Ebay # 1800535054

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Posted By: Bruce Macpherson 

http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1800535054>

Sorry if the link doesn't come up correctly as I am some what computer challenged. What is the deal with this guy. Over 70 bucks for a Merkle with a pinhole and a chunk taken out of the bottom? I've been collecting the T206 set for the past year or so and noticed that this guy always seems to get top dollar for cards that range from fair to good at best. It appears that he has shill bidders, but doesn't this cost him on ebay fees? Just curious to know if anyone on this board has had any experiences with this seller.

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Posted By: Anonymous

I have only been hanging around here a short time and have already heard a boatload of bad things about this guy.

I did check on a bunch of his auctions and who is bidding on his stuff. It appears that it is the same 3-4 people that run up the price all time. It's amazing to see to peole with a 50 feedback rating with 200+ feddbacks, almost all from danbuzz or other people that have bid on his auction. They all seem to come from roughly the same geographic area, so that, along with all the cross bidding on items sure makes seem like they are shill bidding. And yes, he still has to pay final price fees even if no action sale of the card took place.

It's very possible that what is going on is that they are using to 'auctions' to justify sales prices in thier stores. This wouldn't be the first time a scam like that has been run. When then internet was only ftp protocol and unenet groups I knew several dealers that would have friends post 'buy' ads on the usenet groups, never actually buying anything and then justify the price they were charging by saying "hey look, there on people on the internet willing to pay this much for this card."

Another variation on this from the 80s was full page ads offering to pay top dollar for certain cards. When you went to thier table at a show, they would tell you that they had already bought as many cards as they wanted. Then a few issues later they were selling these cards based on the supposed buy price they were offering. The gimmick was that they had already bought huge collection of the cards they supposedly wanted and used the buy ad soley to create an artificial price. The grossest example of this I experienced was when one of these dealers was 'buying' high grade Wheaties cards. I walked up to his table with every complete set from 1936-9 on the box, not the just the card, and was told that he was not interested since he already bought all the Wheaties cards that he wanted. Gimmie a break, how many complte boxes of these still exist?

Jay

I like to sit outside, drink beer and yell at people. If I did this at home I would be arrested, so I go to baseball games and fit right in.

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Posted By: Ed Hans

It is a somewhat scarce back which still doesn't come close to justifying a $78.00 price tag on that Merkle. I suspect you are right.

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Posted By: jay behrens

test to if I am still turning up anon

I like to sit outside, drink beer and yell at people. If I did this at home I would be arrested, so I go to baseball games and fit right in.

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Posted By: runscott

Do you like to sit outside, drink beer and yell at people? If you did this at home do you think you would be arrested, and therefore you go to baseball games so you will fit right in?

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Posted By: John

Julie,i think he meant they are not the most common back,he didnt say they were rare,he said "somewhat scarce but doesnt come close to the $78 price", and a rare card would be worth that much....i know my collection isnt the best judge off t206 backs but just in case anyone cares for scarcity reference*:220 out of 430 are piedmont96 are sweet caporal14 are sovereign....it ranks tied for 4th with old mill and behind polar bear also (* use at your own risk)

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Posted By: Julie Vognar

aren't rare. Julie

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Posted By: Julie Vognar

but the seller called his card-with-a-chunk-out-of-it "rare."

Julie

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Posted By: john

the card ended up selling for $97 to his favorite buyer,somebody should tell hikencook he could have bought 5 of those cards for the same price,but i doubt it would matter because i doubt there was actually a transaction that went on

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Posted By: runscott

My count of cards I had scans for was 74-37 in favor of Piedmonts

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Posted By: Jim

I wondered myself. Many of his auctions end at $70.-$100., and they are always commons in poor-fair condition. So - I asked him. He was pretty defensive. I told him I wasn't questioning his ethic, just asking how he did it - great marketing? ; ) He was the one that said "no shill bidding going on here..", I never even brought it up (apparently he has been asked before). I told him - and this is the truth - I am accusing him of nothing - just making a very harmless inquiry. I sell alot of T206s on Ebay, and I average about $15. - $20. tops for a common in lower-end condition. He believes that saying "rare" or "old" "vintage card" in his heading is what does it. He says alot of people do searches by "old tobacco cards". The whole discussion got a little messy, so I thanked him for the time and let it go. It is certainly not my place to make accusations or claims against anyone.

By the way - I don't consider Sovereign backs rare at all. When I buy big lots of cards (100-1000) I typically get 15-30% that are Sovereign. I find that alot of places throw a bunch in now, so the lot isn't consisted "just" of Piedmont and Sweet Cap's. Actually, I don't think Old Mill is very rare either. Right now, I am finding Hindu tough, and Carolina Brights increasingly difficult. Of course Drum and Lenox are hard. Broadleaf is also becoming more scarce (probably because collectors are holding them, more hesitant to let them go). The surprise for me has been that, Polar Bear is becoming Very Hard to find. Two years ago I was finding lots that were 40% Polar Bear. Now - one, maybe two. Funny how these things fluctuate.

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Posted By: runscott

Jim - Apparently he gets a lot of questions like this, probably some that sound a bit threatening. I have exchanged emails with him, extremely similar to the ones you describe, and as a result also tried his subject style, with good results on cheap cards only. Many of my buyers were people who bid on his cards, and their physical addresses were all over the U.S. (and they all paid).

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Posted By: Lee Behrens

I have had danbuzz purchase cards from me in the past. he usually pays decent money for the lowgrade cards. I have a list of about 20 ebay names connect to what I call the "Danbuzz network". From what I can tell if he is shill bidding he is doing it against himself and having to pay the ebay fees, so he is only hurting himself. if you have a problem with his auctions stay away, I'm sure we all have because the prices are so high.

I plan on listing all my Festberg cards under that listing and see how it goes.

Good day to all

Lee

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Posted By: runscott

...maybe you could list yours exactly backwards, so you can be the "anti-Danbuzz", but still take advantage of the word searches his customers use!

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Posted By: Jay

you would think that after awhile, his customers would become a bit more savvy and start looking to see if they are actually getting a good deal or not. But then again, I have never held out much hope for the general populace being all that intelligent. Look at all the laws we need to have to protect them from themselves.

Jay

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Posted By: Ed Hans

What I meant, and probably should have said, is that Sovereign 150 backs specifically were more difficult than average. Of course, Sovereign backs in general are relatively common. Still, that card is worth nowhere near $97.00.