Posted By:
Fred CI can't believe that anybody here is surprised if a seller takes an auction down and sets up a BIN for it. This has been going on for years. I used to think it was bush league until I didn't win a few auctions because the seller sold it off line. Then I figured it out - if you can't beat'em then figure out another way to beat'em and if that includes using the same methods, then so be it.
I think the best way to eliminate something like this from happening is to BID a large enough bid to let the seller figure out that what's up for auction is something valuable. If two or three people put up a nice bid then the seller will probably let the auction run its course. Lots of sellers have no clue what they're selling. They probably figure that a nice offer is better than waiting it out. The next time someone wants something REALLY bad then throw a reasonable bid on the item because maybe, just maybe you're not the only person to see the auction.
What's truly sad though is if the seller gives away something because they had no idea of what the value was. Oh well, to the victor goes the spoils. Personally, I'd rather see the card sell for a reasonable amount but if it didn't then the buyer got a deal. Something to consider is that the buyer should get the seller to BIN it because the seller can turn into an a$$ and burn you if they receive emails from other potential buyers letting them know that they'd either pay more for the card or that the seller just got ripped off. That's why a decent offer and a BIN work best.
Hey TBOB - if you happened to ask the seller to end the auction with a BIN and the seller did it then my hats off to you! For those of you that disagree, well lets just agree to disagree and perhaps you need to get into the 21st century of how ebay (and ebayers) operate.