Why Even Try?

I want to rant a little here, shocking I know, about something I have had a rash of problems with on the world's greatest marketplace lately. As of last year, the new feature of Buy It Now or Best Offer has become a staple of the card industry on eBay. What it also created was a showcase for people to basically show off the huge cards they have while demanding ridiculous prices for them. Whether its a full set of 03-04 NBA Exquisite RC patches or PSA 10 Alex Rodriguez RC, people have decided its better to let the people come to them rather than letting them fight it out in a bidding war.

Best Example EVER! 1,000,000? HA!

Right now there are 3 or 4 cards I have been looking for with no avail. One of them happened to pop up on eBay a few weeks ago with a major, MAJOR, problem. The guy put a BIN w/ BO at $100 dollars over true market value. When I offered more than market value for it, he declined in 10 minutes. What is the point of paying for the listing fees when you know you wont give it away at the expected price? The answer is that there are a lot of people who put cards up without the expectation of a sale. I cant understand this, but it happens so often that I want to punch eBay in the babymaker. Why even bother with spending the time and money if you wont let the card go?

I had a similar situation with an All Day auto from last year that I had been looking for. I offered the guy 20 dollars more than market value to make sure he wouldnt decline, and of course, he declined with extreme predjudice. His reason? "DUDE! This guy is going to be a beast next year. Do you really think I am going to give it away to you now when I can get 100 dollars more next year?"

My response:

"Then why arent you selling it next year?"

His response:

"Someone out there will pay next years price right now!"

At this point I stopped. Is this really worth my time? Fuck no, but it seems like so many people are expecting big things to happen when they go with this option. I know that this special auction format works well a lot of the time, but not when you are just baiting people. I have used it countless times to make sure I am not undercut by an auction that sells low - however, unlike these idiots, I never turn down the expected market value. It sucks for me because then I have to sit around and wait for someone to actually provide the card in a way that I can buy it, instead of looking at eBay like someone's photobucket account.

Basically, it blows chunks that people use this hobby as a way to make money. I know I do on occasion, but I always re-buy other cards with the money I made, and I never expect to make a dime of my favorite cards. Right now it seems like there are a lot of people who expect to make millions.