eBay make an offer bs

[orly57]

Just saw an example that made me think of this thread. I am helping a buddy find a t3 Cobb in low grade that looks nice (let me know if you have one for sale). That is a particularly good card to find with those specs because many are graded low because of minor paper loss on the back, despite being otherwise beautiful cards. So I find one on eBay for $3,750 obo. It is an SGC 10 with one torn corner and tack holes on every corner. It is not a particularly nice example, but has a decent image. T3's in particular, as I mentioned, have grades-within-grades that people will pay a premium for (a gorgeous 1.5 is currently at 3k on Heritage, but is graded that low only because of minor paper loss on the back and SGC is unreasonable about paper loss regardless of where it is). Vcp is only instructive if you compare apples to apples and not just look at grades.
I know the market well on this card. I can tell you that it isn't more than a $1500 card. But it is at $3,750 obo! So is $1500 a low-ball if it is what I know the market price to be? The crazy thing is that he may well accept $1200, but we won't know unless we try. On the flip-side, he may be insulted at a 1,500 offer because it is so much lower than his obo price, despite the fact that it is fair market. I am advising my buddy against this card, but I thought it was a good example of the issues we have discussed here today.
The eBay card and the heritage card are pictured below. The fact that these 2 cards are a half grade apart is an indictment of the whole grading system in my opinion, but that is for another post.