[Collins] Ebay withdrawals???

[Dr. Gerald N. Johnson]

On Sun, 2006-02-19 at 13:08 -0800, Thomas Beltran wrote:
> There are things on ebay that are suspicious, but hard to really prove, and could just be coincidence.  Two examples are when I have twice been a bidder on items that the high bidder did not keep his or her end of the bargain.  In each case, the seller then offered the item to me, as the next highest bidder, at my bid price.  I wouldn't accept, because I wanted the seller to rescind all the former high bidder's bids (say that a few times fast).  I was only willing to pay my highest bid before the bidding "war," with the person who for whatever reason did not pay.  I felt like the non-payer may have been a shill, to get me up in price - but I could be wrong.  Having had this happen twice, I do think this is also something to watch for.  
> 
> I also had a case where the seller listed an item for closing on a Tuesday evening.  By Monday afternoon  there were about 7 bidders, and very low price.  The seller ended the sale, to "correct an error," and relisted at a better time.  There was a very minor change in the offer.  Who knows could be quite innocent, but it made me a little suspicious.  Tom W6EIJ
>  
When you get e-mail offering a second chance, you should be very
suspicious. Ebay doesn't like those and there are many around the world
willing to get you to work direct and to tell you there is a second
chance even when they weren't the original seller. Unless that second
chance offer comes through ebay mail, its almost surely bogus.

Watch out for sellers who won't set the shipping costs at the beginning.
They can and sometimes do set the shipping cost to cover what they
thought they should have received when the bidding isn't much and you
get cornered with a lot more in shipping than you planned to pay and
there's not a whole lot you can do about it except reject the whole
thing and then you have to prove to epay that you aren't the thief even
though its the seller who appears to be the thief.
-- 
73, Jerry, K0CQ, Technical Advisor to the CRA
All content copyright Dr. Gerald N. Johnson, electrical engineer