Thursday, November 21, 2013

The Seller Didn't Quite Get the BIN

For the past two seasons the Cubs have had pictures of Topps cards on their game tickets.  I've picked up most of the Billy, Barney, and Ernie cards from last season.  This year I've got the Barney and a couple Billys, but no Ernies.

I thought I'd see if any were available and a quick Ebay search found a seller that just listed all six of the Ernie cards.

It was nice that I could get them all at once.

It was not nice that the seller was a bit delusional.

It was nice that the seller was not completely insane.

Here's the scoop--the seller listed the tickets as an auction with a Buy It Now option.  And the BIN price--a mere $150!  Imagine, for only $25 a piece you can be the proud owner of six tickets to games that were already played.

But then the seller started the auction at $0.99.    I was able to win the auction at a price just a tad below the bin price...like $143 below the BIN.  They cost me a  bit more than a buck each.

 

These are from Opening Day...you gotta start with Ernie, and game #14...his uniform number

 

...game 20, Ernie had 7 RBIs on this date in 1969, and game 49, July 14...Ernie's number again

 

and finally, game 59, August 14, another Ernie 14 (seems like the Cubs started running out of ideas!), and game 76, September 20, the date of his first career home run in 1953.

Six nice tickets to add the the Ernie collection.

And by the way, when the president is from Chicago,


Chicagoans get the Medal of Freedom.

I bet he'd trade the medal for a World Series ring.


4 comments:

  1. It cracks me up when sellers list auctions with insane BIN prices. Glad he re-listed it as an auction and you were able to grab it at a huge discount. Those tickets are pretty cool. Wish the A's would steal that idea.

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  2. I see some of the same cards being listed over and over with the same BIN or auction starting prices. It doesn't make any sense.

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  3. I don't really mind the huge BIN price with a 99cent opening bid. I just bid what I want which is usually not anywhere near the BIN Price. What annoys me is when a seller will start with a 99cent opening bid and have a huge ridiculous reserve price (which is the supposed lowest price a seller is willing to let the item go for) AND a ridiculously high BIN price. Most long time Ebayers (buyers and sellers) avoid the reserve price game altogether. I often think some sellers think they HAVE to start their auctions off with 99cents starting bid. They can price things at whatever they want.While other sellers are of the mind set that starting everything at 99cents will encourage people to bid this isn't always the case. It may have been about 10 years ago but not now. The best bet for sellers has always been to start an auction at the absolute lowest price you are willing to receive from your item. On the other side of the coin buyers should ALWAYS make their maximum bid the absolute highest amount they are willing to pay for something.

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    1. The big BIN didn't bother me...it made me laugh...did the seller really think someone would pay that much or that the tickets were worth that much? I'm with you on the reserve auctions...I stay away from those. The nice thing about using a sniper is that I set my max price and walk away until the auction is over...I don't get caught up in the bidding game. Either I get the card at a price I'm willing to pay, or I wait for the next one to show up.

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