I don't know whether many, if any, were watching the following item that was advertised as "hand built racing bicycle 1950's Ted Gerrard" and was at the following site:
In any case, I have a couple of questions about that auction: do any members know anything about the specific bike auctioned? If a member from the list "won" the auction, I'd sure like to hear about its condition and the component and see some decent jpegs of it from the person when he or she receives it. And finally this auction was listed as a "private auction." (Actually, I think it was changed from a regular auction to a private auction once the bids started coming in, though I could be wrong, and that sounds like something Ebay might disallow, but they do tend to allow most things as long as they make money.) From the seller's point of view, what advantage is there to listing something as a "private auction?" I can see why a buyer may wish to have his or her identity not revealed, but why would a seller prefer not to have the bidders posted? The only possible reason from the seller's perspective, though this take the cynical view, that I can fathom is that such an auction allows the seller to use shill bids, but that is, as I wrote, the cynical view. I can't, however, think of other reasons, can anyone else?
Thanks for considering it.
Cheers.
Tom
Tom Hayes
18585 Munn Road
Chagrin Falls, Ohio 44023
hayesbikes@nls.net
hayes@jcu.edu