That's How You Flip A Note

I noticed this note sold a couple of weeks ago for $52 and only a two weeks later it went for almost double the price with four times the bids... that's how you flip a note!!

 

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I guess you learn something New every day!! Thanks for sharing.

 

Interesting flip
Perhaps all in the wording?
Michigan Obsolete Note

 

Something like this can/does happen more than we think/realize. A different time, if just a week or two, maybe a different audience or even one or two people bidding the next time from the first, etc...can change the outcome/price significantly on occasion...doesn't have to be a major overhaul/revision of the auction site/text, etc. Like the saying..."it's all in the timing."

 

On eBay a seller with a feedback rating of 100% rather than a 75% will usually sell the item for more. Also a seller with 1000 sales will get more bids than a seller with 10 bids.

 

More like different bidders. Sometimes a week or so later, more bidders, or at least two, want the item, so pay up for it.

 

If a $1000 item that has a thin market gets listed as a 99 cents auction and only one serious bidder (who would pay $1000) notices it, it can go for 99 cents.

 

That's the scary prospect of starting an auction low, especially if you are a new trader. However well established ebay traders probably have a minuscule chance of coming unstuck.

 

I've tried flipping myself in the past and had some reasonable success.
Mainly coin errors, and once with a Chinese stamp bought at $2 and sold for c $50.

 

I'll stick to gold and silver. Rock, paper, scissors, know what I mean!

 

That's it. Look at the bidders: 44 vs. 10.

It's all a question of timing. One time I wanted a rare Sports Illustrated issue from my childhood that I saw on Ebay. It was in pristine condition....I hadn't seen one for sale in weeks or months. Bidding got high, but hey...what if another one, in this condition (or ANY condition ?) doesn't show up for months...or even years ? No, I didn't NEED it then and there...but the bidding wasn't going to break me financially, it wasn't thousands of dollars.

Bottom Line....I paid up...outbid 4 or 5 other guys who wanted it....and got it for like $80 as I recall.

Then....2 or 3 weeks later, another one, same condition, was available. I think it went for $15. I may have used BUY IT NOW or outbid 1 other person.

 

Looking at the date of the first auction it was Dec 19, maybe collectors were doing their holiday shopping around that time and busy with other things and either weren't paying attention to auctions or didn't have the extra funds to bid at that time.. who knows...

 

I agree with @GoldFinger1969 re: timing being fundamental for a successful sale (or scoring a 'steal') on eBay. It works both ways. i have had a few good sales like that but I also had one great sale which turned out to cost me (since the deadbeat buyer wouldn't pay up & eBay charged me for the sale). I also scored some great special serial # notes for about 1/2 price when the stock market tanked during the 2009 financial crises. (The market is always fluid & currently US banknotes are pretty hot). Although I cannot speak from experience (I've never consistently sold for any length of time) I think its also important to build a following (so you have more bidders than average) if you really want to flip a banknote successfully on eBay.

 

I did score a steal at Christmas a couple of years ago when a dealers sales ended on Christmas day. Understandably not many were bidding. Tried again this year but no luck

 

I have 2201 feedbacks with 100% and ca barely sell a high grade antoninianus for $12.

 

I once started an item (old paperweight) at .99 and it received no bids. I relisted it starting at $25 and within minutes it had several bids and eventually sold at $100. You never know.

 

Looking at the pictures and tells me that the buyer did not clean/conserve the currency. The yellow is gone. Would you say he conserved the note as to when you send a specimen off to have it conserved?

 

That's why I only list obscure items BIN/BO any more. They might have to stay up for a couple of months, but that improves the chances that the right person will spot them.

I listed a badly impaired classic proof for a bit less than the price of an unimpaired specimen, knowing I'd never get that much. In the first week or two, I got offers for 15% and 20% of the asking price. I eventually sold it for 70% of the asking price. The next highest offer was 40-50% of the asking price, and if I'd listed it as an auction, that's the most I could have expected to get -- I don't think it was the sort of thing that would've generated a bidding war.

 

Capitalism at its best.