What is your best ebay "find" ?
jsanz
Posts: 250 ✭✭
I love hearing stories about that garage sale find or the attic find but what about ebay? This is like the garage sale of our times. Have you found any gems on ebay? Something listed wrong or just down right cheap?
Love those 70's - early 80's packs and boxes...send me a message if you are selling because I am buying
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"You oughta check this out", she said. "Really great deals on this site."
"You're nuts", was my reply. "Quit wasting our money."
"Whatever."
Quite truthfully, some variation of this conversation actually did take place. More than once. It always ended with me scoffing and fuming.
She kept buying more stuff. So, one day I thought I'd give it a try. And I started buying stuff. And more stuff. Pretty soon I was loading up on stuff. A lot of stuff. More stuff than my wife. Ha ha.
I guess the joke's on me now. But over the years there's been plenty of great finds. It never would have happened if I hadn't discovered my dear sweetie slappin' 'em down.
[URL=http://s1211.photobucket.com/user/curch1/media/image.jpg1_zpshncadsj4.jpg.html]
I found a book on eBay that belonged to F. Scott Fitzgerald's daughter, inscribed by a famous editor to her. On a hunch, I looked at the seller's other items and they had a lot of old books and a stamp album. Turns out the books belonged to F. Scott Fitzgerald himself and were passed down to his daughter. Many had signatures and scribblings in them. Bought everything for about $150 and sold piece by piece for close to 20k. Some of the items are in the F. Scott Fitzgerald Museum, South Carolina University and the Princeton Library. I kept one book, a copy of "Crime and Punishment" which F. Scott gave his daughter when she was in college. He wrote on the title page "Page 248" which takes you to a passage on writing (she wanted, at one time, to be a writer). Naturally I asked the seller if they had anything else and they said, no, they were just cleaning out the attic of a property they recently bought.
Wow amazing.....
I found a book on eBay that belonged to F. Scott Fitzgerald's daughter, inscribed by a famous editor to her. On a hunch, I looked at the seller's other items and they had a lot of old books and a stamp album. Turns out the books belonged to F. Scott Fitzgerald himself and were passed down to his daughter. Many had signatures and scribblings in them. Bought everything for about $150 and sold piece by piece for close to 20k. Some of the items are in the F. Scott Fitzgerald Museum, South Carolina University and the Princeton Library. I kept one book, a copy of "Crime and Punishment" which F. Scott gave his daughter when she was in college. He wrote on the title page "Page 248" which takes you to a passage on writing (she wanted, at one time, to be a writer). Naturally I asked the seller if they had anything else and they said, no, they were just cleaning out the attic of a property they recently bought.
That IS a great story. Did any other book collectors call the seller and ask them questions about the transaction?
I found a book on eBay that belonged to F. Scott Fitzgerald's daughter, inscribed by a famous editor to her. On a hunch, I looked at the seller's other items and they had a lot of old books and a stamp album. Turns out the books belonged to F. Scott Fitzgerald himself and were passed down to his daughter. Many had signatures and scribblings in them. Bought everything for about $150 and sold piece by piece for close to 20k. Some of the items are in the F. Scott Fitzgerald Museum, South Carolina University and the Princeton Library. I kept one book, a copy of "Crime and Punishment" which F. Scott gave his daughter when she was in college. He wrote on the title page "Page 248" which takes you to a passage on writing (she wanted, at one time, to be a writer). Naturally I asked the seller if they had anything else and they said, no, they were just cleaning out the attic of a property they recently bought.
That IS a great story. Did any other book collectors call the seller and ask them questions about the transaction?
Fisher and Hamill were Secretarial, tossed them
Sold the rest for;
Harrison Ford - $260
David Prowse - $30
Anthony Daniels - $52
Kenny Baker - $10
Peter Mayhew - $30
Peter Cushing - $150
Alec Guinness- $120
Commissions
Check out my Facebook page
Bought a Star Wars framed and matted cast cut autograph display for $170, item was a BIN at $350, with 12 watchers. I took the chance. The big risk was that the cards would be completely glued to the backing board. Thankfully, it was framed properly.
