Monday, January 16, 2012

Thoughts: You Win Some, You Lose Some

How many times have you been sitting on an eBay auction until the very end with the highest bid, only to be outbid at the last possible second, even when you though your max bid was enough to ensure you don't lose? Well, this happened to me the other day with a lot of MVP Stanley Cup Edition cards I stumbled upon during one of my daily searches. 

The title of the auction was not very descriptive of what the lot actually contained. It said something along the lines of "Lot of 11 MVP SCE Inserts/Parallels." It mentioned nothing about the five Super Script "parallels" that were actually listed in the full description. I thought this was great, it was a mislabeled listing that not many people would likely come across, plus it was at $0.99. The only problem was the six days left in the auction. 

Fast forward to the other night. I was watching the dwindling auction time on my mobile eBay app and thought I was in the clear with only several minutes left and no other bids above my initial $0.99 opening bid. Well, that all went out the window sometime between 1s and 0s left on the auction clock. I was "sniped" and outbid by the typical $0.50 increment.

Here's a look at the auction: 


Not sure if it was a legitimate bid or not. I'm leaning towards not because it popped up with half of a second left, although I guess it could just be someone with quick hands on the mouse, right? What do you think? And how often does this happen to everyone else?

This post isn't all about the bad, like I said you win some and you lose some. After losing the lot of Super Scripts, I was back searching the bay and came across something I've been looking for now for quite a while. It's another box of MVP Stanley Cup Edition. At this point I've opened two of them and have nearly two complete base sets (one for the master set and one for my Inkscript project). I know it's not the smartest idea to buy a box like this hoping to hit a decent insert or parallel (i.e. Gold/Super Scripts or any of the Game Used Souvenirs) but I can always hope, right?

Anyway, last time I purchased a box of this stuff on eBay it cost me $29.99 plus $15 shipping, a bit much but well worth it for the fun of opening it and making a decent dent in my master set project. This time, I found one listed for only $9.99 plus $4 for shipping. Fast forward to around 3:45 AM today and I won the auction with my one initial bid of $9.99, awesome. Now I'm just waiting for it to show up.

Here's a look at this auction:


So, sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. I may have missed out on a nice lot of inserts, but I think I won big with a great deal on another hobby box that should be a load of fun to open. Stay tuned for another box break post once it arrives.

Edit (12:41 PM): I feel even better about the $9.99 price tag on this one now, as I just found another one listed on eBay with a starting bid of $47.99 or BIN at $84.99, wow...

8 comments:

  1. Yes that has happened to me countless times. It's always disappointing. It could have been someone with an automated sniping program that got you. As you pointed out and as I try to remember, there's never an end to Ebay. There's always something else to bid on. I guess in the end it wouldn't be as fun if you won them all, not to mention you'd need a bottomless bank account. Here's a question back at you. Have you ever passed on a BIN listing just to try to get the same thing by bidding from another seller at just a little less?

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    1. You're definitely right that it's never ending. To answer your question, while nothing specific comes to mind, I know I've done it before and most of the time it worked and I ended up paying a fraction of the BIN price.

      The only downside is when you come across a BIN that's cheaper than you paid in an auction in the past.

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  2. I tend not to bid until the final moments myself. The problem for me is making sure I'm in front of a computer so I can bid. I don't mind losing because I know I've put in my max bid. My question to you is - would you have paid $21? $25? $30?

    If the answer is no, then it wasn't meant to be.

    Great pickup on the box though.

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    1. I guess it wasn't meant to be. I was dumb and thought $20 was enough to get it because the auction only had 8 views up until the last second and most all of those were me, but live and learn I guess.

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  3. get yourself a good sniping program like Gixen.
    Enter your max bid and relax..............

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    Replies
    1. I may need to look into that, at least for this set, as these things are becoming harder and harder to find every day now...

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  4. What Canuck said.

    Use Gixen and all will be right in the eBay world.

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