Public Service Announcement

[Doc Shipley]

Chuck Guzis wrote:

> Never respond to a "second-chance" solicitation.  You know, the "the winner
> of my auction didn't pay me or sent the item back, so rather than re-list
> it, I'm offering it to you as one of the other bidders for the winning bid"
> ploy.  Those are almost always scams.

   I beg to differ.  I've bought several items on second-chance offers, 
with no problems.  Granted they were sellers with whom I had history, or 
I corresponded with them, much as you suggested, before taking the offer.

   OTOH, I've also turned down many more second-chances, because they 
were obviously scams, or more often IME, the auction itself was a scam 
to generate second-chance bids.

   If you have many of a moderately rare item, listing them 
simultaneously drives the price into the ground.  Unless it's *really* 
rare, sequential listings can do the same for the last few.  If you list 
only one, then make SC offers to the top few losers, then wait awhile 
before listing again, you can both sell them all reasonably quickly and 
keep the value up.

   There's a seller who lists one ATX PSU adapter for the Amiga 4000 
about every 3-4 months.  The bidding always gets stupid, and I always 
get a second-chance offer for as many as I want, at my max bid.  As much 
as I could use one, it pissis me off too much to go there.


	Doc