Anybody explain this ebay sale?

If I could read minds, I would use the ability to make my wife happier. 

Looks like two guys that really wanted that issue.  They are worth what people are willing to pay.  Thats why its an auction

It's the only known photo of Amanda Love wearing the one-of-a-kind Lionel locomotive hat and signal broach prototypes. Lionel was considering marketing a line of O gauge railroad-related fashion accessories for women at the time.

So, did you bid after that?

I can see why they dropped it

I like the Oh! Gauge!

its the hat!

I think Scott Smith has one like it!!

I she winks at me and calls me 'Hon', I may get in on this.

I have had this type of action on two of my  auctions its a game called bidding something ? and two guys bid it up to a ridiculous price one wins and of course don't pay but leaves negative feedback and then the hassle begins because E-BAY wants their fees. and will not remove the negative feedback.

So keep your eye on it it may end up being re-listed if this happens to be the case.

Ok Jumijo, I give up... who's Amanda Love?

I googled, but came up with playboy, stripper, cook, hairdresser, etc.

Ed

something's odd. why are there two bids exactly the same from #5837? and is that top bid the winning bid which I assume it is because if not why is his bid higher and showing but put in earlier? why would seller list such a "valuable" collectible (if in fact it is) and start the bidding at $5? the whole thing feels like a scam to get unwary buyers to jump in. either that or both those bidders are a bit nuts or compulsive gamblers who just have to win -

jerrman

Yea if you watch the bay enough you'll see a lot of shell bidding. The guy puts a 3rd rail engine on there with no reserve figuring on getting a grand out of it and with one day to go he's still at 300 bucks . So his buddy bumps it up or they run a company and have a little used account and someone bumps it up. It doesn't take long to figure out whats going on . You can tell often by the bids on other items the seller has . If they get caught E Bay will bust em but I don't think they do very often .

David

Jerrman

I don't know if this is the case with this bid or not, but if you bid on something and then start thinking that your bid was to low, you can increase your max bid. The bid won't change unless someone else bumps you up, but it will show as two bids.

Why buy the paper issues???  Check out HSL for the complete digital set of All Aboard Lionel.  Just out--and BEAUTIFUL!!  http://www.hslinc.com/

I guess I don't really understand "shell bidding" very well.  If the high bid is $25 and your friend bids $125, I'm thinking there is a pretty good chance your friend will get the item.  Since it is a fake bid, you don't actually end up selling it.  That "works" to get you out of a no reserve auction but why would you not put a reserve on an expensive item?  In other cases, why would you bother??

If you could read your wife's mind your head would literally explode.

Pete

Preachin' to the choir...     Maybe I'd be better off taking up poker.  

Yea then your head would explode from her fryin pan. Best be happy you fly under the radar as much as you do.... Like me

David

One of the bidders could've been a shill to get the price up.

Where is the All Aboard product archive on the HSL site ?

Female mind reading aside, there are few things more satisfying that having an item on eBay that 2 people really really really want.  I've only had about 4 home runs like that but they were way out of the park!

Looks like a case of sniping gone wild. I'd say that $888 is a cover bid and that bidder would have never expected anyone to outbid him. Can't comment on the last bid. The only other option I can think of is a shill bidder trying to run the item off the board for some reason.

Hi Ed,

RT is referring to a new product from Bob Osterhoff and his company trainpaper.com.   At York, Bob and I cross promote our products and RT saw the All Aboard Digital Archive at my booth.  Bob's web-site does not have the product listed yet but it is a three DVD set of the entire run of All Aboard from 1946 - 1959.  I would be more than happy to e-mail a product brief but outside of York it would be best to place the order with Bob through his web-site (although I would be more than happy to help you if necessary).  It is a cool product! 

Thanks Ed (and RT!).

I just wondered if the woman on the mag front is that woman who was famous for running the hobby shop in New York during WWII, and also, I heard, for some of her affairs..she did offer some interesting, uh, train, stuff...kits, etc.

You guys do this every week...Two BIDS by the SAME BUYER is a strategy to cover your own bid, AND to discourage others from bidding after seeing the two bids.  Not everyone on Ebay is dishonest.    

Where is this discussed??? A Lionel book???

Jim: Not in this case.  I know both the winning bidder and the under bidder and they are legitimate Lionel paper collectors.

Bill

Do you mean Carmen Webster who ran a train shop in Manhattan?  I agree it does look like the pictures I have seen of her.

Bill

Yep!  That was going to be my recommendation, but RT beat me to it.  Just out from HSL and contains all issues.  Ya can't beat that with a stick!

Well...I could presume it is in pictured magazine, or it could be just a cover picture with no explanation.  I guess I am asking if this is in the Hollander book, or other Lionel collectible paper.

Some of us ZANIES prefer original trains and PAPER...but in this case, I tend to agree with the cheaper and easier option!!!

Thanks for the clarification, John.  I thought that you could handle any/all inquiries....  

Keep up the GREAT work!

Not the case here though.  Those two bids for $888 were the last placed in this auction, and 3 seconds before the end. 

They were placed by sniper service servers,  like AuctionSniper, which when programmed to bid so close to the end of the auction, attempt to place your bid from multiple servers at once in a designed-in redundancy/contingency scheme.

Occasionally, eBay cannot make the decision which one came in first, so they both register as a tie.  I have had up to three bids placed on my behalf that tied getting to eBay, and it is something to see as this all happens hands-off automatically(servers battling it out over the eBay "clock").  Otherwise, only the first bid of a certain amount is recognized by eBay.

In this case, both of these late bidders happened to enter extremely high late proxy bids via sniping services probably betting that they would not run into someone else doing the same thing.

Until 19:42:36 when the winning bid was placed, the high bid showing was only $27.01, and went to $129.37(one increment above 3rd place bidder).

The winning bid is one full increment above the last bid, so he may have placed a $10,000.00 or more proxy bid.  We will never know unless he comes forward!

My guess is that the high bidder will not follow through with the deal.  If the underbidder had any inkling of the intentions and/or budget of the high bidder, that's just mean!

You got it - two cover bids!  No shill here - not enough time to react.

There is nothing unusual about this ebay bid, because knowledgeable Lionel paper collectors may realize that the early All Aboard at Lionel publications are among the rarest items to collect.  For some background, there were 102 issues comprising 1,650 pages issued from 1946 through 1959 (none were issued in 1958).  These issues comprise some of the most fascinating insight into Lionel and included articles on production, executives, advertising and dealer displays and of course happenings with Lionel employees, such as marriages and births.

There are about a handful of complete sets known to exist, and the early years from 1946 through 1949 are extremely difficult to find.  The issues from 1954 through 1957 are a bit easier, since they were also mailed to dealers, and therefore more copies survived.

As mentioned above in John Holtmann's posting, I have just recently developed a complete digital set of these All Aboard at Lionel magazines on three DVDs.  Complete details are now posted on my website www.trainpaper.com. 

I have posted here the February 1947 issue cover.  The magazine covers often feature Lionel people (mostly female!) and much of the artwork was done in Louis Melchionne's art studio located within Lionel's Hillside, New Jersey factory.

Bob Osterhoff

www.trainpaper.com