My thoughts
My completely random thoughts on Kruk...
I met them at the national a couple years ago near the closing time. The youngish Kruk was manning the booth and as I was leaving the exit I noticed their booth and made a comment such as "I know you, I bought 'x' from your store on eBay, etc." I then tried to ask how they come across their such large inventory and the guy basically blows me off, dismisses my Q. He is clearly interested in packing up rather than talking to me. Bad customer service, I haven't bought since.
On the issue of shilling--this is a very serious accusation against anyone. I am NOT an expert at reading "bid histories" and figuring out if shilling has occurred. I would say it must be hard to prove. There are alot of casual collectors that might get lost on eBay, save a couple of large sellers (like Kruk) and perhaps only bid on their items rather than navigate thru the eBay web. That is why I get nervous when someone accuses those of "shilling" b/c buyer "x" might just bid with that seller 80% of the time simply out of convenience.Also, I did buy and got a great deal on a lot from Kruk so that makes me suspicious they have a shill operation (of course this is a tiny sample size).
I would think a large seller might be tempted to shill (it would be so easy to pull off) but would also be equally cautious that if the info got out they would be killed...At the end of the day, it really comes down to integrity of the owners and I can only hope that Kruk is run by 100% honest guys that would not tolerate this shilling activity...
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