Thanks for the reply David.
I totally understand where you are coming from, and agree on some points. In your scenario though, you knew about the cards for a couple of years. In my scenario, the 24 hour auction is already underway.
I get the points about someone doing a lot of combing through ebay (you say this is the hard work) and finding a possible steal-and then someone else outs the auction, and you are now competing with many instead of a few- but,even if you are only competeing with a few, you still may get blown out of the water by one of those few having deep pockets-thus, your hard work doesn't give you any reward, only frustration. There's no guarantee either way that you will win the card.
As far as PM'ing board members- I'm sure this happens all of the time. I may not have an interest in a card, for whatever means- but, may PM another member who I think may want it- is this wrong? You are saying I should just buy the card, and offer it to him myself?
I think where you lose me is when you say if the person doesn't do the work, for any reason, they should not have a shot at the card. I say this because (keep in mind, 24 hour auction) somepeople work 8,10,12 hours a day-then, they come home and deal with wife and kids, etc- maybe don't have the time to scour pages of ebay etc. But, they work hard in life and would love to spend their hard earned money on this card in the 24 hour auction. I think that person should have as much of a chance to buy the card as the person sitting on ebay all day with the time to scour the pages....after all, ebay is open to everyone nationwide.
In another post, you kind of described two types of people, one who didn't have the time to search, and one who is lazy. Of course no one wants the lazy person to win
but unfortunately ebay auctions don't work that way-it's all about who is willing to spend the most money-period.
No one in life wants to feel that the reward of all of their hard work will be reaped by someone else. But I guess to me when looking at cards/hobby I don't equate it with a grueling 10 hour day at work (I know some people here who sell will disagree with that statement
) - meaning, a hobby should be fun, not some cut throat "I found it first, F everyone else, too bad for them they didn't find it, it's ALL MIIINNNEEE" type of thing.
Anyhow- I've never outed an auction. But, truth be known, I don't really care. I've just found this to be an interesting thread where it comes down to ethics and morals, and seeing where people agree and disagree.
Thanks again for the reply-
Sincerely, Clayton