Don't blame the dealer for the markup

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Posted By: Hankron 

About 2 weeks ago I put up a collection of 15 original 1950s Photographs for Chicago Bears players including one of HOFer George Connnor. The minimum bid of $75(at $5 a photo, I thought that was a reasonable price, and I don't use reserves). The auction ended with no bids. About two days later, I put the Connor by itself (1 photo) back up, with a minimum bid of $9.99. Sold for $82.

But, my all time favorite is: I had a 13 card stip of the little circa 1950 R423 cards that included a Babe Ruth and a Joe DiMaggio. I offered it for sale via email for about $75 with no buyers. I put it up on eBay twice with a minimum bid of $60 with no bidders. Finally, I took apart the cards (perforated edges) and offered the singles on eBay. The Ruth sold for $95, the DiMaggio for $145, and the other 11 singles sold for a a total of $75.

Not that I'm complaining.

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Posted By: Tom

has happened to me and, just like you, mostly in the positive........goes to show you that timing is definitely everything. Many people, unlike most of us, don't peruse a certain category EVERY day or multiple times a day looking for items. Some people do it weekly or every other week or whatever. If you're lucky enough to list the item whenever the fish are biting, then you're in the money so to speak.....

Kind of like the big Hualalai7 (couple years back) and rockets_lover (recently) buying sprees. Timing is everything.........

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Posted By: rod

A few years ago I tried to sell some vintage photos on ebay ,that were framed, for like $25 minimum ... no bids. A friend advised me that people don't like to bid on framed items because they think they are paying extra. O.K., so I took the photos out of the frames put them back up and got two to three times the minimum.I still don't get it.

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Posted By: Hankron

20th century photographs (where I specialize) is a particularly volatile area price-wise. This is in part because there is no price guide, and, unlike trading cards, there aren't 2,000 identical photographs with which to compare prices. Personally, I like dealing in this untamed enviroment. To me, the trading card hobby is like a Catholic boarding school.

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Posted By: leon

That is exactly why I like the stuff we/I collect. I would venture to guess there aren't 50 of most of the cards I have.....let alone 2000.....as a matter of fact, to me, what makes a card even more neat than the player or the design is the scarcity.....best regards

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Posted By: TBob

Hualalai7 or whatever the heck was his handle? He beat me like a drum on caramel cards at the wire then disappeared from sight.

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Posted By: warshawlaw

as in the rest of life (If I'd timed Cisco and Enron right, I'd be done w/my T206 collection already).

I've had similar experiences, with cards going unsold one week and skying the next. There's no rhyme or reason to it, it just happens.

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Posted By: RC_McKenzie

Hualalai7 is still around. He won an Old Judge Silch that I had a bookmark bid in a few weeks back.

There have to be 2 serious bidders that want the item. If you're selling a Ty Cobb or PSA 8, it's all good, otherwise you need some luck. I underbid a r423 uncut strip the other day at $31. I would probably have had to pay at least $100 to win it.