Facebook Firesale

Within the last week or so, I have started to see a lot of "Firesales" going up on a couple of different sports card Facebook sites I follow.  I am not a big Facebook user but have been a little more active lately as I am trying to thin out my collection and sell a few things on the local marketplaces.  I had to explore a little to figure out the ins and outs but basically here is how these are working.

A person posts that they will be starting a firesale at a certain time or when they get a certain number of watchers.  They will usually give a high level description of what might be posted for sale and let you know how much shipping will be.  If you want to watch, you comment with a "W" and they you get notifications when new comments are posted.  When they decide to start, they post a picture of a card or cards they are selling with a price.  The first person to claim it gets it at that price.  I have seen a few sellers accept lower offers and in some cases some sellers will list cards for free to anyone that has already claimed a card to purchase.

I watched a few of these before deciding to give one a try.  Many of them focus on newer stuff, lots of Acuna, Ohtani, Gleyber stuff which really doesn't interest me. I am not a prospector and don't typically buy cards to flip.  The one I decided to join stated it would be a mix of vintage and newer stuff.

The first card that was posted got my attention and I decided to jump at it:

I was the first to claim it and got it for $5 which I feel is a great deal.  I love Dawson's signature and I think this design out of 2018 Museum Collection is sharp.  Dawson being featured in an Expos uni probably sealed the deal. I already have an auto or 2 of his in my HOF collection but this is a keeper as well.

I only bit on 3 recent cards during this sale:

 I wasn't sure if I needed the Posey but luckily it was one of 2 2016 Donruss Optic pink cards I needed.  I believe the Sepia Seager was a freebee and the manurelic was very cheap.  I figured with the number of Dodger collectors out there these would be easy to pawn off. Let me know if you are interested in either or both.

The mention of vintage was the draw to this sale for me and I picked up a few nice cards:

The 1964 Topps leaders cards are both in pretty nice condition although the ERA leaders is off center quite a bit.  The Sutton looks nice as well. The Morgan is creased and beat up a bit but for $1 I couldn't say no.  I already have my 1969 set built so I am not sure what happens with the Morgan but the other 3 will stick around in case I start a set build on either set.

The final card to share also shares top billing with the Dawson for my favorite pick up.

This card is from the 1950 Callahan HOF set and I believe Mathewson is 1 of 5 Giants in the set.  I already had Carl Hubbel and John McGraw so this card gets me to over half way to the team set.  It is also my first Giants card produced in their NY Giants days towards my 2019 goal of 20.  This card is smaller than a standard card measuring about 1.5 by 2.5 inches. It has a nice bio write up on the back and I am very happy to have found it.

So, all in all, I was able to pick up these cards for $20.50 delivered.  I think it worked out pretty well.  Have any of you ever acquired cards this way?  Think you will?