Got Sniped Today And It Really Stunk!

Found auction on ebay last night and I was just giddy-- I don't collect Locals, and know absolutely nothing about them, so I also haven't really looked at them in the Scott's Specialized, but when I saw this one: 99L1- McIntire's City Express, from 1859, and since McIntire is my LAST NAME, I just had to have this. The unused cat value is $10 and there were 2 stamps, one was faulty. So I bid the ungodly and unheard of amount of $30 for 2 items, 1 faulty, with a total of $20 cat value. I was sniped for $31.00 with 6 seconds left. Never in my dreams would I have seen this going for 1 1/2 x cat and one of the items flawed!

So, I have written to the seller, gave him my phone number, and asked him if he would forward to the buyer, and hoping that the buyer will sell me the faulty stamp-- I would just LOVE to have a copy of this, after all, the stamp actually spells M-C-I-N-T-I-R-E correctly!

Just wanted to blow off some steam and tell y'all about it...shucks!

Ray

Ray, you can buy it now on BidStart for $22.50. Better hurry! Steve

http://stampwants-stamps.bidstart.c...39928/a.html

Bummer...check your email, though.

No need...that was the link I sent to you...

It is probably an indication of the rarity of such items. With little material on the market, it only takes 2 people to be interested to move the market.

And you should be using sniper software too.

The buyer contacted me a little while ago. He is an extremely knowledgeable expert on Locals and Carriers, and is on the Board of Directors of the Carriers and Locals Society.

He explained to me that although Scott's has the stamp listed as a $10 unused stamp, that most of what exists today are forgeries. Again, I'm not a Locals collector, but I didn't realize that the forgeries themselves are fairly collectable.

This person told me that there may be actually no more than 40 of the genuine McIntires existing today, and he is in the process of trying to plate them. He said that the 2 on ebay were genuine, and worth a LOT more than the price of the auction.

He was nice enough to let me purchase one of the two from him. I went to www.pennypost.org, and did find him as an officer of the Society, so I trust his judgment.

Thanks to all of you for the link, and thanks also to Cjd for the email.... Ray

get yourself some sniping software, it's the only way to bid on ebay

You have been sniped?
welcome to my world
I am the original snipee.
I use it to investigate the feeling of greed.
I do not recall a lot I missed, being missed, six months on.
The feeling is transient.

May I ask about this "sniper software"? Sounds like something I'd be very interested in.

EDIT: I done a quick Google search and came up with this. This must be it! AWESOME! Thank you. You guys & gals ROCK!!

http://www.auctionsniper.com/help/slider/#4

You can get Firefox snipe add-on, if you are a firefox user, if you are not...why not? :)

I have used Auction Sniper for a number of months after having user a sniper that sat on my PC's hard drive. Auction Sniper has not failed me, provided I snipe with the right number, it always hits the auction at the correct time point promised. I consider the fee they charge perfectly acceptable. I do believe you get a few free snipes at the beginning to get the hang of things.

I cannot imagine anyone, who is serious about winning, not using a tool such as this.

I think this is the word of caution... you still have to be prepared to pay more than the "other guy", all the Sniper does is come in and bid for you at the last second. ray.mac could have had a sniper on the job and still lost out.

But must say, ray.mac, that's a very cool item, and although you missed it in the auction, you're going to get one after all. And seems to be a genuine not copy, so its ended well!

I have to agree with a lot of what's been said here. Stampgal is right, you still have to be prepared to pay more. It really comes down to what you are prepared for your maximum bid to be.
I have been sniped many times, and like rod222 says, six months down the road, I can't remember what I lost. And I figure there will always be others available in the future.
And, I'll admit to sniping. Sometimes it's the only way to get an item you really want. But again your price has to be right. I've sniped and still lost. The irony of course being if you snipe and are too low, you have no time to increase a low bid.
And I'm not sure I'd ever use sniping software. Part of the fun for me is the auction itself. Like a real live auction I get a bit of an adrenaline rush, as perverse as it seems, and I think the software would take some of the fun out of it.

I agree with JamesW. I enjoy bidding and manually putting in a bid at the last minute for those items that really interest me. Today I got snipped on three different items but c'est la vie. Another similar one will come along before too long.

Sniper / Snipee - the thrill of the chase - you win some and you lose some - but it still boils down to the highest bid wins!!

The one thing sniping does is prevent the opportunity for the vendor to shill bid against you. Shill bidding is rife on ebay and difficult to detect. If you don;t bid until 4 seconds to go, the vendor can't shill bid against you as easily. Of course, for us down here in the southern parts of the world (and the wrong time zone), it also allows bidding while I sleep.

Anyone who does not snipe is costing themselves money.

Well I've already lost two this weekend, and looking at another located down in Australia tonight, so I'll be bidding in my sleep. We'll see what happens, but my old Mom always said, everything happens in threes. Not that I'm being pessimistic.