This whole thread just got me thinking about a couple of auctions I was watching this weekend and hoping to win one of them. Since the Wacky Packages market has slowed down, I've been working on my incomplete sports cards sets from my childhood. Here's the scenario:
There were two auctions by the same seller for 1969 Topps Football lots, which has 263 cards in the set. The first was for 249 of the 263 with all the high value cards (Unitas, Piccolo, Sayers, Meredith, Namath, Csonka, Butkus, Griese, and Starr), and the second, which ended 10 minutes later was for 152 of the 263 with just the Csonka and Meredith. The second auction was a subset of the first - in other words, there was nothing in the second auction that was not in the first. The description on both of these was "good" condition and could be used as fillers. There were a handful of scans on each, and I would agree with the seller's grading. The seller listed all of the cards in each (bravo to the seller!), so I used a spreadsheet where I can just put a "1" by the numbers and it will generate a total value for the low range of Near Mint. On the first one, the value was around $350 (if NM) and the second was around $210 (if NM). So good might be around 40-60% of that at best.
What got me thinking was that the same buyer won both auctions with bids in the last few seconds. The first was won with a bid of $290 with $280 showing as the current bid price. I didn't see anything unusual about the first other than it was too much to pay - it was already over what I was willing to pay, so I was just watching. However, the second was at $88, and I was willing to pay $120, so I bid with 7 seconds left. The winner bid just after me with a bid of at least $125 to win. If s/he was willing to pay at least $290 for the first, s/he was probably willing to pay at least $150 for the second, so that wasn't unusual. What makes no sense to me is why the buyer wanted both of these. There was nothing in the second that could help complete the set from what was in the first. I smell something fishy, but maybe there's a good explanation. Anyone?