Who is the lucky son of a fish who snagged this rare medal on eBay for $20???
DCW
Posts: 7,476 ✭✭✭✭✭
Reveal yourself!
For those of you not familiar with this medal by John Bolen, it is easily worth over a thousand dollars in this condition.
Crazy if it actually sold for this price. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Pioneer-Baseball-Club-Bolen-White-Medal-XF-K13799-/185206914406?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49286&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0
Dead Cat Waltz Exonumia
"Coin collecting for outcasts..."
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It sold within minutes of being listed. Don't look at closed listings unless you have a strong stomach!
I couldn't be so lucky either.
1858 Pioneer Baseball Club Token - by John Adams Bolen - Raw EF
Very nice specimen of a popular design. Someone just earned a You Suck!
That is strange because if you look at the seller's other listings, he seems to be well versed on what he has. This one slipped through the cracks.
Wisdom has been chasing you but, you've always been faster
Thats Rick Snow
At least you waited 11 days to post it...
"It's like God, Family, Country, except Sticker, Plastic, Coin."
My guess is that some additional consideration was made.
It's pretty surprising considering who the seller is. Then again, I've seen stuff slip through the cracks from "unpickable" dealers before.
Early American Copper, Bust and Seated.
Wow... Nice catch.... Hope it went to a sports fan... Cheers, RickO
No way Rick Snow would let that slip through the cracks. There must be more to the story.
ANA LM
USAF Retired — 34 years of active military service! 🇺🇸
You all deify dealers too much. They are as capable of missing something as we are.
"It's like God, Family, Country, except Sticker, Plastic, Coin."
Thanks for posting this @DCW , I learned some token history today
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The 1858 Pioneer Base Ball Club tokens were made by the famous 19th-century medalist and coin collector, John Adams Bolen. The White Metal tokens were minted to 125 pieces, and 75 were struck in bronze. Possibly the first baseball medal ever struck. The face of the 1 1/4" Dia. token features an image of a Base Ball batter, with "J.A. Bolen" below it. "Pioneer Base Ball Club" text around the perimeter followed by 13 stars. Further text on the back reads, "Organized April 30, 1858, Play Ground on Hampden Park, Springfield, Mass." Crossed bats and ball at the bottom.
The coins were ordered in 1861 by team Secretary Charles Vinton done in commemoration of the third anniversary of the formation of the Pioneer Base Ball Club in Springfield, Massachusetts, April 30th, 1858. The medallions were given to team officials, employees, and players after defeating the Boston Bowdoins. Team members took such pride in their medals that “Ham” Downing had his medal buried with him.
John Adams Bolen was born in 1826 and died in 1906. He is best known for his series of small medals or tokens issued in the 1860s through to the 1890s.
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Or... it's a holiday gift
What you see on eBay is not always congruent with real world actions. Our shiny luminescent monitors are fractals in the larger schema of existence.
Rick Snow is a member here - goes by Eagle-eye, I believe. May he will see this thread. If I get something old and don't know what it is worth, I just put it in an auction and let it bring whatever it brings. You never put a low BIN on something you don't know anything about.
Calling @EagleEye!
As mentioned, the seller is typically very astute so this seems to be an anomaly, but perhaps it's worth checking his sales?
It sold two minutes after being listed. What are the odds somebody who knows what it's worth just happened to come across it so quickly?
I'd guess it was supposed to be a starting bid rather than a BIN, if it's as we see it...
In another hobby, I picked up a $5 item from a big dealer at a large show on the 2nd of 2 days that I later flipped for $750. Things get missed, but as rec78 mentioned above, if you dont know about something, you never cap your potential with a BIN on an unknown...
Listing mistake not caught? $20.00 $2000 ????
"When they can't find anything wrong with you, they create it!"
Seller has over 1,000 listings on eBay right now. Zero auctions.
Sounds like a great example of rushing inventory into a BIN when we know the upside potential...
It could be a growth hack to get people talking about and following the dealer.
Why do you think anything was rushed?
it does not even show up on eBay listings that quick - someone probably knew it was coming (and best offer accepted?)
Wow, I watched the one in the Stacks sale recently and it went for $3,360. Wish I would have saw it. It would be a great addition to the "baseball" set.
https://auctions.stacksbowers.com/lots/view/3-RKWSE/1858-ca-1861-pioneer-baseball-club-medal-by-john-adams-bolen-musante-jab-1-silvered-white-metal-ms-61-ngc
Not taking the time to research an item before sale is rushing. Whether it's a 10 min decision or 10 month decision.
Mistake in my previous post- it sold twelve minutes after being listed, not two. The best offer price was revised about three minutes before the listing ended.
