1928A1 Cutts on Gunbroker for how much?

[TennesseeTaylor95]

Has anyone else seen this listing on Gunbroker for what looks like a well used cutts compensator with the front sight? It started at $30 and is currently up to $430. What am I missing here? I know thompson parts are getting pricy these days, but this seems very excessive for what looks like an average cutts compensator for a M1928A1. Is this legitimate with genuine bidders fighting for something that I am missing to see the collector value in, or is this some money laundering scheme or some other nefarious activity?

[TD.]

$430 for a well used Type 4 compensator without the pin. Stupid money!!!

[TennesseeTaylor95]

My thoughts exactly although I am still rather new to the thompson world where everything seems pricey.

[2ndArmored]

Look at the bid history. It's now down to just two guys going at it. Waiting for "Down goes Frazier!! Down goes Frazier!!"

[john]

Probably a fierce auction between the owner and himself.....

After it "goes" for $700 clams, it'll be relisted in hopes of a fool looking for a bargain at a $525 'buy it now' price.....

 

Keep an eye on this. It'll wind up odder than it looks now.

[TennesseeTaylor95]

Very interesting. I will have to keep an eye on the seller and see if the item goes back up for sale.

[StrangeRanger]

You have to pay extra for the wrench marks on the collar and for the lead buildup inside

[inertord]

Probably a fierce auction between the owner and himself.....

After it "goes" for $700 clams, it'll be relisted in hopes of a fool looking for a bargain at a $525 'buy it now' price.....

 

Keep an eye on this. It'll wind up odder than it looks now.

Why specifically are you alleging the seller of anything dishonest? I happen to know him and do not believe that your allegations hold any water.

[john]

No disrespect to your friend, just that I've seen this so many times on Ebay and Gunbroker, and figured it must be shill bidding of some sort.

In truth I don't know and should have held back my thoughts as I have no idea what it started at or what the reserve might be.

 

My Apologies.

 

That said, I'll rephrase that and say that what I see "seems" familiar to auction tactics I've seen before and always thought those auctions were rigged in some way. I have come in second in a last second snipe more times than I can recall and in many of those cases, the item was offered to me a day later at "high bid" or slightly less as the "winner said he couldn't pay, and the seller was just being nice and offering it to me as I came in second".

 

Auctions are designed to push folks into getting carried away with winning at any cost and some bidders go in without any idea of actual worth of the item and without a bidding cap for themselves.

 

Some folks just gotta feel like a winner at any cost.

 

Going once ......going twice.......

Edited June 29, 2022 by john

[JJX]

Here’s another one that sold a month ago for a mere $242. Even including a pin. https://www.gunbroker.com/item/933852613

[reconbob]

I agree that $400+ is too much. BUT, time is going by. The influx of the Russian

kits is now what? 15+ years ago? I pay pretty close attention to the parts because

I need them for a variety of reasons. If I had a extra EXC condition comp

with Auto-Ord and Cutts logos, I would not sell it for less than $250, but if I had one

i don't know if i would sell it at all because where am i going to get one?

 

I ended up with all of Doug's parts accumulated over a lifetime of being a Thompson

nut, and having the money to get whaever he wanted. He had more original M1921

Colt trigger frames than he had compensators like the one in this auction.

 

All it takes for this crappy comp to go up over $400 is a guy with money who needs

a comp and doesn't care. I don't think this price indicates a one man conspiracy to

bid on his own stuff. Websites like GB are not stupid and their system would know if two

accounts came from the same IP address instantly.

 

Bob

[john]

Okay, already. An explanation that I didn't think would be needed, byt I've been wrong before.

 

My original post had two goals in mind.

 

First, a bit of lighthearted entertainment to maybe take folks minds off the political and economic problems by adding a humorous twist to an auction that seemed more than a wee bit outrageous, especially when iuyr money is worth a lot less than it was last year.

 

I guess offense was taken by at least one member here and as such, I apologized. I never post anything with the idea of pissing anyone off and it was certainly not intended here. I didn't start that string, just added one little bit to it.

 

My second goal was to let folks know of a couple pitfalls that I have noticed in regards to auctions ....not just Evilbay or Gunbroker, but online in general.

Auctions are designed to get people worked up about winning, not necessarily on obtaining the best deal. That gives sellers nore money for their stuff. Some folks just want to win, be it low self-esteem or jyst the idea of beating someone else. Also, someone who needs that now and doesn't care about the price, as Bob noted.

 

That I had experienced what appeared to be shill bidding to me in other auctions on several occasions in my past had stuck in my mind. It hasn't happened once, but several times. Maybe I bid on too much stuff and recall too much stuff?

That's just me, I guess.

Anyway, what I explained did occur to me starting many years ago and my thoughts were that it would be pretty easy to do. True, ISP addresses would indicate one user at one location, but hey ....a guys got friends with a different ISP, maybe a tablet that is used only down at the local Starbucks (another ISP)....etc.

Not saying it's common but only that it is possible and something to keep in mind.

 

Many of you know me, probably are familiar with my posts and that I've been on these boards for almost 25 years now. Y'all are friends and I just wanted to drop a bit of auction advice so that folks here might not wind up paying too much due to a couple tricks I've seen before.

This auction had a peculiar odor so I just wanted to share what I thought I smelled.

 

Again, my apologies if anyone is upset. Not my intention.

And If you want to remember my bit if advice, or to dismiss it as BS, that choice is yours.

 

John

[TennesseeTaylor95]

I didn't take any offense to your original comment John and I thought your concern of shill bidding to be an entirely plausible theory of what we were seeing on that auction listing. Although I have been a registered user on GB for a few years, I have only recently started putting in bids and purchasing things on there in the past couple of months for fear of getting ripped off with no real options of recourse. I have been scammed once in life and I have no intentions of allowing that to occur again, so I appreciate you telling your experiences on online auctions (the good, the bad, and the ugly). I am certainly uninformed in the current market prices of TSMG items as everything seems like it is going through the roof on most things and some collectible parts have gone through the stratosphere. I hope my original post didn't show off my naivety on the value of these parts, but I was just genuinely baffled as to why what looked like a seemingly average condition cutts compensator with a front sight was going for so much and I needed some logical explanations from you guys. I feel that you and Reconbob made excellent justifications for the prices from bidding wars, inflation making our dollars worth less and less each day, no more massive influx of parts from foreign countries keeping supply higher than demand, etc. I guess I need to buckle up and embrace the suck of getting on the TSMG collecting hobby train very late. Thanks everyone for the input on this.

[2ndArmored]

I know this isn't a Thompson receiver, but the auction pertains to this thread. I bought my last cut PPSh receiver for ~$600 in 2019. Pristine samples were going for ~$800.

 

Now this, about two weeks ago: https://www.gunbroker.com/item/935980134 (Not entirely an aberration, they routinely go for over $1K now.)

 

So it's not just a TSMG thing.

Edited July 2, 2022 by 2ndArmored