Fisher and Hamill were Secretarial, tossed them
Sold the rest for;
Harrison Ford - $260
David Prowse - $30
Anthony Daniels - $52
Kenny Baker - $10
Peter Mayhew - $30
Peter Cushing - $150
Alec Guinness- $120
That's super cool...esp Peter Cushing. Kenny Baker gets no love? That freakin guy can't catch a break
That's super cool...esp Peter Cushing. Kenny Baker gets no love? That freakin guy can't catch a break
Supply vs demand....Baker is alive and prolific signer
Commissions
Check out my Facebook page
I find great books nearly everyday on eBay, and make great margins on them which has afforded me the opportunity to work solely from home, but it's always exciting to find ones that are culturally significant in some way, such as these Trilling inscriptions and the Fitzgerald books mentioned above.
Patrick
Forgot to mention that I found two first edition, sixth printings of "The Great Gatsby" from the same seller advertised as having "gift inscriptions" present without pictures. I paid $150 for both (a book I regularly sell for $350+) and was pleasantly surprised to see that they were inscriptions from Lionel Trilling (editor of this printing) and are the only known ones signed by him. One was to his mother and the other to his sister. The one to his sister I sold for about $600 and the one to his mother I sold for $2800.
I find great books nearly everyday on eBay, and make great margins on them which has afforded me the opportunity to work solely from home, but it's always exciting to find ones that are culturally significant in some way, such as these Trilling inscriptions and the Fitzgerald books mentioned above.
Patrick
TEACH ME...
makes my eBay find seem like bubble gum! I have a few stories of great deals I've made but only one from eBay...
I bought an 87-88 fleer Michael Jordan bgs 8 for about 44 dollars about 6 months ago, coincidentally it was shipped but never arrived. That was the cheapest I've seen an 8 go for. Now there around 100.
Great stories everyone.
I know that collecting shouldn't be about the monetary value but imo it makes it so much sweeter finding a crazy good deal.
I bought a raw 1972 Stargell IA for a few dollars on ebay. Had it graded-PSA 10. It was one of two at the time, and I sold it for $1500.
I remember that card!
A few of my best buys:
A run of 1972-76 wax boxes for $5999.
A 1973 set that was factory fresh. Produced a ton of 9s including Mays, Ryan, Schmidt, Reggie, Kaline and Rose.
Recently picked up some gem raw 1962s. Just got some of them graded and hit a 9 on a Whitey Ford WS card
Picked up a raw 1956 Killebrew several years ago that graded out an 8. I submitted it for review after the half point was implemented and it bumped to 8.5.
Forgot to mention that I found two first edition, sixth printings of "The Great Gatsby" from the same seller advertised as having "gift inscriptions" present without pictures. I paid $150 for both (a book I regularly sell for $350+) and was pleasantly surprised to see that they were inscriptions from Lionel Trilling (editor of this printing) and are the only known ones signed by him. One was to his mother and the other to his sister. The one to his sister I sold for about $600 and the one to his mother I sold for $2800.
I find great books nearly everyday on eBay, and make great margins on them which has afforded me the opportunity to work solely from home, but it's always exciting to find ones that are culturally significant in some way, such as these Trilling inscriptions and the Fitzgerald books mentioned above.
Patrick
TEACH ME...
makes my eBay find seem like bubble gum! I have a few stories of great deals I've made but only one from eBay...
I bought an 87-88 fleer Michael Jordan bgs 8 for about 44 dollars about 6 months ago, coincidentally it was shipped but never arrived. That was the cheapest I've seen an 8 go for. Now there around 100.
Great stories everyone.
I know that collecting shouldn't be about the monetary value but imo it makes it so much sweeter finding a crazy good deal.
Happy to teach anyone interested in bookselling.
carriage return
You're showing your age
I found a book on eBay that belonged to F. Scott Fitzgerald's daughter, inscribed by a famous editor to her. On a hunch, I looked at the seller's other items and they had a lot of old books and a stamp album. Turns out the books belonged to F. Scott Fitzgerald himself and were passed down to his daughter. Many had signatures and scribblings in them. Bought everything for about $150 and sold piece by piece for close to 20k. Some of the items are in the F. Scott Fitzgerald Museum, South Carolina University and the Princeton Library. I kept one book, a copy of "Crime and Punishment" which F. Scott gave his daughter when she was in college. He wrote on the title page "Page 248" which takes you to a passage on writing (she wanted, at one time, to be a writer). Naturally I asked the seller if they had anything else and they said, no, they were just cleaning out the attic of a property they recently bought.
