REA Losses

[Svabinsky78]

I have all the 57 Topps HOFer rookies minus the Brooks. I have been watching one of the PSA 7s. I ended up placing a bid of $1250. At $1250, with buyer's premium and taxes, it would come out to slightly over what the last few comps sold for on eBay. It was a nice example, so I was ok paying a bit over the comps. Enter the dreaded extended bidding. The card ended up selling for $1400. I stuck to my $1250. At $1400, with taxes, buyer's premium, shipping, $1850. I just wasn't willing to pay that much


I wonder if REA auctions in general realize higher prices for cards, just because as a well known and advertised auction house, it gets more foot traffic and consequently more competition as opposed to some smaller auctions, i.e., Sterling.

[Snapolit1]

Believe they definitely get higher prices on many cards. Well run top notch AH,
and to many bidders it’s an honor to win something with them. Validation they are playing in the big leagues.

Originally Posted by Svabinsky78

I have all the 57 Topps HOFer rookies minus the Brooks. I have been watching one of the PSA 7s. I ended up placing a bid of $1250. At $1250, with buyer's premium and taxes, it would come out to slightly over what the last few comps sold for on eBay. It was a nice example, so I was ok paying a bit over the comps. Enter the dreaded extended bidding. The card ended up selling for $1400. I stuck to my $1250. At $1400, with taxes, buyer's premium, shipping, $1850. I just wasn't willing to pay that much


I wonder if REA auctions in general realize higher prices for cards, just because as a well known and advertised auction house, it gets more foot traffic and consequently more competition as opposed to some smaller auctions, i.e., Sterling.

[RhodeyRhode]

Holy prices... The bids late day Sunday and into live auction to move the prices...my goodness

One Ruth 4k moved to over 20k

Crazy numbers again, just when you thought things were slowing

[ejharrington]

I see absolutely no signs of softening prices for the vintage stuff I collect.

[Leon]

All losses here. I need more money LOL....
.

And just because I don't want to feel left out here is an REA when from 4/1/21.

[JimC]

Originally Posted by Leon

All losses here. I need more money LOL....
.

And just because I don't want to feel left out here is an REA when from 4/1/21.

That card is a BEAST!

[JimC]

Lost out on Andy Cooper. I was hoping 3-4K. Not close.

[53toppscollector]

I wouldn't consider it a "loss", but I was interested in two lots of T206 raw offbacks that I thought had considerable breakup value. They ended up going for much more than I'd have spent.

Only 1 win for me, an Evers T205 Cycle. Its a nicer copy than I needed and I may have overpaid, but I've only seen 3 graded copies in my T205 survey, so I figured I may as well grab this one, because who knows when the next one will surface.

[bobbyw8469]

Originally Posted by Svabinsky78

I have all the 57 Topps HOFer rookies minus the Brooks. I have been watching one of the PSA 7s. I ended up placing a bid of $1250. At $1250, with buyer's premium and taxes, it would come out to slightly over what the last few comps sold for on eBay. It was a nice example, so I was ok paying a bit over the comps. Enter the dreaded extended bidding. The card ended up selling for $1400. I stuck to my $1250. At $1400, with taxes, buyer's premium, shipping, $1850. I just wasn't willing to pay that much


I wonder if REA auctions in general realize higher prices for cards, just because as a well known and advertised auction house, it gets more foot traffic and consequently more competition as opposed to some smaller auctions, i.e., Sterling.

Bingo...you are paying an REA premium.

[mrreality68]

All loses here also. And interesting that many prices seemed low going into extended time and seemed low most of extended and they popped more than they normally do

Oh Well on to the next auction and so many there are this month

[nwfsteve]

0 for 4. I thought I had a real nice T206 Mathewson white cap PSA 4.5 at well below market but just above what I could afford til about 12:30 a.m. Was feeling hopeful, but then, bupkis. I'll keep putting my bids out there because you never know when lightning might strike.

[toledo_mudhen]

0 for 6 here.....

Bid on several of the T206 Lots - all went way higher than I was willing to pay

REA is pretty much always more work and $$ than it's worth

[marzoumanian]

I lost out on the 1952 Mantle card in a PSA 5 (early on!) but still tracked it. What I found strange was that the last bid on August 3 ended up being the WINNING bid. Does anyone have any insights as to why active bidding stopped 10 days before the auction ended? The card ended up going for $126,000 with buyer's premium. Thanks.

[Leon]

Originally Posted by marzoumanian

I lost out on the 1952 Mantle card in a PSA 5 (early on!) but still tracked it. What I found strange was that the last bid on August 3 ended up being the WINNING bid. Does anyone have any insights as to why active bidding stopped 10 days before the auction ended? The card ended up going for $126,000 with buyer's premium. Thanks.

Because no one else bid.
.

[raulus]

Originally Posted by marzoumanian

I lost out on the 1952 Mantle card in a PSA 5 (early on!) but still tracked it. What I found strange was that the last bid on August 3 ended up being the WINNING bid. Does anyone have any insights as to why active bidding stopped 10 days before the auction ended? The card ended up going for $126,000 with buyer's premium. Thanks.

With this auction format, you tend to see one of two approaches:

1) everyone gets in an initial bid just to throw their hat in the ring, but nothing really happens until the last day, with most of the action happening in extended bidding. In these cases, the price often stays crazy low. You get to the last day and you get all frisky thinking you might pick up a great deal on it. Until that last day rolls around or even until the last minute when 2 or more bidders finally max out on what they’re really willing to pay. The price might double or even jump 10x in extended bidding.

2) a few bidders go nuts early. A couple of bidders decide they really don’t want to wait, so they start their bidding war when there are still days or weeks left on the clock. The price goes to the moon, and eventually one of those bidders gives up. Over the next couple of weeks, the rest of the interested bidders decide it’s just not worth going any higher. So it never moves again, and closes at that price.

While approach #1 definitely seems the most common from what I’ve seen, approach #2 happens maybe 2% of the time? I suppose there’s also a hybrid approach, when it looks like approach #2, but then in extended bidding, some bidders get their second wind and decide they can keep the party going a bit longer until there’s only one poor fool left standing.

Reminds me of the quote from Highlander: “There can be only one!”

[marcmandel]

Originally Posted by marzoumanian

I lost out on the 1952 Mantle card in a PSA 5 (early on!) but still tracked it. What I found strange was that the last bid on August 3 ended up being the WINNING bid. Does anyone have any insights as to why active bidding stopped 10 days before the auction ended? The card ended up going for $126,000 with buyer's premium. Thanks.

I also watched the Mick. IMHO the white specs in the blue sky background and possible slight paper loss on his face under magnification lead me to think the $126K is the max this card could be worth and did not command a higher price because it didn't deserve one. Any leaning toward a 150K+ on this one would have been purely based on buying the grade (5) and not the card and its eye appeal, which in this case, could have worked against its slotted value.

[rand1com]

I was watching a Harry Heilmann single signed ball. Early Sunday bid was under a grand. PSA pricing for a single is $6500 so I expected it to go up significantly. I checked around 8:00 PM and bid was $1800. I never looked again until this morning to see the close. $42K. All I can say is WOW. It is rare but you can get a Ruth single in similar condition for that money. Two HOF single collectors with unlimited funds who had to have it must have gotten into a bidding war. I expect the underbidder may be happy he lost but who knows.

[h2oya311]

0 for 3 for me! Not even the bridesmaid for any…