[meteorite-list] More eBay cancelled auctions

Darren Garrison cynapse at charter.net
Sun Aug 30 10:48:43 EDT 2009


I had an issue similar to this recently-- I was looking for a specific computer
related book.  The book was in it's 4th edition, with 2nd, 3rd, and 4th edition
copies all on Ebay with varying prices.  Someone had a 3rd edition copy on
auction with a 99 cent opening price, but they had a feedback rating of only 3.
But figuring everybody had to start some time, I made a bid.  

The auction continued a few days after my bid (so I wasn't sniping) and nobody
else bid at all.  The auction closed for 99 cents plus shipping.  I paypaled the
amount as soon as the auction ended.  Within a hour, I get a refund from Paypal,
with a message from the seller that she had "sold it to someone else off-line."
Now, obviously, she had simply not liked the closing price and wanted a do over.
If it had been a seriously high-priced item that went for 99 cents, I would
probably have let someone off the hook just to be fair.  But 99 cents for a used
copy of a previous edition of a computer manual is not an unreasonable price,
even if it did cost $60 when it was new a few years back.  Dishonest tactics
over unrealistic expectations on prices for a used item deserve a negative
feedback, and got a negative feedback with an explanation why (best as could be
done in the 80 character limit.)

I then used buy-it-now to pick up a 2nd edition copy of the book for $2.05 with
no hassles.  



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