How about this Rock Ola Housing buy?

[DaveHH]

This happens a lot on Ebay. A guy sees something he really wants and puts up a huge number thinking that it will never get there. If it was shill bidding, the crooked party doesn't know what number that is, he could kill a potentially great deal by going too far. This other guy just wanted the same part. His first few bids were ending in 01s and the like, like a person does when he reaches his comfortable bid. But in this case, it was just absorbed and went higher. The runner up guy then began to just go to large numbers 00s and was still beaten, finally giving up at $1K. The other guy got the part but at three times value.

I had this happen with a very rare pinball machine. It was worth about $3-4K, two guys wanted it very much, some guy put a bid of $6K to make sure he got it and the other guy kept going. It went up $1500 in the last 15 seconds. Sold for over $6.3K (still a record for a single machine). I was happy, they overpaid.

On the subject of these carbine parts; is it possible that the luster has fallen off parts swapping? What was a fun exciting pursuit has turned into a crime scene with very diminished return on investment? I seem to recall that a carefully crafted restoration would bring good money, now it seems that people are much more interested in what is fake or wrong and the price is reduced accordingly. Additionally some folks ignore restorations out of hand, preferring to do their own. I think the threshold of ALL carbines now being suspect has been reached. What do you guys think?

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[blazer91]

I seem to recall that a carefully crafted restoration would bring good money, now it seems that people are much more interested in what is fake or wrong and the price is reduced accordingly. Additionally some folks ignore restorations out of hand, preferring to do their own. I think the threshold of ALL carbines now being suspect has been reached. What do you guys think?

Now I know why whenever someone comes out of the woodwork with a "bringback" story, there's always skepticism until all the pics are there to prove it. Understandable but still sad.
I still intend to finish what i started... one day, in the meantime I am in awe of the powerful appeal of this humble little carbine. Jim