Grand Cards: Great Moments In eBay Listings

Monday, November 30, 2009

Great Moments In eBay Listings

It's always pleasant to return home from a trip only to see a mailbox stuffed with non-junk mail, don't you agree? It took me until tonight to sift through the take, but there were some nice things in there. You see, I was the beneficiary of some tremendous pre-Black Friday sales. They came in the form of eBay steals, and not because I was particularly vigilant, but more because the listings were unnecessarily non-descriptive.

Number One
Ok, maybe "steal" is too generous a term here, so let's call it a bargain:
2009 UD A Piece Of History #SS-CG Curtis Granderson Red Jersey (#071/180)

This is a game used jersey card in parallel form numbered sub-200. It also happens to be a pretty decent jersey card, with a picture of everyone's favorite standing professional downtown Detroit stadium in the background. So how does that come for $.99 when the card typically sells for closer to $3? It was the listing's fault. 'fraid so. The card is buried in the picture among some other, nicer cards and no where in the title does it mention that it is serial numbered. Not a terrible mistake for this seller, but it might have cost him a buck or two.

Number Two
It gets worse. Steal.
2009 SP Authentic #67 Curtis Granderson Titanium (#13/19)

SP Authentic is a popular brand, but they kind of mucked up the parallels in this release by making them hard to distinguish. "Titanium" parallel? What does that mean? How is it any different from these other ones? What does the listing say?
2009 MLB SP Authentic Titanium Parallel #67-Granderson

If you weren't just hit with a sense of pity for the seller than you have no soul. Here they are, trying to give some good information and throw in unnecessary items like "MLB" and "#67" and "Parallel." Nobody knows what a Titanium Parallel is, but if they see Titanium, they'll probably guess parallel. Of course, the key mistake is leaving out the fact that this card is only numbered to 19. So, I was able to grab it for $.99 as the only bidder and walk away a happy man.

Number Three
Last but not least. Let's start with the listing first:
EDWIN JACKSON 2009 TOPPS UPDATES ALL STAR JERSEY NICE!!

Hey, that does sound nice! Given that the description is just a repeat of the title, I'll just have to take his word for it. How does it look?


Boy, that's odd, I thought all of the All Star Cards were red. Gee, I wish there were some more information in the description that could help me figure it out. Or maybe a picture of the back which would have showed...


Oh, oh I see. Yeah, that would have been stupid to include in the listing somewhere. No, I didn't get it for $.99, as it escalated to $7 at the last minute. If that seems like a lot just remember, the regular all star jersey cards of Edwin Jackson sell for about $3 and all of the Tigers have sold for crazy escalated prices. To that I say, $7 for a 1/1 jersey card is a Win.

And that is it. Three cards, three darn good deals, one happy collector. What about the rest of you--picked up anything special at a low low price thanks to the seller leaving out some key tidbids?