Official 'COOL ITEM ON EBAY!' thread...

Linda · Posted: Fri Sep 14, 2007 6:19 pm Post subject:

Dan, Are you calling me a hypocrite?

Dan · Posted: Fri Sep 14, 2007 6:48 pm Post subject:

I was saying I would be one if I did what you did.

I don't recall if you ever railed against the practice...

Linda · Posted: Fri Sep 14, 2007 7:32 pm Post subject:

Dan, I feel like if I don't encourage people to end their auctions early and they do for another bidder. Then we have a game not listed anywhere up for sale. I can ask them not to end early, but I can't control people's actions. I've already said I believe 70% of the games I ask the sellers not to end early do anyway.

I believe good things happen to good people. I'm not selfish, but I do get sensitive about comments from you because of the nature and tone of your comments to others. I've been a victim of them before.

Not trying to change the subject, but I remember when you said I needed to "lighten up" because I didn't want people to know my ebay bidder ID. You had no idea why, but you felt comfortable in making what I considered a snide remark. I didn't want to go into detail about when people find out I'm "that Linda from the forum" how I have strange men offering to hand deliver my games from neighboring states. How I told them to ship it and they drop it off at my house anyway. How I have strange men stopping by asking if they can come in and see my game collection. Do you have any idea how many strange men have shown up at my door? I've started shipping games to a male friend's house in some instances if they are coming from in state or neighboring states. I'm single, I live alone, you haven't walked a mile in my footsteps so you have no right to tell me to "lighten up" about trying to keep some mystery to my identity. Wow, I wanted to say that for a long time. I feel better now. I guess women really do save things to use in arguments against men later. Hmm, who knew?

Dan, sorry to unload on you, but I really do feel you can be overly critical in your comments for someone who doesn't really know any of us.

Linda

Dan · Posted: Fri Sep 14, 2007 8:14 pm Post subject:

Gotcha, Linda! I'll lighten up too. After all, they're just games! Smile

I've had rather good luck informing possibly ignorant sellers what treasures they are sitting on, and that if they want to get what they're worth to let the auctions do their jobs. Gotten tons of thank-yous.

I've also had good luck taking "advantage" of REALLY ignorant sellers who slap a crazy low BIN on their items, so I guess there's a grey area there, if I was so worried for the ignorant I should kill their BIN with an opening bid rather than taking the BIN! Embarassed

Sounds like you need a PO box! If not a USPS one, maybe a Mailboxes etc style one, so FedEx and UPS can deliver there too.

And, what, do you expect normal men showing up wanting to see your games? Wink

Neil UK · Posted: Sun Sep 16, 2007 2:23 am Post subject:

Hello Linda,
It was my fault that your name was connected to a certain Ebay name and I'm very sorry if I caused you any more harasment from people Embarassed

. There was no malace in my question. I was just chuffed I thought I had finally worked out who had outbid me so often on all the most exciting games!!

I've got to admit though, if you won one of my Grip Lends etc and I lived within sensible driving distance of you, I would love to bring it to you in person if there was a chance of having a peek at your collection Wink

. Most people don't consider me too strange Smile

.

Sorry once again,

Neil.

Linda · Posted: Sun Sep 16, 2007 8:23 am Post subject:

Neil, no problem. I do the same thing. I didn't think you did it to cause issues.

And you are welcome to view my collection. I just like to know when someone is coming so I can invite other friends or even have a small get together. I give "tours" all the time, but it's usually a friend of a friend and our mutual friend comes along or it's a co-worker who is interested. I just don't like being in house alone with unfamiliar men. I shouldn't call them strange, they look just like a lot of my friends (engineers), I just meant they are strangers to me.

Linda

Neil UK · Posted: Sun Sep 16, 2007 12:56 pm Post subject:

Thanks Linda Smile

. I'll let you know if I'm ever in Texas. Don't wait up for me though as I doubt I'll make it to the Americas before I retire!

