Why are auctions so popular?

[Luke]

I prefer a straight sale. I've yet to consign anything because I like to have control over the fees and the price I net. In the last year I made a number of four-figure buys from fellow net54 members and I think everybody went home happy. To me getting the item is the exciting part, not the bidding process. If I can come to an agreement with someone on a card I want, and only have to wait 4 days to get it, that beats an auction.

That said, auctions are great too. They can be fun, educational (seeing new issues you aren't familiar with), and exciting. Also, if a family collection surfaces, there's no way I'm getting any of those cards in a straight sale, so I'm glad that auction houses provide the service they do.

[barrysloate]

Thanks Jimmy for the kind words, but truth be told, I burned out. I did many auctions over a long period of time, and finding quality consignments was getting really difficult. As I like to say, nothing lasts forever.

[Jantz]

Hi Barry

Auction Houses are making perfect sense to me.

Especially in the past few weeks. When I got my mail today I received another baseball card completely mangled.

This is the third item in the last month I've bought through Ebay to arrive damaged. No fault of the Post Office in any way either.

Ebay in their infinite wisdom has decided to start taking a cut of S&H fees, so sellers have been failing to properly package items for mailing.

I'm not saying auction houses couldn't improperly package an item, but for all the years I've been buying on Ebay, I've never received a damage package until after Ebay starting scalping S&H fees.

The Ebay seller of today's acquisition states that he doesn't take returns. That's about to change. I will be mailing him the card back just to educate him. No way can he resell the card since its so mangled that it won't even come out of the toploader.

Just for laughs, I thought about starting a "Guess the grade" thread.


Jantz