Been there, done that (too many times!).
Back in early 2017, Heritage had an auction with a number of great T206 HOF front-back combos, including a Tinker bat on Lenox, a Matty dark cap Carolina Bright, a Wajo portrait Hindu, a Lajoie portrait Hindu, and a Speaker Drum. It was the Speaker Drum that I really wanted. The final night of the auction comes and right before we enter the 30-minute per lot extended bidding, I bid on all of these cards, thinking I would bid outbid on most and I could see how it goes.
Immediately, I am outbid on all of them. So I focus on the Speaker Drum. In a matter of minutes, my foe and I bid the Speaker up to well over double where it was before extended bidding started. So, finally, at $26.5k, which was nuts at that time, I walk away and focus on the Matty. Same result. So then I focus on the Tinker, same result. Same thing with the Wajo. At this point I have been outbid on all the cards I wanted, and I am pissed, so I decided to buy the Lajoie Hindu come hell or high water. I won it, for $6,000, probably 3x what it worth at the time.
Epilogue:
(A) I later found out who I was bidding against. At one point he reached out to me and offered me the Speaker Drum for something like $80k. I countered at like $40k, and he seemed insulted. Later, I bought a Speaker Drum at auction for $31.2k. Then, a few months after, that the original Speaker Drum sold at auction for $24,600 (to Luke L). So this dude lost $2k on the card, when he could have made $14k accepting my way-above market offer., and I got a Speaker Drum for $9k less than I offered, but for $7k more than Luke paid for the original Drum I wanted (and his is as nice as mine).
(B) I consigned the Lajoie Hindu to REA and it was in their Fall/Winter auction that ended in December (last month). It sold for $6,900 with BP and I profited whopping $180 after holding it for 5 years.
Morals of the story: (1) Pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered, and (2) if you buy good stuff and hold it long enough, you can almost always recoup most, if not all, of a clear overpayment.
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