When will you overpay?

[Leon]

I just bought something this morning that I have never seen before. I think I greatly overpaid for it. It was between $500-$1000, so wasn't really life changing, and if I ever want to resell it I will probably be happy to get back half of that. As a type collector though, and never having seen one before, I had to have it. What do you overpay for (concerning cards or memorabilia)?

[slidekellyslide]

Apparently I've overpaid for a lot of stuff. It seems when I take myself out of the buying equation things go for next to nothing, but when I'm in the equation the sky is the limit.

I won't go into details, but I've had to sell some stuff that I never thought I would and one item only sold for 10% of what I paid.

Since I've now limited myself to only Lincoln minor league items and Nebraska Indians and cut the rest of Nebraska off I'll overpay for those items only if I don't already have them.

[jmk59]

Originally Posted by slidekellyslide

Apparently I've overpaid for a lot of stuff. It seems when I take myself out of the buying equation things go for next to nothing, but when I'm in the equation the sky is the limit.

Same here, Dan. I wonder if what you said isn't literally true - that you being in the equation is enough to raise prices. I find the same thing on female player items that I collect - it seems I can never sell them for anywhere near what I paid for them.

Since we are both talking about a fairly narrow collecting focus, maybe it's true that it only takes us being in the mix to skew results. I know there is one other ebay'er that seems to keep an eye on woman players, along with one or two others that show up occasionally. Not much other than that. So for these items, my participation could be the difference between two motivated bidders and only one. Same with you and your Nebraska focus.

For mainstream cards, I will overpay for something I need if I haven't seen one in awhile. So T204's might not be rare and T204 Detroiters no more rare than any other, but it seems like you just don't see a T204 Detroiter that often. So I probably overpaid for mine when I saw it come up.

J

[Fred]

Leon,

What was it you picked up?

I'd gladly overpay for certain slabbed lower grade OJs if the image quality was superior. That is one thing I like about grading - the companies HAMMER the grade if there is a bit of glue residue or slight back damage. I've seen OJs graded "1" or "2" that are absolute beauties but they have a few back issues that resulted in a low grade. I'll "overpay" for the low grade on those items.

[Jay Wolt]

Leon, if you've never seen it before, how do you know you overpaid?
If its that rare or unique, you might have gotten a steal

[bijoem]

Leon....

did it have a calendar on the back?

[Anthony S.]

When several cards from a particular set I'm collecting appear on Ebay with closing times about one minute apart. If I lose the first couple of cards and the winning bids are significantly higher than I anticipated, my bidding discipline will occasionally evaporate and I'll decide I'm going to win the next card come hell or high water.

[jbsports33]

When it’s something that takes me at least 6 month’s to find or anything unusual that I may never seen before or rarely have seen.

Jimmy

[cbcbcb]

I will overpay for almost anything Connie Mack.

[calvindog]

Anytime I've won something in a Goodwin auction.

[bcbgcbrcb]

I'm in the same boat as Dan B. on this one. I primarily do this when I have never seen another example of the item.

[Robextend]

Originally Posted by Anthony S.

When several cards from a particular set I'm collecting appear on Ebay with closing times about one minute apart. If I lose the first couple of cards and the winning bids are significantly higher than I anticipated, my bidding discipline will occasionally evaporate and I'll decide I'm going to win the next card come hell or high water.

I echo Anthonys previous post, I usually overpay if I become very determined when a card(s) from a set that I am collecting comes up for sale. I think one of my resolutions is to be more patient. Unless a card is deemed scarce it will usually come up again in the not so distant future hopefully closer to my pre-determined price range.