That IS a great story. Did any other book collectors call the seller and ask them questions about the transaction?
I so vividly remember the Cal Ripken card.
Profit is only okay to some on this board when it is their find.
Patrick did you offer restitution to the seller?
I thought damn I missed out since they were both buy it nows, waited a couple days to see if he would post any more buy it now lots but he didn't. I was about to move on when I decided what the hell shoot him a PM to see if he has anything else for sale. He got back to me that he had a few more boxes of Alliances along with some other boxes from that time. I worked out a hell of a deal for them and then started to inquire about singles that he might still have. He is like oh I have like 95 or so un-played 3rd edition/ revised dual lands, but more of them happened to be the ones with blue or black in them (the really high value ones like underground seas, volcanic islands and not the low end ones like a Plateau). like 3 to 6 of the low end ones and a dozen or so of each of the better ones in mint condition. I am like cool and send him a list of about 20 cards from that timeframe that I was also looking for and he had copies of about half of them in mint condition including 19 Force of Wills which were bringing in $50 or more at the time in mint condition.
At this point I am wondering if I am about to get conned since this was a too good to be true type of find from someone new on eBay. He proceeds to send me high res scans of everything positioned in a few different ways with his eBay handle clearly written on a junk card in the pictures so that I know they are at least in his possession. Now he has me hooked to proceed with trying to get them. I ask him to name his price for everything he has shown me and for ALL other rares and uncommons in his possession (which ended up being around 5000 additional card). He says well the extra 5000 cards I will just throw in for free if you want everything else. He then throws out a price for them that blows my mind. Basically an asking price about equal to what they all sold for during the first year or so they had been released which is maybe 10% to 15% of what they are now going for.
Well hell we are back to this can't be real and he is like I can see you have been on eBay since 1997 and you are a top rated power seller and I also see your name on a few MTG sites from playing on the Pro Tour and in Grand Prix's over the years so how about I ship you half the stuff right now, you confirm it is what it is and send me half payment and then I again send the other half and you finally send the last half of the payment. I will also send the extra 5000 cards with the first half of the stuff.
SOLD!!!!!
I get the first half within a week and the 5000 extra cards alone are flip able for what I paid for the main stuff. The 1st half of the dual lands are ALL from the best group of them and are pack fresh never shuffled and so are all the Force of Wills. I got a USPS Money Order for the 1st half out to him via overnight delivery and then received the 2nd half of the money cards about 5 days later which were pack fresh and even included some extra dual lands that he found after the fact.
This was over $8 K of instantly flip able cards that he asked $900 for with eBay completed auctions available to him just like to any of us to see what these go for daily. I got him the 2nd half of the payment out within 24 hours of receiving the 2nd half of the lot to fulfill my end of the deal. At this time I only had $500 roughly of extra cash funds available (above and beyond what I paid him) until I started flipping the cards and I went back to the post office a few hours later and got $500 of additional USPS money orders and sent them also to him thanking him for responding to my message and for the entire transaction going as smooth as it did. To think I almost didn't send him that random eBay message if he had anything else.
I ended up making a ton of money at this time by applying this process to eBay sellers who were posting up lots of Walking Dead comics right before the TV show aired up to about the end of season 2. I would send out the max amount of messages eBay would let me each day before cutting me off asking folks who just threw up lots what would it take end the auction right now and for you to either relist as a buy it now or to sell direct to me via PayPal invoice. 3 out of 5 would say no thanks I am going to let the auction ride, 1 out of 5 would ask for 200% or more of what they were going for at the time and that final 1 out of 5 would throw out a number that would be for like 60% or less of what they were worth ungraded based on the pictures. I landed a bunch of key issues like #19 , #27, #48 etc. along with a ton of runs from issue 10 or so up to issue #70 for amazing prices. I got lucky with grading out through CGC a ton of 9.8s of the keys and other flawless copies. When it was all said and done I turned probably a 600% profit on my time and investments.
