junius wrote:
John S. wrote:
You have just described hundreds of thousands of Ebay deals... Every
sellers dream is to sell their goods for more than they paid.

Sure, that's a given. If you've read through the messages on this guy,
you'll see that the function of this sort of thread is to alert folks
to the fact that this guy is presumably an habitual liar regarding the
quality/condition of the products he sells. While other sellers might
do the same thing, there has been an established pattern noted by some
with regard to this specific seller. By alerting the rest of us to
this, the thread is serving to potentially improve knowledge on the
buyers' side. Other threads have highlighted instances of alleged
shill bidding on this guys part, even noting, for instance, that one of
his profiles had once left feedback on the other.

I've been on this forum long anough to recognize that small core of
individuals who when this topic comes up all pile on with the same
litany of complaints and responses over and over. If this guy was
really that bad his rating would be so low that Ebay would drop him.



Ebay can't police the quality of goods sold...that's up to the buyer
and seller to figure out. Ebay is first and foremost a broker. If
something is illegal, violates property rights, is dangerous or is on a
list of banned goods then they sometimes jump in.

It's quite true that eBay can't police the quality of goods sold on
their site, that's why a thread like this serves to alleviate problems
of imperfect knowledge on the buyers' side. Since this guy allegedly
has an established way of doing business (i.e. buying mediocre goods
and then selling them as "as new" or "excellent condition"), Mike is
actually doing us a service by alerting us to the seller's practices.

There are so many sellers of radios on Ebay that throw descriptives
like Mint, Minty, New Old Stock, Clean, Works Perfectly, etc., into
auctions that anyone with half an ounce of sense just completely
ignores them and asks specifics about condition. Information on Ebay
has to be treated as though it is coming from a used car dealer.



Ebay is full of people selling worn out rusty stuff...it's up to the
seller to ask the right questions before sending in his money. Caveat
emptor is the first rule of doing business on Ebay!!

Exactly, that's why it's useful to have threads like this in order to
alert potential buyers (at least those shortwave enthusiasts who
frequent this board regularly or occasionally) when a seller is
habitually overstating the quality of merchandise and/or possibly
manipulating the bidding (by utilizing private bidding and then
employing an alternate account to possibly drive up the price at which
an item sells).

I have yet to come across a seller that underdescribes his radios, and
in my experience there are very few that list the warts and wrinkles
completely. As with used car dealers, Ebay sellers are in the business
of selling.

Do you or others have recent examples of this guy using shill bidders
to inflate the auction price?

Even if the guy is using shills that is no excuse for a potential buyer
not knowing his maximum price.




This and previous threads are beginning to sound more like whining from
a bunch of disgruntled sellers who can't compete with a high volume
dealer.

I don't see that folks are whining about not being able to compete with
this guy. It's more a case of folks noting his practices and warning
others that they might think twice or thrice before bidding on one of
his items. And that's fair enough, huh?

Given that it is essentially the same group of people climbing on the
bandwagon each time I have to think there is another agenda.



Junius