sometimes card people are the worst...

Not you guys. The eBay guys. You know the type, rip n' flip, not a real collector but someone who buys up cards and packs and cases just to make a buck. More than likely uses Beckett as the be all end all of pricing? Yeah, those guys. I feel that eBay is the best type of forum to determine a cards real value. Sure auto/relics of semi-stars and no name players go for five bucks and they probably shouldn't. If it's not a hot rookie, a player from the Yankees, Red Sox, Dodgers or Braves or an old timer, that card probably won't go for much. Thats where we step in. When we can grab our favorite players at a steal of a deal, it's just plain awesome.

Now here is what spurred this. I was trolling the 'Bay for some high end, just released autos/relics of Jays. Stuff from Marquee and Triple Threads, you know. I had came across a sweet Kyle Drabek auto dual patch from Marquee. Problem was, the auction was over. I checked the other ended items just for ha-has (more on that in a second) and found that this seller had listed this card twice. It didn't sell either time, so I decided to send him a message.

Dear XXXXX (seller),
Just curious if you still had the Drabek from 2011 Marquee. I didn't see it until tonight and the auction had already ended. If you're willing to sell, I'd be good for $14.00 including shipping. Let me know, thanks.
- XXXXX (me)

Now, keep in mind that this card was listed at a starting bid of $12.99 and $3.00 shipping, which I would totally be willing to pay (its a sweet card) and it didn't sell twice so I figured $14 was reasonable. Here was his response:

Dear XXXXX (me),

Yes still have the Drabek... I will sell it for $25 shipped.

TY,
----

- XXXXX (seller)

Huh? What happened here that doubled the cards value? I know that Marquee isn't cheap but a card goes for what it goes for. Here is what I responded back with:

Dear XXXXX (seller),

Are we talking about the same card? You had it at $12.99 starting bid, it ended twice with no bids. I figured if I caught it before it had ended I would have gotten it for $16 after shipping, so I thought $14 was a fair offer seeing as how it didn't sell twice.

- XXXXX (me)

Am I being out of line? I don't think so but here is his response:

Dear XXXXX (me),

Oh damn...sorry I am going to hold onto that card...He might turn out to be awesome.

Thanks though,

----

- XXXXX (seller)

So....you're willing to potentially sell for $12.99, until I show a little interest? Now, I checked the completed items. This exact card, not a parallel or anything, went for as low as $2.25. The last six that ended went for this (that sold, that is):

$12.99
$7.99
$7.50
$2.25
$3.25
$12.07

The two that ended around $12 were just as nice, if not nicer than his. Meaning one window had a multi-color patch and the other a white swatch. The other four were white swatch/grey swatch combos. This guy clearly wants too much for his stuff as soon as a little interest is shown. Looking at his other items, he has other cards up for way too much (all buy it nows). Its guys like this that kill this hobby, that follow Beckett's every word and whim and sell for as much as they feel a card is worth as opposed to true market value. Hey, whatever, I'll gladly buy from someone else once the opportunity arises. I just figured he may want the sale. Sure he may someday sell the card for $25 but after relisting it so many times, eBay gets their cut each time, thus lowering his overall profit. Good luck with the $25 dope!

Here is the card (but not his):

See, its awesome. His has a black/blue/silver patch on the left. Something will come up and I'll grab it for the right price.

argyle trade (plus posey update)

A trade post?? Its been too long since I've posted one and I'll strive to do more in this year. So I checked out Plaschke, Thy Sweater is Argyle and his want list. I noticed I had many 1989 Topps he needed for his set. I put them all together, added some Dodgers stuff and sent the box on its way. In return, he sent me some Jays for my ever growing Blue Jays collection. Seriously, I must be up to almost 4000 so far. Below are four of my favorites from the contents:

Yes, that is a 1990 Jimmy Key. Jimmy was my favorite player growing up so any card of his is always welcomed. The Wells mini is fantastic too (more on him tomorrow). The Hentgen is kind of a cool swirly shiny, while the Halladay is just flat awesome (I assume this is the card you hoped I didn't have, which I don't). Thanks a bunch for adding to the box, it seems to never stop growing!

