On 27-Dec-2004, Bob Niland wrote:

Thought you weren't supposed to list items on eBay
unless you had the item on hand.

I thought so too, but just checking, I find no obvious
rule/guideline, nor anything in the User Agreement.

You are allowed to list items for future delivery on ebaY if you anticipate
having the product in hand within 30 days. This has been the case ever
since I helped run nicmac042200 to ground on ebaY a few years ago, even
though as usual ebaY refused to listen until it cost them something like a
quarter million in claims for non-delivery.

His gimmick was selling future delivery of state quarters at a discount from
face value. You could buy quarters from him for as little as $2 a roll for
Hawaii and Alaska, due in 2008. Among other things, he got high FB ratings
by promising free shipping (at some future date) for anyone who left him
positive FB, so you had people telling everyone what great service, etc he
provided when in fact they had never received anything from him.

For an interesting story of the wilder and woolier days of ebaY, check
http://www.deja.com and type in nicmac and Ponzi. I had people telling me I
was wrong back then, too. Until they finally realized they weren't going to
get their $1000 in quarters they paid $700 for.

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