Wow! Those guys play hardball! In any other
area of interest (with the possibile exceptions of
other stuff people really care about, like Hummel
figurines), after a few days of serious bidding you
pretty much know whether you've got something
in your pocket or not. But chocolate molds (and
in particular Anton Reiche molds) go right to the
bitter end, the price skyrocketing at the last minute
in a strange game of chicken between adversaries
who know nothing about each other than some
fictitious screen names and the smell of blood.

At some point, the train leaves the tracks -- it's
no longer a question of how much this antique
Reiche mold is worth, but a question of winning
or losing. So far, I've managed to resist the
temptation to continue bidding past that point,
though I wonder if in the long term I'll regret
the ones that got away more than the ones I've
overpaid for.

Also, I am deeply suspicious that numerous molds
attributed to Reiche are recent fakes. Even
viewed through the keyhole of Ebay photos,
some molds exhibit features that suggest to me
they are of a different class than the authentic
vintage molds.