Sniping Successes

A few weeks ago I discovered a free service geared towards eBay bidders called GavelSnipe. This site allows you to enter a max bid on an item you're watching, and it will execute a bid for you at a specified time, usually within the last few seconds of an auction. I hadn't had much success with this, until last night.

But first, I'll tell you my bidding theory. When I see a card that piques my interest on eBay, I will study the most recent completed sales (including shipping) of that card to determine an average sales price, and a pricing trend. That gives me a baseline from which to make my max bid. I make it a rule of mine to not bid more than the average sales price, unless the card is trending upward.

So, I had 3 active "snipes" out last night: first was a 2010 Bowman Sterling Gold refractor, numbered 44/50, of Phillies catching prospect Sebastian Valle. This card's average sales price was $9.45. Less the $2.00 shipping cost, my max bid would be $7.45 for the card. I won the snipe last night at $4.25 - not bad.



Next, I had a bid out on a 2010 Bowman Sterling dual auto of Team USA players Matt Barnes and Brad Miller, both projected #1 draft pick next month. Average sales price was $17.05, but the price was trending upward the past week. I put my max bid at $17.55, and won the snipe at a price of $7.05 - getting better!!



Finally, my last snipe was on a 2010 Bowman Platinum Blue Refractor Auto of Phillies prospect Matt Rizzotti, numbered 60/99. This one was more of a shot in the dark. There were no recent previous sales for the blue refractors, but a Rizzotti green refractor auto numbered to 199 sold recently for $11.55. After doing a bit of research on other greens vs. blues, I found that there was about a 1.25 markup on blue autos over greens. So I figured the bid on the Rizzotti blue would be about $14.50 - I won the card at $8.50 - also, not bad.



In total, I had 3 bids out for $39.50, and I won with a total outlay of $19.80, just about a 50% discount off of my max bids. What helped on the dual auto and the Rizzotti auto may have been that the auctions ended later in the evening on the East Coast. Also, the listing for the Rizzotti said it was a Green refractor auto, but the picture and inside description said it was a Blue - maybe that worked in my favor, I don't know.

Either way, I got 3 nice cards on the cheap to add to my PC's. In the case of the Barnes/Miller dual auto, it may present a good selling opportunity after the draft, depending on where they are picked. But overall, a good night for sniping.

Hockey Cards

Even though I primarily collect baseball cards, I've been a hockey fan for slightly longer. My first hockey game was early in the 1973-74 NHL season, when I saw the Atlanta Flames take on the Philadelphia Flyers at the Spectrum in Philadelphia. I didn't go to my first baseball game until May of 1974 (Phillies-Dodgers at the old Vet).

My best friend was the one who got me into hockey cards, and I had a bunch that he gave me from the 1972-73 season, and I collected up until 1979 or so. Sadly, those cards are long gone.

But with my return to baseball collecting this year, I decided to start a PC of one of the most exciting young players on my team, the Flyers: Claude Giroux. So last week, I found a seller on eBay auctioning a 5-card lot of Giroux base cards, and I took the plunge:



Giroux's got an extensive checklist (especially for a young player), so I think using him as my hockey PC will keep me busy there. Plenty of GU's and autos to go along with his base cards.

Don't hesitate to steer me in the right direction - I'll be looking mainly at Upper Deck, SP, and Panini. I don't like the O-Pee-Chee cards, and I won't bother with the likes of Fleer.

Thursday Mailday

I received two more cards today that I bought off the 'bay to add to my PC's.

Here's the first, and one I really, really like - a 2010 Bowman Platinum Matt Barnes GU/Auto card, 128/740:


(now if I could only figure out how it got vertical when I took it horizontal)

And then there's this one, a 2009 Upper Deck USA Star Prospects card for Jameson Taillon:




I've been very pleased with both my selections and the prices paid. I'm thoroughly enjoying getting back into the hobby again.

Monday Mailday, 4/4

I've been hitting eBay pretty hard the past 10 days looking for bargains for my PCs.

Here are two cards I received today from what should turn out to be a pretty fruitful week for me:



Both of those for less than $6 total. Two nice additions to my 1948-80 Phillies collection.

The Richie (call me 'Dick') Allen card was his last one from his tumultuous first tour with the Phils from 1964-69. He was part of the infamous Curt Flood deal with the Cardinals in 1970.

Lefty's card is from the season following his monster 27-10, 1.98 season in 1972 for a team that won just 59 games. He finished 1973 at 13-20; not what people expected after '72.

More to come this week...

Welcome to my Blog

A little bit about me...I've been a baseball card collector since 1974, with lots of breaks. For example, I went from 1979 to about 1990 without collecting (high school and military service), as well as leaving the collecting scene completely again in the mid-90's.

I got back into collecting again in 2011 after cleaning out my house readying it for sale, and I came upon my old collection of approximately 2,000 cards. My cards went as far back as 1957 all the way to 1994. I made the decision to unload most of my old inventory and focus on a personal collection. Currently, this PC includes:

1974 Topps set (currently about 75% completed)
Philadelphia Phillies, 1948-80 (25% complete)
1971 Washington Senators (83% complete)

I also made a decision, based mainly on blaster boxes I purchased this year, to focus on 4 players to collect: Chase Utley (being the die-hard Phillies fan that I am), Andrew Bailey (he being the first MLB player to come from my high school), Zach Britton (top prospect of the Baltimore Orioles), and Jameson Taillon (#18 Prospect in MLB in 2011). These PC's could change throughout the year, meaning I will more than likely add players to my PC as the situation warrants.

I will focus mainly on Topps and Bowman, with some Upper Deck and Donruss Elite as needed. I'm still trying to understand the hype over 'game-used' cards, and although not a big autograph hound, I will look at autos of players in my PC, for collection sake.

I'm also a seller on eBay (dn43591), as a way for me to shed some of my older cards (1975-79 Topps mainly) and make a few bucks with which to build my PC.

This blog will hopefully attempt to document my attempts to complete my PC, liquidate my inventory, and comment on the industry/hobby as a whole. I also will be open to trades and/or sales if anyone is interested.

Happy reading!!