Ebay auctions

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Posted By: robert a

Changed title to reflect other ebay auctions.

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Posted By: Matthew

Anyone want to fess up & tell us what it sold for?

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Posted By: Brad

Can someone post the link...

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Posted By: Zach Rice

Frustrating. I'm sure the seller left money on the table. He believes it to be a $600 card in ex condition.

Here is the item number: 180064545460

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Posted By: barrysloate

Zach- I got "page not responding" but I've been having trouble with my computer all day. But an EX M131 for $600? I'll take a hundred, please.

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Posted By: Matt

180064545460 ebay item #

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Posted By: Matthew

Try this one

http://cgi.ebay.com/1911-E94-BALTIMORE-NEWS-NEWSBOY-SERIES-TERRY-TURNER_W0QQitemZ180064545460QQihZ008QQcategoryZ868 41QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

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Posted By: barrysloate

Can we say with absolute certainty that he gave it away for a song? Let the auction run its course!!

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Posted By: Bob

Before there were any bids on the card I made an offer to buy the card. I offered him a reasonable amount based on his statement of value (which is the SCD 2007 price by the way) and he counter-offered with a higher price, which I agreed to. I then sent the money by instant paypal transfer. He indicated he had received it and would end the auction and send the card Monday morning. At that time, before he endd the auction, there was an initial bid of $7.99 (starting bid) and carmelcard (Andy C?) made a bid which showed up at around $22.
All was well until someone emailed the seller and told him the SCD 2007 catalogue was way too low and the card was worth "5 times that much," not $600 for an excellent card but $3000. Remember this card was poor to fair at best. In any event I got a song and dance about his teen age son which may or may not be true, but agreed to accept a refund of my money.
Just wanted to let the board know as this is a sore subject among some (the ending of auctions early-even when there are no bids). I don't want to start another 300 post thread but I know that 50% of the regular posters on this board have done this at one time or another so please spare me the holier than thou posts. I have done this 3 times over 10 years, once I paid the going price for an E97 proof, the second time someone from the board (I know who) managed to screw me on the acquisition of one of the last 1910 Obak series of 150 cards I needed for my set. I ended up buying that very same card from Barry Sloate about 6 months later after the guy who purchased the card when it was relisted consigned it to Barry and actually paid less than I was paying for it the first time! This is the 3rd card and once again someone managed to intervene. I'll never know if he perceived his intervention as some sort of altruistic and moral high ground measure or whether he just did it for pure spite or a jealous motive so he could now own the card. I guess I don't really care but to a collector who was thrilled to buy a Baltimore News card, thanks a lot whomever you are and I hope you have a wonderful holiday season....

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Posted By: Brian Weisner

Hi Dan,
Are you the lucky Baltimore News Boy? Hope so. Be well Brian

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Posted By: barrysloate

Bob- I do remember that Obak. I'll say the same thing I always say: what does it take for a seller to wait a few more days just to see what happens at the end? Every time a seller closes early he gets significantly less than his item is worth. And yet it happens time and again.

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Posted By: Bob

Barry- To be absolutely honest, that Obak was a card that never pops up and so to a set collector, it was a matter of "ask and take a chance, what do you have to lose?" The Baltimore News card was a little different. Very tough but I am not building that set. I always let my own auctions go to completion and 99.9% of the time I wait out the ones I bid in but once in a long while I do make an offer. I have absolutely no problem with a seller telling me he doesn't end his auctions early, I don't either, but sometimes you have to realize that there are sellers who do and so if you have a card you really, really want, you might make an offer.
Bob

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Posted By: Jim Clarke

Surprised to see a power seller end it early. Maybe it's good to place some medium bids early to show the seller that it's worth something. If everything is won by snipes.. I would probably accept any good offer before hand as well. I as many others will make offers on items before they close. I normally make a very reasonable offer so it's worth it on both ends. I just hate it when the seller post your question "live" for anyone to read.. I remember the Gypsy Queen Ewing that Jay Miller had his offer posted publicly (as mine).

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Posted By: Dan Bretta

Barry, it doesn't always pay to let an auction run the course. I offered a lady $300 for a Nebraska Indians book before it had any bids and she wanted to let it go...I ended up winning it for $57. My brother was selling some slotcars on ebay last week and was offered $120 for one car...he let the auction run its course and the car only sold for $70.

I never used to email the sellers with offers in the past, but so many items that I have on my watchlist just disappear with no explanation so I decided if you can't beat 'em then join 'em. I still rarely do it, but if it's something I want badly then I will.

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Posted By: leon

My thoughts exactly....

