Beware series collectors...he may be coming after you!

[DocGo]

A query for eBay buyers:

 

Have any of you ever seen a bidder on eBay that comes out of nowhere, with no history of buying a particular series (or any comics for that matter, according to his or her feedback), and, in one week, just starts winning everything in sight with bids that go fairly above what's been seen in the last six months with seemingly no limit on how many of each issue he or she must have (over 30 separate auctions from several different sellers)? I've never seen anything like it among the few series I collect and I'm wondering if others have ever had a similar experience.

[codfish]

I have experienced it a few times. A few years ago I was one of several people regularly bidding on first series Wonder Woman books. Then an Aussie showed up out of the blue and for a few months he threw a ton of cash around and won just about every VG+ and better book from about 10 - on. At the same time he was buying up a whole pile of other DC series. He quickly filled his collection between eBay and a few online stores such as Metro. After a few months he disappeared.

 

About the same time a periodic buyer popped up too and was throwing several hundred dollars at WW books. It seemed like it was a once a month or so thing ... likely matched with paydays or something.

 

Both those guys bid way over guide for many books ... some worth it some not. I only once outbid one of them and thankfully I did not have to overpay. After awhile I gave up bidding on books they had bids on because I just couldn't compete. Other people pushed them though.

 

While it was a bugger of a time the record prices they were paying certainly drew out some nice books. Thankfully one does not have to dish out as much cash as back then.