Clayton,
In the situation you described, if you found the card and they didn't and you have no interest in the card then you shouldn't say anything. If so think so many people are interested and all of them missed it then that is their fault.
I mean, if you were to out it by private messaging people, how would you decide who you PM'd first? Because whoever was PM'd earlier would have an advantage. If other people found out you were PM'ing people about this card, don't you think they would be upset if you sent the message to another person before them?
The only two solutions I see as possible with your scenario are these:
1) Do nothing. If you found this card, have no interest in it and the other board members didn't find it then that is their bad luck.
2) If you have the means, buy the card yourself and then either relist it on eBay in the proper category with the proper description and tell other board members about it in the proper B/S/T area or send it to an auction house which deals in sports items. That way everyone who is interested has a chance at the card.
Number two might seem crass but YOU did the work and found the card and YOU would be reaping the benefits.
This past Summer, I missed out on a T206 card with a brown Hindu back. The cost was all of $5 dollars. The sad thing is, I KNEW about this card for a couple of years.
This person had a yard sale about three years ago and I asked if they had any sports stuff. This guy said his Dad had collected some cards and he took me into his garage. There I found a literal stack of boxes and albums of cards. Most of the stuff was newer shiny crap but he had, by some way, found some older cards too.
In one box on top of the stack were the older cards he had found. There were three T206's in that box. The one with a brown Hindu back (a common), another common with a Piedmont back and then a common with a large chunk out of it. I asked if any of these cards were for sale and he said yes but he would have to do some investigation and get back to me (since his Dad had recently died). I gave him my name and number and left. I never heard back from him.
Flash forward to last Summer. My Mom tells me that her neighborhood is having a community sale and she wants me to help her clean her yard up and dig through the attic, closets, basement and garage to find things to sell at the sale she is going to have. I think about the guy with the cards and make a mental note to go see if he is 1) still living in the house, 2) still has the cards and 3) has decided if he is going to sell the cards and for how much. Unfortunately, I got busy (and tired) doing all of the work Mom wanted me to do and didn't have a chance to get to the guy's house before the sale started.
So, after I helped Mom get all of her stuff out the morning of the sale, I drove to the guy's house and yes, he still lived there, yes, he still had the cards and yes, he was selling them. I looked around and found two of the three T206's. I asked about the third and he said he had sold that one earlier in the morning.
So, because of my own mistake, I cost myself the chance to buy a brown Hindu backed T206 for $5 dollars. I had the information and didn't act on it. I didn't act on this info for three years out of respect for the guy's Dad having died and the seller not knowing if he wanted to sell or not. In that time period, collecting the different backs has become more popular and brown Hindu's have gone up in price. I kick myself every time I think about this. But whose fault is it? MINE!!!
I did the work but failed to follow through. Somebody else obviously didn't and they got the benefits of it.
To make this long story short, I think the people who do the work should get the benefits of that work. That, to me, means if YOU dig through the pages of eBay and find something YOU think is undervalued then either YOU should take advantage of that situation or just let it go. If other people don't find it then that is their tough luck. Outing an auction just makes hard feelings for all involved. So, what people don't know wont hurt them and wont cause a stink on this board.
David
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