I found a book on eBay that belonged to F. Scott Fitzgerald's daughter, inscribed by a famous editor to her. On a hunch, I looked at the seller's other items and they had a lot of old books and a stamp album. Turns out the books belonged to F. Scott Fitzgerald himself and were passed down to his daughter. Many had signatures and scribblings in them. Bought everything for about $150 and sold piece by piece for close to 20k. Some of the items are in the F. Scott Fitzgerald Museum, South Carolina University and the Princeton Library. I kept one book, a copy of "Crime and Punishment" which F. Scott gave his daughter when she was in college. He wrote on the title page "Page 248" which takes you to a passage on writing (she wanted, at one time, to be a writer). Naturally I asked the seller if they had anything else and they said, no, they were just cleaning out the attic of a property they recently bought.
That IS a great story. Did any other book collectors call the seller and ask them questions about the transaction?
I so vividly remember the Cal Ripken card.
Profit is only okay to some on this board when it is their find.
Patrick did you offer restitution to the seller?
Two very different situations.
I bought the items on a hunch that they were part of a library. It was a gamble.
Someone contacted the old lady selling the Ripken card and manipulated her into changing the listing from an auction to a BIN. Pure deception there.
They call me "Pack the Ripper"
Robb
I am someone that views Ebay as a scavenger hunt and applaud your great return but would hope in the future you stay out of other peoples dealings because this is a level of hypocrisy I have never witnessed in my entire life.
If an item is listed on Ebay it is fair game and as witnessed by many responses there are many who have hit some home runs and that is what makes the hunting process worthwhile.
I started actively buying trading cards once more in August of 2009 and fortunately have had many nice scores along the way because of grading and if I had to narrow it down to my best hit it was the sealed set of 1982 Wrestling All Stars Series A I purchased in early 2010 that yielded many high grade cards including two Pop 1 PSA 10's that still stand to this day.
Thank goodness there were no Garage Sale Police.
I think I understand the distinction that Patrick is making between his purchase and the aforementioned Ripken card. He won his auction from an experienced bookseller, someone who should know his business well enough not to give something valuable away. On the other hand, an old woman who doesn't know much, if anything, about baseball cards is someone who is vulnerable to being taken advantage of, and needs to be protected. I'm not saying I agree with his way of thinking, but that seems to be his rationalization of why his deal was okay, and the other wasn't.
Naturally I asked the seller if they had anything else and they said, no, they were just cleaning out the attic of a property they recently bought. doesn't sound like an experienced book dealer or that he was taking a gamble. Robb is dead on with his post.
On the other hand, if someone knows for a fact that they are gray back packs (if there were a way to tell), and contacts the seller and says, hey, I'll give you this much (slightly above market value for non-gray packs to entice the seller to take the bait) for these packs, then the seller is being deceived. Whether this is right or wrong is up to debate and personal opinion, but I side with it being wrong.
Naturally I asked the seller if they had anything else and they said, no, they were just cleaning out the attic of a property they recently bought. doesn't sound like an experienced book dealer or that he was taking a gamble. Robb is dead on with his post.
The person was not an experienced bookseller, but very experienced selling on eBay. Not an elderly woman whose husband just passed away from Parkinson's and listed some things on eBay to buy heating oil for the winter. She listed her item appropriately, then someone came along and enticed her with $300 and said that's several times what the card sells for. This is nowhere close to what happened with my eBay winnings.
That being said. I once found an honest, never-do-wrong, devoted collector of books and hockey cards on eBay one time... but I had to open a fraud case and return him, because he was counterfeit. That's the closest thing to a big score I've had.
That is an awesome score. The reality is those books probably came really close to being tossed.
They call me "Pack the Ripper"
I side with Mullins here. In this day and age, all someone needs to do is poke around a little on the internet to get an idea of a value before listing an item. If they are computer smart enough to list an item on eBay, then they are smart enough to do some research before they list the item.
That is an awesome score. The reality is those books probably came really close to being tossed.
I don't think anyone has a problem with his profit. They have a problem with him sticking his nose in other peoples business by contacting various sellers about issues that do not pertain to him.
This has happened on several occasions and not an isolated incident.
I do not understand why some here get upset when people reach out to others who are being taken advantage of?
Bare in mind I have no problem with your profit.
In light of the information that you disclosed (the seller was not an experienced bookseller, he did not know exactly what he was selling), don't you feel the least bit guilty that you made a windfall profit at his expense? If you don't, then how can you think you are justified in inserting yourself into somebody's else's business? And, by the way, from my objective, thoroughly impartial viewpoint, it appears that you were gloating about your success in selling off the books.
