Out of morbid curiosity it will be interesting to see where this one lands.


https://www.ebay.com/itm/2008-...59ffe3f98c%7Ciid%3A1

And whether the winning bidder pays .

Gee, I think I only paid a hundred bucks for mine. Maybe less.

Funny how this comes up at the same time as another seller listing the autograph card and the case incentive Iron Man armour card, for $2,200.

whoa!

quote:

Originally posted by ravenheart:
Funny how this comes up at the same time as another seller listing the autograph card and the case incentive Iron Man armour card, for $2,200.

The best is the other Downey autograph card pictured in the Iron Man suit. One sold on 4-1-19 for $1,300 and one is up now asking $13,500. Now that's inflation.

This one was less of a difference. One sold on 5-4-19 for $1,980 and this one went on 5-25-19 for $3,150. I liked the signature on the cheaper one better. But the best deal was $1,554 on 3-31-19 for a Beckett graded 8.5.

So much for graded cards should get an added premium. It doesn't work well for non-sport collectors and often reduces the number of interested buyers. Of course it could be that no one wanted anything less than a 9, so the grading actually held the price down.

quote:

Originally posted by Raven:
This one was less of a difference. One sold on 5-4-19 for $1,980 and this one went on 5-25-19 for $3,150. I liked the signature on the cheaper one better. But the best deal was $1,554 on 3-31-19 for a Beckett graded 8.5.

The $1,980 was sold by me! I loved having the card in my collection but with Endgame coming out I knew it was too much opportunity to pass up. The 3K sale made my jaw drop but I feel I may know where the difference lies. With shipping being a pain and extremely expensive, I chose not to sell internationally. United States only. I received many messages asking me to reconsider and I declined. I feel like the 3K may be because Probstein ships worldwide. Anyway, no regrets here. I love the card but it's just crazy money that I couldn't pass up.

Same here. I'm a fan of RDJ but decided to sell mine 2 weeks ago. Ended up selling it for $2500! It's the dated variant of RDJ without the Iron Man suit.

Were the 2 autos originally available for purchase directly from RA back in 2008 ?

How much did they cost to purchase then, and how many of each were made ?

quote:

Originally posted by robomole:
The $1,980 was sold by me! I loved having the card in my collection but with Endgame coming out I knew it was too much opportunity to pass up. The 3K sale made my jaw drop but I feel I may know where the difference lies. With shipping being a pain and extremely expensive, I chose not to sell internationally. United States only. I received many messages asking me to reconsider and I declined. I feel like the 3K may be because Probstein ships worldwide. Anyway, no regrets here. I love the card but it's just crazy money that I couldn't pass up.

Yeah timing is everything when selling these certified autograph cards and it can be based solely on the popularity of the signer or a combination of the popularity of the signer and the particular title. In this case with Avengers wrapping up, it was the combination, but you can't be sure when it peaks. If you hold the card too long, you lose money as it declines. If you sell too early, someone else may flip the same autograph card a month later for twice as much.

It's also interesting to note that the number of copies a card may have doesn't really seem to matter once the demand gets rolling. These Downey cards have always been rare, but now is when more people wanted them than before and that's why it drove the price up. Same thing with the renewed interest in Game of Thrones autograph cards. There is the potential for big swings in pricing as demand takes off and then inevitably falls off over time.

quote:

Originally posted by Tommy C:
Were the 2 autos originally available for purchase directly from RA back in 2008 ?

How much did they cost to purchase then, and how many of each were made ?

The one with Tony Stark was in the Iron Man set with a production between 200-300. I know there was another one with Iron Man on the card but it was either tacked on to some case incentive deal with another set or sold separately. They had the Rittenhouse seal on them.

They came out higher priced than the others to begin with but early purchases would have been around $150 to $200. When I was looking at them in 2013 they were just breaking the $500 mark.

Plus his signature changed during the process. Some would actually look like Robert Downey and others would be an R then a jagged line and then a loop. Both were much better than what he currently signs.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: mykdude,

I remember getting the Stark Downey from my pre-ordered case and being pretty happy, mostly because of his earlier work (although I did think Iron Man was great, but no one, and I mean no one, knew what that movie would lead to. The Comic-Con panel wasn't even full for it. Director Favreau hilariously trolled the audience by presenting some "exclusive" footage when he first came out that turned out to be from the crudely animated 1960's Marvel Superheroes Saturday morning cartoon series before he unspooled the real stuff that did have the room buzzing.).

A few months later, I bought another case (on clearance!) and thought, "now I'll get the autograph I really want, the Jeff Bridges, or at least another Downey."

Nope to both. I do still have my Downey though. Might be time to move it to a better home than mine!

quote:

Originally posted by mykdude:
Out of morbid curiosity it will be interesting to see where this one lands.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/2008-...59ffe3f98c%7Ciid%3A1

May mine be even more morbid, or even as morbid (ok, ok, even almost as morbid would be fine!).

Because Ebay happened to offer me a fee value cap and because this card has so much interest in it (3 people bid $3k or more on the one above), I decided to give someone a shot at it. I'm hoping it doesn't sell, but it'd be irresponsible for me to not get $2,500+ from it while people are wanting to pay that. Could it be worth more than that someday? Will it ever be worth less than that?
Well, that's the question, I guess...

