Should Ed West stop publishing his lists??
 

Hi, guys.

In the last couple of weeks I have noticed a peculiar 'trend' connected to some of the very nice photos listed by Ed West; for some reason the auctions are ending early, the item is taken off the market before anyone can bid....

The latest item this happened to was this one:

http://cgi.ebay.de/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?...tem=6282172797

What is this?

In my opinion some person is approaching these sellers and making a deal behind the curtains so to speak...

As far as I can understand it is more difficult to pull an auction item after people have made bids, due to eBay rules, so my tip would be that you at least place a small 'holding bid' on the item you are interested in!

'The item has been destroyed and cannot be offered for sale anymore' - Yeah right!!!!

And of course, Ed, I love to watch your lists, and this could of course happen even if they are not on them... just used you to get a high 'hit rate' on this thread, hope it is ok.

Regards,
Andreas

Re: Should Ed West stop publishing his lists??
 

Ed has done a wonderful service, he's even found 262 photos I hadn't found, which I've learned a lot from. I would regret if he ever stopped posting.

Re: Should Ed West stop publishing his lists??
 

It’s an ebay rule that you can delete an auction to sell the item
to the highest bidder directly. That’s fact!
A small 'holding bid' is nonsense because you can be outbid.
But do you want to push all auctions in the first days with very
high bids? I don’t think so. If a seller wants to end an auction,
he can do it!
Because of bidders like sudek many ebay members try to buy
photos directly before his sniper works 6 seconds before auction
ends. Please be sure, these guys find all photos without Ed’s list too.
Dear Ed, please don’t stop your great work!

Re: Should Ed West stop publishing his lists??
 

Ed, don't stop!!!!

If the seller wants to end an auction, they can. Thats the way it goes sometimes. Contact the seller first with a big offer if you want it so bad.

As for bidding on items, personally I wait till the end and bid the maximum I am willing to spend on that item. If I get it great, if not, oh well it was higher than I wanted to spend anyway.
You can't blame guys for waiting till the end, it eliminates the bidding wars that drive prices up for no reason.

Bid once in the last few seconds, bid the max you are willing to pay, no regrets.

Regards,
Mike

Re: Should Ed West stop publishing his lists??
 

OK.... keep the listings coming Ed, and as usual a few guys have not been able to understand what I was really trying to say.

I guess it is down to just starting a mailwar then.... what the f%&%& is the point in using eBay if the real deal goes on behind the scene?

I also thought the point of eBay was to allow for a fair competition, but understand now that I should stop using eBay and start mailing the seller as soon as an item of interest appear.

Nothing less could be expected I guess, but I am disappointed none the less.

I have reread the rules and it seem that one of the reasons for pulling an auction is that the item is no longer available for sale... why the f%&% have any rules at all if that is a valid reason.....

Guess I have been naive and stupid... no more....

And wrackplatz - you have totally misunderstood my message - a holding bid does not need to be small - but as soon as a seller pulls an auction were you are the high bidder he would have to give a VERY good reason, and you can kill his reputation as a seller quite fast.... I had hoped that that was quite obvious, but now I write it out directly.

Regards,
Andreas

Re: Should Ed West stop publishing his lists??
 

Hello Andreas,

I think we (not only me) understand you right.
Sorry that you have an other view. I don't think
that you are naive and stupid but do you think,
ebay is a fair competition? For lots of people is
ebay the best way to get in touch with buyers/sellers.
I don't want to start a new discussion about that...

Hmm, Andreas, you've spoken about a small 'holding bid',
or am I totally wrong? But OK, let's think about that:
You want to win a photo you like. You would bid for example
20 Eur or more at the begin of an auction? I don't think
so. Maybe some more bidders would make the same. The seller
would not delete the auction any more but the actual price
of the auction - of your photo - explodes very early. Do you
want this? The seller would be happy but all possible bidders
can't be interested in this. Everbody knows that you want
this photo! And all other can react and bid more as they've
planed originally. At the end, you will be outbid and the
price will be higher.
OK, Andreas, I exaggererate a little bid. The real problems
are the ebay rules, I think we all agree with that.

I think the way of Revi16 is the better one. But you can't
stop the pulling of auctions in this way. It's sad, but true.
The using of sniper software is douptful too.
You have to ask WHY sellers and bidders do business in
this way!
Maybe more and more people start to mail the sellers directly
now. We'll have more hidden auctions behind the curtains in
future, I guess. But we will not be happy with that.

Regards,
Dave.

Re: Should Ed West stop publishing his lists??
 

Hi,

Ed, you continue with the excellent service - it is still one of the few ways that we can see original pics and glean details without having to buy them!

I have studied the eBay rules and in fact they are not too dissimilar to many regular auction house rules that i have come across, even to items being withdrawn. Many times at auction an interested bidder will only enter a bid at the last minute. I agree that it is annoying to be sniped but if one had put in a higher bid initially the sniper wouldn't win the item! I agree with the earlier comment, if you want something, put in the maximum that you would want to pay (not the same as what it may be worth!), and don't get upset if it sells for more!

Kind regards,

David

Re: Should Ed West stop publishing his lists??
 

:whoa: :blink: ...Since you asked, there is only a simple answer to the question above... and the answer is "no". :angry:

Re: Should Ed West stop publishing his lists??
 

Dear Andreas,

if you make the price get high the item will get more "visible"...
If you go through all the listings and you see a photo wich has allready got a bid of 200Euro you'll click on it to see how comes that somebody bud so high...
High bids vanify the hope that the big bidder hasn't seen the photo :-)

Ed's list is a "Saint Grail" for researchers and also for collectors... but Ed usually finds the stuff that once everybody needed hours to find... so if something is on Ed's list the hope to get it cheap will be an illusion...
The big bidder is registred on this board... and he looks at Ed's list too :-)

Happy bidding :-)

Re: Should Ed West stop publishing his lists??
 

Hi....

I guess that I would have needed some more exclamation marks and smilies to get the important part of the message through. Please read the last part of my first message... of course I do not want the lists Ed West make to go away! Are we finished with that now?

Ok, my intention with this thread was to make a point of what I think is a hopeless practice by the eBay system. How would I as a seller know that I got the best bid if I only get an email from 'someone', and how shall we all behave? THAT was my point. Sorry, maybe I am not able to make irony stand out in my messages when I write them in english (well, something that might pass for english anyhow....).

I was under the assumption when I first posted, that to withdraw an item was a no, no in the system, but have now understood that this is how it is supposed to be.... sad that I didn't know that a bit earlier, as some of the items I have sold didn't get excactly the price I was hoping for... ooooppppppssssssss... they got destroyed..... and only one day before the auction ended.... WHAT a shame!

So - what we all end up with is to be as fast on the trigger as possible, disregard what happens on the eBay system, and bomb the seller with email until he gives in.

Well, I have no problems with that, and usually about 95% of all items on Ed's lists are also located by my own searches, I just thought I was following the rules.

Regards,
Andreas