Do you ever fall for the "rare card" subject line on eBay?
 

Paid $80 for a E254 Solly Hofman in GD condition. I have to admit I fell for the tag line of "rare".

I usually find myself laughing when someone calls a card rare on ebay. Of course, every now and then they're right, but not usually.

Those guys that have an endless supply of recently deceased relatives' attics to clean out always find those "rare" cards. :D

The subject line is meaningless to me. Either I want the card or I don't. And I judge for myself, if the price is right, for me.

Same here! lol :D

As the seller of the Hofman card in question, I stand behind the fact that it is among the rarer E254 cards, as someone that has handled over 2,000 E254's over the past 10 years I would rank Hofman in the toughest 80 or so cards to find in the set, as you get higher on the list you can have commons that sell in the $250-600 range so $80 isn't out of the question. If you aren't happy with it you can return it for a full refund.

-Rhett

Not to hijack, but the problem is the same with publications. For example, on eBay a seller will put in the title Old or Vintage World Series Program and when you open the listing it is from 1986. I guess the words old or vintage are a matter of perspective, but does the seller really think that there is a better chance of selling it because they got me to open the listing?

Jeff

As I said sometimes they are right and in your case Eric, you got a rare card. Rhett is an authority on these things.

Rare?
 

Not subject-related, but case in point: My 12-year-old granddaughter (I know, I don't look that old) pointed out all the "rare" Taylor Swift items often listed on Ebay. Rare? Really?

208 series is rare too..
 

We have beat this subject to death before but once you are in the hobby for quite a few years, and you look at all of the auctions, ebay, BST's etc......the things you rarely see are usually rare. The things most people call rare are not rare. As for the Colgan's in question, Rhett knows.

BTW, the 208 series on back of some of these cards is very rare, imo...

http://luckeycards.com/pe254masterx3.jpg

I do fall for it. But rarely.

+1

If I see "rare" or the like in a description, I usually don't even bother to open it up.

If it is truly rare, then I likely will not win it anyway. If it is not rare, either the cost could be inflated by the "duped" bidders, or there possibly is something a little unscrupulous about the seller and I wouldn't want to deal with them anyway.

Rhett,

I had two purposes for the post as a new E254 set builder. 1. determine if the Hofman was truly a difficult card. 2. raise the question if the "rare" tag line get's anyone elses attention or ignored since so many listed as such are not. Even as a veteran pre war collector, I can buy into the hype sometimes and curious if other collectors do to.

I'll clarify better next time.