Auction roulette
 

It's just amazing to me how many times I see a nice item at auction and a quick Google search reveals that the person who consigned it bought it less than 3 months ago. Sometimes last month. Bought on PWCC now at Heritage. Bought at Memory Lane now at PWCC. Bought at Mile High now at somewhere else. Etc. Etc. Is this a business model that continually works for people? If you buy at Auction House 1, you are paying more than anyone else was willing to pay. Than you paid 19.5 or something percent on top of that, and maybe tax, and then you paid (probably shipping). Then you pack it up, pay shipping again, send off to Auction House 2, and then pay another commission for the privilege of them reselling it. I guess I can imagine this working in some situations but not consistently. If you held the card for a year or so I could see it working a lot more often. Transaction costs are just too significant.

If you feel you bought the card for less than the card will realize again, with the fees taken into account, why not? It is not as easy as one would think to continually guess correctly with so little time in between.

There are certainly plenty of folks who buy solely in order to flip at a perceived or expected profit. I can't imagine it's a great business model.

As I mentioned recently in a different thread, I saw a dealer buy a card -- in the same group I bought an almost identical card in the same auction -- and then turn around and list it on eBay at 3x the sale price. I offered to sell him mine for double the price. He declined and said if he had wanted the card he would have just beat me in the auction for it. This was a year ago and his 3x price is still available on eBay if anyone wants in on that "deal" (as is my 2x price)!

I also think much of this, at least as you describe it, is probably people selling to free up funds to pay for something they like more.

It's probably a little of both. Some people probably are doing it successfully but like any financial market, most people that try will not have success. You see some strange business models. Every once in awhile I'll see a card that I thought someone overpaid for at a major auction get listed on the BST for a 40% premium above that.

Also, some people never handle selling themselves, so if they buy too much and then see something they have to have, they need to consign some of their stuff, regardless of when they bought it.

Freeing up funds sounds very plausible as interests change. I won a 52 Pavko from Prestine a couple of months ago which was perfectly centered and looked great. SGC brutally graded it at the National with a 30 or 35 because of a faint hair line crease on it, which I didn't see. Such a bad SGC expierence I had on it I just wanted to get rid of it. Walked it over to PWCC and consigned it where it got hammered even harder selling for a third of what I paid for it. This was after PWCC forgot to run it on their main auction and they claimed it was so nice they didn't want to group it with all the other Pavko's they ran. So, they ran it a month later saying it would stick out more...

Now as far as running a business model from doing the auction shuffle seems very reasonable. The key is to have years of expierence knowing cards and have the funds to sit on it awhile until the right buyer wants it. If you have a large enough inventory, then you will most likely do good and make it work. There is a long time collector which I don't want to name but we all know and love him. He practices this! My only hint to who this is.... He likes beer!

I just figure that all the people who are paying significant dollars for cards are watching the same auctions that I am and doing to same Google searches that I do. If there was a card that went off for $1000 last month, and I lost it and it really stung me, I might pay a small vig to get it a month later. Maybe $200 if I really need to get it. But I'm not paying much more than that. And how much could the seller actually be clearing at that point, even with a paper profit?

If I am buying a card for resale I am not looking to the guy who wouldn't pay as much as I did in the first place, to sell it to.

A wise sage you are. Agreed.

I think the point is that if a card sells in a well-known auction house that there are no other guys to buy it for more next week - all of them chose not to outbid you for it this week.

A couple years ago I sold a card in a reputable auction that went for a somewhat disappointing $400 or so, probably about what I had paid for it. Turned up in the next REA auction and sold for more than $1200. Ouch.

I think you're fooling yourself if you think that the majority of big bidders know about all the auctionhouses and when the last days are. Sure, many do, but many whales are still only on eBay or Christies or REA. They are loyal just like cigarette smokers. They buy stuff in their spare time. So the wide variance in prices paid makes sense, because the level of information also varies widely.
Also, some auctionhouses just don't describe their items well, and some do. However, I would think a smarter way of doing this is buying dealers lots in big auctions, and then parting them out on COMC to Amazon and eBay for the lower grade/commoner cards, and then doing the grading thing with the really nice ones.

I don't know . . . . how about a 30 second Google search of {player} {set name} {grade} {auction}. Seems to work every time for me.

eh
 

To each his own

Todd, you just did a nice job of describing the big difference between REA and other reputable auction houses! :)

Don't I know it. I could barely find my way back to my room after having a few with him at this year's National.

If happen to buy on a day with 10% ebucks, at least you have a decent chance to break even...

Maybe it works. Not criticizing it. It's a free economy.
In the last five minutes I found on eBay a few photos that were over $1000 of what they sold at BMY weeks ago. If you can find a willing buyer good for you. No judgment here. This isn't infant formula or bread we are talking about.