Re: [CR] Ebayer to be avoided: gary-at-home - WHY?

(Example: History:Norris Lockley)

From: Donald Gillies <gillies@cs.ubc.ca>
Date: Sat, 5 Feb 2005 12:26:45 -0800 (PST)
To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
Subject: Re: [CR] Ebayer to be avoided: gary-at-home - WHY?

> It is not OK to retract a bid due to "entered wrong bid amount"
> unless you immediately re-bid the correct amount.
>
> Greg "eBay nerd" Parker
> Ann Arbor, Michigan

How do you know he DID NOT enter the correct amount immediately after entering the wrong amount ?? His new amount might be less than the current leading bid. It has happened to me, about 3 times, that I entered a very high bid, and when i finally got back to the item page i noticed some new detail of the auction that completely invalidated my valuation. At that point (and always within seconds of entering a bid), i retract my bid. I do not think this violates the spirit of the retracted bid feature if you retract your bid right away.

If my overbid reveals a secret reserve price then I often have to recuse myself from further bidding because my mistake has revealed auction info that I should not have known.

Just today i noticed that an item I had bid upon was french threaded - rats. i would retract the bid but i made it a few days ago and so i feel bound to go through with the bid. I sure hope someone outbids me.

Steve Maasland's auction had a cinelli badge that wasn't part of the auction and that wasn't made clear. In my opinion, the seller went over the line and cannot complain if his misleading promotionary pictures confused an innocent bidder. I don't know much about cinelli stems and badges, for all i know, the badge might be shipped separately and you might attach it upon arrival to avoid badge damage.

- Don Gillies
San Diego, CA