Anyways, I look forward to hearing about other great eBay finds.
I say we ignore Mullins (since none of us are welcomed in his fantasy land) and get the thread back on topic.
That being said. I once found an honest, never-do-wrong, devoted collector of books and hockey cards on eBay one time... but I had to open a fraud case and return him, because he was counterfeit. That's the closest thing to a big score I've had.
I am still waiting for him to explain how he was using a magnet back in the day to search 1991 Topps Baseball packs stateside for magically inserted Baseball Desert Shield cards.
It seems Topps must have mistakenly sent out boxes with these mixed in to just his area of operation.
In regards to your example of flipping those books for $20K, how established was the person selling them? 50 feedback, 5000 feedback? Did they become established selling just coupons or Beanie Babies?
Honestly with the internet and Google in this day and age I do not feel sorry for anyone selling on eBay who doesn't spend even 5 minutes doing a little research into what they are selling for may go for if it isn't a 1 of a kind or hasn't come up for sale but maybe once or twice 5 + years ago.
Anyone can search eBay or Google and look at completed auctions/ BINs to get somewhat an idea of what they are selling may go for unless again it is insanely rare.
Now intentionally targeting someone who doesn't have a clue in what they have to as the buyer be the one who pressures them into taking a lowball offer this is somewhat classless, but it isn't illegal in any way.
Who was it that targeted the old women, I don't remember seeing that thread at all. Again pretty damn classless if it went down the way Mullins is describing. Not sure how we know she needed the money for heating oil for winter, if that shiat was posted in the eBay listing I have to shake my head at this even more but again if someone can figure out how to setup an account on eBay and post up an auction then they can easily search Google for an idea of what the item is worth. Was this a Charlotte O's Orange card to be worth anywhere near that? Hell aren't there more raw counterfeit versions of these in the wild than real ones?
Bottom line is congrats Mullins on a hell of a ROI on those books.
Who was it that targeted the old women, I don't remember seeing that thread at all. Again pretty damn classless if it went down the way Mullins is describing. Not sure how we know she needed the money for heating oil for winter, if that shiat was posted in the eBay listing I have to shake my head at this even more but again if someone can figure out how to setup an account on eBay and post up an auction then they can easily search Google for an idea of what the item is worth. Was this a Charlotte O's Orange card to be worth anywhere near that? Hell aren't there more raw counterfeit versions of these in the wild than real ones?
The person knew the card was somewhat valuable and listed it at $99 to start. The collector offered her $300 to end it early as a buy it now. Absolutely nothing wrong with this. She agreed and he quickly paid. The card did come back authentic and I believe graded a 3. If you look at completed listings these in lower grade have come down in price but was valued at the time in the $5,000 plus range. The bottom line as you pointed out is if you list a card on EBAY you should spend a few minutes doing some research first. That said Patrick took it upon himself to get involved and emailed the seller and explained to her that she had sold a card for a great deal below fair market value. He also was quite vocal that the buyer should send additional funds to the seller. I for one applaud his good fortune as we all search EBAY looking for great deals and I find it incredibly hypocritical that he would gloat about his large score and at the same time inject himself in a situation with a board member and EBAY seller that has nothing to do with himself. A recent scenario involving a George Brett PSA 9 it appears he once more did the same thing. You can't be the EBAY cop and be an EBAY vulture too. It is pretty simple.
Bottom line is congrats Mullins on a hell of a ROI on those books.
Who was it that targeted the old women, I don't remember seeing that thread at all. Again pretty damn classless if it went down the way Mullins is describing. Not sure how we know she needed the money for heating oil for winter, if that shiat was posted in the eBay listing I have to shake my head at this even more but again if someone can figure out how to setup an account on eBay and post up an auction then they can easily search Google for an idea of what the item is worth. Was this a Charlotte O's Orange card to be worth anywhere near that? Hell aren't there more raw counterfeit versions of these in the wild than real ones?
