You won't find eBay wanting to "get in the middle" in that way. They get a
fee based on the high bid. They don't really care whether the transaction
is completed. Of course, the seller gets a credit for his fee in the case
where the sale isn't completed, but eBay still gets the money.
Why would they want to change this comfortable arrangement?
Dick
-----Original Message-----
From: Philip.Belben_at_pgen.com <Philip.Belben_at_pgen.com>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp_at_u.washington.edu>
Date: Tuesday, May 18, 1999 7:52 AM
Subject: Re: (fwd) WARNING! New Ebay SCAM! (fwd)
>
>
>>>>It means that the "dealer" has an item X in their inventory, they see
that
>>>someone else on Ebay is selling an equivalent X. The dealer follows the
>>>auction to completion, when complete, the dealer sends email to the
second
>>>highest bidder and asks if they would like to purchase the item from them
>>>for the price they offered the seller.
>>>
>>>This is a scam? Give it a break guys. If I bid on something and am not
the
>>>high bidder I would like a chance to buy. If you don't then don't reply.
>>>Sometimes you can get in a bidding war and end up pay many times the
value
>>>of an item, I.E. Imsai or Altec on Ebay, Is it really that different
than
>>>making an offer here to someone who has something you want? So who looses
if
>>>a seller contacts you and you agree on a fair price? Ebay? Time to face
the
>>>facts Ebay, Yahoo, etc., etc. auctions are going to stay a while.
>>
>> The above was an explanation of the legitimate practice. The abuse is
where
>> a third party pretends to be the seller, contacts the second etc. bidders
>> and requests payment be sent to a blind PO Box, then skips with the funds
>> never sending any goods.
>>
>> BTW I just sent an inquiry to eBay to see if this is rumor, hoax, or
fact.
>
>
>Oh. I got the impression that it was the highest bidder doing this, i.e.
>outbidding the legitimate bidders; then selling his stuff to the failed
bidders;
>and only then backing down on the original sale. Very nasty, because the
>original vendor can't sell to the failed bidders until he has definitely
heard
>that the winner is backing down...
>
>At a genuine auction in the UK, the auctioneer has the legal power to sign
a
>contract of purchase on behalf of either party. So backing down is very,
very
>difficult. But this sort of safeguard has yet to reach Ebay, I suppose.
>
>Philip.
>
>
>
>
>
Received on Tue May 18 1999 - 09:25:48 BST