Talk about overpaying!!!

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Posted By: Paul Muchinsky

Since I know nothing about gloves, photos, bats, cards, etc., I have no idea what price any such item would be "under", "at", or "above" market. The prices in my book for baseball pinbacks have been criticized in every possible way. I have heard all four:
1. Too high on the highs. "Who would ever pay that much for a pin? You are a moron."
2. Too low on the highs. "You list the price of a pin of Honus Wagner, same era, perhaps even greater scarcity, at less than 1% of the price of his card? You are a moron?"
3. Too low on the lows. "Just $5 for that pin? I'd end up paying more than $5 for just S/H. You are a moron."
4. Too high on the lows. "$10 for that pin? Why, I can get that exact same pin for just $3 at Leo's Sports Card Shoppe. You are a moron".

Because Henry's 1946 Red Sox pin sold for less than my estimated value, and a PM10 pin sold for more than my esimated value, if you average the two, my values must be near perfect. I have no idea why items sell for more or less than someone else thinks they should have gone for. But they consistently do. Maybe "market volatility" is the inexorable explanation for prices that are quite simply what two or more people are willing to pay for an item they both want, or what one person gets an item for because nobody else wanted it all that much at that time. I am also at a loss to explain why things sell for what they do. But I would like to believe there are more benign explanations than: a) sellers who are cheats, and b) buyers who have more money than brains.

Have I ever gotten a bargain? Yes. Have I ever been shilled? Yes (by a big auction house). Ted Williams once said that breaks never balance out in a game or in a season, but they do over an entire career. That is the only sense I can make out of the prices in our hobby.