Somewhat OT: One Every Minute

Someone selling on Ebay under the name ohkwarisales is offering a Classic Miniatures Montezuma Post Office kit for $37.00. It lists on Walthers site for $34.00.
OK, we all know vendors on Ebay sometimes jack up the price. But this seller has had 693 feedbacks on sales and they're 100% positive! I have to wonder at the gullibility of our species from time to time :-).

On 5/2/2009 9:34 PM Larry Blanchard spake thus:
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I have to wonder about the scamability of eBay, and I'm not just talking about sellers there either. They (eBay) seem to have rigged things pretty well to practically guarantee deceptively-good feedback reports from schnooks and scam artists like these guys.

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They have changed for the better. Used to be a buyer left honest feedback and the seller retaliated by leaving a negative for the buyer. That's how the scam artistes got lots of positives. I never could understand how e-bay could let that go on for so long. Now a seller cannot do that. What they will do, however, is leave positive feedback and a Nasty Note. Now if e-bay could get it through their thick skulls that the ONLY way a buyer can possibly be in the wrong is Non-payment.

LD wrote:
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Rubbish. The buyer can falsely claim non-receipt, or can falsely claim incorrect or defective item received.

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Or, as in one case I know of, the buyer can demand to be given various things that were *not* included in the auction. In this case he wanted to be given the drive cable, all the mounting hardware, and the dash panel for the motorcycle tachometer he'd won on the grounds that "it's useless without them". The fact that those parts never come with the tach unless you're buying an entirely new already-assembled motorcycle didn't bother him. (This would be the same thing as winning an HO locomotive on eBay and demanding that an entire train be included free along with the engine.)
When the seller quite properly refused his demand, the buyer raised seven kinds of hell until eBay looked into it and eventually threw the *buyer* off of eBay.
Since then, the disappointed buyer has conducted a year-long Usenet hate campaign against the seller, accusing him of everything from theft to racism. And when non-involved posters ridicule said buyer for his idiocy he claims it's proof of a world-wide conspiracy against him that's led by the seller.
In short; yes, there are scam artists auctioning things on eBay.
But there are plenty of dishonest buyers as well.
And a few fruitcakes who simply shouldn't be out there running around loose without a keeper.
~Pete

Basically, if you don't know what you're buying, you have no reason to complain.
-- Bob May
rmay at nethere.com http: slash /nav.to slash bobmay http: slash /bobmay dot astronomy.net

On 5/3/2009 4:03 PM Bob May spake thus:
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Bullshit. Even those who are ignorant can be cheated or defrauded.
So Bob, still obstinately not doing any quoting? Or do you just not know how?

On Sun, 03 May 2009 16:08:16 -0700, David Nebenzahl
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So you agree with Bob then. Good one.
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Why do you care? Why make an issue of a non issue? If you don't understand his comments, just ignore them. Simple.
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Let me know how that works out for you, David. Get back to me in your next life. You know. The one where you act like a grownup. -- Ray

David, if it ticks you off then it must not be that bad. i can understand your complaint to some degree as if you don't remember yesterday, you've got other problems. I don't quote because the quoting system means that I've got to do some sorting of the post in order to get my message in a place where it can be read immediately upon looking at the post rather than seeing it at the end and in some posts, that is way down the screen several pages down. And don't tell me not to update/upgrade my reader or get another one. I don't get viruses because my system isn't the latest and greatest version thus it doesn't recognize the viruses and they never get into my system. That makes me happy!
-- Bob May
rmay at nethere.com http: slash /nav.to slash bobmay http: slash /bobmay dot astronomy.net

wrote:
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Almost all readers of any type allow you to highlight the section you are replying to by selecting it using your mouse. That way you can avoid the entire post being redone while making it clear which section you were answering. There's no need to upgrade your reader. You're using Outlook Express 5 and it already supports that feature. If you decide to refuse to learn how to do that, it's down to you and not David that you decide not to quote parts of a post.
It's not just a matter of memory, Bob, but if you are addressing a specific item in one message of around 30 per day that come through this group then you will suffer the unfortunate fate of having people ignore your ever so important replies because of your adamant refusal to selectively quote a previous message. If you care, that is. But that begs the question: Why post here at all if you didn't care? -- Ray

I know what IE5 can do and I'm not happy with doing it that way.
-- Bob May
rmay at nethere.com http: slash /nav.to slash bobmay http: slash /bobmay dot astronomy.net

wrote:
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Then we've come full circle. It really IS your choice. You don't even have to change newsreaders but you are willingly choosing to reply to messages in a manner that makes it impossible for the casual reader to understand your post.
Well done. Don't whine about being slammed for it. Your choice. -- Ray

Bob May wrote:
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Well, Bob, I like to see the comments immediately _following_ the post, or the part of the post, that you're commenting on.
And, no, I don't recall what you were commenting on - I read dozens of messages a day, you see. Trying to figure out what you are talking about is is a hassle, so kindly quote the bit(s) you're replying to. Indicate where you've snipped the post, like this:
[...]
wolf k.

wrote:
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. . . old dog . . . new tricks. -- Ray

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When I first got on Ebay, I overbid a few items in the heat of the chase.
Now, I'm pretty good, damn good about alot of things and when someone askes me to find something for them I make sure to do some research into the item and then ask their top price.
Biggest problem I have now is that about every six months I have to cancel a bid and redo it because I hit "comma" instead of the period. One guy laughed and said he deliver the sousaphone personally and take me to Ruth's Chris if I kept the bid at $60,000.00

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By the way, we have a local hobby shop that preys on the novice. The owner doesn't price anything and depending on how you're dressed and what kid of car you pulled up in he might quote you 100% over list.
Needless to say, no serious hobbiest shops there but once. But he makes a killing on pinewood derby kids and people who bring in priceless stuff that was their grandfathers and he tells them it's a piece of junk OLD lionel but he'll give them $5 for it for parts then sells it for several thousand.
What a prick.

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It's the "Flea Market/Swap Meet" effect. The marks just "naturally assume" that if it's on Ebay, then it MUST be a bargain. PTBarnums slogan is as true today as it ever was.

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I won't say that it's "right," but I can see where someone may happen onto a model railroad item for sale not knowing much about model railroading at all. Suppose that you just vacationed in Montezuma and did an Ebay search on that word. Lo and behold... there is a scale model kit of the post office there! So you add it to your collection. You could have easily done so w/o even knowing about Walthers.
I have a relative whose family worked for the "old" Wheeling & Lake Erie. When I gave her an Atlas W&LE caboose, she had no idea where such things could come from. So I don't know why someone would start out that way, but I can see where people could pay for something not knowing what it was worth elsewhere...
The opposite can be the same as well... I once picked up an assembled LifeLike McDonald's restaurant kit for under $50 from a seller who obviously didn't know that it was probably worth twice that much. It was sold in the McDonald collectibles and not the model railroad stuff. Maybe that was unethical on my part... but if he was asking that, he probably paid less for it somewhere in the first place.
dlm

On 5/5/2009 11:09 AM Dan Merkel spake thus:
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Good insight there. Sometimes those in a hobby forget that there are actually people out there who not only don't know every little detail of the hobby, but couldn't care less.
So how much is something worth? In the end, it's worth whatever someone will pay for it. Nobody's forcing eBay buyers to bid on anything at gunpoint.