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ANOTHER auction ended early - X-Men #94

Started by clickhere-migration,

59 posts in this topic

jjeanius

jjeanius

Posted
Posted

Personally, I've never done this with original art and I don't know that "everyone else is doing it" is an excuse for someone else to join the party. And I don't understand sellers who give in to this...with that much interest expressed through e-mails, isn't it fair to assume that the piece would obviously do better at auction?

 

And I'd think it's worse that this person wasn't contacting the seller as a diehard fan who couldn't live without the piece...he just saw an opportunity to pull the rug out from under everyone else, and then put an even higher price tag on it himself.

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pkveronese

pkveronese

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Personally, I've never done this with original art and I don't know that "everyone else is doing it" is an excuse for someone else to join the party. And I don't understand sellers who give in to this...with that much interest expressed through e-mails, isn't it fair to assume that the piece would obviously do better at auction?

 

And I'd think it's worse that this person wasn't contacting the seller as a diehard fan who couldn't live without the piece...he just saw an opportunity to pull the rug out from under everyone else, and then put an even higher price tag on it himself.

 

That's how I feel.

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delekkerste

delekkerste

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Personally, I've never done this with original art and I don't know that "everyone else is doing it" is an excuse for someone else to join the party. And I don't understand sellers who give in to this...with that much interest expressed through e-mails, isn't it fair to assume that the piece would obviously do better at auction?

 

And I'd think it's worse that this person wasn't contacting the seller as a diehard fan who couldn't live without the piece...he just saw an opportunity to pull the rug out from under everyone else, and then put an even higher price tag on it himself.

 

I do not support the practice of ending auctions early, but given that it is ubiquitous, what would you suggest Mark have done? Played by the rules and watched someone else walk away with the piece, quite possibly for a lower price? And who's to say that this someone else wouldn't have put it up on their CAF page with a big fat "For Sale" sign on it? I'm with you in principle, but let's not be naive to the realities of the situation. For better or worse, the comic art world is no place for idealists. frown.gif

 

The seller probably would have done better had he left the auction open, but, let's face it, he wasn't the most clued-in guy around...the reserve on his auction was only $2K. foreheadslap.gif

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pkveronese

pkveronese

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I do not support the practice of ending auctions early, but given that it is ubiquitous, what would you suggest Mark have done? Played by the rules and watched someone else walk away with the piece, quite possibly for a lower price?

 

I don't understand the logic here. How would he have lost out at a lower price? If he hadn't have bid what he was going to pay outside of eBay?

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delekkerste

delekkerste

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I don't understand the logic here. How would he have lost out at a lower price? If he hadn't have bid what he was going to pay outside of eBay?

 

What's not to understand? If Mark just played by the rules and put in his high bid on eBay, the price would only go up to the next incremental bid above the previous high bidder. For argument's sake, let's say Mark bid $10,000 and the next highest bid early on is $2,500 - Mark becomes the new high bidder at $2,600. So, he proceeds to sit back and do nothing while everybody and their brother is e-mailing the seller behind the scenes to end the auction early. Let's say the seller is offered $5,000. He looks on eBay and sees that the high bid is $2,600 and jumps at the chance to get nearly twice that much. He ends the auction early and sells the piece at $5,000. Mark is then screwed, losing out on the piece even though he would have paid double the sale price. A week later, the piece shows up for sale on someone else's CAF site for $15,000.

 

Or, instead, Mark could be the one e-mailing the seller behind the scenes and getting him to end the auction early and, instead of being a chump, he gets to put the piece up for sale. You may not like it, but under the circumstances, Mark acted 100% rationally according to game theory. You only play by the rules if everybody else is, otherwise you're going to end up disappointed. Like I said, many other people were trying to get the seller to end the auction early, including members of this Forum. If it wasn't Mark, somebody else would have succeeded in getting the piece in a private deal. Let's not hate on Mark just because he prevailed.

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VintageComics

VintageComics

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I don't understand the logic here. How would he have lost out at a lower price? If he hadn't have bid what he was going to pay outside of eBay?

