Uh-Ohhh. It Don't Look Good!

Bingo! Put in the bid of $35.01 and got this message.

Here's the final bidding ... draw your own conclusions ...

The private listing / buyer is a huge red flag.

If it actually sold, it is not an unreasonable price.

This has happened to me only once and I considered it to be a favor.

I'd bet dollars to donuts that no material ever changes hands and that their stamp sales are only part of the money laundering scheme.

IF it did sell, doesn't that prove the Mint.Stamps sale was to a shill?

Pretty slick on the part of someone with only 8 previous transactions to "snipe" at the last second!

Prove? Of course not. How do you close the door on the possibility the buyer reneged?

Suspicion, even when it feels justified, is still just a guess, and usually not a fair one at that. Let's just say we don't know and let it go.

As for the sniping being slick, when I seriously want to get something I have used a bidding service for over ten years, and they configure the bids for the last 5 seconds. Very high success rate with that. It is slick - and smart.

But no, that wasn't me. The stamp had nice appearance, but I think it had some small thins around the hinge remnant. I was never a serious contender.

Anyone savvy enough to snipe like that is probably an old hand working out of a newly created account. Could be a cohort, but not necessarily. About all we can say is that it's the person who got the goods.

Let's see if the piece resurfaces.