Ebay craziness 1 1

[Poekaymon]

I realize this may be a "why is the sky blue" or "what lurks in the hearts of men" type question, but I am genuinely wondering if I am missing something here.

I've been told by older collectors to avoid these high ratio variant covers, but I just can't help myself.  We can save a debate on whether this is wise for later.  (Actually, if you have a strong opinion I still wouldn't mind hearing it.)

In any case, tonight I found myself bidding on a Return of Wolverine #2 1:1000.  I don't know the policy on posting ebay links here, so for now I won't.  (But you can certainly find them easy enough, the 610 version just ended a few minutes ago and the 494 BIN is still up.)

Anyway, I bid on it a bit and in the last hour it went up precipitously.  I bowed out at around $500 and it kept climbing and went on to close at $610.  The thing is: before, during, and after the auction, there was an identical copy up, from a very reputable looking seller, with a $494 buy it now.  No less than 5 different bidders bid higher than that on this auction version, including 3 different people bidding $600.  And now that that auction has concluded, the $494 buy it now version is still up.  W-T-F?  What am I missing?  Actually perplexed.  

Edited December 12, 2019 by Poekaymon

[Mephisto]

Auction Fever...or shilling...

[Poekaymon]

Hard to believe "auction fever" could take hold for this sort of thing.  I would expect comic collectors to be more... logical.  So shilling seems more likely to me.

This might be conspiracy theorist, but could it be advanced shilling like part of some sort of artificial pricing scheme?  Like someone (494 BIN man) has a few they want to unload so they bid up the auction one?  Is this actually a thing?

Kind of calls into question what I take is the general practice of using ending auction prices as values.  Seems highly likely that some or all of them are inflated for either of the reasons, or both, that you mentioned.

Edited December 12, 2019 by Poekaymon

[theCapraAegagrus]

Are they raw? CGC? Voldemort? PGX?

[Lazyboy]

This kind of thing happens all the time. Sometimes there are legitimate reasons that aren't necessarily visible to a superficial glance, and sometimes there are no good reasons.

A few years ago, when the CGC 9.0 Action Comics 1 auction was running, a boardie put up a couple of auctions for the same Action 1 reprint and the Fine copy sold for more than the Near Mint one. That can't be explained away by timing, avoidance of a particular seller, or anything but stupidity.

Of course, there could be something nefarious behind some of these strange results, but there's lots of stupidity out there.

[Krismusic]

auction fever does occur happened to me a few times ago where I over bid for something to remember there was a BIN for like 50$ CHEAPER ..lesson mostly learned and now I try to research as best as possible but sometimes it harder to keep track specially if your bidding on a few auctions ending near the same time.... and your trying to combine shipping and import duties etc.. so sometimes I would go 20$ more if the same seller has something but will combine shipping so I would save or be even on the other BIN.. there are quite a few factors that could play into the over bidding.. 

[marvelmaniac]

Sometimes emotions overtake logic, Adrenaline and the Ego saying "I am not going to lose", happens all the time with people that gamble.

[evilskip]

Forget it, Jake. Its eBay.

I'm not sure what the insanity is, but it seems to me that there are more buyers out there willing to spend stupid money on raggedy, dog beaten copies of keys, and even non keys. But the real question is, are these deals consummated?

[1950's war comics]

13 hours ago, Poekaymon said:

high ratio covers (Actually, if you have a strong opinion I still wouldn't mind hearing it.)

the same thing is going on in the coin hobby... people are trying to buy and sell brand new graded 2019 coins at insane prices, these are coins that you could get in change and an average person couldn't tell the difference between a graded example and one from change without a high powered microscope...

for the same money they are paying for a brand new 2019 penny they could have bought a beautiful example of a copper-nickel Indian head cent from the 1860's

 

 

[Poekaymon]

8 hours ago, theCapraAegagrus said:

Are they raw? CGC? Voldemort? PGX?

Should have said, they were CGC 9.8's.  Hence why I felt they were really comparable.

[Donald Jack]

23 hours ago, 1950's war comics said:

the same thing is going on in the coin hobby... people are trying to buy and sell brand new graded 2019 coins

I saw this earlier this year with circulated, ungraded 2019 W quarters.  eBay had them for upwards of $150 each (going for around $15 now).  Granted they are limited to two million each issue, but $150 right out of the gate?  I found four of the first issue in my change in February and thought that the market must have been flooded and minting numbers were incorrect, but I've since found none of any issue, so who knows.