In other news, "Posey Watch" is in full effect.

I listed him up on eBay last night. Its going rather well and I anticipate it to end around $200. We'll see.

update (two ways)

So I'm either really lazy, or really busy. I still haven't made it to the post office yet, but I will tomorrow. Usually it is lazy with me, but busy is really the issue. Work picks up quite a bit this time of year and the 55+ hours will be starting very shortly (like next week). These boxes will get out tomorrow, and for the better. I will announce the Topps portion on Monday. I know I know, I've been saying this for a bit now, but its true this time. Plus it'll be fun.

The other update refers to Topps Update, as I FINALLY received my master set in the mail today, after winning it around Oct. 20th. Yes, it has taken that long to get here. Apparently he had the flu. I can excuse that. A delay in shipping is nothing compared to what awaited me in the set...or what didn't await me rather. You see, I was going through the cards, only to find out it was missing a total of 25 cards. Yes, twenty-five missing cards. Oh wait, 26, because I was promised a random auto too. That I didn't get. This is what I can't forgive. Shipping? No problem. Missing promised cards? A definite problem. Thankfully, out of those 25 I had 18 of them already from packs I bought. I contacted him about the issue and he was surprisingly right on top of it. I sent the message and about 25 minutes later I had a response. So there is that. He asked for a list of what I was missing, and he is damn sure going to get that 26 card list. I don't care if I already have some, they should have been there. He blamed it on his hired help, which is kind of understandable as people are usually sloppy when they don't care.

On one other note, (ok, so its three updates) my sets will be finished soon! If you remember I posted up a want list of the couple of sets (2002 Topps, 2005 Topps, 2009 206, and 2010 Chrome) I was missing cards from. I really wanted to finish up these sets before the end of the year. Thanks to a trade (thanks a ton Kenneth), Chrome got finished. EBay finished up the 2009 206 once the last three cards get in my hands. The best one though is the 2002 and 2005 Topps. Both factory sets were missing cards. I used the Million Card Giveaway to trade for the three missing cards from both sets (2 from 2002 and 1 from 2005), and those along with all the pre-1973 stuff I unlocked (39 cards total in this order) are on their way from Topps. I have about 50 more cards left in my account that I don't really want but I'm not sure what to do with yet. I'll keep you posted with what I will do with them.

ebay goodness final

Here are the final six from the $6.99 lot:

The Sizemore, Gonzalez and Figgins are just your run of the mill swatches. The favorites are the others: the Bill Hall letter is signed on the 'K' in gold, the double swatch of Morneau and Clark is awesome. I remember having a bunch of Will Clark's when I was a kid, and Morneau used to play in New Britain. The best of the whole lot though is the Aparicio. The fabric is a beige color due to the age (I'm guessing), or the type of fabric they used back then. Either way its great to have a HOFer relic in the collection. All in all a great bunch of cards for only seven bucks, I would have figured someone would have at least bid on it. Oh well.

ebay goodness part 2

Here is part two of my $6.99 eBay relic lot:

Some ok cards here. A bunch of 2008 SP Legendary Cuts (with two more tomorrow actually) shown here. Some boring plain white swatches except the nice pinstripe in the Derrek Lee. The Oswalt is actually 4 different pieces (or at least aligned to look that way). The Manny is a gray swatch which is ok, even if he's a Red Sock. Stay tuned for the final part to be posted up tomorrow, with my favorite three (plus three others that are ok too).

ebay goodness

Recently I picked up that Adam Lind plate off of eBay and I picked up this guy too:

Aaron Hill's short print magenta plate. Another one no one touched, thankfully. The seller also had some interesting auctions. One of which was a lot of relics from various players and sets. I watched it, and again, no one touched it. I put a bid in and won it with me being the only bid. It included a total of 16 relics from Upper Deck and Topps for $6.99 plus $3.00 shipping. I will post the first bit of them today and the other two over the next two days. Here is lot 1:

2 Ginter's, a Chicle and a 2010 206. Three gray swatches and a bat, pretty good.