[R-390] Radio Mart burned my @#$%$ again

[Grant Youngman]

> I think that is the biggest issue with this whole thing.  A 
> fellow looking 
> for a decent radio at a decent price was bested by a fellow 
> who is only in 
> the business to buy and resell.  And do it in a way that 
> usually makes many 
> of us sick.

1.  Sniping is a standard method of buying on eBay.  The sniper's advantage
is that his bid is placed in the last few seconds of the auction, and there
is generally not time to come in with a manually entered bid at a higher
price.
2.  Sniping ONLY wins if the bid placed by the sniper is greater than the
maximum bid placed by whomever the otherwise high bidder is.
3.  If the "then current" high bidder (apparently viewed as the "good guy")
had placed a maximum bid higher than the sniper's maximum bid, the sniper
would have lost.

That's why, when one places a bid on eBay, one should place a bid at the
maximum amount you're willing to pay.  If someone else comes along and is
willing to pay more, they win the item.  No fault, no foul.  You
(collective, not personal) didn't pay too much (and then spend the next 250
messages on a reflector grumbling about how you got scr*wed on eBay); he
paid what he was willing to pay.  I see nothing wrong with that.  Ebay, or
ANY auction, is all about who's willing to pay the most, not about who the
good guys are or who the bad guys are, or some notion that the "good guy"
should get a good price because he's just a great down home all around
decent guy with sweet grandkids.

More than once I've been ready to close a deal at a 'fest, with money in
hand, when somebody else walks up and 'snipes' my offer.  I didn't want to
pay that much, and walked.  I did NOT get sick.  There's always another
Excelsior 3500X with SSB mod and extra front panel holes, or whatever,
somewhere.  And half the time when you finally get your hands on something
you just knew you couldn't live without, you find out it isn't quite what it
was cracked up to be, anyway :-)

Grant/NQ5T