Posted By:
JoannI still think that the way Steve M and Brian put it is best, in terms of whether something is miscategorized or not.
And Steve M and Leon hit the target in characterizing this as "preferred policy" and "sentiment of the board". The fact that there is disagreement and that Leon does not want to make it a hard and fast rule leaves room for someone to manuever and out a miscategorized auction in what they feel are extreme circumstances.
Just off the top of my head, some things that might jump out as extreme circumstances would be a very expensive card about which you know negative history that is not obvious in the auction, and/or a very rare card about which general appearance issues are not as well-known, and/or for which bidding has already reached levels that indicate most people are missing the negative feature, and/or some bidders are known to be members of this board.
And as to the "intent" of the person outing the auction, I think that has to go hand in hand with the expertise of that person. If someone that is not that experienced wants to start throwing everything he or she sees as suspicious on the board to warn others it just gets messy.
First, that person is likely to be wrong as often as right, and so now has outed an auction for no reason. Second, most of the "warnees" may have more experience and didn't need the warning. Again, auction outed for no reason. I just don't think the board has asked for or needs a warning system for the many and endless mainstream ebay scams - trimmed, reprint, etc.
Pointing these out is VERY helpful to newer collectors. However, this lesson can be easily passed on AFTER the auction has ended, and with great value.
Bottom line - the chances that someone here is going to actually avoid bidding on a pretty mainstream scam because they saw a post here and otherwise would have bid are pretty slim.
Now the exotic scams? Extreme cases that require very specific knowledge or experience? That's different. (The best example of this that I can think of is whoever first outed that 4BH Frankenstein card awhile ago - now THAT one may have sucked in some very very experienced collectors.)
So .. when in doubt don't out. hahaha. At least for something that is miscategorized or in a less mainstream auction.
Joann