Can Someone Explain This Recent eBay Sale?

B

BenjaminO

Member
On Sunday I found my first "Erie" skillet. A second series No. 8 in good shape with a Red Mountain lid for $15. Needless to say I am very happy with my purchase. I was checking out eBay and found this recent sale for an identical pan, same makers mark and condition. http://www.ebay.com/itm/PRE-GRISWOLD-ERIE-8-CAST-IRON-SKILLET-MAKERS-MARK-CLEAN-READY-/181715559521
Does anyone have an insight as to why the sale price for this pan was so high? Is this model with the "daisy" maker's mark especially rare or some such?
I'm just trying to figure out what I have on my hands here. Thanks!
20 minutes after finding my first Erie, I found my second; a No.8 Dutch Oven with pattern number. I payed $45 but now I realize the pot and the top are heat damaged :(
 
Note that the person who bid it up that high has a feedback of 2. The person who actually paid the price, 83. I am not familiar with the seller, but the spiel sure worked, didn't it?
 
The explanation is pretty simple. The person who sold you yours didn't know what it was really worth. And neither did the person who bought the one on eBay. :roll:
 
Ebay has neither rhyme nor reason. One day someone with an unlimited bank account is bidding against you, the next all the poor people are...

It's luck, a bit of skill, and a lot of patience waiting for the piece you want at the price you want. No matter what, there will be someone else who also wants it. Sometimes more than you.

When I see a piece I have sell for hundreds more than I paid, I get all giddy, but then a week later the same piece will sell for 1/2 what I paid, and I don't care... The pieces I buy, I buy because I like them, I want to use them, and really don't want to sell them.

When I die, they'll be a nice little nest egg for my family.
 
Yea it's weird one day it is the most expensive thing you buy and next day you can get five items with that money.I got a lodge 5co little do mine it is new with tags,I don't know how old it is and I paid $3 to a guy I know at flea market, later on I seen one identical some body was biding $253 dlls I don't know why.:eek:
 
eBay has such a large audience, so the prices tend to be higher, or even a lot higher.

I bought a #10 Gris skillet in near mint condition there and won't ever tell what I paid :oops: But I watched the eBay pan market for some time before pulling the trigger.

I don't stop and shop at local places that might have cast iron, so eBay was convenient
 
TedW said:
I don't stop and shop at local places that might have cast iron, so eBay was convenient
Click to expand...

WHAT!!?? You should.... Local thrift stores, flea markets, estate sales, etc... Some of the best places to find cast iron and to network with people who "know someone" who has a bunch in their shed/garage/storage etc..
 
Ebay is fickle.

It depends on who is bidding, and how much emotion gets brought into the back and forth.

I have seen auctions for brand new items, where the bidders ended up in a bidding war and drove the price up to twice what the same exact item was selling for new on Amazon.com. Sheer idiocy.

This is where you need to know something about what you are buying, and stick with a set top price you are willing to pay for that item. Emotional bidding can break your bank.
 
RLMuse said:
Ebay is fickle.

It depends on who is bidding, and how much emotion gets brought into the back and forth.

I have seen auctions for brand new items, where the bidders ended up in a bidding war and drove the price up to twice what the same exact item was selling for new on Amazon.com. Sheer idiocy.

This is where you need to know something about what you are buying, and stick with a set top price you are willing to pay for that item. Emotional bidding can break your bank.
Click to expand...


You see that more and more at live auctions. stupid money at play.:headpop:
 
Some of the stupid money is mine. However, I don't troll garage sales, and I'm not a cast iron collector. I bought the 6 or so pieces I have simply because they cook better for some things. So I determined the list of skillets, muffin tray, dutch oven and griddle and set out to buy fine examples in excellent condition.

I just don't have the time to drive all over in an attempt to collect and find the specimens I want. So for me, it was the way to go.
 
TedW..I am thankful for people like you. :icon_thumbsup: The way I see it the guy who did the work cleaning the skillet got a nice pay day. Every now and then that's nice when most of the the work doesn't pay well.
 
Do you think the bidder with only 2 wins was the seller, or a friend of the seller, trying to run up the price?

My wife bought an enameled Gris for my daughter today. She put in her max bid, a bidder with only 2 wins kept bidding $2 at a time until they out bid her. She upped her max bid by 20 and the other bidder did the $2 bids again, up to 50 cents of my wife's max. That's where it ended. I told her that the seller ended up getting what they wanted for the skillet because she couldn't walk away. I don't know if this is what happened, but it got under her skin.

In the end, we will have a like new condition, enameled Griswold, to give as a gift to our daughter that is in culinary school.
 
I was bidding on a toy pot,I started on 20 and set my max at 24, an other bidder jump up to 27 expecting I bid more than that, after 2 days I didn't bid, he retract his bid and eBay let him do that with no problem
 
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