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Posted By: robert a

Tbobby,

For the record, I am caramelcard. I threw a $200 bid so that it would hopefully stick around for a while after someone else bid into it.

I did not email the dude and interfere with your transcation. It's a free country and I knew of course it would be someone I knew going for it.

I did just email the guy after to ask him if he planned on ending his other auctions (that I've bidded on) early and he told me that he only ended the m131 auction early so that he could send it in to be graded.

Rob

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Posted By: Bob

Hi Rob. I knew it wasn't personal as no one knew it was me who was the guy who bought the card. The seller lied to me then, he said his 15 year old son sold the card without his knowledge and thought he was doing his father a favor. I thought that sounded lame, especially since he emailed me in all caps and the ad was made in all caps. There were other tell-tale signs I was lied to after he determined he had not sold it for enough but I figured it was too big of a hassle to push it. If he gets it graded it will come back an SGC 10, no better.
He was referring to his 2007 SCD catalogue for a price and it says $600 for an EX card, thus $165 for a poor to fair card would be a decent price. Yes we know SCD is too low on prices for many prewar cards but that's their fault, not ours.
On a brighter note, Neal (greenmonster) emailed me today that he had found a Tattoo Orbit Cissell which I had been looking for with a BIN of $39.99, looks ex but tiny corner crease. It's been a tough one to find so I did manage to snare a card I needed. Many thanks to Neal who was one collector helping out another.
tbob

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Posted By: fkw

Who snagged the 5 PC796 Sepia Postcards (Cobb, Bresnahan, Brown, etc.) that disappeared after a couple days??

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Posted By: warshawlaw

I emailed a seller with a question about ending early on an item, he wouldn't, I won it at the auction for less than my offer.

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Posted By: Steve M.

Bob, I think greenmonster is Jim Schneider. Who is Neal?

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Posted By: Bob Pomilla

It's back up.

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Posted By: barrysloate

Said he removed it due to a huge personal error. Whatever that means. But he's not taking it down this time. We shall see.

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Posted By: joe

Well. go get it boys!

Joe

Ty Cobb, Spikes flying!

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Posted By: David Smith

No, Barry, it was because of a "hugh" personal error.

Maybe Hugh is his 15 year-old son...


David

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Posted By: barrysloate

I saw that, but took the liberty of correcting the spelling.

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Posted By: Bob

nm

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Posted By: dstudeba

Frank -

That one annoyed me too.

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Posted By: ErlandStevens

I'm a smalltime collector compared to most on this board.
I buy pretty common stuff, so I'll probably never cross paths
with an auction that closes early because a non-bid offer.
In that sense, I don't know what kind of patience some of you
have to show while waiting for a true rarity to appear.
Still, I really don't like the idea of this going on. (Bob, I
don't like what you did, but to your credit, at least you
fessed up.)

Can't eBay do anything about this? I guess that a financial
penalty would have to be ridiculously high to make a seller
reject an big offer. You'd think that eBay would capitalize on
this idea. eBay could let the seller pay a fee for the right
to end an auction early.

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Posted By: Bob

Erland- One of the problems with this board is that anyone willing to be honest and post something like asking to end an auction early gets drawn and quartered by some people, usually by some who have done the exact same thing but never admitted it. I certainly don't mind you saying you don't like the practice, to be honest I don't either. I have seen way too many auctions in my time disappear when I have a snipe bid waiting or I am high bidder and feel good about my chances. One way around it is to ask the seller if he will end his auction and create a Buy It Now for the buyer to use. That way ebay gets their cut and both buyer and seller come under the ebay umbrella in case anything goes wrong. I realize this doesn't solve the problem though.
Just like Leon and tons of others here, the request to end an auction early is a reflexive action these days because of the many cards that are tough which end early.
As I said in my earlier post, when I asked the auction to end early the card did not yet have any bids. Some use this as a differential between it and cards which people have already bid on. Some sellers will actually end their auctions hours before the final deadline. Buyers can withdraw their bids for 6 days (on 7 day auctions) so it is not totally one sided between buyers and sellers.
Don't forget some auctiones have ended early because the seller does not have a reserve and is afraid he might take a "bath" on a card. There are many reasons why an auction ends early.
I wish I had an answer for you but I don't. The easy way out is to simply never, ever ask a seller to end an auction early for any reason whatsoever. The harsh reality is that if you have been searching long and hard for years to find a particular card you might reconsider because someone else might beat you to the punch.

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Posted By: Cobby33

With all the publicity off of the B/S/T Pages, I'm sure he'll do quite well. Funny how things work out.

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Posted By: fkw

Now the damn Fredrick Foto is gone too!!!

