99 Cents Worth of Allen & Ginter or...How Not to List on eBay

Recently I was able to capitalize on a poorly worded and all-around easily ignorable eBay auction to get a major start on a 2013 Allen & Ginter Red Sox master set.  I was the lone bidder on the auction, and this has to be one of the best cheap scores I've ever had on eBay.  My bid of 99 cents won me the following...

Half a dozen Across the Years inserts.  I am about 90% certain this would be all the Red Sox on the checklist.  Not bad looking cards, and to me a more interesting concept than some of the large insert sets from other years.  I might have bid on these alone for 99 cents, figuring that comes out to about 16 cents per card, but I received much more than this.

This auction also included all 10 Red Sox cards from the 300-card short set.  This has got to be the earliest I've ever knocked out a team set after a set's release.  Really happy with the player selection in the set.

I can call this a true team set too, because the lone Red Sox short print, Carlton Fisk, was also in the lot.  That's 17 cards now and counting if you're keeping track.  Of course, everyone's favorite thing about A&G is mini cards, and there were some of those as well...

Jon Lester, David Ortiz and Jim Rice regular minis bring the lot to an even 20 cards.  As an added bonus, the seller threw in two A & G back minis from last year's set:

Awesome, love the A&G back minis and I didn't have either of these.  There were a bunch from this year's set as well...

The Splendid Splinter...

Jon Lester (already showed the front)...

David Ortiz (ditto)...

Wade Boggs...

Bill Buckner...

Dustin Pedroia...

Jacoby Ellsbury...

and Jim Rice (already showed front).  That would be a total of 8 of those guys.  With just 11 Red Sox on the checklist I'm now only 3 cards short of a Mini A&G back team set.  Unreal, huh?  30 cards for 99 cents!  That's not the end of it though, here's the best part:

Mini black borders!  I got Will Middlebrooks, who's been slugging the ball since his recent promotion from AAA Pawtucket...

Bill Buckner.  Totally excited about this one.  I've wanted this exact parallel since this set hit the shelves, but haven't bought any of these cards at all until this purchase.  I'm glad Buckner's been brought into the fold this year, even if Topps continues to use this same photo (see Museum Collection, Gypsy Queen, etc)...

The new $100 million dollar man...

...and Hall-of-Famer Jim Rice.  Last but not least, as if this deal wasn't crazy enough...

...not one...

...but two relics!  How could I possibly win this entire lot for just 99 cents?  Classic eBay listing mistakes.  First of all, here's the auction so you can see for yourself (at least for the next 60 days or until the link expires).  There are a few things the seller did wrong in my opinion:

• No pictures.  Really?  If you don't have a scanner you must at least have a cell phone?  Nothing tanks an auction, especially something like baseball cards where condition matters, like the lack of even a single photo.
• Bad auction title.  I would think the fact that the words 2013 Allen & Ginter were all spelled right would have at least attracted some others to this one, but why would you use 'team lot' instead of 'team set' when you've got a complete team set (plus complete Across the Years team set)?  I could almost guarantee that listing this as '2013 Allen & Ginter Red Sox Team Set, Game Used & More!' would have generated many more hits.
• Finally, a poor description.  At the end of the write-up the seller states "Only 2 cards from 2012 in this lot".  I'm sure to some this may have sounded like the seller could be being deceptive and was only auctioning off the two 2012 cards.  We've all seen stuff like that before.  A quick look at this seller's excellent feedback should have quelled any doubt there.

 Even when you factor in the $3.77 for shipping, I paid around 13 cents per card.  I think this is the best eBay deal I've managed all year!