Kobe worn mask sells for $67,000

[yankees24]

The Los Angeles Lakers guard auctioned off the mask he wore this season after breaking his nose and suffering a concussion in the NBA All-Star Game to raise money for the Kobe and Vanessa Bryant Family Foundation.

Bryant said that wearing the mask felt like a sauna on his face and joked back in March that he planned to auction off the mask to "see if anybody's dumb enough to buy that sweaty mask."


The auction ended Tuesday with a winning bid of $67,100. The opening bid was $250, and there were 129 total bids. Bryant also autographed the mask before putting it up for auction.

The money will go toward the Bryant Family Foundation's initiative to help eradicate homelessness in Los Angeles. There are nearly 50,000 homeless people living on the streets of L.A., and an estimated 7,000 to 10,000 of those homeless are younger than 24, according to the website for My Friend's Place, a youth homeless shelter that Bryant supports.

http://espn.go.com/los-angeles/nba/story/_/id/7907280/mask-worn-los-angeles-lakers-kobe-bryant-raises-67100-charity-auction

[UTeric3232]

Re: Kobe worn mask sells for $67,000

That's insane....jeez

[sportscentury]

Re: Kobe worn mask sells for $67,000

Here is the bidding history for the auction:

http://offer.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewBids&_trksid=p4340.l2565&rt=nc&item=170832152836

[trsent]

Re: Kobe worn mask sells for $67,000

Here is the bidding history for the auction:

http://offer.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.d...m=170832152836

The seller left the buyer their first feedback.

The winner was new eBay user: hpopat

You had to pre-qualify to bid, so even though it was a couple of new eBay users bidding, I assume both were very legitimate.

[Jags Fan Dan]

Re: Kobe worn mask sells for $67,000

Somebody just making a big donation to charity. Nobody can possibly believe it is really worth that much or have any interest/hope in trying to re-coup the money at a later date.

[sportscentury]

Re: Kobe worn mask sells for $67,000

The seller left the buyer their first feedback.

The winner was new eBay user: hpopat

You had to pre-qualify to bid, so even though it was a couple of new eBay users bidding, I assume both were very legitimate.

You did not have to pre-qualify to bid -- see the cancelled bid for not pre-qualifying.

I am not sure what happened in this auction, but, between the seller and multiple bidders, there were too many zero-feedback participants for me to assume anything was "very legitimate" (whatever that means). If the winning bidder were to relist this item on open auction, he'd be lucky to realize one tenth of his purchase price.

[jppopma]

Re: Kobe worn mask sells for $67,000

I have noticed that many of these charity auctions that are advertised in mainstream media will have alot of new "0" ebayers. While I have often thought that something that amiss, it could easily be someone who is not an ebay regular that hears about the auction and wanted to get it on it. They would have to open a new ebay account in order to bid and then likely have some screwy bidding patterns since they are not used to how the auctions work.

[sportscentury]

Re: Kobe worn mask sells for $67,000

I have noticed that many of these charity auctions that are advertised in mainstream media will have alot of new "0" ebayers. While I have often thought that something that amiss, it could easily be someone who is not an ebay regular that hears about the auction and wanted to get it on it. They would have to open a new ebay account in order to bid and then likely have some screwy bidding patterns since they are not used to how the auctions work.

It may have been a legitimate auction. Or it could be that one or more of the underbidders were shills. Who knows? I hope everything was on the up and up and I'm glad to see the charity benefit from the high price.

[trsent]

Re: Kobe worn mask sells for $67,000

It may have been a legitimate auction. Or it could be that one or more of the underbidders were shills. Who knows? I hope everything was on the up and up and I'm glad to see the charity benefit from the high price.

I'm going to guess that The Kobe & Vanessa Bryant Family Foundation doesn't employ shills.

[sportscentury]

Re: Kobe worn mask sells for $67,000

I'm going to guess that The Kobe & Vanessa Bryant Family Foundation doesn't employ shills.

I know you love to argue, buddy, but I'm not all that interested in it, so this will be my last post. You are free to assume and guess all you like, of course, but as a long-time hobbyist, I'm sure you know that shills are not always employed by or even associated with the seller. Folks use shill bids to drive up auction prices all the time, simply to manipulate the market. If you think that this does not happen on a daily basis on eBay, then I don't know what to tell you. Did it happen here with the Kobe mask? Again, I don't know. But I am always hesitant to assume everything is kosher when I see that kind of bidding history. That is all I was trying to say.

