Auto Mania

I just received a package from an ebay seller. I bought several cards from him/her. All "hits". Either jersey, or in most cases, autographs. You ever find a seller who has about 20 cards you're interested in, all ending around the same time, at the right price, and no one else is online? It's rare, but when it happens, it's glorious.

I'll show the first three today. Up first, a 2009 UD Ballpark Rookie Auto of Braves pitcher James Parr, 106/500. The cost? .99 cents. Good thing he's not Japanese.
Next we have an on card Goudey Graph. Sweet assed card if you ask me.... oh yeah, .99 cents for this one as well...

Finally (for this post) we have my boy. Mr Second Half himself. An auto jersey thank you very much.

yeah, it's a sticker auto, but what are ya gonna do? $2.50 brought Adam home.

Why do card shops and shows insist on charging $20, $30, $80! for these things? Do they not have the world wide web at home?

Maybe their mom is on dial up?

Whatever... enjoy, and I'll show off more later. Including a little story on "the curse"

a failed ebay experiment... or is it?

Quite often lately I've been reading about other bloggers exploits at Wally World, or Target. You know the story. They stop for food, diapers, socks, and decide to swing by the card aisle.
I cannot express to you how this infuriates me. Not at the bloggers. But at Wal Mart Canada. We have no card aisle. Some WalMarts will have a few cards by the checkstand, but it's 90% My Little Pony, 10% overpriced Hockey.
I've read how even some bloggers like A Cardboard Problem or A Priceless Pursuit, among others, even go there to buy high end stuff like Sweet Spot. I've never even seen a pack of Sweet Spot, let alone be able to get one when I buy deodorant.

So I decided to buy an ebay pack of Sweet Spot for myself. And before you cry out, no. I am not dumb enough to buy a pack of anything off of ebay.
Merely, I was going to spend the price of a Sweet Spot pack on Sweet Spot singles, and make up my own pack. My budget, $30.

Sounds like a decent enough plan, right? Going in I felt confident. But somewhere between there and here, I got derailed.

Here's what I ended up with.

A 1953 Topps Jim Pendleton #185 with a slight wrinkle on the top right corner.
1953 Topps Jim Wilson #208 with a wrinkle under his nose.

1953 Topps Jack Dittmer #212 no creases

1953 Topps Bill Bruton #214 with a wrinkle going throught the "M" logo

1953 Topps Gene Conley #215 with obvious scuffing, no creases.

1953 Topps Murray Wall #217 in beautiful shape.

Total price for all 6? $28.25 shipped.

My pack of Sweet Spot has no autos, no Game Used. Just base cards. Six of them. But at least they're all from my favourite team, right?

Does anyone else get distracted on ebay like I do and end up with a bunch of stuff you had no intentions on buying in the first place?

Does this ever happen to anyone else?

or is it just me?

Story time... stay with me.

You decide that you absolutely have to have an item. Doesn't matter what. A card, a watch, an autographed ball, game used Phil Esposito socks, whatever. You want it. You NEED it.
Fine.
Being the suave, savvy, internet buyer that you are, you set a price of what it's worth to you and you set off for the World Wide Web.
Through the various auction sites you find that a fair price for your item is $20. Anything under that is golden. You seek, you find, you bid.
You don't win.
Repeat.
Repeat again. Your item is going well over your $20 limit.
Then you miss an auction, or three.
All three sell for between $9 and $15.
Scouring the sites, You seek, you find, you lose.
Repeat.
Again.
The next 4 auctions you watch sell for around $30.
You get frustrated. You ignore it for a couple of weeks.
Six different sales happen while you were gone for under $15.
Anxious, you bid again.
And again.
Five more go for over $30.
WTF!?

Does this sound familiar? I have been trying to get this for over a year. It has sold over 45 times in that span. I have watched and or bid on 25 of them. None went for less than $24. The other 20? 19 of them less than $16, one went for $19.
Who the hell has bugged my computer?

If any of you want to sell something and get good money for it, let me know and I'll bid on it. It'll be sure to skyrocket out of my range.

eBay help

How do you report a scam ebay seller?

I bid on three autograph cards the other day, all numbered to /25 or less... and was about to win them all. Then a buyer with zero feedback came in and won them all with astronomical bids at the last minute. The seller only had around 12 things for sale at the time.
Five days later, the same seller has the same three autographed cards #/25 for sale again.

How do I report this cocknocker to eBay???

%#$@!! ebay'ers

for the second time this month, and for the fourth time this year, an ebayer has screwed me. And not in the good way either. I am sick of how ebay favours the sellers and does not give buyers any recourse.

This is the most minor of the four, but it ticks me off just the same.

I found a Bowman Chrome Draft super parallel XFractor shiny glow in the dark #'d to /199 of Braves outfielder Jordan Schafer. BIN for $1.99.

Sold.

Here is what I got in the mail today.

Notice any problem? After contacting the seller, I am more than welcome to return the card, at my expense, for a refund of my purchase price, less S+H. To summarize, I pay a total of $6 to get my $1.99 back, with no card to look at.

Perfect.

This goes along with the guy who sent my 30 '71 OPC baseball cards that had been trimmed with scissors. Badly. They were tiny. And mis-shapen. Again, return them at my expense for a refund, less S+H.

The previous two were sellers who did not deliver the waxboxes I had purchased. One proved that he had sent it. (to the wrong address) The other said, but had no proof, that it was returned to sender and wanted another $20 to ship it again.

Both times, ebay did nothing. I'm going to start selling on ebay again, but buying elsewhere.

Reason why I love ebay #356...

Oh, don't get me wrong.... there are an equal, if not greater number of reasons why I HATE ebay. But this is one on the positive side. My rant on ebay will come at a later date. I'm in too good of a mood right now.

Feast your eyes on this:

Look at the corners! Look at the border! No chipping! No creases! Extra exclamation points too!! The back is beautiful. The colour is vibrant.

All for a low, low price of 50 cents. $1.25 if you include S+H. For a genuine 1953 Topps Del Crandall #197. Pure heaven.

Now I'm one card closer to my team set.

Although someone should talk to Del about that unibrow.........