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Posted By: Rob Dewolf

On Saturday night I bid on this item on eBay:

http://tinyurl.com/y8qgzf

My bid was $206, so I was far down on the list of final bidders. This evening I received the following e-mail sent directly to my e-mail address (as opposed to via eBay's system:

Dear Sir,

You expressed interest in an item titled:
Pat Seerey Cleveland Indians 1940's pencil clip
item number: 330072217635 bidding, however the
auction has ended with another member as the high
bidder.I will make this Second Chance Offer because the winning bidder was
unable to complete the transaction. The selling price will be your last bid price.
About shipping and insurance I'll pay for it.
If you're ready for this purchase, please send me your full name and
address- as soon as I have them I'll start the official procedure,and
eBay will notify you about this. You'll also receive important
guidelines + instructions from them (please go through them exactly).
Waiting for your e-mail!!!
Thank you.

The tip-offs that this is a scam are numerous, and -- for what it's worth -- I've forwarded the e-mail to eBay. But if this doesn't poke a hole in eBay's reasoning that hiding bidders' handles will provide them protection and anonymity, I don't know what does.

Rob