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Posted By: Brian Weisner

Yea Frank,
It sucks...... because you and I weren't the only ones watching this one. I bet 8-10 snipe bids were placed on this item. EBAY isn't as much fun as it used to be...... Be well Brian

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Posted By: leon

My snipe was set high

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Posted By: Andy Baran

Can someone post a link to the Frederick Photo? I'm just curious who the player was. Thanks.

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Posted By: Brian Weisner

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=014&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT&viewitem=&item=330060821338&rd=1&rd=1

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Posted By: Rhett Yeakley

I gotta admit I was watching both the Frederick Foto, and the Sepia postcards. Looks like some people are getting a little pushy around the holidays.
-Rhett

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Posted By: DR

This is the same seller that listed (2) non sports cards graded PSA 7 and a day before the auctions were set to end, the auctions were both cancelled, without explanation (and no NARUd bidders). I emailed to ask if there was a problem and if the cards are available for auction or sale and to name a price. A reply was never received. A real class act! This is very questionable eBay behavior and NOT a stand up eBay seller (in my book). How would the seller like it if someone bid up an item with (2) accounts or had a friend bid on an item and retracted (1) bid last minute? Is this possible? I am not condoning this type of activity. If you are curious, the items I no longer have any interest in #s: 330053022664 & 330053050030

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Posted By: Dan Bretta

According to ebay rules this is perfectly fine for an ebay seller to do, so I wouldn't condone messing with someone's auctions like that.

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Posted By: peter ullman

WTF! this is getting really annoying...this is why i'll never have a stellar collection...i'm too passive/nice!

pete in mn

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Posted By: Jim Clarke

MY snipe was set higher than yours Leon... JK I have already e-mailed him my concern about stopping the auction on the 1921 Federick photo. I hope he re-list it. Now stay off my one card tonight that I want and it has not closed early.. MY snipe is set and waiting....

JC

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Posted By: fkw

FYI......sult07 is William "The Monster" Heitman. The FF auction was pulled because a bidder got NARUed.

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Posted By: Paul

Add me to the list of those bummed out about the PC796's ending early.

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Posted By: RC McKenzie

The seller did say he used to have 80 of these... Hopefully, he relists.


On a side note, sometimes it is better to go ahead and place a few bids on obscure stuff. It's unlikely that anyone can 'find' something on ebay that no-one else on here sees. Regards

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Posted By: peter ullman

i'm getting flashbacks of e99's/e100's type I's and II's disappearing in the night.

pete

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Posted By: sagard

It's really a viscious circle. Buyers refuse to be run up so they snipe. Sellers not trusting the snipes will come out accept offers early. It's really kind of silly. So many here pick on high grade PSA collectors but from what I've seen your even worse to each other when dealing with inexperienced Ebay sellers who may or may not know what they have.

Soren

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Posted By: Dylan

Thats why i think its a good practice to bring the price up to a reasonable amount early if it appears to be listed by an inexperienced seller. Not a top dollar amount or even close to your snipe, but enough to make the seller feel as though things are going well and he wont get the shaft in the end.

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Posted By: barrysloate

I agree with Dylan. If you see something that you have a feeling might get shut down early, immediately put in a bid around 30-50% of your high bid. Sure, you let everyone know you are interested in it, but they probably know that anyway. The best piece I think I ever bought on ebay was the 1872 Boston team composite that was in my November auction. I actually emailed the owner and insisted that she not pull the item, that it was going to get plenty of bidding. She responded that she was swamped with offers but refused to pull it. The final bid was more than 50% higher than her top offer. She was obviously more business savvy than most sellers on ebay.

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Posted By: robert a

Hi Barry,

It takes at least two people to bring the price up to a reasonable amount.

Rob

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Posted By: barrysloate

Robert- of course, you could bid $200 and be high bidder at $12 for a day or two, and then the seller gets panicky. But we assume any highly desirable item has lots of people interested so if two or three put in placement bids the chance of the seller shutting down early greatly decreases.

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Posted By: Bob

Barry- That's a good strategy and I have used it before but it also means that the skulkers out there who check user ids to see what people are betting on see your interest in a card. Yes, this does happen, I have had collectors tell me they have bookmarked what I am bidding on and I know many others of you have heard the same. Several years ago there was a T207 Lowdermilk in excellent in the wrong category which no one else appeared to have found. On the last day I entered a decent bid to keep the seller from getting remorse and pulling the card only to have someone (he told me this later) check my cards to see what I was bidding on and lay down a big snipe bid and win it when I thought I was in the clear with 6 seconds left. That's life, it happens...
Bob