Robert E. Lee US Postage Stamp Extremly Rare Vintage In Great Condition

As I mentioned on another post, this is why anyone who collects stamps needs to be part of some philatelic organization, like this one, and others.

Knowledge is power, and lack of knowledge is both foolhardy and expensive.

Indeed, you are so right.

It always amazes how people can be motivated by the siren song of a "bargain". $600,000 in stamps starting at $1! Perfectly sane (assumption) individuals find themselves lured to the prospect of the big score. They rationalize that the seller must need the cash, that they will fly under the radar and steal the lot. Knowledge has nothing to do with it in cases like this. A disconnect from reality has everything to do with it. The Brooklyn Bridge is for sale! Did this bidder not contemplate why there were not a thousand other fortune seekers after this potential windfall? Amazing. I am off to relist my secret recipe for turning peanut butter into platinum.

I am assuming that he shill bid this listing, ended up selling it to himself (again), and that this same material shows back up under another one of his accounts in the next week or two.
Don

Could be Don. This bidder did not have the typical shill characteristics. The cartel currently has over 4300 listings that I can identify with over one hundred purported $5000 plus CV stamps and group lots. Organized crime on a large scale.

a question about this "shill bidding": if it ends at a high price, doesn't the seller have to pay a very high commission then to ebay?

Possibly not if the lot "winner" returns the lot.