Player Collector Competition

I have been pretty lucky with steen there were 3 other major collectors i know about but all 3 have been slowly getting rid of their pcs. I have been amazingly lucky to be able to talk to all three guys and so far have dealt with 2 of them. Between those 2 guys ive made 5 deals with them that i hope they felt were fair. Talking to these people has been awesome all three are amazing guys and all three have greatly helped me with my collection whether it be with their cards or giving me a heads up when a rare one is available or hits the bay. I kind of avoided the direct competition and have come out with three friends so in my opinion i would approach him/her and hopefully he/she is a stand-up person.
 
I won't even mention what happened when I suggested a Fedorov alliance back when I was collecting him. Let's just say that the first and second copy of every parallel #/10 or less sold for well over $300 for about 3 straight months or so.
 
I found contacting the other collectors' worked out not too bad...at least for me. Like others have said, why drive the price up on each other?

Between us, we'd discuss all low #'d cards and pretty much decide who gets what, with an understanding that anything with a print run under 5 (or so) was open game for all. As much as I might have wanted a card, I NEVER went after one that I agreed to let someone else have. Conversely...when one showed up that I REALLY wanted, I didn't have to WAY overpay for it.

I think in the real world this is called collusion. I call it smart business :)
 
gratzi said:
Myself and Al (Uhtred the Viking) have a pretty good system worked out as well. Since he collects everything Iginla and pick up the odd card here and there, sometimes he let's me get first crack at the card I want, sometimes it's every man for himself and most times he gets the card first. :D

In my opinion it's best to have some kind of agreement cause what is the sense in one of us bidding up the other collector on the first card when you will just get the second one for so much cheaper?
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Did I mention Jeff that your contract is up for renewal, and the price went up! :eek: :beer:
I have to admit that I sometimes go for multiples of certain cards (OCD is such a hard taskmaster), but then I may end up trading them for newer cards that I want. We've got a few Iginla collectors that keep in touch, and we'll end up buying or trading with each other. Do we still compete, you bet, especially for those low # cards. But I think we're also forming friendships and helping each other out when we can. I also see the other side of the coin. There are also certain collectors who will "bid up" my bids, so not everything is rosy.
 
This is one of the benefits of HI as we all get to know eachother and help out when we can. Contacting someone outside who is a competion can backfire pretty fast .

I was tempeted to contact one guy who hoarded the 04-05 Rivals Franchises pieces since release .I didn't and paid thru the nose to complete the sub set but it's done. If I had contacted him during the chase ,good chance I'd still be looking for rivals. He still to this day buys up all the rivals .

I will add that because of this guy alone all rivals at one time were selling up to double bk for silver versions. I guess he got his word out as many don't bid against him anymore




I'd say,carry on like you were
 
I count myself lucky that right now I don't think I'm up against anyone, really. I know that a set collector here and there is after my guys stuff but ultimatly in my eyes like it's been said many times, everything will pop up again at some point.

I've learned patence, and I can tell you that for every time I've lost out and bid something up, I've got something better for cheaper.
 
back in the days when i only did Beckett online and i was a very heavy Ray Emery collector, Josh (dacrib here on HI) and i used to get into bidding wars over Emery stuff. this was when you could see the high bidder's ID and still contact them, so i did that with Josh... right after i bid up an ITG complete jersey from $60ish to a tad over $100, just out of spite... which he ended up winning. we ended up calling a truce and contacting each other when something nice came UFA... worked out well. and funny thing is, i ended up buying a whole bunch of Emery stuff off Josh once he came on here, and i got that same complete jersey in the deal.
 
Me and Pat (pmc from the Gabby mafia) both collect Clutterbuck, and there's a whole mess of rare stuff on ebay right now, one of which I think we both need, but I told him if he's going to go for I'll back off, not bid, let him have it, no sense in costing each other money ya know? Always good to be friendly with the other guy thats your competitor
 
I have lost the bidding war on a few cards I really wanted since they started hiding the bidder names. Here is what I do, keep the auction on your ebay page for a few weeks or so and check the seller's feedback. If your lucky, the buyer will leave feedback for the transaction and you can get there username there. I have been successful a couple of times in finally getting my hands on a card I really wanted.
 
And it's not only on player collections. I do remember when I was chasing down the 97-97 Donruss Elite status cards ( still need 6, btw :-) ), there was one person who bought all Grant Fuhr cards with prices that I thought were ridiculous. After losing 3 or 4 of them to him, I contacted him and he actually "allowed" me to win the next one.

Similar thing happened with Hamrlik Ultimate First rounders. There was a guy bidding those up to "heaven" and they went higher and higher each time cause I wanted to see how high he'll go (and I also needed one for my Hamrlik PC). Then I asked him wth is he doing and then he told me that he tried to get all 20 of them. :-) Then he also let me have the next one for 1/5 of the price he paid for previous one. So, I do agree that there's plenty of good collectors around.
 
