[Milsurplus] Selecting auction winner?

[Bob Camp]

Hi,

Equally important how do you distinguish between onshore and offshore 
bidders in the first place. Email addresses are not much help. Mine 
will show up as New Zealand and not Connecticut if you do a basic 
lookup on it. A bit more poking will get you to Columbus Ohio. A bit 
more will eventually get you quite a bit closer to home. That's a *lot* 
of work just to track a very normal email address. The "registered in" 
information for a user on the auction sites isn't much better. I see a 
*lot* of buyers and sellers who are registered in the US and obviously 
reside in another country. I also see quite a number who live outside 
the country but at least ship to/from a location in the US.

An awkward approach would be to run a "private" auction. The bidders 
first prove to you they are in the US and then you let them in to the 
auction. I don't particularly like this approach because it generates a 
lot of work for each auction you do. It is about the only way I can see 
with the current rules that are in place to be even close to sure of 
what is going on.

Not an easy task - Good Luck!

	 Bob Camp
	KB8TQ


On Apr 18, 2004, at 10:15 PM, Hue Miller wrote:

> I am thinking about putting up a couple items or so, on auction,
> but i am having some concerns - i do NOT want these items to
> leave the USA, silly me. I am concerned that one overseas bidder
> may circumvent my wishes. Are there any countermeasures i can
> take, practically, or should i just forget the "public auction" ?
> *
> If you feel this topic is inappropriate to this list, this is my only
> post on the subject, and respondents may choose to reply to me
> off-list.
> Tnx, Hue Miller
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