Auction flippers

[jimjim]

Originally Posted by theshleps

I bid on many auctions of signed cards that are on my want list. Sometimes I win. Sometimes I bid alittle higher than what I think is a good value and still get outbid and then a few weeks later I see the winning bidder selling the item on ebay for 2-3x the price they paid. Not only do I find it annoying, but it raises prices in general and makes it harder and harder for us collectors to pick up any of our wants. On alot of signed cards of HOFers (pre 1970) they have gone up anywhere between 300-600% in the last 2-5 years at least. It is great in terms of how much my collection is worth (I am sure alot of us have collections worth more than our houses now) but it makes it hard to add to our collections.
Am wondering what you folks think of this phenomena.

This has been going on with autograph baseballs for 5-10 years. And it has really driven up the price of the more rare inscribed baseballs. All it takes is 1 or 2 buyers to really drive up the market for rare items. For example, say 15 signed balls with HOF are sold a year on eBay. All these dealers have to do is buy them all for the going rate and then list them for 2-3x what they paid. Anyone that comes along that doesn’t do their homework (and their are plenty) will think that is the going rate or offer a bit less and think they just got a ‘deal’. And now a new higher comp was just created. Some say it’s just good business and based on supply and demand. But I have been watching this unfold since it started. Whenever said item was put up for auction it would sell for the appropriate amount say $300 (debunking the supply/demand theory). So that was stopped pretty quickly and the sellers only use buy it now for say $900, hoping to find an uneducated buyer and they usually do sooner or later.