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Posted By: runscott

and I have seen board members' opinions on this fall all the way along it, from total disgust with any "disguising" of facts, to a feeling that it is completely the buyer's responsibility and anything short of a flat-out lie is allowable by the seller.

Basically, many ebayers (and auction houses) treat their auctions like a detective game: they attempt to create added value in the bidders' minds by indicating what the item "might" be (something rare or very valuable), then present all the evidence needed in order for the bidder to solve the mystery, determining (if they follow the clues correctly) that it is NOT valuable at all...the problem is that the research involved usually takes more brains than most ebayers possess, and/or more time and effort than anyone is willing to spend.

The key thing: the ebayer almost always knows what they are selling, but appeal to our desire to get something rare for a bargain, with words and phrases like "supplement", "proof", "might be real".