Ending Auctions (was Re: HP 2114 on ebay)

From: Mike Ford <mikeford_at_socal.rr.com>
Date: Thu Sep 16 16:15:10 1999

>> Second, the basic rules continue to hold. Which are:
>> - You offer something for sale, you have the option of setting
>> a reserve price and a minimum bid.
>> - When your auction ends, if the highest bid was above
>> your reserve then you _MUST_ sell the item to the highest
>> bidder. REGARDLESS OF HOW THE AUCTION ENDED.
>
>Speaking of this point, did anyone catch the auction for the Xerox
>Star? Talk about weird endings, it was around $2100 (reserve not
>met) until the very end, when suddenly a $7000 bid comes in
>(reserve met). But get this, the alias of the high bidder is almost
>exactly the same as the seller (seller was foobar, buyer was
>foo.bar). Sounds like maybe the second place bidder actually hit
>the reserve ($2300?) and the seller decided that he didn't want to
>sell it so put in a massive bid under a diff. alias?
>
>George

Does look a bit curious, but thats eBay (nuts). Both buyer and seller have
a fair amount of feedback history, so they may be unique people with
similar names. www.vintagecomputers.com claims to be the largest privately
held computer collection, opening soon.

Somebody should invite buyer and seller to join this list, if they BOTH
aren't already on it. ;)

Here is the bid history.

eBay Bid History for Xerox Star, the First Commercial GUI Computer (item
#159344077)

If you have questions about this item, please contact the seller at the
User ID provided below. Seller assumes all responsibility for listing this
item.

Last bid for this item: $7,500.00 (reserve price met)
Date auction ends: 09/13/99, 20:37:51 PDT
Date auction started: 09/06/99, 20:37:51 PDT
Seller: old.computers
(old_computers_at_yahoo.com) (16)
First bid at: $1,000.00
Number of bids made: 16 (may include multiple bids by
same bidder)


------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bidding History (in order of bid amount):

oldcomputers (ebay_at_vintagecomputers.com) (14)
        Last bid at: $7,500.00
        Date of bid: 09/13/99, 20:37:29 PDT

atarmiga (atari_at_wcoil.com) (2)
        Last bid at: $2,300.00
        Date of bid: 09/13/99, 18:07:46 PDT

eleestafford (lstafford_at_thestaffords.com) (15)
        Last bid at: $2,010.00
        Date of bid: 09/13/99, 16:41:51 PDT

mikegalos (mikegalos_at_msn.com) (10)
        Last bid at: $1,025.00
        Date of bid: 09/08/99, 22:33:50 PDT
Received on Thu Sep 16 1999 - 16:15:10 BST