Ebay stories.......

I lost sleep this weekend trying to win an auction for the Soda Fountain le Pascal, had bidders sneaking in at the last minute (of course). Enjoyed it though, also glad to say i won!


Anybody have to really duke it out for a pin on ebay etc.? Even in person?

So glad you won! This was me a few days ago with a LE Snow White pin. I did not win-boo!

katpogo said:

So glad you won! This was me a few days ago with a LE Snow White pin. I did not win-boo!

Click to expand...

Boo for sure! I hate losing haha, who does? Better luck next time Katpogo

mine has to be when I was watching out for the PTN stitch pin. I had been watching about 3 within the space of 3 weeks and lost 2 of them as the first one went for more than I wanted to pay so I bought a pin to cheer me up. The second sold for a price I was willing to pay but couldnt afford it (since buying a pin to cheer me up lol) and the 3rd sold for a buy it now price that I couldnt afford.

then about 2 weeks later I was watching one and I thought there is no point in bidding I wont win it...and I watched it just tick down till the last few minutes and I noticed the price was going up like normally i.e last chance bidders and I thought its bound to go up so with 1 minute to go it was still the same price it had been for about 4 days and I put in a max bid expecting it to go towards the top end of my bid yet I won it and the price increase was only $2.50 and I couldnt believe I got it for such a great price.

that was by far the best ebay moment I have had.

The pins I go after, don't usually end up with a lot of people bidding. I think I mostly end up competing with other Ebay sellers who are looking for cheap stock or people looking for some cheap traders. However, there have been 2 auctions that stand out. One was for the Wilderness Lodge 10th anniversary pin. I had put in a bid, because if it sold for less than that, I would have been annoyed. But I won! I burst out laughing and DH asked what was up. I said, "I accidentally won a pin." He asked, "How do you accidentally win a pin?"

2nd story is a recent story. I did not bid on this pin, because I don't spend a lot of money on individual pins. In 11 years, I've only paid $30 or more 3 times, and never more than $35. But in this case, I really wish I did. There are some pins from the early days of pin trading that I would love to have. And because the edition sizes were so much bigger then than now, I've actually started to acquire them. But this pin, still has over 200 people wanting it on Pinpics and only 3 trading. So I figured there had to be a couple of "old time pin traders" watching the auction and would bid it up at the last minute. But the auction closed at the same price as it was 4 days earlier. $56 for

I have no idea what the person who won, had for their max, so if I had bid, no guarantee that it wouldn't have taken a big jump. But I know what this pin used to go for, and to see it go for $56, just blew my mind. Maybe that's its price now, I don't know.

I've also put in some bids just because it would have irked me if the item had gone too cheap - and ended up winning it! But my real eBay story is a scary one. One night I opened my computer after painting the town red. The next morning I woke up to find my e-mail full of bid confirmation messages. I added them up and I had active bids worth of over $2000! Most of which I had no recollection of making.

The next couple of days I spent sweating and hitting the refresh button of my e-mail. I've never been so happy to see "You have been outbid" messages. I ended up having to pay $60 for an original Disney artwork which in my mind was a pretty sweet deal.

For a very long time afterwards I used to pile all kind of things on top of my computer before leaving the flat if I knew I would go to a bar before coming home...

Glad everything worked out -- can't say i've had to "duke it out" for any auction, since i normally manually 'snipe' the auctions I really want -- tends to be much more accurate than any of those bid sniping programs available, and saves me money

We bid on a pin that would typically sell for around $15. It was only after we had placed the bid that we noticed the shipping fee was $490. We were sweating it until we contacted the person listing the item who confirmed that they had forgotten the decimal point. WHEW!!!!

These are some pretty good stories.

