Here’s a semi-obvious tip. It seems that MP sellers on eBay have very little confidence that their MPs will auction for decent dough nowadays. So they usually start bidding minimum near the final auction result they want AND will cancel the auction and sell off eBay if they get a decent offer.
If the auctioned item is rare/desirable, don’t follow the disreputable path of trying to send the seller your email address bc eBay will block the message and it’s unfair. (Yes, I have occasionally done this!
Instead, bid the minimum amount, ask the seller not to sell “off eBay,” and snipe. Maybe that works, maybe not.
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For example, I wanted to win/flip the rare “Starfall” MP:
The seller started bidding at $50, very low. I quickly bid the minimum but two days later the seller canceled and sold off eBay for $500. I should have written the seller and assured him that I planned to make higher bid later and discouraged him from selling off eBay.
Too bad. It would have auctioned for $1K+ at EMP/HA.
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I followed my advice this week for this auction: