A kosher eBay practice?

I recently bid on and won a cover on eBay. Prior to bidding, I sent a
question to the seller about the cover, and received a prompt
response, which led me to place my winning bid. However, in scrolling
through the eBay page, I saw that the seller had added my question and
his answer to the page, along with a question from another bidder, and
his answer.

I considered my question to the seller, and his answer, to be a
private matter and I was surprised to see it so publically displayed.
The consequences of this breaking of trust -- that's the way I see it
-- were minimal, but it's not hard to see that at another time, buyer
questions and seller responses would serve alert the competition and
boost the final price higher than it might deserve. Here's a possible
scenario:

Potential bidder: "This stamp seems to be an example of the famous
'sagging butt"'variety. Is it indeed that variety?

Seller: "Sharp eyes! Yes, it is the "sagging butt" variety. Good luck
bidding."

Sure, good luck bidding, now against 20 other collectors who want to
snag a "sagging butt".

Am I being paranoid? Well, I *am* paranoid, but am I being *seriously*
paranoid?

Bob

I recently bid on and won a cover on eBay. Prior to bidding, I sent a
question to the seller about the cover, and received a prompt
response, which led me to place my winning bid. However, in scrolling
through the eBay page, I saw that the seller had added my question and
his answer to the page, along with a question from another bidder, and
his answer.

On another auction site I use this happens automatically.

If it was an auction house with saleroom bidding, should the auctioneer
discover some information relevant to the value after the catalogue was
printed, then if favorable to the value it would very likely be advised in
announcing the lot - if unfavorable the lot would be withdrawn.

Look at it the other way - if you had spotted something unfavorable to the
value of your stamp, what would you have expected the vendor to do once you
had told them? Sauce for the goose I think.

On Dec 5, 12:42 pm, "Gazza" wrote:
I recently bid on and won a cover on eBay. Prior to bidding, I sent a
question to the seller about the cover, and received a prompt
response, which led me to place my winning bid. However, in scrolling
through the eBay page, I saw that the seller had added my question and
his answer to the page, along with a question from another bidder, and
his answer.

On another auction site I use this happens automatically.

If it was an auction house with saleroom bidding, should the auctioneer
discover some information relevant to the value after the catalogue was
printed, then if favorable to the value it would very likely be advised in
announcing the lot - if unfavorable the lot would be withdrawn.

Look at it the other way - if you had spotted something unfavorable to the
value of your stamp, what would you have expected the vendor to do once you
had told them? Sauce for the goose I think.

I agree with Gazza that it goes both ways, probably more often it is
an addition of information that is correcting some mistake or
something omitted. After there is a bid the auction cannot be changed
and this information can only be added in that location.
I remember once before an art auction, a gentleman was telling the
auctioneer in reference to a painting up for sale that looked vaguely
like a Whistler but was unsigned, that Whistler often painted a
butterfly in the corner as kind of a trademark/author's mark. When
the auctioneer came to that painting during the auction he stated that
it was unsigned but that it looked like there might be a butterfly
painted in the corner. It got a few laughs and maybe some bids.

Bobstamp avait soumis l'idée :
I recently bid on and won a cover on eBay. Prior to bidding, I sent a
question to the seller about the cover, and received a prompt
response, which led me to place my winning bid. However, in scrolling
through the eBay page, I saw that the seller had added my question and
his answer to the page, along with a question from another bidder, and
his answer.

I considered my question to the seller, and his answer, to be a
private matter and I was surprised to see it so publically displayed.
The consequences of this breaking of trust -- that's the way I see it
-- were minimal, but it's not hard to see that at another time, buyer
questions and seller responses would serve alert the competition and
boost the final price higher than it might deserve. Here's a possible
scenario:

Potential bidder: "This stamp seems to be an example of the famous
'sagging butt"'variety. Is it indeed that variety?

Seller: "Sharp eyes! Yes, it is the "sagging butt" variety. Good luck
bidding."

Sure, good luck bidding, now against 20 other collectors who want to
snag a "sagging butt".

Am I being paranoid? Well, I *am* paranoid, but am I being *seriously*
paranoid?

Bob

if you use the buttom : "send a question to seller" it is possible that
the question is show automaticaly!!