Neil.

Neil UK · Posted: Sun Sep 16, 2007 12:59 pm Post subject:

Very old 'game' and probably unique. Might be of interest to someone.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayI.....amp;ih=004

Neil.

Dan · Posted: Sun Sep 16, 2007 1:59 pm Post subject:

Linda, I knew you meant strange as in strangers, not as in odd, it was just an attempt at humor!

LEDFreak · Posted: Sun Sep 16, 2007 8:26 pm Post subject:

Wow,
What a newbie I am I had no idea that this sort of thing went on. People ending items early? How is that done? I have something I want to sell on ebay...the bids start coming in...and someone emails me and says, "Look, end the listing, and I'll pay you more than you would have gotten in the bidding."? Is that how it works? Why wouldn't the seller just take his chances with the bidding? Is the offer so high that he knows his bids won't come close? If so, why doesn't the buyer, with all his mega bucks, just put a very high bid on it, and nobody will touch it?
I have no idea what you did, Linda...I'm still trying to figure this all out. Was it controversial? DId you contact a seller after a bid was over and offer to buy the item?
I have never thought to email buyers and ask them not to end the auction early. I never knew that was an option. Weird. I guess I'm still a rookie.
_________________
'76-'84 LED and VFD collector.

Rik · Posted: Sun Sep 16, 2007 9:59 pm Post subject:

No, it's basically a type of con. Someone finds an old game in their basement, and decides to sell it on eBay with an opening bid of 99 cents, hoping to maybe get $10-20 for it. (But, in reality, to us collectors it's worth say $500, like the Mr. Digger that sold recently.) So, the scum-bag contacts the seller and says 'I'll give you $100 if you end the auction now and sell it to me.' The seller thinks 'Damn, I would never get that much for it on eBay, hell yeah I'll sell it to you!' and he proceeds to cancel the auction and sell it to the person (this is EXACTLY what someone did with an Entex Adventure Vision. Fortunately I convinced the seller to just re-list it on eBay, and he got the $700-800 that it was really worth).

What Linda did was she contacted a seller in this situation AFTER she had ended the auction for a low-ball offer like this, told her what the game was really worth and offered that amount for it. Realizing that the first 'buyer' was just trying to rip her off, the seller chose to sell it to Linda instead.

Personally I would have preferred if the seller just re-listed it. But at least the game went an honest collector instead of a thief.

Like you pointed out, if you are Mr. Money-Bags, just bid huge on the auction and you are guaranteed to win. The only reason to try to talk someone into ended an auction early is simply to try to rip them off... Every time this has happened and the seller was willing to give me information, they sold the game for FAR less than it would have if they just let the auction go. They just think they have a cheap, worthless game and are shocked that anyone would pay more than $10 for it...

Rik

Dan · Posted: Mon Sep 17, 2007 6:39 am Post subject:

Well put, Rik, except you left out that the offer-maker rationalizes their behavior with "if I don't get them to end early for me, then I will lose out altogether because someone else will talk them into doing it for them."

Which I suppose is true in some cases, but I don't think it makes it right.

eBay ought to educate sellers more thoroughly, and they also ought to modify their privacy policy to indicate that items that are ended early will have any related message center emails scrutinized for such activity, but I'm not holding my breath.

LEDFreak · Posted: Mon Sep 17, 2007 7:04 am Post subject:

Thanks, Rik. That was a great explanation. Good heads up on Linda's part.
Cheers
_________________
'76-'84 LED and VFD collector.

Rik · Posted: Mon Sep 17, 2007 10:03 am Post subject:

Eggie · Posted: Wed Sep 19, 2007 9:46 am Post subject:

Why is this game so very rare en expensive/
I know it's rare but i was shocked to see the price, that Japanes guy again.. he knows the nive items.

http://cgi.ebay.nl/ws/eBayISAP.....amp;ih=002

Regards