ebay rage - I wish I could message bidders!

I know it isn't up to me to be policing ebay, but I always find myself doing just that. I really wish I could warn/message bidders on certain items. The latest one I just saw was a picture of dozens of silver coins. The listing was for "$1.00 of 90% silver coins". The last time I looked it was up to $56.00. What the heck are these bidders thinking?! Do they not read the descriptions? Ugh! ok, im done venting about that....for now.

Here it is: http://www.ebay.com/itm/ONE-DOLLAR-...21?pt=Coins_US_Individual&hash=item2313db2cd1

 

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We used to be able to, but then eBay made the bidders id's anonymous in order to protect the bidders. (so now it is much easier to shill bid them and no one can warn them when they are being ripped off. Ebay has some new definition of the word "protect".)

 

Oh, interesting. The bidders full names used to be exposed? I mean, I can debate for hiding or showing them. Maybe they should have 'moderators' for each major category. Someone you could message about fakes, ripoffs, etc... Maybe I just care to much. My wife would probably disagree.

 

I hear what you're saying gbroke... and there was a time awhile back that you could do just that. But eBay considered that interferring with an auction, and chose to hide the bidder's ID's. The seller isn't doing anything wrong, and getting 56X face for silver is quite profitable, both for eBay and the seller. So protecting bidders from their own stupidity is now "out of our hands so to speak." A few years ago (when you could still contact bidders), the cfE group (the self-appointed watchdog group that specializes in finding and shutting down auctions selling unmarked replica coins as genuine) got itself into hot water by contacting bidders, who in turn complained to eBay. Apparently, any attempt to protect a prospective buyer from himself is taboo. So, despite the urge to smack some sense into bidders, eBay remains the place to sell your silver coins for well over melt.

 

Excellent points you made. Now, if you will excuse me, I have to go stand outside of starbucks and tell people they are overpaying for coffee. lol

 

I am sorry, but you cannot fix stupid. Don't even try. The only fix is for them to learn the hard way. Look at it this way - if you save them this time, they will just find another way to blow it. Hopefully this will be a cheap lesson. It is a lot of people like this that give eBay a bad name and I am not referring to the seller.

 

Well, real names weren't displayed. eBay handles were. More useful.

If you see an auction for a counterfeit coin or some other rip-off related to numismatics, report it to eBay. It is easy enough to do.

Further, if you post about it here an eBay "community watch" member may see it. Such members are deemed experts in their field by eBay and have special authority and weight to shut auctions down quickly through a portal known as "enhanced member reporting". I know there is at least one active community watch member on this forum.
Lance.

 

As it should be.

 

From my facebook profile.

Well if stupid hurt more, it might not be so prevalent.

 

+1

 

I think that guy is smart to do that. There's a lot of idiots out there - he's just listing it for real and realizing that the idiots will bite, and give him more than his silver is worth. I mean, would you sell your 10 Dimes for ~$25 (silver value) or would you sell them for $56 if someone offered you that? Smart seller.

 

Well, in the very old days, you could look up contact info given the handle. As I recall, the rule was that eBay would provide the other person's contact info to you, but simultaneously provide your contact info to them. This kind of mutual transparency could solve a lot of problems that we see today, but it introduced other problems as well.

At one point, I was promoting my auctions (for a very specific type of hard-to-find RAM module) by seeing who was bidding on other auctions for the stuff, waiting for those auctions to complete, making sure that they weren't bidding on anybody else's auctions, and then emailing them to point out my auctions. I thought I was being a good citizen -- I was taking pains not to interfere with other sellers, I was only contacting people once, I was being very polite -- and most of the people I contacted were quite happy, with quite a few going on to buy from me. Some people ignored me, which was fine. Eventually, though, someone took offense and reported me to eBay, who gently pointed out to me that spamming bidders was not okay. Looking back, I feel like an idiot -- but at the time, eBay was such a different place that this seemed like a perfectly reasonable approach, and as I said, most of the people I contacted seemed to agree.

I do miss the old days (I've been a member since 1998). But times change, rules change, and buying and selling patterns have to change in response. I started out mainly as a seller. With today's buyer-weighted protection policies, I'm extremely reluctant to sell there, but I'll bid on things that I never would've touched before.

If I sell to a crooked buyer, my protection is frail and brittle indeed.

If I buy from a crooked seller, I've got multiple, robust layers of protection.

If I'm a bidiot and offer 60x face for silver, I get what I bid for, as it should be, and as it always has been. I'm guaranteed to get my silver, as advertised, or to get a refund. I'm not protected against overbidding.

 

On the other hand, when sellers list "one ounce of silver coins" and show a large (or, worse yet, medium-sized) pile, I think it verges on "misleading description". One of the worst examples I ever saw was someone advertising "one quarter ounce" of silver coins, and showing a pile that included half-dollars. I saw at least one feedback saying "thanks for the three dimes"; don't know if other buyers eventually caught on, but I doubt it.

 

I think you could put a picture of Fort Know gold bars and then put in the description "Auction for one dog turd"..... people would not bother to read the listing and bid it up. The seller used deception with his picture.

 

If you went back far enough, all you had to do to send any eBayer a note was to click on their name (handle) and then clik on contact them - which you were apparently doing when you were spamming them.

 

The guy is making a killing.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/3-FACE-VALU...56?pt=Coins_US_Individual&hash=item2313fee0cc

 

Happens all the time. Those silver lots routinely go for at least twice what they're worth.

 

I also believe the default buyers protection tends to make people a little dumber - like bidding on a coin with completely bad pictures. Lots of things go on with ebay I don't like, but people will be people. Sometimes I wish I was unscrupulous and could do things like this. Just not me.

 

If something "routinely" sells for a particular price...then...it's probably "worth" that price, now isn't it?

 

I tend to agree with this line of reasoning, how does the old saying go? "A fool and his money will soon be parted."
Nobody said capitalism is fair.

Sure you could argue the picture is deceptive, but how many people who looked at the picture are unable to read?