuse your generous premium, they take a loss when trying to sell it later (with some exceptions, of course). We can take solace in that, for what it's worth.

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Posted By: Rob

Provides the opportunity to observe the sucess or failure of the reseller. I learn, study, figure what I can do better, then win ONCE in a while to make a huge markup.

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Posted By: davidcycleback

If no one resold the things they bought, there would be lttle to buy. For the eBay seller, when was the last time you sold a card on eBay that you didn't buy? As an eBay seller I've hoped, but have yet to find a T206 under the doormat or an Old Judge in the lettuce bin.

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Posted By: davidcycleback

For accuracy's sake, I should point out that I don't have a doormat and, while I have a lettuce bin, it contains no lettuce.

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Posted By: davidcycleback

No, wait, I just remembered that my there is a doormat on my deck ... With Mr. O'Keafe reading, you have to make sure you get your facts straight.

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Posted By: anthony

i'm guilty of buying/selling cards for a profit but with a plan attached...to get all my "keeper" cards paid for with profits from other sales...believe it or not, and im sure there's more like me, i have all 4 t206 cobbs, young, johnson and my matty portraits (psa/sgc/gai 4's) paid for with profits of other sales. unfortunately for me, i keep adding "keeper" cards to my want list so it will take awhile longer to complete this task

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Posted By: Sean

I collect like Anthony(Lug-nut);

I don't have a large amount of money to spend on cards, but I do have time to look for deals and resell them and hopefully make a profit and buy the cards I want. Bought a Honus Wagner and Eddie Plank last week (two cards I have always wanted.) and I feel good that it just cost me time to search the internet and eBay to raise the funds.

It also makes my wife happy to see me not spending our money on these crazy cards

Sean BH

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Posted By: Bob

Sean- there are a lot more Anthonys around than you might think, not all of us have the budgets of 3 or 4 of the guys on board here who can seemingly afford anything and buy whatever they want at any time.
Tbob

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Posted By: Bob

King- I feel your pain, I have had some cards I was 2nd high bidder on on ebay relisted within 30 days. Very frustrating, especially when they are tougher cards like D311s, etc. I recall one card in which no one bid higher than $75 except my snipe and his which were both over $300 and then he turned around 60 days later and sold it for another $150 profit on ebay. If the guy had just fallen asleep on his couch and missed the auction I could have had it for $76 instead of not only losing it but eventually seeing it sell for around $500. Yes, very frustrating...
tbob

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Posted By: David Vargha

Not necessarily so. There may have been a snipe or multiple snipes for $285 (or whatever) that failed to register because they came in after both of the other snipes did.

DavidVargha@hotmail.com

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Posted By: warshawlaw

This thread is a big bunch of sour grapes. So you did not get a bargain because someone else saw that the card was a bargain too and bought it? Sorry, I don't see the injustice. If you wanted the card so bad and thought it was a bargain, you should have bid more for it in the first place.

Have you ever called a seller and told him that his cheapo listing that you won was actually worth five times as much? Or did you keep your mouth shut, pay, and chortle with glee at the great deal you got when the card arrived? Isn't that the analog to the subject of this thread?

These are instances of the free market actually working...

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Posted By: cmoking

"This thread is a big bunch of sour grapes."

Yes, you are right. As the title suggests - they have every right to do it...but it still annoys me. It is just sour grapes, I admit it. Like complaining about bad beats in gambling. No one likes to hear others complain about those things, I know I don't. But that's exactly what I did when starting this thread. My bad.

edited to add: Vargha is right too...if I really wanted the card, I should bid higher. Warshaw is right too...the free market at work is a good thing. Still....argh!

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Posted By: Bob

David- You're right although the chances are that if someone was going to put in a bid of $75-$275, say, they likely would have done so before the last 5 seconds when the sniper fired, but not necessarily.
tbob

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Posted By: Bob

Adam- I agree, sour grapes and yet if this board weren't here to vent a little bit and express a little frustraion every now and then, maybe some of us would be going "postal" or kicking the dog
tbob

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Posted By: leon

King (hi King) has every right to vent on the board. He knows it's sour grapes and all is cool... venting is ok on this board as long as it's about the little jewels we all love. With that being said I do think if you (anyone expressing an opinion here) have ever bought a card and sold it for any profit then it is a little hypocritical to say that you hate being out sniped only to see the card for sale soon after that. After all, you have done it yourself. As a flipper to support my habit I will definitely buy something that I think is under priced if I can. I am probably a little above the middle with resources to buy cards but there is no way I could afford them without buying and selling some. Good luck on the snipes !!

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Posted By: Elliot

Arghh...I agree 100% with King's 6:04 comments. It shouldn't bother me, but it does. I also hate it when a dealer that I have bought from outbids me on a card I need, but of course, he also has the right.....ARGH!!

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Posted By: Judge Dred (Fred)

What I like to see is someone that outbids me on a card and then tries to sell it only to see the card sit for a week without a bid .

Ok, that doesn't happen too often (or often enough) but it does occassionaly happen.

It's a free market society so anything goes. It's hard to begrudge someone for trying to flip a card. I'll admit that I'd do the same thing if a good opportunity presented itself.

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Posted By: edacra

If someone can flip a card for $1,000 profit, then that still means there was someone out there willing to pay that $1,000 more then you were prepared to pay in the first place. Now if those people would fall asleep on the couch a little more often...then the world would be a better place for sour grapes. Since there's little flip potential at the inflated price, we can only figure there's a collector at the end of that food chain, at least.