 

What's not to understand? If Mark just played by the rules and put in his high bid on eBay, the price would only go up to the next incremental bid above the previous high bidder. For argument's sake, let's say Mark bid $10,000 and the next highest bid early on is $2,500 - Mark becomes the new high bidder at $2,600. So, he proceeds to sit back and do nothing while everybody and their brother is e-mailing the seller behind the scenes to end the auction early. Let's say the seller is offered $5,000. He looks on eBay and sees that the high bid is $2,600 and jumps at the chance to get nearly twice that much. He ends the auction early and sells the piece at $5,000. Mark is then screwed, losing out on the piece even though he would have paid double the sale price. A week later, the piece shows up for sale on someone else's CAF site for $15,000.

 

Or, instead, Mark could be the one e-mailing the seller behind the scenes and getting him to end the auction early and, instead of being a chump, he gets to put the piece up for sale. You may not like it, but under the circumstances, Mark acted 100% rationally according to game theory. You only play by the rules if everybody else is, otherwise you're going to end up disappointed. Like I said, many other people were trying to get the seller to end the auction early, including members of this Forum. If it wasn't Mark, somebody else would have succeeded in getting the piece in a private deal. Let's not hate on Mark just because he prevailed.

 

I understand your arguement, but isn't there something to be said about playing by the rules, even if others are not? Just playing Devil's advocate. I guess it depends on the circumstances...there are times when a bird in hand is better than two in teh bush...maybe the seller need quick cash confused-smiley-013.gif

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jjeanius

jjeanius

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Like I said, many other people were trying to get the seller to end the auction early, including members of this Forum. If it wasn't Mark, somebody else would have succeeded in getting the piece in a private deal. Let's not hate on Mark just because he prevailed.

 

Don't get me wrong, I'm not disgusted ONLY with Mark's behavior, but everyone else who seems to think this kind of activity is acceptable. If the piece was listed somewhere with "now accepting offers" that would be one thing...but it wasn't. Once an item is listed on eBay, both sellers and buyers should play by the rules and let the auction run its course. That is, of course, in an ideal world. As you've pointed out, hoping for that kind of integrity from the OA community is apparently a pipe dream.

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delekkerste

delekkerste

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I hear you and sympathize with you, but after seeing the auction for a piece I wanted ended early a couple of days ago, I'm going to have to join the crowd of people trying to get people to end auctions early. sorry.gif Otherwise, I feel like I'm just going to get scooped by someone else again and again the way that things are going on eBay these days. At the very least, I will contact sellers and tell them that, in the event they do receive offers to end the auction early, please contact me before accepting or else they may be leaving money on the table.

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cheekyj2112

cheekyj2112

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Well I'm afraid I'm with jjeanius; the fact that people do it doesn't necessarily make it right. I was talking to a seller once about his auctions and it turned out he was a friend of a friend and offered to shut down the auctions I wanted and sell them to me at my high bids. I pointed out that we should let them run their course and there would probably be snipers at the end anyway. I lost most of them but felt that I'd done as I would like to be done by. Nowadays that might just seem naive or gormless. Would I be taking this tack if it were a `grail`? I'm not sure but I'd like to think so.

Also I do draw a distinction between us obsessive collectors who `have` to have a piece and those who are indulging in a flipping exercise. delekkerste, I understand you're defending your mate but the fact is the guy that got it is a dealer.

If you want to try and stop an important auction getting shut down why not tell the seller that you'll be bidding nearer the end (a la Hari) and that if he does want to take offers to let you know as it will be better for him financially.

 

My tuppence

 

Joseph

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rebel949-migration

rebel949-migration

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I think it really sucks when it is a dealer that pulls this [embarrassing lack of self control]. If it is a diehard fan that really wants the piece then more power to them but in this case you are pretty much screwed. I will ballpark it and guess that he probably got the page for around $10K. Now he is only asking trade offers which means that if you don't got anything he wants then you are SOL or you are probably gonna have to pony up something in the neighborhood of $17K and up to get it out of him because he really has a deep attachment to it or really only wants to give it up for other stuff he wants more.

 

I was hoping to make a run at the Miracleman cover that was on ebay but it got ended early by the same dealer. I have nothing on his want list so it will probably run me $10K or up to even get him to consider selling it. Oh well...other art will always come along.

 

C

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