What Am I Missing?

eBay baffles me. I've been looking for a nice Open Road in 7-1/8, and have been outbid on every nice one I've tried -- until today.

Here's a link to the auction: http://tinyurl.com/22z2r4

Nice looking hat, I think. Opening bid $50. I followed most of someone's advice: bid once, bid high, bid late (my late was about 7 hours before the end of the auction). Turned out there were no other bidders, and I won the hat for the opening bid.

Now I'm asking myself if I missed something obvious about the hat, given the lack of interest from other buyers. It may not be very vintage (no wind trolley, for instance), and the seller only has 23 transactions, but condition is described as "overall mint" and the seller offers a refund if the item "is not as described."

What do you think? I'll let y'all know how things turn out when the hat arrives.

Regards,
Warren

I just sold one exactly like it. A beautiful hat and vintage.
I have a feeling you are going to enjoy it.

I don't see anything wrong with it. Looks great, infact. Enjoy it!

Looks great!

Score !!!

Ah, You learn well grasshopper.

I think you scored!

A little steam here, a new bash there...VOILA a beauty!

A similar medium grey 7 1/4 Open Road I "won" for $32 in a similar manner about 8 months ago, once rebashed, ends up being my favorite go to hat to wear.

It may just be a "who's not shopping against you this week...and what size are they" type deal.

Great catch, enjoy it
Fredthecat

Nice snag, Day Late!

Cheers,
JtL

At least you weren't a dollar short!!! lol

Great catch, Day Late. No telling why no one else bid, but one factor might have been the relatively high starting bid. I think that those hoping for a real "bargain" pass by hats with starting bid higher than, say, $20. I could be wrong, though. [huh]

I think it's a great find, and I'm sure you'll enjoy the heck out of it!

Oh, and Warren, welcome to the Lounge!

Cheers,
Tom

Thanks for the comments, gents. I'm eager to see if the hat is as nice as I thought it might be.

Tango Yankee said:

At least you weren't a dollar short!!! lol

Great catch, Day Late. No telling why no one else bid, but one factor might have been the relatively high starting bid. I think that those hoping for a real "bargain" pass by hats with starting bid higher than, say, $20. I could be wrong, though. [huh]

I think it's a great find, and I'm sure you'll enjoy the heck out of it!

Oh, and Warren, welcome to the Lounge!

Cheers,
Tom

Click to expand...

Hey man, I just was gonna say dat.

Looks Great. Welcome to the Lounge and enjoy the Open Road.

Sorry Surely.. Tom beat you to it.

lol

Hi,

eBay is simple, really. It all depends on just who else is looking for the same thing you're looking for and at the same time.

When bidding wars happen, it's because more than one person has the hots for something at the same time.

When you get a goodie for the opening bid, it because only you were interested at the time that particular auction ran.

I've run into this many, many times as both buyer and seller. I play with several high-dollar categories on eBay (ham radio, pro photo, and cars). I've tried to sell an item and had it not meet my reserve, then relist it a few days later and - boom - a bidding war and wound up netting a lot more than my reserve.

I've also run along for weeks bidding on something, losing each time by quite a bit, and then finally win one for half of what I bid. I figure that I just kept at it until I was the last truly interested party.

Looks like you just did the same.

I don't bother with the off-eBay sniping engines, nor do I worry about when I place my bid. I bid my maximum as soon as I decide to 'go for it' and let eBay's proxy do the work. I don't even watch the auctions end. If I win, fine and if I don't, also fine.

Congrats and enjoy the Open Road and don't spend too much time thinking about the odd way eBay works.

Later!

Stan

If this were soccer, you'd have scored a....

Goooooooooooooooooooooooooal!!!
That's a helluva deal. And from the plentiful pix I'd say it's in great shape. Fifty bucks?! Sure, five years ago you might have nabbed that hat for half that or less. Nowadays I'd say better-than-fair price and that's one fine lid to feel good about.