Immortals Part Deux

Well that didn't take too long did it??? As I hoped to hold off on the autos in exclusive Ichiro immortals collection an incredible deal arose and could not be passed up. The card was one of the most coveted in the series and one of the blowout card forum members actually pulled it. It was ironic how beforehand I commented how this card was beautiful and would make a "killing" off an ebay auction. So assumptions were this card was way out of my price range. As the card eventually made it to ebay in auction style, I made a very very conservative max bid with about 1 hour left as the highest bidder. As auctions for these high end cards almost always go 3x-4x the bid totals in the last minute as everyone throws their best # out there. I was 99.99% sure I would not get this card and a strange thing happened, no one bid it up! Was it because it was in the middle of the nfl playoff games? Did everyone blow there money from xmas? I'll never know and I literally won the auction around $700 below market value compared to similar selling cards. Card forum members called it the deal of the century and even suspected the seller would back out of the deal. Luckily for me, the seller was honest and I got this "crown jewel" for my personal collection at a ridiculous price and in perfect condition. I also picked up 4 more base cards as well during the week. If you add it all up, I spent less than $150 less than a retail sealed Ichiro Immortals box for the same box set+1 additional base card and with a killer 1/1 auto book I doubt I could have done any better with the gamble of a sealed box as most returned about 3/4 their value. Best week of pickups I have ever had. Still doesn't match the excitement of obtaining the '12 Ichiro Chrome SSP, but it comes very close!!!