[trsent]

Re: Kobe worn mask sells for $67,000

I know you love to argue, buddy, but I'm not all that interested in it, so this will be my last post. You are free to assume and guess all you like, of course, but as a long-time hobbyist, I'm sure you know that shills are not always employed by or even associated with the seller. Folks use shill bids to drive up auction prices all the time, simply to manipulate the market. If you think that this does not happen on a daily basis on eBay, then I don't know what to tell you. Did it happen here with the Kobe mask? Again, I don't know. But I am always hesitant to assume everything is kosher when I see that kind of bidding history. That is all I was trying to say.

Reid, why do you have to make my comment an argument?

Isn't it possible that a few wealthy people saw this listing, have never bid on eBay before but signed up just to bid in this auction? I just don't like to see a charitable effort accused of driving up the prices with shill bidders when there is no proof just speculation.

I was at a charity fundraiser for The Israel Sports Center for the Disabled a couple of weeks ago. They asked if anyone would like to buy a wheelchair for $2500.00 and one gentleman stood up and bought ten! People like to donate money to charity and I find no evidence to accuse Kobe Bryant's charity of shill bidding.

To be clear, shill bidding is not fake bidders placing bid - Shill bidding is the seller having someone bid for them to raise the price. Fake bidders are just that, but shill bidding is a violation of eBay rules and I just didn't see any evidence to make people think shill bids were taking place.

I often see charities on this forum discussed why someone would pay more for an item than it is worth. A few years ago I went to a Rockford Ice Hogs minor league hockey game where the shirts off player's backs were being auctioned for charity. The jerseys went for much more than they ever would be resold for in the game used marketplace, but the buyers were paying inflated prices to support local charities. This is how society operates when it comes to charity and the bidders should be praised for their generous contributions to society.

I was not attempting to argue with anyone, I just wanted to make it clear there was no obvious shill bidding in this auction even if some of the bids were by newer users.

[otismalibu]

Re: Kobe worn mask sells for $67,000

Even if that was a $100 final price, when I see bid patterns like that, I just hit the Back button.

[sportscentury]

Re: Kobe worn mask sells for $67,000

Even if that was a $100 final price, when I see bid patterns like that, I just hit the Back button.

Absolutely.

[jppopma]

Re: Kobe worn mask sells for $67,000

I agree on backing out too...either to avoid being shilled or just knowing the outcome and not wasting the time to go against those who enjoy (or don't realize they are) overpaying.

Having been at many of these team auctions, I will give them credit for running excellent auctions and knowing how to hype any little thing to get people worked up to bid higher. We all breeze right over all of the "one of the kind" type statements, but to a rabid fan who doesn't know anything about the hobby...they bid as high as PRICELESS will allow them to bid.

Regarding charities, while they do not employ people to shill bid you better bet that there are fanatical people for the cause that will do to great lengths to support the cause. Then there are other's who will bid in these auctions for other random reasons; the guy who has no means to afford a bid but wants to "punish" the winner to make them pay higher, or the loud mouth who bids knowing (hoping) he won't win just to be able to brag to everybody that he bid $65,000 on the mask but lost out (when he likely has nothing near that kind of cash to throw around).

In the end, good for the charities.

[sportscentury]

Re: Kobe worn mask sells for $67,000

I agree on backing out too...either to avoid being shilled or just knowing the outcome and not wasting the time to go against those who enjoy (or don't realize they are) overpaying.

Having been at many of these team auctions, I will give them credit for running excellent auctions and knowing how to hype any little thing to get people worked up to bid higher. We all breeze right over all of the "one of the kind" type statements, but to a rabid fan who doesn't know anything about the hobby...they bid as high as PRICELESS will allow them to bid.

Regarding charities, while they do not employ people to shill bid you better bet that there are fanatical people for the cause that will do to great lengths to support the cause. Then there are other's who will bid in these auctions for other random reasons; the guy who has no means to afford a bid but wants to "punish" the winner to make them pay higher, or the loud mouth who bids knowing (hoping) he won't win just to be able to brag to everybody that he bid $65,000 on the mask but lost out (when he likely has nothing near that kind of cash to throw around).

In the end, good for the charities.

Very well said.