The prices you paid were after a listing of a week or ten days Mike ,gives other people the chance to have a look.
The only way to buy something at the right price is to put in notifications / searches as BIN and have a look at wrongly attributed and buy them straight away.
Otherwise people like me would of bought them two years ago .
I have stopped looking for pennies now as have most ....but the only way IMO.
If you spot something with ten days left......chances are i have aswell
If your not bothered not a problem i found out myself the hard way.
Ebay sells a load of RANG but if your looking for i.e. 1911 penny and want a gouby X look at the 1911 penny ones BIN
If you want one i have about seven picked up this year ,the ones sold over a week or so people spot and pay £80 plus on average.
Not being clever but other people are buying them and reselling all from bin.
IF you want to compete not a problem............if you want something cheap BIN.
My collection is complete as far as i want to take it and turned all my searches off as not interested in ebay.
Be lucky.
Pete.