Is it all about the chase?

[Jobu]

The flip side of this is that, considered vs. a fixed price that we assume the buyer saw and thinks is a bit high, the buyer might be willing to risk paying more at auction to acquire the chance to pay less.

I also think there is an element of people getting excited about owning a particular when they follow an auction for days (or weeks) where the current bid is well below market, something that is missing when looking at a card at full price. I don't know that this is the fun of the chase as much as it is that the person develops a longer relationship with a card they are bidding on while a card with a price on it is a pretty short time to pass/buy without days/weeks thinking about that exact card.

[nolemmings]

Originally Posted by Jobu

The flip side of this is that, considered vs. a fixed price that we assume the buyer saw and thinks is a bit high, the buyer might be willing to risk paying more at auction to acquire the chance to pay less.

I also think there is an element of people getting excited about owning a particular when they follow an auction for days (or weeks) where the current bid is well below market, something that is missing when looking at a card at full price. I don't know that this is the fun of the chase as much as it is that the person develops a longer relationship with a card they are bidding on while a card with a price on it is a pretty short time to pass/buy without days/weeks thinking about that exact card.

Kind of a corollary to that, but there are times when I have seen a BIN that I was tempted but then let pass. After it survived without a bid and is relisted I start to get more confident that I can get the card at my leisure, and maybe for an offer at a lesser price. Then at some point I see the card is listed as a straight auction, and it becomes more of a now or never situation, so I need to adjust my thinking. At that point and depending on how badly I want the card, I will bid up to and a time or two even more than I could have had it BIN (although not by much). Of course, there are occasions when someone else jumps on the BIN and the card is gone, but I've learned not to get too worked up over that.

[Snapolit1]

Yeah, I get that. Once something sits a while I think your immediate response can be (1) its overpriced and (2) no pressure to grab it.

Originally Posted by nolemmings

Kind of a corollary to that, but there are times when I have seen a BIN that I was tempted but then let pass. After it survived without a bid and is relisted I start to get more confident that I can get the card at my leisure, and maybe for an offer at a lesser price. Then at some point I see the card is listed as a straight auction, and it becomes more of a now or never situation, so I need to adjust my thinking. At that point and depending on how badly I want the card, I will bid up to and a time or two even more than I could have had it BIN (although not by much). Of course, there are occasions when someone else jumps on the BIN and the card is gone, but I've learned not to get too worked up over that.

[kailes2872]

Since I assume that most BINs are overpriced/full retail, I usually either skip right over them or only have auctions in my search. If there is something that I stumble on that looks to be reasonable, I usually go down a rabbit hole of looking at comps and studying the card to make sure that I am not missing something. More often than not, while I am doing this, it gets sold from underneath me. This has happened at least a half a dozen times and I still lament at the price I could have gotten those cards for if I would have just pulled the trigger (but I assumed something was amiss).

On another occasion, when I was building my 67 set, I came upon a Red Sox team card that had a reasonable starting price ($40-50 if I recall correctly). I watched it through two auction cycles not get a single bid. The price seemed reasonable, but I couldn't understand why no one was interested in it and just assumed that I was missing something. On the third cycle, there was finally a bid, so I put one in. Soon there were 10 bids. I felt like I needed the card and won the auction on a big snipe for like $103. Not my brightest moment, but I was convinced that I would have been a sucker to be the only person to bid at that lower price and there had to be an issue.

[butchie_t]

Maybe more like opportunity verses the chase.

I just bought a 1984 Topps Traded set for ~$25.00. There were two bidders the first bidder and me. I figured I would not get it at that price.

Last week I was squeezed out on an 84 Traded set that ended up going for $40.00 plus change.

There is no logic to this at all. But I did save some cash this week that I would have spent last week if I had won!

[Exhibitman]

Humanity did not remove itself from the food chain on this planet by being stronger than tigers, bigger than lions, tougher than wolves, etc. We did it because we have evolved to be so competitive that we will tear each other and anything else to pieces over just about anything we want, real or perceived, to a far greater extent than any other species. We are brutal, nasty, hyper-competitive animals with the potential to be better. The Vulcans also understand how humanoids are driven by desires:

Spock: you may find that having is not so pleasing a thing after all as wanting. It is not logical, but it is often true.

[JollyElm]

From my 'New Directory of Collectorisms' thread...

237. Thrillogical (also Prosposterous)
Having a card listed with a ‘Buy It Now’ price for quite some time and it never sells, but when you decide to relist it as a straight auction, the hammer price ends up exceeding what your BIN always was.

I always bid what I'm willing to pay and walk away. If I win great if I don't great. I don't feel the need to compete for cards or any other items I collect. I know some people who sit and watch auctions go out in the last minutes and usually end up paying more than they wanted by getting caught up in the last moments of competition. To each his own just not for me.