Player collectors- ebay bidding competition avoidance?

[DaClyde]

I've yet to find another Meulens collector in the world, so not much competition there. I would LOVE to find another big Winfield collector, just to have someone to trade with. The few I've encountered all seem to have no interest in trading or have weird "no-oddball" restrictions set on themselves. I don't think many of his cards on eBay are going to player collectors, just HoF and high-end collectors.

Back before all the bidders were obscured, I used to do a lot of dealing with other bidders, and even afterwards, I've had a couple sellets basically hook me up with winning bidders when I've asked them about specific cards in lots.

 

[smapdi]

There's a fellow low-#-set collector who was buying up all the 2005 Old Judge Gold Zimmermans back when they came out. He outbid me on probably the first 6 or 7 of them. I wrote to him asking if he'd mind stepping aside on one or trading me a dupe, as it would cut down on his overall price at the cost of not owning every single one. He obliged and we've completed numerous trades over the years, and communicated often when our interests overlapped on sets or when there's a single player I really want.

Of course, it'd be almost impossible to do that these days with the hidden bidder system. I'm sure it's been beneficial, but I don't know if that outweighs the benefits of being able to communicate with a fellow collector.

 

[henderson939]

I have 2 guys who I trade with and have known for years who I have a "whoever sees it first" deal with.

 

[TomMurry]

I'm sure this will be a popular statement for me to make, but what you're talking about is considered bid manipulation and I believe it's illegal.

Wouldnt you have to bid to be able to manipulate it? Contacting someone BEFORE they bid and agreeing not to raise the price doesnt seem like theres anything wrong with it. Other people are free to bid and theres nothing you can do about that.

 

[AndruwHRJones]

Me and AndruwHRJones do this to an extent. There was a couple sets we were both working on where either I or he backed off the cards the other needed. I know with the 98 tek he backed off until I was almost complete (still at 89/90 :evil and the 07 M&M Blacks that I didn't have and I backed off on the 05 studio cards and documentary gold until he had his copy.

When it comes to rare 90's inserts though, it's whoever bids the highest. If we see something the other guy might need with a bad title or mispelled name then we'll point it out.

It has worked out well for both of us I think. With one of us sitting out on the bidding, the prices drop significantly 9 times out of 10. If you can work something out with a fellow collector, I would advise it. Of course it does suck when something we both want comes up. You just know before bidding that your wallet is going to hurt if you win.

 

[AndruwHRJones]

I'm sure this will be a popular statement for me to make, but what you're talking about is considered bid manipulation and I believe it's illegal.

This is the only offense I noticed that you could possibly be referring to:

Auction interference - Emailing bidders in an open or ended auction to warn them away from a seller or item.

Being that one of the two people involved is not bidding, this offense would not be valid. What people are discussing in this thread is legal.

 

[TNP777]

I'm sure this will be a popular statement for me to make, but what you're talking about is considered bid manipulation and I believe it's illegal.

good luck in proving it. Investigating back & forth dialog between collectors off eBay via email or phone conversation would be extremely time and cost prohibitive and not worth the effort for the kind of money being talked about here (if the practice is even illegal in the first place, which I don't believe it is).

 

[carrsallstars]

I find that I get along pretty well with other Manny collectors- in trying to pare down some of my extras I've done some deals and trades- and had all good experiences. In general I'd rather take a few bucks less and cut ebay out of the loop and see a card go int a fellow player collector's collection. Ebay has made it a pain but I still check the seller's feedback page (with 100 feedback listings per page and a ctrl+f search it's not bad) if i need to pick up an ebay user ID for someone.
I kind of feel like I bridged the gap and was the second fiddle for quite a while an age generation above me had the much better Manny collections and spent more $$. Then they either passed away or decided to sell off their collection, and I ended up with lots that I needed out of those collections. Then I kind of had the turf for a while and got lots of bargains... but I think that depressed market and his march to 500 HR's drew in the new guard of Manny collectors. Some have deeper pockets than me, and now I am often in a second tier of bidding again. BUt that means that the cards already in my collection are going up in value...so that's OK by me. It seems we each have our niche to some degree as well. I haven't gotten to the point of talking about "voluntary bid forbearance" :lol: but it does make a lot of sense and has worked in some cases it sounds like. As expected i think it works best with a non-superstar player who has only two or three die hard collectors.
As for it being illegal- thanks for the chuckle! "Sir, you are charged with voluntarily failing to bid on an ebay auction which contained an item of a player you are known to collect."

 

[Jastermereel]

Of course you could never prove it. And of course you can still manipulate a sale without bidding. I'm just repeating what I've heard a couple of the guys who run two of the larger auctions say. They also say there isn't anything that can really be done.