Posted By:
Joe P.Larry
(Login painthistorian) .... January 5 2006, 9:48 AM
"To Joe P....
Good Points made, I will tell you that rare vintage cards are getting exremely scarce, you cannot find stuff at shows and e bay is a source right now, and you are right, they are not van goghs but there are more quality buyers than good sellers with good quality material right now, otherwise you would not see the trend as is."
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My Response:
With all due respect, let's start with the word RARE.
The word Rare has totally lost it's meaning.
The word is equal to the four letter word HYPE.
I know not when you started collecting or investing, but when I started back in the early 1980's, I found myself in a fortunate situation.
I was not just restricted to the great shows of the NYC Metropolitan area, and that included Willow Grove.
I worked for an airline, and that allowed me weekends at Chicago, STL, Dallas, and the West Coast.
So you see, I never had to buy a card from Alan Rosen.
I was always able to get it cheaper from a dealer that wanted to sell the card somewhere else.
Talking about trends.
Have you noticed that sellers are unloading THE Hot cards of a few months ago?
The HOT part of the T207's were created by investors and newbies.
LARRY:
"My point is that it is not a macho game, if you want to snipe which everyone does, great but you will see RARE obscure issues or good higher priced cards being sent only to catalog houses because they protect seller and buyers evenly... will the buyer unfortunately pay more eventually due to the commissions, e bay is a bargain for the buyer."
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My Response:
Are you saying that you don't see wannabee Macho Fights 7 days before the finals??? ..... what game are you watching?
Tell us something new.
As long as I can remember, the higher ended items generally ended up with the auction houses.
LARRY:
"I am not worried at all that a few hotheads do not want to bid because an item gets withdrawn, the item would only get withdrawn if there are no or extremely few bids so hopefully not everyone will think that sniping is only way to bid. If that was the case, you would see only crap or mid quality items offered and the rarities of the hobby(by the way there are 100's of van gogh's, how many E105 Wagners are there?)WILL not be offered except at BIN or reserve bid or through catalog auction houses. That is my point, period."
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My Response:
I see.
Because I, or others will not go along with your take away tactics, or MO -- we are Hotheads. -- 
Larry, just in case you missed it, let me repeat it.
I never bought a card from Alan Rosen - I usually was always able to get it from a dealer that wanted to sell it somewhere else.
As for sniping - I am the sniper - I don't belong to any sniping org.
Because of that, I sometimes mistime the snipe.
You win some - you lose some. BUT LARRY - there's always another Van Gogh.
Speaking of Van Gogh vs the E105 Wagner.
Larry's quote:
"By the way,there are 100's of Van Gogh's, how many E105 Wagners are there?"
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My Response:
Larry, when you say 100's of Van Gogh's, are you saying?
100's of individual, unique different paintings by Van Gogh?
100's of the same painting by Van Gogh, just as the E105 Wagner?
If you're referring to 100's of the same painting, then we might be talking about something very sticky.
Like forgeries, reprints, slight alterations - Dr. Koos like things.
In other words Larry, can you clarify your point?