Take Cover - Snipers Out in Force!

[Matt]

I've been looking for an R303 Ted Williams for the last year and a half, so I was following the ending of this one closely on eBay.
http://offer.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.d...m=230351390437

with 10 seconds to go, the high bid was $160 and what ensued was an impressive sniping display.
5 different bidders submitted snipes that registered and the card sold for $726. Because the card is seldom available (I have seen two others offered - one with a stain and a tear was offered as part of a lot and the other, an SGC 80 sold for $1500) there is minimal relevant historical data which caused quite a bit of uncertainty as to the valuation. I'd imagine that each of us who sniped thought our bid was certainly high enough to take it.

Most auctions nowadays get sniped, but with VCP you can usually tell pretty closely what the end result will be for most cards; this was an interesting exception.