FRAUD

[Malcolm Leonard]

I am a frequent buyer and seller at both Yahoo and
ebay,and have been for over a year.I bid mostly on
vintage test gear,and my wife and I sell tons of books
and other items on ebay.In about 200 selling
transactions only 4 buyers have not paid me.In about
50 buying transactions,I have only been disappointed
four times,and in each case the seller made
good;usually with a complete refund including postage.


As in all other human endeavours,caution is
necessary,and common sense must prevail and I thank
the powers that be that I have enough common sense not
to bid five or ten times what something is
worth.Please remember that no one is holding a gun to
anyone's head forcing him to bid $500.00 for a
transmitter that is worth only $50.00.

If somebody is enough of an idiot to willingly pay
much more than something is worth,then the fault lies
with the stupidity of the bidder.If a shill(or anyone
else) drives a bid out of sight,then common sense
dictates that we stop further bidding on that item.
 This whole shill business simply could not work if
bidders refused to bid beyond a reasonable amount for
the item in question.

My function as a seller is to make as much money as I
can within the context of having given an honest
description of the item I have up for bids.I am also
responsible for good packing and timely shipping of
the products I offer,and because I want to encourage
bidding,I usually start at a low opening price.If my
starting price is too high,then don't bid on my
auction.If part way through one of my auctions,the
current bid goes too high,then don't continue to bid.

You cannot get hurt by shills and overpricing unless
you are silly enough to go along with the scam.If
anyone is that dumb,I have no sympathy for him.It is
just as wrong to behave stupidly as it is to behave
dishonestly,and stupid people keep the bottom feeders
alive.I don't need FBI agents to rescue me from
obvious scams.We have too much government interference
in our lives as it is.Furthermore,if they do expose a
trickster or two it will be a tiny drop in a huge
bucket
and in the long run we will all still need to rely on
our own good judgement.
Malcolm Leonard
--- Ray Friess <rayfri at INQUO.NET> wrote:
> interesting news item tonight.. that makes me glad
> to know the reflector
> folks.    FBI says it is looking into
> fraudulent bidding on that auction site.. including
> sellers who
> bid on their own items to drive up the price.
>      Wonder if they will take a look at the 600
> dollar Twoer and
> the thousand dollar Heath units, etc...


__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Photos -- now, 100 FREE prints!
http://photos.yahoo.com