Some of you may say „These are frustrated words of a hardcore collector”, but maybe there is something else, so please read my words in here:
As you have noticed, a collector in Europe sold his rare Mountain EPROM programmer this week. What a opportunity to get a long searched item, I thought. Then I read the auction terms: “May be for sale at best offer. Please don't ask me for one price and make your best offer.”
I know, I started some “auctions” like this in the past... below you will find the rest of this part...
I contacted the seller that these are no fair terms for an auction, as potential bidders do not have any indications for a fair deal. The seller can say “You are no longer the highest bidder, please set a new bid or the item will go to another bidder”, although the bidder still IS the highest bidder, just to increase the profit of the seller.
So these are my two proposals:
a) I´m not the best friend of Ebay as the prices are sometimes extremely high, but one thing I have to say: Ebay is a fair market place as all interested people can see what happens with the item. There is also the possibility to set an auction in “privacy mode” so that the bidders name is not shown.
b) If you do not like Ebay, the “auction text” should have been something like this: “For the first offer above 1500 Euro I will sell my item”. This is clear, as the seller of a “Maybe for sale auction” HAS a desired price he would sell his item. Do not say “I don´t know it´s price but maybe I´m willing to sell it but I do not know when.”
As I think I´m a hard, but fair collector I will show all my details to this so called “auction” of the Mountain programmer:
Mon, 22 May (17:36): My first offer to the seller: 500 Euro.
Mon, 22 May (night): Updated my offer 1000 Euro for the programmer plus the three EPROM sets I won in Ebay auctions half an hour before (so this is 925 Euro for the programmer).
Tue, 23 May (09:12): Answer of the seller: Your bid is actually the best.
Wed, 24 May (00:56): Answer of the seller: You're actually the higher bidder with EUR 1000 including 3 couples of preprogrammed EPROMs. End of auction : may 24th at 21:00 Paris Time.
Wed, 24 May (06:15): Please let me know in time, if there is a higher bidder.
Wed, 24 May (08:56): Answer of the seller: The higher bid is from you, id est EURO 1000.
This information was only given in order to inform all the people. Now each bid is secret and the bidder name too.
Wed, 24 May (23:06): Answer of the seller: Sorry but another guy overbid you. He contacted me last week and made an offer in case of I would sell the unit but I only received his mail this morning. Have a nice week-end.”
The seller told me several times, that I´m the highest bidder. I knew there were two other interested people. I know them very well and I call them my friends even if we sometimes overbid the others. The seller told me after his dead-line that I was overbid and that I do not have any chance to set a new and higher bid. And this is exactly the point: Why do I not have the possibility to set a new and higher bid? (No, please do not try to compare this to the Ebay rules as the seller consciously did not use Ebay).
So, this is a attempt to all interested people to free your mind and to tell me / us, what you think about this sort of deals. As I published my bid above I would be very interested in a reaction of the highest bidder (are you that polite to tell us your name?), as I think there was some sort of cheating in this deal.
Above I said, that I did these sort of auctions in the past too. So, this is a promise to all of you: I WILL NO LONGER START THESE SORT OF DEALS - PRIVATE AUCTIONS WITH NO TRANSPARENCY TO THE BIDDERS. This are not only words of a frustrated bidder (yes, I´m very frustrated about a seller who was a good friend of mine as I thought), but for you all, this is a promise and you can remember to me if I ever would act against this words!
Yours,
Matthias Wehrli
www.hp-collection.org
PS: Sorry about my poor english, but there in Switzerland only primary teacher have good education to teach their students... No, just a silly joke to calm down myself.