Quote:
Originally Posted by celoknob
Sellers should not end auctions early and buyers should not ask.
I believe it is an ethical issue. I wouldn't take any pride in sweeping up some item I really wanted knowing that someone else was watching or bidding and also wanted it.
I guess this is a case of the squeaky wheel gets the grease but that does not make it right. I'm surprised how many are comfortable with themselves doing it.
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For some categories on ebay, the early offer is almost always how it is done - pool cues, for instance. Ebay rarely gets anything other than listing fees on pool cue auctions. If I ever saw a cue I wanted, I always put a marker bid in, then contacted the seller and asked him to contact me if he decided to sell early. Even then, most auctions ended without me getting a shot.
I'm sure there are other categories that work much like baseball cards used to - mostly straight auctions - but there will fewer of those as ebay moves toward the Amazon model that David described.
As this forum grows, and the bay straight auction deals disappear, we will eventually be ripe for creating our own vintage card/memorabilia ebay clone. We just need enough participants who would trust it as much as they do the auction houses, so that straight auctions could realize decent prices.