I have an eBay rival!!

A while back, I wrote a post on the mysterious price swings of certain '13 Topps parallels.  Several theories were offered up to explain why the lower serial numbered cards were going for less than those numbered higher.  I admitted that the whole thing was making me anxious.  Then I did a little more research to really get to the root of the issue.  What did I find out??  I have a rival on ebay!  One with pockets much deeper than mine.  This person is obviously also trying to put together the Braves rainbow, no matter how high the cost.  Hence, the inflated "Buy it Now" prices on some of these cards was caused by the false demand created by my competitor.  Speaking of which, those cards have mostly gone unsold and have been re-listed at the regular .99 starting price.

So what did I do next?  I went back over all the parallel auctions to figure out which cards this person has already won.  In effect I have a pretty good idea of exactly what they're looking for on the bay.  They're a bit ahead of me, which is good.  Creeper much?  I'll own up to that.  I just want to complete this f%$*ing rainbow.

With this new information in hand I tweaked my strategy.  As soon as my new friend enters into an auction I peace out of it because I know I won't win.  (Slipping in at the last second doesn't work here, they always have a high max bid).  Also, since I know which cards they've already won, I now can safely bid on the same cards and assume that I won't exceed my previously stated maximums.  How has that panned out for me, you ask?  I've won 3 black cards in the last week for under 5 bucks each.

#116 15/62

#46 26/62
I'm especially proud of this one

#257 12/62


I also won the Freddie Freeman pink card, for a decent price.  My rival is fan of the Braves so I guess they can't be that bad.

I have a few trades packages to write about, so if you've sent something you should see it up here soon!