The person knew the card was somewhat valuable and listed it at $99 to start. The collector offered her $300 to end it early as a buy it now. Absolutely nothing wrong with this. She agreed and he quickly paid. The card did come back authentic and I believe graded a 3. If you look at completed listings these in lower grade have come down in price but was valued at the time in the $5,000 plus range. The bottom line as you pointed out is if you list a card on EBAY you should spend a few minutes doing some research first. That said Patrick took it upon himself to get involved and emailed the seller and explained to her that she had sold a card for a great deal below fair market value. He also was quite vocal that the buyer should send additional funds to the seller. I for one applaud his good fortune as we all search EBAY looking for great deals and I find it incredibly hypocritical that he would gloat about his large score and at the same time inject himself in a situation with a board member and EBAY seller that has nothing to do with himself. A recent scenario involving a George Brett PSA 9 it appears he once more did the same thing. You can't be the EBAY cop and be an EBAY vulture too. It is pretty simple.
Thank you for the explanation. So know one knew she was super elderly or that she needed the money for the heating oil based on the auction listing. Listed at $99 to start and the buyer made an offer for $300. It is a highly counterfeited card of Ripken's so the buyer was taking a little risk in the first place with the headache of dealing with eBay/PP if they had to dispute it.
Congrats to the buyer for taking the time to make an offer and possibly having his $300 tied up a while if it was a counterfeit. Without knowing off the top of my head what Ripken's most expensive card was it took me 2 minutes to Google and get that info. Now knowing what it was it took me 30 seconds on eBay to see it is a $1000+ card and another 1 minute on Google to see it could go for $5K +.
Was Patrick the one who started the thread on the Brett over on the "other board"? Someone PM me a link to the Ripken thread if it wasn't deleted by a mod (whether on this board or another if you know it is still up online).
Back to the 1991 Topps Baseball cards with the Desert Shield foils Mullins. How could you search this in a local store when they where only distributed to US troops involved in the first gulf war? The only thing inserted stateside were older Topps cards to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the baseball set and these cards were not foil stamped.
Bottom line is congrats Mullins on a hell of a ROI on those books.
Who was it that targeted the old women, I don't remember seeing that thread at all. Again pretty damn classless if it went down the way Mullins is describing. Not sure how we know she needed the money for heating oil for winter, if that shiat was posted in the eBay listing I have to shake my head at this even more but again if someone can figure out how to setup an account on eBay and post up an auction then they can easily search Google for an idea of what the item is worth. Was this a Charlotte O's Orange card to be worth anywhere near that? Hell aren't there more raw counterfeit versions of these in the wild than real ones?
The person knew the card was somewhat valuable and listed it at $99 to start. The collector offered her $300 to end it early as a buy it now. Absolutely nothing wrong with this. She agreed and he quickly paid. The card did come back authentic and I believe graded a 3. If you look at completed listings these in lower grade have come down in price but was valued at the time in the $5,000 plus range. The bottom line as you pointed out is if you list a card on EBAY you should spend a few minutes doing some research first. That said Patrick took it upon himself to get involved and emailed the seller and explained to her that she had sold a card for a great deal below fair market value. He also was quite vocal that the buyer should send additional funds to the seller. I for one applaud his good fortune as we all search EBAY looking for great deals and I find it incredibly hypocritical that he would gloat about his large score and at the same time inject himself in a situation with a board member and EBAY seller that has nothing to do with himself. A recent scenario involving a George Brett PSA 9 it appears he once more did the same thing. You can't be the EBAY cop and be an EBAY vulture too. It is pretty simple.
The buyer of the card indeed knew it was an elderly woman who needed heating oil for the upcoming winter.
I was not "quite vocal" about him sending her additional funds. Actually, I don't think anyone said that. If the buyer truly had nothing to do with deceiving the woman, then it was a great buy -- and I told him this in the thread (several times).
Please post a link about the "George Brett PSA 9"
Lol you claim you where right about the son selling daddy's card and all signs from the other board point to someone who loves to get involved in others business transactions reaching out to said eBay seller to get him to post in the thread confirming Bobby and certain others are beyond ignorant and have way too much time on their hands to be digging into other peoples transactions. Odd they got on that thread shortly after you posted in it.
So lets dig into your postings. Again how does one pack search 1991 topps baseball to find the foil stamped baseball Desert Shield cards? Does one buy some lose singles of them and reseal them into packs to then use a studfinder on them? Or should one maybe admit they are full of it and this magical fantasy never actually happened.
Someone post up a link to the original thread about that Ripken Charlotte 0 card, I so wanna read it now to see Patrick attempt to diddle in other peoples business.
link