Steal of the century!!

Picked this up on eBay today, coming all the way from Australia! I didnt think I would stand a chance at winning a card like this because I know there are many other Lind collectors out there who usually outbid me on the lower numbered cards. This Exquisite is numbered 19/20!

The same seller was selling this too. Another exquisite only this one is numbered 14/15.

So how much did I pay for these two high end, low numbered autographs?

Less than £10! Or $13 if you prefer.

Bargain!

Ebay seller makes me laugh

Hi folks.
Just a small post to let you know I'm still kicking.
During my daily Ebay scan for new cards, which by the way has been great the past few weeks with newer cards being listed such as 2010 Ginter and Heritage, I came across one of the 'normal' listings you would expect to find on the UK bay and that's a massive lot of junk from 88-92. I almost always check these sort of listing's because there may be a hidden gem in there somewhere although I have never found one.
This auction is no different. A mountain of junk with a low start. I'm not bidding on this item but I just wanted to bring it to your attention because it gave me a chuckle.
Just click the link and read the second line. You have to love an honest seller who calls them as he sees them.

Taken out by a sniper.

If you use ebay, which I guess the majority of you do then you have encountered a snipe bid in the dying seconds of the item you are bidding on.

The way I see it there are two different types of snipers, primitive and advanced.

Primitive snipers are the type who see what they want, watch the item and see how it is going. Then just before it ends, enter a max bid and submit.

Advanced snipers are the type who use sniping tools. These are offered by third party websites who, for a small fee, will allow you select the item that you want and lets you make a bid. Then they will enter your bid literally the very second before the auction ends.

As you can imagine the advanced snipers have much better luck then the primitive snipers. I was taken out by an advanced sniper just a few days back, causing me to lose an auction by 25 cents. The card in question was a Adam Lind Topps Chicle umbrella back numbered out of 25. I placed my bid with 10 seconds to go and hit submit with 5 seconds to go, this is what I call primitive sniping. When I got back to the bidding screen I watched the timer hit one second to go and then zero, I was the highest bidder. When the screen refreshed It said that I was outbid! I was disappointed. I don't mind if I lose a card because I have been outbid by a lot more than I would have paid but when its just by a few pennies or even a few bucks, its maddening!

Now I have to be honest, I have sniped in the past but not with any great success. I have won a few nice cards but have lost out on a lot more. I wonder if I had bid on these cards earlier rather than wait would I have won them? Maybe. An auction that has bids on it from the get go tends to generate more bids before the end and sometimes this would scare away a sniper because they wont be getting a bargain.

Anyway after the auction had ended and I saw that I lost I thought I would cheer myself up and check out what BIN's have been listed. Whenever I do this I only look for cards that were a similar price to the card I was bidding on and I found one that I wanted that was cheap. I actually wrote about the card only a few days ago saying that I wont be getting this card for a while because there were other cards that I wanted first, but hey! I needed cheering up! So I found a Ginter Lind GU for $6, this included shipping to the UK. Also I was refunded $4 the day before so I got this card for only $2. This made me happy.

I expect this card, as well as a few others next week. I should have a very nice couple of mail days coming in. There will be some new ginter minis, some Heritage SPs, some packs and also something that I can not believe I'm being sent! I don't want to say what it is because I cant believe it myself! If I say it out loud it may not be true. Just want to say a huge thanks, in advance, to John at pursuit of 80'sness for his amazing generosity.

Ginter auto has arrived! and another dilemma

Finally my Adam Lind ginter auto arrived!

Well its here! It arrived today at 3pm, very late for the post. I remember when the post would be there before 7am! And then at around 1pm you would get a second post...those days are long gone!

Anyway the card is here and that the main thing! It looks a lot better than I thought it would. The red border is really nice and actually feels like plastic. The card its self is really nice and is only the 2nd on card auto that I have of Lind. Its not very secure though and it actually moves about inside the frame. That's not a huge problem because its not slipping out of view or anything and its not as if I'm going to be shaking it like a magic 8 ball!

I now need to pick up the Lind Ginter relic to go with it. That can wait since it looks like every single box that was opened had one in it and its getting cheaper by the day. I have other cards that I want first.