There's still no shortage of Carey Price fans out there and here on the forums. Shane and Kyle are both good people and whenever I end up with dupes of cards I know others will want I offer them up for anything I may need in return. We haven't done many deals lately since we all seem to get the same cards at the same time, but hope springs eternal...
If another Gorges collector ever shows up I'll be amazed - there's always the general Canadiens fans but it's a pretty rare day indeed that I get outbid on a card (only three times in the past two years has it been a loss for me that's had lasting significance) of his. Luckily for me most of the rockin' Kelowna dudes collect Shea Weber, and on the handful of occasions I've come into a Weber that one of them needs it doesn't take long for them to offer me up some nice Webers in return. One of the more fun trades in recent memory was me sending qwas a Gorges Cup RC in return for a Weber Cup RC - total Twilight Zone stuff but everybody left happy on that one.
 
I don't have any direct competition for Taylor Pyatt stuff, at least nothing that I have noticed any pattern with. My only issue comes from set collectors and that can be a tough line to walk. A lot of times when it comes to cards that aren't so rare I try to let the first couple pass and pick them up later on for lower prices. This doesn't work so well for more limited cards so sometimes I end up overpaying quite a bit for some things.

I have been contacted by set/team collectors on a couple of occasions here asking me if I was going after certain cards and I gladly let the other party pick up what they were asking about and simply waited for the next one. No point in jacking up the price for someone... I wouldnt want it done to me.


Adam
 
quincy said:
Forget making a deal. From experience, it very seldom works out. The Gabby mafia will try to claim otherwise, but they've been costing one another money for years.
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It's funny you would comment for us. I happen to remember asking for a price here on one of your Gabby cards, and getting a high number in response (likely because you knew there were multiple guys collecting him). I didn't bite, and I ended up winning it at a fraction of your asking price when you auctioned it because we weren't bidding against each other. Thanks for the laugh, though.
 
NJDEVILS30 said:
Luckily for me, nobody knows who I collect, so I've never had to worry about another soul bidding on an auction I'm watching.

:D

Seriously though, it happens... I hate "sniping" and myself refuse to do it.

Agreed with Q - when you've got a handful of dedicated player collectors bidding on the same cards, one of them is getting taken to the cleaners at every turn. They all seem like great guys who help each other out, though, so I'm sure it balances out.
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I agree with all 3 of your points.
I also rarely come across this problem.:|:|:|:badmood:
 
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I've run into this problem with my Bargnani (Basketball) Collection. Another collector of his has about 100 1/1s of him, and i've got zilch. At first, i was pissed to the max, but the seller is always up for selling me some of his rarer cards, except for the 1/1s of course. Ive put together a nice collection, and maybe one day i can fetch a nice 1/1 :D
 
I think it depends on the level of player. Roy, Brodeur, Crosby, Ovechkin, etc. collectors tend to be a bit ruthless and I doubt there'll ever be a "truce". Those of us who collect lower-end players, such and Kevin (kmitchel) and I with Harold Snepsts, do talk periodically about a certain oddball piece or whatever that comes up on eBay. For example, there was an Edmonton Oil Kings junior card listed that we had never seen before. The auction was for 2 of them, so Kev messaged me and suggested that he buy the two and we do a deal later for 1 for me. Worked out really nicely.

Now, the flip side... when I found out I had a competitor for King Richard, it was through Beckett and a little article in the magazine, when I was outbid on an Autofacts 1/1. I was livid when I read the post on the Beckett boards and went a little bit off the rails in my response to the member, Chad Soon (choppinbroccoli). Funny... we've met quite a few times since, talk on the phone and Chad now writes quite a bit for the magazine! He also made the decision to step back from King Richard, and gave me first shot at a few of his cards.

It all comes down to your attitude towards collecting - if you're a completionist or hoarder, it'll be harder to make that truce.
 
I have been able to pick up some nice Mueller high end cards and wasn't afraid to spend at the time. I had another collector email me about a card I hadn't even seen on ebay and just asked if I could not bid on it. I said no problem and it went for $30 or so, I'd have probably bif $60ish as it was a very nice swatch.
 
I use to wish death on anyone bidding against me for rare Roenicks but then i got to know both gregsobeske and blindthomen and it turns out they are not the devils children.We actually kinda look out for each other and i have dealt with both a number of times.Other than them i still hate people who bid up Roenicks i need.I know i have issues hahhaa
 
pmc336699 said:
It's funny you would comment for us. I happen to remember asking for a price here on one of your Gabby cards, and getting a high number in response (likely because you knew there were multiple guys collecting him). I didn't bite, and I ended up winning it at a fraction of your asking price when you auctioned it because we weren't bidding against each other. Thanks for the laugh, though.
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It works both ways though as i recall you trying to low ball me on several cards I had that I ended up selling for more than I had originally offered them to you for.
 
Not too much competition on O'Reilly's. There is one collector in NY, but we are pals thourgh email, so we coordinate on what we are bidding on. I find the most competition from set collectors. There are a few cards I would LOVE to have that are in PC of people who collect certain sets, like ITG franchises for instance. I know of the Complete jersey gold and 2 Auto Mem cards /10 in a PC Ill probably never see.
 

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