2007 game used negro league tbtc Billy Butler jersey on ebay

[brianborsch]

Hello all,

Please see this auction

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&Item=200160728119&Category=60597

[brianborsch]

FYI, this auction is still up...

[brianborsch]

This item is still available on ebay. Bid often!

[brianborsch]

FYI this ends in a day! Be sure to add it to your watchlists as a jersey like this only vomes around once in a long while. This is the first GU Billy Butler jersey I have seen period! And it is from his rookie year!

[brianborsch]

One more hour! Be sure to get yer final bids in!!!!

[flightposite]

Gee... looks like you were right, I was crazy in my thoughts on how high that jersey would sell... LOL.

[ahuff]

Gee... looks like you were right, I was crazy in my thoughts on how high that jersey would sell... LOL.

The photo match was nice. I would imagine that helped out a bit. It's a nice looking jersey, with great provenance.

[flightposite]

The photo match was nice. I would imagine that helped out a bit. It's a nice looking jersey, with great provenance.

Nah, we had gotten into an argument about the price of a jersey. I offered $3-400 for it and he basically told me I was insane and wanted $7-900 for it. That's all it was.

[flightposite]

I went back and looked. I offered $400, he said it would sell for over $900.

[TNTtoys]

If I'm following this correctly, GUU member A bought this jersey in an MLB auction for mega bucks, and then tried to sell it soon after. GUU member B offered him $400, which was far less than he originally paid, so he declined. He then listed it on ebay and it sold for less than the $400 offered.
My thougts are:
It's obvious that member A overpaid for the jersey... but there may have been other factors as to why. I recall Mother's Day bats selling for obscene amounts of money on MLB auctions... not because they were worth that price, but because the auctions were donations to Breast Cancer charity. Did the bidding go sky high for this jersey because of the charity aspect?
If I were member A, I would go back to his original purchase to see if part, most, or all of his purchase price was a donation to charity. If so, he wouldn't need to take such a beating on the jersey. Rules for donations to charity specify that if you receive something in return for your donation (in this case, a jersey), you are allowed to claim the difference between the money donated and the object you receive in return.
Let's take this case for example. Suppose your cost for this item is $1,000.00 and that 100% of your payment goes to charity (I am picking 100% just to remove any complicated math!!lol). You received in return an object which you sold in an open market auction (hence establishing the value of the item) for $375.00. You then have a $625.00 tax deduction on your 2007 tax return.
Hoping for member A that this type of scenario is the case, so that he doesn't "take a bath."

[ahuff]

I went back and looked. I offered $400, he said it would sell for over $900.

It looks like the offer you had set out on the table looks pretty good, as it fetched far less considering ebay and paypal fees.

That brings up a great point. I've found that when dealing with fellow forum members, a seller can often get far more for an item than putting it on the bay. I've found this out both as a buyer and seller. I guess you could say I've overpaid and undersold. I still have not figured out why the majority of items sell on the bay for an apparent discount. Within days you can see it on a dealer's website or auction site for double, triple, or even more. I'm not saying that in a bad sort of way, just have noticed that interesting phenomena. That being said, I highly recommend selling items on this forum as a great starting point.

[PudgePollyMillerFan]

Just FYI....the jersey was purchased from the Detroit Tigers at a cost less than $400.....there were no Royals gamers from the TBTC game that were over the $400 mark and none went to charity.

[brianborsch]

Yes, I thought it would sell for more. I wasn't going to end the auction early when it looked like it was going to be low. I figured I made money on the deal already, why make a big deal?

My Bad.

The truth is that I bought both the Gordon and the Butler for a total of $525. The Gordon sold for $700 to a member (which disproves your ebay theory because soon after it sold with a best offer from a GU Forum member, some random ebayer emailed me to offer $900) and the Butler $336.00. So not bat,

I practically doubled my money. But I was intending to keep the jerseys for a little while initially. And then my wife plans a vacation trip to India, and says we need money to go. Out of all my items, those were the ones I wanted to let go at the time, as they really were going to be sold later (a long time later) unless a good deal came around for me to sell sooner.

Anyways, thats how it goes in this industry, you win some, and lose some, or both.

Brian B