Now there was a problem attached to the Lind auto and that was the amount of time it took to reach me. I know what your all thinking 'you live in the UK so of course it will take longer to get there' and yes your right it does take longer to reach me here but not by much. Let me give you a brief recap of what has happened.

• Won and paid for auction on the 1st of July
• Item marked as shipped on the 10th July
• Contacted seller on the 22nd of July to inform them that it still had not arrived and that it had been nearly two weeks
• Seller replied on the 23rd of July to confirm card had been shipped and I should have had it by now
• Card received today on the 28th of July (insert happy dance of your choice)
• Postage said it was shipped on the 20th of July

So it was shipped TEN days after the seller had told me it was shipped and a full 19 days after I paid for it. 19 freaking days! What's that all about?! Why didnt the seller just tell me he couldn't get it out to me in a reasonable amount of time? I would have been ok with that or could have asked for refund and picked up a different one.

Now what do I do? On one hand I'm very happy it got here, I was beginning to think it would never arrive. On the other hand I'm very annoyed that the seller lied and it took him so long to ship.

I see five choices that I can make:

1. Contact the seller and confront them about what has happened, maybe even get a little bit of money back.
2. Leave negative feedback without speaking to the seller (seems a bit unfair).
3. Ignore it and leave positive.
4. Ignore and don't leave any feedback.
5. Claim the card never arrived and get a refund (I would NEVER do this but it is an option).

I'm going to give it a day or so before I take action. I would appreciate your feedback on this. What would you do? One of my five options or something completely different?

Ebay problems

Picked up a card on the 1st of July, an Allen and Ginter Lind auto. I knew the card probably wouldn't be shipped straight away because it was just before the 4th July weekend and I accepted this. So anyway a week went by and nothing arrived, this is normal though because sometimes cards can take up to two weeks or so to arrive. On the 10th of July the card was marked as shipped, a full 9 days after payment. OK people lead busy lives and this may have been the first opportunity to get the card in the mail, so that's fair enough. Its now the 23rd of July and still no card. I didnt pay a great deal for the card, actually I paid more than I should have since I jumped on the card when Ginter had only just been released a few days before. There are Lind autos from Ginter on the bay now for about half of what I paid for it, I'm so impatient when it comes to cards!
Anyway I'm not sure where to go from here. I'm going to wait until tomorrow as that will be exactly two weeks since it was marked as shipped but then what? Should I contact the buyer and explain whats up? I don't want the seller to think that I'm ripping him off. There are many threads on FCB and Blowout about overseas buyers claiming they have never received the cards they bought. Or should I just go ahead and start a dispute and do a chargeback? Or I could just let it go and chalk it up as a loss. Don't think that's a good idea though.
In the time since I bought this card I have received three or four other packages so I know there's no issues with the mail. Do you think I've been ripped off? The seller has 99.9% feedback and about 4000 separate feedbacks left so I think he can be trusted.
What would you do?
Now on to something completely different!
I have read on various forums that sometimes when people buy cards online they stink of cigarette smoke. I smoke (and I like it so don't tell me its bad, I know it is!) I don't smoke when I'm handling cards or near my cards. Do any of you fine folks out there get cards that smell of smoke? and is the smell really that bad? I don't want to send out 'smelly' cards to anyone. Let me know your feelings on this.

Favorite cards part one

Over the next few post I'm going to showcase and talk about some of my favorite cards. First off we have a 2007 Topps Triple Threads Adam Lind RC numbered 1 of 75.

I picked this card up from Ebay about two months ago. I remember that there was a bit of a bidding war but I managed to snipe it at the last minute. I cant remember the final price but I think I may have paid more than I should have because it is seriel numbered number one, which as you all know makes this an Ebay 1 of 1!
I do remember that the shipping for this card was cheap, probably around $5 which is the average price I have to pay for most of the cards I get from EBay. I have been ripped off a number of times with shipping charges, That deserves an entire post all by its self.
I dont own many high end cards and I would NEVER buy a pack or box of Triple threads because in my opinion its not worth the money. Dont get me wrong, you can pull some sweet cards from this product but only if your buying it by the case.
The card features Linds auto ( on a sticker!) and also three pieces of bat. Its a real sweet card and one of my favorites of my Lind collection. Over the next few posts I'll be featuring Lind. Just to let you know I'm NOT a Blue Jays fan, just a Lind fan.