I will say, it was pretty cool having this to look at for the entire MCU movie series from Iron Man 1 through Endgame.

I wouldn't link to it here, even if allowed, as I've preferred to post here for the fun of cards as opposed to the business side.

That said, if you see my lighting cigarillos next week with ten dollar bills (ok, ok, five dollar bills), I did pretty good. I don't even smoke!

quote:

Originally posted by chesspieceface:

quote:

Originally posted by mykdude:
Out of morbid curiosity it will be interesting to see where this one lands.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/2008-...59ffe3f98c%7Ciid%3A1

May mine be even more morbid, or even as morbid (ok, ok, even almost as morbid would be fine!).

Because Ebay happened to offer me a fee value cap and because this card has so much interest in it (3 people bid $3k or more on the one above), I decided to give someone a shot at it. I'm hoping it doesn't sell, but it'd be irresponsible for me to not get $2,500+ from it while people are wanting to pay that. Could it be worth more than that someday? Will it ever be worth less than that?
Well, that's the question, I guess...

I will say, it was pretty cool having this to look at for the entire MCU movie series from Iron Man 1 through Endgame.

I wouldn't link to it here, even if allowed, as I've preferred to post here for the fun of cards as opposed to the business side.

That said, if you see my lighting cigarillos next week with ten dollar bills (ok, ok, five dollar bills), I did pretty good. I don't even smoke!

Well, for you it looks like it's time to party ... and nice knowing you Mr. Downey. I'm sure you'll gladly take the good with the bad in this case.

Well, thanks, but the party's on hold. The winning bid was legitimate, and the fella (who has more than double my feedbacks with 6,000+) did pay immediately, but I hadn't sold much on Ebay for awhile so Paypal flagged the payment and won't allow me the money until the item is shown as delivered. Considering I sent it to Hong Kong (yes, fully insured), that could be awhile. They must have a lot of fraud going on to have taken that step in my case as I've been on Ebay for over 20 years with the same ID and have used Paypal ever since it was created with the same account. I'll update what the final results were once the card is actually delivered, but thanks to that Ebay promo, I should end up with pretty much the same amount as the people who sold the last one got, assuming they had to pay the full 10% (9% for Top Rated Sellers) final fee value.

quote:

Originally posted by chesspieceface:
Well, thanks, but the party's on hold. The winning bid was legitimate, and the fella (who has more than double my feedbacks with 6,000+) did pay immediately, but I hadn't sold much on Ebay for awhile so Paypal flagged the payment and won't allow me the money until the item is shown as delivered. Considering I sent it to Hong Kong (yes, fully insured), that could be awhile. They must have a lot of fraud going on to have taken that step in my case as I've been on Ebay for over 20 years with the same ID and have used Paypal ever since it was created with the same account. I'll update what the final results were once the card is actually delivered, but thanks to that Ebay promo, I should end up with pretty much the same amount as the people who sold the last one got, assuming they had to pay the full 10% (9% for Top Rated Sellers) final fee value.

Typical me - jinxing it for you. I hope things go well with the transaction. Do you get the money once they leave feedback or once it's delivered? Or a certain number of days after it's been delivered? They should release it instantly since you've been on eBay that long and have sold in the past. So maybe it's where you shipped it to that makes them hesitant.

Yeah...not sure I would have sold that one outside the US.

Keep us informed.

More morbid curiosity

quote:

Originally posted by mykdude:
Yeah...not sure I would have sold that one outside the US.

Hong Kong is problematic. Paypal probably has transactions automatically programed to flag for certain locations at certain amounts. But I didn't know that they can order a seller to ship while holding up payment? Does Paypal say that anywhere?

They sure said it to me.
The funds are supposed to be released the day after the item has arrived. I might need the bidder to actually leave feedback if the online postal information from that end once delivered is inadequate for proving delivery. It's a risk, but hey, so far, so good.

Heh, you guys worry about it so I don't have to , but there's also plenty of political unrest going on in Hong Kong, too, so yeah, this Downey may well disappear into the ether.

The bidder had actually written me regarding shipping and I told them Ebay would automatically send him an invoice through the Global Shipping Program and he said that was fine as he'd used that before. Once the auction ended and Ebay didn't, it turned out I'd neglected to tick that box (although I was sure I could remember having done so), so I had to handle shipping myself.

Some pros:
The buyer has a lot of feedback and paid instantly.
The card is essentially one of a kind due to the uniqueness of the signature, so there'd really be no way for anyone to sell this online were it reported lost or stolen.
It's insured, so worst case scenario, I should still get the money.
Beyond that, I'm hoping the insurance will help to make sure it's actually delivered, as really, I'd hate for any one other than the buyer to end up with this, even me, given what it sold for.

Con:
The world is a crazy place sometimes.

To sell or not to sell, aye, that is the rub, that is the question. All that moola sitting in the binders doing nothing. I look at them maybe twice a year, what's the point? I really have no answer.