absolute craziness--1962 Jellos
 

Four different short prints closed on evilbay earlier today--Curt Simmons, Curt Flood, Gene Stephens and Hal Smith. All four of them closed between $2475 and 2550 each.

Think of what else you could pick up for that kind of money. Unbelievable.

None of those completed sales/auctions show up when I search for them. Do you have links?

Hal Smith

http://www.ebay.com/itm/321120327467...84.m1435.l2649

Curt Simmons

http://www.ebay.com/itm/321120326827...84.m1435.l2649

Stephens and Flood were from the same seller (who must be very happy today)

LOL, " Happy " might even be an understatement! If I were collecting the Jello series I would switch to Post after seeing those crazy prices. You could pick up the same players for $4 - $5 each. The cards were not in that good of shape either.

I heard those were tough, but had no idea they were that tough!

Set completion is often a more powerful force than financial IQ. Hope the guy finished his set with that purchase...

Set Completion Dumbs you down ?
 

Really. Glad I never got to that point ;)

wow
 

wow...this is why I gave up on maybe putting this set together...love the Post and Jello's but...whew....just a type card will do now.

I think both auctions were shilled with the shiller 'winning' the Simmons and discovering the real bidder's top, which he then used to run up the Smith to the real bidder's top. I will explain:

Both auctions had an underbidder from $197 up to the final who made 2/3 of his bids with this seller in the last 30 days. Both auctions were run up substantially on the final morning.

Simmons closed May-11-13 09:40:25. The Simmons auction [$2,550] was won by the underbidder in the Smith auction, who ran up the winner of the Smith auction from $197. The 'winner' placed his bids the morning the auction closed, with the last bid placed at 9:24:24.

Smith closed May-11-13 09:42:21. The Smith auction [$2,500] was won by the underbidder on Simmons. His bid was run up from $197 to $2,500. The Simmons'winner' placed his bids over the morning the auction ended. He placed his last underbid [actually the bid that matched the real bidder] at 9:22:06, with the last bid placed at 9:24:07.

As I read the tea leaves, the shill jacked up the bids repeatedly all morning. He went to the Smith auction and bid $2,475. He then went to the Simmons and bid $2,550 but found he'd overshot the max bid of the real bidder. He then stopped bidding, letting the Smith go for $2,500.

Now, if I really want a card for a set and I am willing to pay $2,475 for it, and I know that I can have it for $2,550, and I have already committed $2,550 to another card from the same set which I chased up from $197 to $2,550, there is no way I am going to not bid the extra 1% of my total bids to get it.

Stinks to high heaven...

Well documented and I think you hit it right on the nose.

It is so ridiculously simple to shill on the bay that you almost have to be an idiot NOT to shill and drive your hammer prices up...and yet they continue to do nothing about it, because they make more money as a result. Higher prices mean higher ebay profits.