My latest is just a story of patience paying off for me. I didn't order the Donald Duck 110th legacy train pin when it went on sale at ds.com. When I finally went to order it, it was sold out. It popped back up about a month later but by the time I saw it, sold out again. Looked on eBay. One went for $45! The next one went for $75!!! I was pretty disheartened and resigned that I would not own this pin. Didn't see any on eBay for awhile and then saw one last week. Starting bid of $19.99. Up until the last 10 seconds of the auction, there were no bids. Mine went in 6 seconds before the auction ended and I won the pin for a little over $30. Not much more than I would have paid had I bought it when I should have. So happy to have gotten this as I love train pins because they make me think of my dad who is a train nut.

I just recently lost to someone in the last 2 seconds of an auction for the Jumbo PTN in my signature. It was only the second one I've seen on eBay recently. I was so sad and still mourning the loss.

I've also put in some bids just because it would have irked me if the item had gone too cheap - and ended up winning it! But my real eBay story is a scary one. One night I opened my computer after painting the town red. The next morning I woke up to find my e-mail full of bid confirmation messages. I added them up and I had active bids worth of over $2000! Most of which I had no recollection of making.

The next couple of days I spent sweating and hitting the refresh button of my e-mail. I've never been so happy to see "You have been outbid" messages. I ended up having to pay $60 for an original Disney artwork which in my mind was a pretty sweet deal.

For a very long time afterwards I used to pile all kind of things on top of my computer before leaving the flat if I knew I would go to a bar before coming home...

Click to expand...

This cracked me up, only because it sounds like something I'd do. Thank God I rarely ever drink. I'm glad it worked out for you, $2000 is a whole lot of pins for just one night. I really don't have any one story that comes to mind since I buy most of my pins on ebay. I rarely ever trade since I've had more bad experiences than good, however I make a point never to spend too much on a pin. To date the most I've paid for a single pin is...$40 I think, and that was for the DLRP Pin Trading Event pin of Tigerlily, she's one of my favorite characters and there just are not many pins of her, less than a page, and what I paid was still half of what she had been going for, so I felt like it was a small concession to make.

But still, I thought $40 for a single pin was too much. I will never understand people who spend hundreds of dollars on a single pin. I am just going to keep my lips zipped about how I feel about that. I do believe in being patient and if I'm meant to have it, another opportunity will present itself, without me having to spend a fortune. And if not, well it's not the end of the world and besides you can't take it with you, so just enjoy what you have while you have it.

Funny thing though...and it kind of proves my point on being patient, within 6 months of me buying that Tigerlily pin, someone in the UK traded me for it. So now I have 2 and maybe that second Tigerlily will help me get the DLRP Alice Pin Trading Event pin, since Alice is my big love.

Well, there is one that certainly comes to mind for me. I was buying a pin for my fiance as a gift, and in the first few days the battle was intense but it finally settled at 60$, me being the highest bidder. I figured I would stop at 70$, but at the same time, it's a pin rarely found on ebay. The next four days no one bid on it, and I was just anticipating sniping at the end, unfortunately my mom wanted to go out with me for a get together, and I was going to be gone during when the sale would have ended. Thus I enlisted a friend to watch the auction for me and to bid on it if someone bid higher. Not one single bid, and I managed to get the pin. He was thrilled!

My best ebay story to date was for the Designer Rapunzel pin. When I found out it was released at the D23 convention, I was so sad that I wasn't going to be able to buy it for my little sister. Throughout the day, I saw the sets selling for $325-$400, and I just couldn't shell out that much money (I was originally planning to co-op for the set with my cousin). Well that night, I noticed a seller was posting single pins from the set for $50-60 each. She listed every pin except for the Rapunzel (which was my sisters favorite from the set). I immediately PMed her asking if she planned to sell it. A few minutes later she responded that her camera had died and she was planning to post it in the morning. So I instantly made her an offer of $100 for both Tiana and Rapunzel, and she accepted. She posted the Rapunzel on ebay without a picture, and I [very nervously and quickly] bought it. At the time, I didn't realize that Rapunzel would be selling for so much now (I thought $80 would be the highest she'd go), so I am so happy that I snatched her up quickly and stayed up late searching for her

When things were tough, I sold one of my grails and deeply regretted it.

Later on I found it on ebay again for almost the exact same price/cost. Whew! Close call!