I never ask such a question, you can ask to get a better scan, but if
the seller has not seen that his lot is better then he thought it is
not necessary to tell him that it is more valued!!!

you can ask here, most seller don't read rscd!

--
Pour m'envoyer un mail, remplacer anti par droger et manama par
wanadoo; to send me directly a mail replace anti with droger and manama
with wanadoo;

On Dec 6, 6:42 am, "Gazza" wrote:
I recently bid on and won a cover on eBay. Prior to bidding, I sent a
question to the seller about the cover, and received a prompt
response, which led me to place my winning bid. However, in scrolling
through the eBay page, I saw that the seller had added my question and
his answer to the page, along with a question from another bidder, and
his answer.

On another auction site I use this happens automatically.

If it was an auction house with saleroom bidding, should the auctioneer
discover some information relevant to the value after the catalogue was
printed, then if favorable to the value it would very likely be advised in
announcing the lot - if unfavorable the lot would be withdrawn.

Look at it the other way - if you had spotted something unfavorable to the
value of your stamp, what would you have expected the vendor to do once you
had told them? Sauce for the goose I think.

I agree.

If the question to the vendor brought out some point going to the
condition of the item that was not immediately apparent, then the
vendor would be ethically obliged - I think - to either reproduce the
question and answer, or to include a note with the information.

As an example of what I mean: large numbers of remainders of the
stamps of Bussahir were sold after the Bussahir Post Office closed,
cancelled with postmarks dated 19 MA 1900. These remainders are
virtually worthless. If a scan on an auction site did not clearly
show the date, but it was evident to the vendor, and the vendor was
made aware that this was a remainder date, that information should be
displayed, in whatever format.

On the other hand ... I recently bought a sheet of Barwani SG 36B on
eBay. An excellent scan of the item was provided, which showed that
it was almost certainly from the extraordinarily rare Setting VI. I
was certainly not going to contact the vendor to alert him, and the
rest of the world, to this. However, if I had done so, surely the
vendor would have been within his rights as a vendor to try to
maximize the price his item would fetch by alerting other collectors
to the fact.

As it turned out, others had spotted the same thing, and the bidding
became quite heated.

In a perfect world, I would always score over the vendor and other
bidders, but alas ...

Tony Mac Gillycuddy

In a recent message Bobstamp wrote:

I recently bid on and won a cover on eBay. Prior to bidding, I sent a
question to the seller about the cover, and received a prompt
response, which led me to place my winning bid. However, in scrolling
through the eBay page, I saw that the seller had added my question and
his answer to the page, along with a question from another bidder, and
his answer.

I considered my question to the seller, and his answer, to be a
private matter and I was surprised to see it so publically displayed.
The consequences of this breaking of trust -- that's the way I see it
-- were minimal, but it's not hard to see that at another time, buyer
questions and seller responses would serve alert the competition and
boost the final price higher than it might deserve. Here's a possible
scenario:

Potential bidder: "This stamp seems to be an example of the famous
'sagging butt"'variety. Is it indeed that variety?

Seller: "Sharp eyes! Yes, it is the "sagging butt" variety. Good luck
bidding."

Sure, good luck bidding, now against 20 other collectors who want to
snag a "sagging butt".

Am I being paranoid? Well, I *am* paranoid, but am I being *seriously*
paranoid?

Ebay rules permit this. However, when I have raised a cautionary note,
such as 'I am afraid the overprint is almost certainly forged' for some
reason it is not published!!!

As others have said, if I detect that a stamp is better than indicated,
I may give the game away by putting in a high bid, but would not ask the
direct question.

The biggest difficulty is over watermarks and perforation; you cannot tell
these from a normal photograph (although a line perf may be evident).
Then I might ask the vendor to confirm, although some may not have the
facilities to give me an answer.

--
Tony Clayton
Coins of the UK : http://www.coins-of-the-uk.co.uk
Sent using RISCOS on an Acorn Strong Arm RiscPC
.... I'm no stranger, just a friend you haven't met...

Bobstamp wrote:
I recently bid on and won a cover on eBay. Prior to bidding, I sent a
question to the seller about the cover, and received a prompt
response, which led me to place my winning bid. However, in scrolling
through the eBay page, I saw that the seller had added my question and
his answer to the page, along with a question from another bidder, and
his answer.

