Fuzzy auction logic/math

[Fred]

There was a baseball card for sale on ebay with an opening bid of $850 (+$12.50 s/h). This same card was sold by an auction house for $990 ($825 +20% buyer’s premium, the total did not include s/h) less than two months ago.

The ebay auction closed for the opening bid of $850. The only bid came in the final 10 seconds of bidding.

Can someone explain why a bidder would purchase the card from the auction house and then take a loss on it in less than 2 months? Is this a common business practice? The card sold really didn't fit into the type of cards the seller has typically sold in the past year.

Just seems strange that in the past year this ebay seller sold over 300 items of which only one was more expensive than the card they just sold for $850. Most of the other sales were under $100. Sounds like a pretty lousy business model if someone wants to buy stuff from a major AH that has lots of exposure and then try to sell it on ebay shortly after buying it from the AH.

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

Judging by the fact that he doesn't normally operate in that arena I would guess that he gambled and lost, or he got saddled with a lot he didn't think he was actually going to win and wanted to cut his losses. Unless there's a pattern I think you're reading too much into the situation.

[Snowman]

Originally Posted by Aquarian Sports Cards

Judging by the fact that he doesn't normally operate in that arena I would guess that he gambled and lost, or he got saddled with a lot he didn't think he was actually going to win and wanted to cut his losses. Unless there's a pattern I think you're reading too much into the situation.

I was basically going to say the same thing. This is not uncommon. Especially with active players. Someone buys a card because they think the player is going to have a breakout season, or win something, or just believes that card will go up in value because of some particular reason. Then, when it doesn't happen, they cut their losses and sell the card. I did the exact same thing with Chris Paul rookie cards. As soon as Giannis hurt his knee in the playoffs, I hopped onto eBay and bought Chris Paul RCs because I thought they had a high likelihood of winning the NBA championship. But Giannis came back, despite hyperextending his knee, and played like an absolute beast. So I put the Chris Paul cards back up for sale at a loss. I took a gamble and it didn't pay off. But I have no desire to own Chris Paul cards.

[Jay Wolt]

Apparently he was hoping for multiple bids & just got the 1 bid

[Fred]

Card was a 19th century cabinet. The seller doesn't appear to sell "older" cards as part of their inventory. Just seems odd.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/40320280570...rdt=true&rt=nc

[Snowman]

Originally Posted by Fred

Card was a 19th century cabinet. The seller doesn't appear to sell "older" cards as part of their inventory. Just seems odd.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/40320280570...rdt=true&rt=nc

Maybe he bought it thinking it was going to be a standard-sized baseball card and then when it showed up much larger than he anticipated he decided he didn't want it anymore? lol