I am "proud of myself", though, in that I didn't go beyond my target zone for the bids (I'd gone and researched what each set of cards were "worth", did a total, divided by 7, and came up with what I wanted to bid) ... I suppose that I could have gone higher than 1/7th of "low retail", but I have a feeling that if one isn't disciplined with one's eBaying habit, it will eat you alive financially!
The guy who swooped in at the last second is a eBay vendor ... although I've never bought anything from them (unlike some of the other bidders in play on these) ... he must have a real fast connection and nerves of steel to be able to pop in like that (unless he's using a bot programmed to wait to the very last second) ... needless to say, the guys who are selling the cards are often to spend more than those of us just looking for a deal. At least that "plague" of European card dealers has abated somewhat ... for a while there you couldn't get close on these since that lot would be willing to pay US "low retail", and then sell them locally at "rare import" prices!
Yeah, I know ... like you care!