Date:         Sun, 26 Oct 2003 20:24:52 -0800
Reply-To:     Dave Benjamin <dave_benjamin@YAHOO.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Dave Benjamin <dave_benjamin@YAHOO.COM>
Subject:      Ebay
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

I've had some weird experiences lately on Ebay. On one
item I emailed a seller asking some questions and he
emailed me shortly after the auction had closed with
only one bid, the winning one, and was talking about
selling the item to me. This is less than 24 hours
after his auction ended. Maybe he thought I'd pay more
than his winning bidder. I doubt that he had more than
one of that item since it was a complete interior for
a car.

On another auction I placed several bids but none of
them was high enough to be the winning bid. The
auction closed late at night and there was a winning
bidder. By looking at the winning bidders feedback I
could see he had recently purchased from the same
seller and received positive feedback.
The next morning I get an email from the seller saying
that he hasn't heard from the winning bidder and he
would like to sell the item to me. Incidently his
auction listing specifified 48 hours for the winning
bidder to pay. He further goes on to state that I
should withdraw my bid if I don't intend to purchase
the item so I don't get negative feedback. Keep in
mind I'm not the winning bidder and under no
obligation to buy per Ebay rules.
I'm pretty sure these guys are using shills to drive
up the price and then going after whoever the highest
legitimate bidder was to try and close the deal.
I'm rapidly losing faith in the Ebay community. I'll
still buy a few items and deal with some of the
reputable vendors like 47th st photo but it's just
getting a bit too weird.


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