Show off your Weekly Finds.

[ZeMastor]

Isn't that kinda the nature of Ebay "auctions" though? Yeah, it sucks, but that's how online bidding is. I remember when I use to bid on Ebay all the time, I kinda prayed the other bidder wasn't around when the auction was ending...that way I could jam my bid in and hope it was highest.

I will admit that the majority of my ebay bids are last-second snipes. True, there's no actual policy against it, and it works for me. One does not want to reveal one's cards too early in the game, right? If you see something you like, and you're willing to pay $25 for it, playing the game is to get it for as low as possible, and prevent "the other guy" from getting it. The last second snipe prevents him/her from being able to outbid you if you unexpectedly come "out of nowhere"

Doesn't work 100% of the time, but I would say that I won the majority of my auctions that way.

As a seller, have you ever encountered bidding trolls that bid up your item just for the fun of it? Like you're selling a li'l monster for $3.99 and someone (person #1) REALLY wants it. Person #2 gets his/her kicks out of driving up the price and outbids Person #1. Person #1 desperately tries to get your li'l monster and bids some more, and Person #2 ups the bid. Item sells for over a hundred dollars to Person #1. When you research Person #2, you notice that they have a pattern... they often bid on stuff similar to yours but they have a history of a lot of WITHDRAWN bids! That's pretty suspicious, and indicates bid trolling for fun.

[ZeMastor]

That's a good point about double checking with another search before pulling the trigger with that heavy snipe, Palifan. Sometimes a similar item gets listed cheaper on a Buy It Now between the time you added the original auction to your Watch list and the time for that original auction to end. That's more good advice to check alternate wordings for listings.. even common misspellings. Sometimes you can get something super cheap if the seller didn't list the title right. In effect it becomes a hidden auction and you have little or no competition. It's uncommon to be able to capitalize on these poorly listed auctions because so many other people are hunting too, but it happens.

Absolutely true. The inability to spell "Caribbean" correctly actually led to a lowball sale of the old 1974 MPC "Pirates of the Caribbean" model kit, still sealed. I was watching it on a whim, and since it was spelled "Carribean", a lot of collectors missed it. I could have bid on it, but I'm just not into models that much anymore. The talents of a lot of people here just blow me out of the water.   

[Monsters For Sale]

...As a seller, have you ever encountered bidding trolls that bid up your item just for the fun of it? Like you're selling a li'l monster for $3.99 and someone (person #1) REALLY wants it. Person #2 gets his/her kicks out of driving up the price and outbids Person #1. Person #1 desperately tries to get your li'l monster and bids some more, and Person #2 ups the bid. Item sells for over a hundred dollars to Person #1. When you research Person #2, you notice that they have a pattern... they often bid on stuff similar to yours but they have a history of a lot of WITHDRAWN bids! That's pretty suspicious, and indicates bid trolling for fun.

It used to be easier to catch shill bids by the seller's friends.  Sometimes you would notice that a certain bidder was in the habit of inflating an auction by submitting bids that ended in 99 cents - just to test the other bidders' reserves.  If they became high bidder too close to the auction end, they would withdraw their last bid.

By checking their identity, you might find that they just happened to live in the same city as the seller and have joined eBay around the same time as the seller.  Often, the bidder would have a long history of multiple bids for the same seller, but no actual wins.

I used to report the ones I discovered to eBay.

Doubt anything was done.  The more an item sells for, the more their cut.

[SpeedierThantheGrave]

As a seller, have you ever encountered bidding trolls that bid up your item just for the fun of it? Like you're selling a li'l monster for $3.99 and someone (person #1) REALLY wants it. Person #2 gets his/her kicks out of driving up the price and outbids Person #1. Person #1 desperately tries to get your li'l monster and bids some more, and Person #2 ups the bid. Item sells for over a hundred dollars to Person #1. When you research Person #2, you notice that they have a pattern... they often bid on stuff similar to yours but they have a history of a lot of WITHDRAWN bids! That's pretty suspicious, and indicates bid trolling for fun.

The deadbeat bidders are what really annoy me.  Besides the obvious aggravation of not getting paid, it's the associated inconvenience of waiting a week to give them a chance to pay before getting to relist.  Fortunately it has only happened a handful of times to me. But, MAN, I hate it.  Most recently, I "sold" a toy, it had three watchers, and one guy bid three times. Three times! That's not a slip of the thumb on the phone.  He won it... waited four days, opened a case, got reimbursed for eBay's cut, and about a week later I relisted it exactly the same.  I don't know where those other two cats went... 

[Monsters For Sale]

I actually had a deadbeat contact me after an auction he won and tell me that he was withdrawing his bid.

He told me that he had bid on 3 identical items and won all 3 of them.  So he was cancelling his bids on the two higher wins - That he did it all the time.

I reported him to eBay, too.

[SpeedierThantheGrave]

I actually have a deadbeat contact me after an auction he won and tell me that he was withdrawing his bid.

He told me that he had bid on 3 identical items and won all 3 of them.  So he was cancelling his bids on the two higher wins - That he did it all the time.

I reported him to eBay, too.

It baffles me that people would think that's ok.  Dwight Schrute comes to mind: "I'm sorry, were you raised in a household with no consequences?" You bought 3, sounds like you got 2 to try and sell yourself.

[The Red Death 30]

I'm behind on showing off my recent stuff, so this isn't really weekly, but all within the last month.

It's been a good month in collector land for me because I finally crossed two giant items off my wish list.

First, I've been searching for a Creature Soaky forever now.  Mostly I just don't feel comfortable shelling out more than $100 for a plastic bottle, but I also wanted to make sure that I found one in good condition when I did.  I sold my Creatureplica VIP edition HorrorHound that I had got in my package and made a lot more than I expected so I used my profit to finally get myself a Soaky.



The other item I've been searching for long time to find is a Marx Phantom to complete my set.  I got really lucky, I think, and found one in beatiful shape.  He has barely a scuff on him and has his mask, which I wasn't willing to settle for one without.  I now have a full set of six.



The last picture is a Yanoman Creature blind box mini model from Japan that I bought about a month ago.  I had seen the B&W edition a few times on eBay but wanted the color one.



I, also, bought the Mummy and Phantom kids toys from Jack in the Box at this last HorrorHound, but you all know what they look like, so I didn't bother taking a picture ; )

[Mike Scott]

First, I've been searching for a Creature Soaky forever now.  Mostly I just don't feel comfortable shelling out more than $100 for a plastic bottle.

And that's one of the cheaper '60s UM collectibles! Glad you got him, though! He looks great!

[Monsters For Sale]

Got this 5" Frank:

[Mike Scott]

Got this 5" Frank:

It's a nice piece! I love that A&C dio kit!

[Monsters For Sale]

You know it is a nice sculpt when you can blow up a 5" piece to a much larger size and it still looks good.

[Mike Scott]

You know it is a nice sculpt when you can blow up a 5" piece to a much larger size and it still looks good.

Did somebody do that?

[Monsters For Sale]

Did somebody do that?

No.  I meant the image.  It is a high-res photo.

I would like to see a 12-15 in. version...

[zman1981]

Got this 5" Frank:




More detailed post in the Models section:

http://www.universalmonsterarmy.com/forum/index.php?topic=29679.0

Great figure!

[Mike Scott]

No.  I meant the image.  It is a high-res photo.

Oh! Yes, good detail!