First, the card...
...this big beauty is from the 1967 Dexter Press set. These cards are big, 5 1/2" by 7" big. And they're full color and glossy--really nice cards. The cards were part of a giveaway sponsored by Coke. If you collected enough Coke bottle caps that had baseball players' pictures, you could redeem them for a team set of 12 cards. The Fleer Sticker Project has detailed posts about the cards here and one of the photographers here.
The backs are pretty plain--just the basic player information and no stats.
So that's the card...now the guilt.
Usually these cards, especially for a Hall of Famer like Billy, will run $10-$20. For $1.99 I got this card plus five other Cubs. That gives me half the team set for a mere two bucks. Why such a good deal? Because the ebay seller didn't really know what he had.
The cards were listed as "Chicago Cubs 1967 5x7.5 Inch Photo Cards". "Dexter Press" was missing from the entire listing, which means that anyone with a saved search for these wouldn't have found out about them. Plus the size was listed incorrectly.
I was the only bidder, and I got a deal...and some guilt. I kinda feel like I took advantage of the seller. I knew what he had, but he didn't. Should I have sent him a message and told him about the Dexter Press label? Anyone else get themselves into the same type of situation, where you knew that you were getting a good deal due to the seller's lack of knowledge? Feel guilty about it?
I never messaged the seller and I'll have to live with the guilt of that and with six cards for two bucks.
Now that I've got half the set, I'll be slowly chasing the other six. I doubt I'll get the same bargain.
When I used ebay much more frequently than I do now, I routinely searched for mispellings.
ReplyDeleteRyan Sandberg. Ryne Sanberg. Ryne Snadberg. I think you may have even done a post before about Ryne Landberg because of the fancy cursive S?
Kind of the same thing. If I want it, I'm not going to help the seller drive more bidders to his auction. But I have sent a note to a seller about something I already had as an FYI.
I think of it as one of the perks of ebay. Sometimes you get a good deal. Sometimes you get a great deal.
I am not out to screw anyone, but I think the onus is on the seller. I don't know anything about that particular seller, but I have seen sellers with a ton of stuff, who just wanted to get rid of it all without doing much detective work.
ReplyDeleteYou think sellers say, "That guy massively overpaid; I'm going to contact him and let him know he spent too much"?
ReplyDeletePaul-
ReplyDeleteThink about all of the times that you have overpaid for a card just because you 'had to have it'. Chalk it up to the 'good guy' getting one!
Definitely a great deal and nothing to feel guilty about. They didn't do the research. Personally, if I'm selling something that I don't know much about, then I type out as much info as I can and that would definitely include the publishing info on the back.
ReplyDelete