I considered my question to the seller, and his answer, to be a
private matter and I was surprised to see it so publically displayed.
The consequences of this breaking of trust -- that's the way I see it
-- were minimal, but it's not hard to see that at another time, buyer
questions and seller responses would serve alert the competition and
boost the final price higher than it might deserve.

I have no problem with it and don't see it as a 'secret' thing. If you
want a personal response, request it in your Q to the seller. I think
the Q&A is there for the benefit of all and a good thing so several
people do not pester the seller with the same Q. I know on several
items I've bid on I've had a Q and lo & behold someone already had and
the answer was posted. I normally find that responses take a minimum of
12 hours, sometimes 24 hours for a seller to make and that ofttimes is
too long as the auction closes sooner. Obviously I do not do eBay 24/7
so a few days may pass before I look at items.
John D.

Droger Jean-Paul schrieb:
Bobstamp avait soumis l'idée :
I recently bid on and won a cover on eBay. Prior to bidding, I sent a
question to the seller about the cover, and received a prompt
response, which led me to place my winning bid. However, in scrolling
through the eBay page, I saw that the seller had added my question and
his answer to the page, along with a question from another bidder, and
his answer.

I considered my question to the seller, and his answer, to be a
private matter and I was surprised to see it so publically displayed.
The consequences of this breaking of trust -- that's the way I see it
-- were minimal, but it's not hard to see that at another time, buyer
questions and seller responses would serve alert the competition and
boost the final price higher than it might deserve. Here's a possible
scenario:

Potential bidder: "This stamp seems to be an example of the famous
'sagging butt"'variety. Is it indeed that variety?

Seller: "Sharp eyes! Yes, it is the "sagging butt" variety. Good luck
bidding."

Sure, good luck bidding, now against 20 other collectors who want to
snag a "sagging butt".

Am I being paranoid? Well, I *am* paranoid, but am I being *seriously*
paranoid?

Bob

if you use the buttom : "send a question to seller" it is possible that
the question is show automaticaly!!

I never ask such a question, you can ask to get a better scan, but if
the seller has not seen that his lot is better then he thought it is not
necessary to tell him that it is more valued!!!

you can ask here, most seller don't read rscd!


In my opinion Paul is right. as far as I know Ebay and its functions the
"ask seller a question" - button will make Your question public as well
as the sellers answer.

In my opinion this is helpful, because sellers sometimes make their
descriptions not very carefully. In this case a public question and a
public answer helps other customers to avoid the same questions.

I cannot see any violated privacy.

kind regards

Gerhard

Gerhard Reichert wrote:

In my opinion Paul is right. as far as I know Ebay and its functions
the "ask seller a question" - button will make Your question public as
well as the sellers answer.

Not so in my experience. I've sent lots of Q's to sellers and not had
one publicly posted - yet. Yet I like the feature (not automatic) in
general, as I mentioned in an earlier post.

John D.

On Dec 5, 7:57 pm, Bobstamp wrote:
I recently bid on and won a cover on eBay. Prior to bidding, I sent a
question to the seller about the cover, and received a prompt
response, which led me to place my winning bid. However, in scrolling
through the eBay page, I saw that the seller had added my question and
his answer to the page, along with a question from another bidder, and
his answer.

I considered my question to the seller, and his answer, to be a
private matter and I was surprised to see it so publically displayed.
The consequences of this breaking of trust -- that's the way I see it
-- were minimal, but it's not hard to see that at another time, buyer
questions and seller responses would serve alert the competition and
boost the final price higher than it might deserve. Here's a possible
scenario:

Potential bidder: "This stamp seems to be an example of the famous
'sagging butt"'variety. Is it indeed that variety?

Seller: "Sharp eyes! Yes, it is the "sagging butt" variety. Good luck
bidding."

Sure, good luck bidding, now against 20 other collectors who want to
snag a "sagging butt".

Am I being paranoid? Well, I *am* paranoid, but am I being *seriously*
paranoid?

Bob

==========================================
In the case that it is an "open" auction, or "room" auction, it will
be acceptable, but on eBay I think it is "close" auction - and I will
agree with You that it is breach of privacy" - You can simply give an
negativ mark on seller and avoid him in further purchase.

best regards
Chastven Miloje
http://balkanstamp.blogspot.com
http://serbiastamp.blogspot.com