Posted By:
Aaron M.Dan:
Man, do I share your pain. I've been looking for a very rare 1912 Red Sox World Series pinback for years with all sorts of search topics set on E-Bay looking for it. Then one day last December I happened to check completed auctions (which I do occasionally to monitor sales for items I'm not bidding on) and an absolute choice example with the charms still attached went for about $900.
I think the same pin was subsequently framed with a Red Sox season pass and photo and offered in June's Sotheby's/Sportscard Plus auction and sold for over $6,600. (Here's the link: http://search.sothebys.com/jsps/live/lot/LotDetail.jsp?&lot_id=4FRMT)
Another one in damaged condition just went for over $1,000 in Leland's Fredo auction (I was the underbidder and wouldn't go higher for a pin I would only replace later because of condition problems).
To this day I still don't know how my searches didn't pick it up. And I still lament the loss and cringe when I think of it.
I know this is totally unethical, but what the hell? I would suggest contacting the seller and making an outrageous offer to rescind his auction. yeah, he'll probably get a negative out of it from the buyer, but if you offer him an outrageous amount of money as opposed to the $175 selling price I would imagine he'd do it.
Aaron
http://aaronsroom.blogspot.com/