Another ebay auction ended early..changed to BIN...really strange

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Posted By: Patrick McMenemy

I happened to be watching a T207 Needham card last night.

Today I see the auction had ended early. The seller had had 3 T207s in individual auctions. They originally were standard auctions but each was changed to BINS. Each sold for $16.99 to the same buyer.

Does anyone else find this to be pretty strange that the seller would sell the cards for such a tiny amount?

http://cgi.ebay.com/T206-T207-NEEDHAM-CHICAGO-NAT-BASEBALL-CARD_W0QQitemZ230083236200QQihZ013QQcategoryZ86839 QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem


Patrick

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Posted By: Dave

i've seen something similar done...where the buyer and seller work out a "wallpaper" price....then the actual amount is exchange afterwards. Avoiding ebay fees.....only thing I can come up with.

Dave

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Posted By: Cobby33

Why not just end the auction and sell it offline? The BIN doesn't avoid fees, since you're charged for the other party's hitting of the BIN. Maybe they think "we" are too stoopid to figure out what they've done.

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Posted By: Judge Dred (Fred)

The seller has other items listed with a minimal starting bid and low BIN. The $16.99 was probably the BIN price. I doubt a deal was struck between buyer and seller because of the time difference between the time the auction started and the time that the item was BIN'd. If there was only a few minutes or so between the time the time the auction started and the time it ended then I might be a little suspicious. Also, it doesn't appear that the seller cancelled any auctions with these items therefore the $16.99 was probably the original BIN.

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Posted By: Judge Dred (Fred)

Here's another example of a similar sale for a graded T206. It was BIN'd for $18.50.

Edited to add link:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=86839&item=230083283373

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Posted By: Patrick McMenemy

Fred:

I would have jumped on this T207 had it originally been offered as a Buy It Now. If you click on the link I provided and if you look at Description you will see the word (Revised.) Clicking on Revised brings you to a box that states...Revised Information....Buy It Now Price.

Patrick

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Posted By: Judge Dred (Fred)

It looks like the seller either got an offer in the night or just became impatient really quickly. Looking at the other couple of auctions that haven't been bid on seems to indicate that the seller just arbitrarily through out BINs on the cards. It looks like good timing for the person that bought the cards.

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Posted By: dennis

the cards were listed with low BIN's. just had to catch them as soon as they were listed. luckey buyer. i bought the psa 3 goudey mahaffey for BIN $19.50 and the t207's were gone but all the others had low BIN's.

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Posted By: Judge Dred (Fred)

Dennis, thanks for siding with me but I think Pat is right because he indicated he would have purchased the cards with the low BIN prices if the BIN was originally offered. As Pat indicated the item description was changed:

Jan-25-07 06:26:01 PST Shipping Terms / Buy It Now Price

The item was originally listed the evening before.

After checking the sellers other auctions it appears that the seller listed a few items with low BINs and then (changed the item descriptions) added BINs to a few other items the next morning. It was good timing for the person that first saw them. It's one of those situations where timing is everything. The T207s didn't last an hour after the BINs were added. Early bird got the worm I guess.