HELP! Am I being targeted as a scam????

[funchucky1]

Hey, Frog.
I'm a very experienced Ebayer....and that guy is puzzling.
Either:
1. He's a legit bidder, and he's trying to scare others away so he can win it cheaply.
2. He just has nothing better to do than ruin other people's auctions.
3. He really thinks you're a scammer, and he has maintained that high bid intentionally, so that his comment remains there, for all to see. In this case, even if he "wins," he has NO plan to follow through with the sale.
4. His comment was NOT intended for you, and he is or is not intentionally bidding on your item.

The fact is, there is NO good reason to keep his bids. If #1 is the case, I wouldn't want to sell to this guy anyway. If #2 or #3 is the case, he has no plan to buy. The ONLY way it will hurt you to keep his bid is if #4 is the case (and he wants to buy the item)...but even then, that comment is DEFINITELY going to keep others from bidding, so your ending preice will be LIMITED by his bids, no enhanced by them.

Just my $0.02.

Good luck!

[sfixx]

Originally Posted by froggies

sfixx....how do I open that picture link?

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Good luck!

Steve

[froggies]

Thanks so much for all your input! I made the decision to can his bid and block him from the auction. It is obvious from his past bidding that he is not going to meet my reserve anyway. Also, he was bidding on mine and another at the same time. I put a note on my description explaining that if a bidder had less than 15 positive feedback, they must contact me through ebay to let me know they were serious. So if he is....he will have to contact me. Another bidder with only ten feedback has already called and talked to me, so if he is serious, that should be reasonable. Anyway, I would WANT to talk to a seller before I made a big purchase anyways.

I called that secret ebay number, and they were not happy with me. They said it was only for certain heavy users, and they would help me today, but not again! At least I got help on this stressful situation. Again thanks a ton to everyone for all their input and suggestions, it was very helpful! Airstream forum people are the best!

[Sugarfoot]

Originally Posted by 65GT

BINGO! On the button. I was only looking at this from your point of view earlier (being the seller). Now I'm looking at this as a potential bidder and I wouldn't go near your auction with a ten foot pole if I didn't thoroughly look into this whole thing first.

I think you're going to get LESS for this than you would have if that notation weren't showing.

The real problem here is Ebay. They shouldn't allow that 1000 post thing to even show up. Because his 'guide' is about a scam -- it looks like YOU'RE the scammer. Dump him and dump him quick. Better yet, close the auction, relist it in a week or two and write this guy an email that you'll be happy to take his bid, but only in the final 30 seconds. Have him snipe it if he wants, but don't let his high bid message hang there and confuse ALL potential bidders as to what's going on.

Ebay needs to fix this one -- good luck getting that to happen!

__

I'm with 65GT on this one. I was trying to be nice, give the bidder the benefit of the doubt. But you are the one getting the negative impact here and you are the one at risk. You risk damage to your reputation through a misleading and confusing message associated with this bidder, or you may end up with a final bid that undervalues your Argosy. You should have every right to end the bid and relist it at a later time.

Froggies, I just caught your post after I had already submitted mine. I'm glad you found a solution!

[froggies]

This morning I heard from the bidder, he was politely inquiring why I cancelled his bid. I explained that the link was scaring off other bidders, and that concerned me. I told him if he was truly still interested in the unit, that he could contact me again, but that my reserve was high, and I simply would not sell for less. I can't, I have too much into it! It is NOT a fixer upper, I already did pretty much everything it needed. I think according to his bidding on others that he is waiting for a cheaper deal. We will see if he replies or not. I felt bad canceling his bid, but it was really worrisome! I am not going to end the auction because 48 people are watching it, so it may sell for the price I need. There is only one more day on the auction anyway. I can always relist it at a later time.

[froggies]

The bidder just emailed me to say he changed the wording on his scam guide from "this seller" to " an out-of country seller". So that helps future auctions he bids on. He says he is really looking, but to pay less than I need.

Thanks again everyone!

[froggies]

Just a note on what finally happened with this: the highest bid was $3,050.00 I think. Which was way under what this trailer, with everything gone over and updated and redone and painted, etc. should have gone for. I was hoping for $5,500.00. I really think that was fair for the fact the trailer's only main issue was missing the furnace, since all other systems are go or are replaced. I really think the icon next to his name hurt the auction. I will probably try again in a couple weeks or so. Of course, maybe I am nuts and that is not a good going rate for a really good Argosy right now. Of course, it is a matching game finding just the right person who wants that floorplan, etc. Thanks again for all the input, I learned a lot!

[GreatPumpkin]

Originally Posted by froggies

...I really think the icon next to his name hurt the auction. ...

Your last addendum to the auction also probably hurt

"On Sep-01-06 at 20:01:25 PDT, seller added the following information:

At auction's close, if you are the winning bidder and need to put down the deposit, please do not use paypal checkout. The email address is incorrect to make paypal payments. I have contacted both ebay and paypal to try to correct this, and now my correct email is everywhere but on this listing. Please again just contact me through ebay, and I will give you the correct email for the deposit. I apologize for the confusion. "

With all the ongoing airstream fraud (and other fraud) on eBay - Almost all of the listings have a "contact me thru another email address, my eBay one doesn't work", or some such excuse. While I realize that's not exactly what you stated above, that might also have a tendency to scare away potential buyers. That statement would leave me a little leary that someone had hacked your account and was trying to steal the deposit. I'd reccommend getting that fixed before relisting.

[froggies]

You are absolutely right! I dreaded having to put that on there, but realized that another auction I had tried to pay me through paypal, and the email address was wrong!BLAH! After all the problems I had with this auction, and then to have the email wrong, and paypal fixed it on their end but ebay said they could not change it since it was in the final hours! But yet, if someone did win, I did not want their deposit going off into who knows where in paypal land! The silly thing was, the address was right everywhere on ebay except ONE page in a paypal link, and that was the crucial one! It IS fixed now though.

I did have my account taken over a couple months ago by a scammer, which was extremely stressful, but I got it fixed and his auctions off my name. Of course, this particular auction was the most stressful I have ever done. I am not even sure I want to go through the hassle to relist it! I advertised now on RV trader, and now I get scam offers to buy it every day. Maybe I will stick with the newspaper!

[summerkid]

froggies, Toso has posted in the classifieds section here looking for an Argosy, any year, any condition.

[froggies]

Thank-you, Summerkid, I left them a post. But I think mine is 3 foot too long for what they need.