Ever Overpaid?

[SMPEP]

Originally Posted by stlcardsfan

I paid about $30-40 (can't remember exact amount, it was about 10 years ago) for the Baltimore Orioles team card from the 1964 set. It was the last card I needed to complete the set and for whatever reason I kept getting outbid on the Bay and couldn't find one at a show. Finally said enough is enough and went super aggressive and it cost me! I guess it was worth it to complete the set though. When I went back and checked later the card was going for nowhere near that amount.

Sounds like my story with 1953 Topps Harvey Haddix. Some guy in Florida was buying singles and reselling as sets - and he considered Haddix a loss leader - so he was always bidding $30-$40 for low grade cards. After almost two years of always being the underbidder (and costing him a fortune), I wrote him one day and said that if he just let me win 1 card he could save a ton of money. He agreed. I won a card for about $20, and the price fell to about $5-10 for an ungraded, lower grade card within a few months.

Which shows what happens when two guys "need" a card.