Originally Posted by
Cari-in-Oly
No you've got it backwards. The seller has the starting bid price at $459, the buy-it-now price was probably $500(or more). Since someone bid on it, the buy-it-now goes away, and you only see the bid. Sellers will do that hoping that the bidding will go beyond the buy-it-now price and they'll get more than what they want for it. Some sellers will have just a few dollars difference between the opening bid price and the buy-it-now price. I think they do it so people will just hit the buy-it-now button instead of bidding.
Cari
Oh! OK, I get it now. Thanks for the clarification Cari! Back in the day when I first looked into selling on ebay, it didn't seem this complex. The buy it now disappears with -any- bid, not just a higher one.
Originally Posted by
Cari-in-Oly
He also has trouble getting his information right. If you scroll down he's already had to make two corrections to his ad, and I'm in discussion with him now about another error. He's saying this is one of the first year issued machines, but going by the serial number it's obviously not.
Cari
I saw that too. I can't tell for sure with the model badge if it says 301 or 301A, but it strikes me that it should look different than it does.
Originally Posted by
Rodney
Repainted machines go for a lot more than the factory ones-at least in the case of featherweights. Looks like the seller is aiming for the same market. There's a lot of labor in properly prepping and painting a machine like that and that doesn't look like a rattle can paint job. They might get the money they want.
I much prefer an auction like that over the ones with hidden reserves. The seller is at least open about how much money they want for the machine in this case.
Rodney
EDIT: I didn't see the buy it now option. Strange that someone would bid higher than that. Could be a mistake while setting up the auction maybe?
As well they should! I probably have 4 hours into mine so far and at least that once it's painted for reassembly an adjustment. That's a huge commitment of time that should be compensated.
Now that I understand what happened, I agree that the opening bid method is the more customer friendly way to go. It's really a waste of everyone's time to have a hidden reserve.