Hi,
I must tell all of you that I am surprised by all of the attention that I have generated by bidding on a super rare leg iron. I have been called an idiot and even worse. A few choice words actually had to be deleted from this forum. I have been told that I am ruining the handcuff collecting hobby by bidding so high and that future collectors will be turned off from the hobby by my action.
I will admit to you all that I did bid on the item and am pleased that I won it. There is no mystery man or fraud going on here. If you are into conspiracies, you might want to check out the guy with the umbrella on the grassy knoll. He probably tried to get the Marlin's too. As you know, the seller offered them on eBay and I bid on it...nothing more and nothing less. I will also admit that I have two eBay names and have bought cuffs from many of you under my secondary name so I could leave feedback that counts, so this is no surprise. The reason I used the second name on this auction is because I use a snipe service that allows me 5 free bids a week and I used up my weeks allotment under my more common name.
It is true that the seller ended the auction and restarted it at a high opening bid. I had no control over that. He decided to do that. I for sure did not ask for that to happen. Maybe the seller was swayed by the numerous emails and off eBay bids he received from many of you and figured that the gem he had could snag some extra cash in the deal. He also knew that his buyer was most likely at the convention and thought it best to extend it a day. He is a seasoned eBay seller and did what he thought he had to do. The last time I checked, I concluded that we still live in a free country. I was not happy with the way it all went down either, but all I can tell you is that my bid on the first auction was slightly higher than what I paid on the re-listed auction. On the second auction, I expected a competitive bid to come in, but no such bid came, so I ended up winning it.
This is a hobby for me. I do not have other expensive hobbies such as boating, flying, stock car racing, base jumping or recreational drug use. My wife is not into flashy jewelry, Gucci handbags, shoes or gigantic SUV's. However, I do appreciate your concerns about my children's welfare, so I will fill you in: I am putting one son through college and the other is in private school. Beyond having nice clothes to wear, both have 3 hearty meals every day, so please do not call Child Protective Services on me. If my finances are worrying you, let me assure you that my portfolio along with my eBay shares are doing quite well. By the way, look into Ameritrade or the Janus Funds for yourselves. So far this year I fared quite well with them. I work hard in a 7/24 hour business and can adjust my earning potential by taking emergency calls. I will have to bust my butt for a couple of months or so to pay for these gems, but it is worth it to me.
There have been Kimball's, Guiteau's, Houdini Mirror cuffs and others that were close to or exceeded the price of these cuffs, so I know for fact in this case I will not break the record for the highest paid cuffs. I will not have the pleasure of sharing the page with Stan and Joe M. under handcuffs in the Guinness Book of Records.
I am sorry if you were offended in any way. I know that I played by the rules by placing a winning bid and in return, I came away with an item that I am proud of. In any hobby, there are entry level pieces and we all started there in this hobby. Does the guy who buys a nice minty Duesenberg in an auction have to put up with being called an idiot and even worse, especially by some anonymous person who does not have the courage to speak out using his real name? Must he actually consider adding another complainer in his will or go through the motions of finalizing an adoption? I don't think so. Why must I? I try to help this community by answering questions that I believe I have an answer to and present questions to start an interesting thread. I feel like I committed a crime here.
Just the other day, a near-mint copy of Detective Comics No. 27, a pre-World War II comic featuring Batman's debut, was recently found in a Pennsylvania attic and was sold to a local collector. The value was placed at $250,000. Experts estimate there are between 20 and a few hundred copies known to exist. Some of you are handcuff experts. How many Marlin Leg Irons have you seen or estimate to exist? Did the buyer ruin his hobby by purchasing this gem of a comic book? By comparison, I think I got a bargain.
This auction sure bought out the worst in us. We are supposed to be like-minded hobbyists who try to help each other and enjoy learning and documenting the rarest of the rare. I must be all wrong about this and I will consider taking up baseball as a new hobby as you guys seem to think that I am already far out in left field. Oops, I can't do that either........I might have to pay $500,000 for the Barry Bonds ball and ruin baseball forever!
mark
O--O
p.s. Thanks Joe. You were the only person who took on a positive view in all of this