Just saying, from the mouth of the seller, the fastest I ever bought something off eBay was approximately 20 seconds after listing.
"It's like God, Family, Country, except Sticker, Plastic, Coin."
Why are you making that assumption? There are other reasons that would explain the listing aside from not researching the item.
What would they be? The seller purposefully listed a BIN for an item at 5% of value... for a friend? to avoid taxes? to make payment on market value balance under the table? Maybe I'm missing some scenarios, but I dont see it?
Sometimes the sale price is a typo and the seller cancels the sale. Could have happened here.
"It's like God, Family, Country, except Sticker, Plastic, Coin."
Seller lists item. Nine minutes later, seller revises the price and three minutes after that, the item is purchased.
Is there anything in the above sequence of events that looks unplanned?
edited to add... I have sold something this way before. An agreement on a price well below market value was made. The item was listed with a price that guaranteed that nobody would buy it and once the buyer confirmed that he could see my listing, I revised the price and he bought the item.
I can't say for sure that's what happened here, but the available evidence doesn't discount the possibility.
Checked revision history myself, looks like the best offer was just removed from the listing.
Better way to do what you did is to just take offers and accept the offer you want.
"It's like God, Family, Country, except Sticker, Plastic, Coin."
We're talking about intent for a $1k item being listed at $20. I mean, sure, they could have listed it at another price, then reduced it quickly before sale, but that doesn't answer the questions. They could have changed the pictures, changed description, etc etc. None of which changes the situation.
Seller was mentioned several times in this thread and hasn't commented yet. Im sure they will clarify if they feel like it.
I dont care how good of friends you are, you're not getting a $1k item for $20...
Saves a bunch of fleaBay fees that way as well.
Z
Busy chasing Carr's . . . . . woof!
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Or it was just added.
As I recall (it's been a while), I don't remember "Best Offer" being available at that time.
You might never get an answer as to why the eBay sold price is $20.
If you make changes to the listing (descriptions and such), it's noted in the revisions. The only thing noted is that the Best Offer was revised.
No doubt.
Have you considered the possibility that there's more to the transaction than just this one item? What's more likely- a seller who regularly lists esoteric $1,000+ tokens and medals somehow manages to forget to research the value of something or that there's more to the story than what's apparent from this single eBay listing?
It was not added lol. It was removed. If it sold via best offer it would say best offer accepted.
Odds are Rick or whomever he has working for him screwed up. Is it really so hard for you to believe that dealers screw up and misprice stuff? He or whomever is working for him has done it before. I'd know pretty well.
"It's like God, Family, Country, except Sticker, Plastic, Coin."
You're right. I was looking at the revisions, which show the same note for adding or removing the best offer. Sorry about that.
I can believe that dealers misprice stuff but based on this listing:
Created: 12:19:20
Best Offer removed: 12:27:51
Sold: 12:31:30
12 minutes from posted to sold with a revision to the listing included? It looks like there could be more to it than that. I'm not trying to convince you or anything, I'm just offering an alternative explanation. If you want to go with "clueless dealer", that's okay with me.
It's esoteric. It took the right person seeing it to realize it was worth way more than it was posted for. It was probably posted from a saved draft with the specifics (title, pics, desc, price) changed, but the lister forgot to remove best offer. Went back, removed it, and it sold shortly after once somebody who knew what it was saw it. About 12 minutes makes perfect sense actually, I'd guess that's about how long it takes for my bot to ping me about stuff I might want to buy.
"It's like God, Family, Country, except Sticker, Plastic, Coin."
If the seller really is Rick Snow, I am 100% sure that he knew what he had and the price was a clerical mistake. If so, I imagine the sale was annulled with an explanation to the prospective buyer. It happens.
This is not some "esoteric" piece, but one of the most popular medals of all time. I can honestly see a buy it now price of $2,000 but obviously not $20.
Not from Rick Snow or anyone else on the planet remotely interested in exonumia.
Dead Cat Waltz Exonumia
"Coin collecting for outcasts..."
Yeah and APMEX should know better than to sell me a 91-CC GSA NGC 63 for $800 but that happened. And it shipped.
"It's like God, Family, Country, except Sticker, Plastic, Coin."
Who does the photos for @EagleEye? They look nice and sharp.
In the old days they used”lost leaders” to bring in customers. Sell something cheap. Looks like he’s getting a little advertising and will until maybe someone who knows him asks. Contact seller.
This doesn’t have the classic look of “lost leader “. Thanks 😉
🎶 shout shout, let it all out 🎶
I love a good mystery…
Nice find DCW, hope we can get the rest of the story at some point.