[markf31]

Originally Posted by CMIZ5290

Oh my God, here we go again. Forget the belly aching, what can be done about it? Has anyone notified Ebay from the past 50- 60 threads that have been started here over the past 2 years?? I highly doubt it... Why does this always happen every 2-3 weeks, but not a freaking thing gets done? What's the point? It's almost like being in the Twilight zone......Oh, and here comes something about Brent and PWCC.....Rick is laughing his ass off all the way to the bank....People are always responding to these threads, "well, it's good for every one to be warned, and know who the bad guys are in the hobby..." But yet, it evidently keeps on happening.... At the end of the day, not a damn thing gets done, so why the wasted energy?

I disagree that nothing gets done or accomplished by bringing these items and auctions up for discussion on the board.

Originally Posted by Pythonfactory

I've, *gasp*, bid with Brent and watched some items from Probstein since these revelations but you can be damn sure that I've watched the bidder's history on them all, tried to find any previous sales history, and backed away at the first sign of anything fishy. If it weren't for these threads, I would have never known to look and wouldn't have walked away from some items.

Originally Posted by deucetwins

Thanks to this forum, I no longer bid on anything from Probstein123. PWCC is getting close to me drawing the curtain on them as well. The message is getting out.

That's two people who are more aware now of situations like this and have modified their behavior as a direct result of threads like this, and I'll add myself into that group as well and I'm pretty certain the 3 of us are not the only ones.

So while threads like this might not impact the consignors or Ebay significantly and I'll even agree they don't seem to impact consignors or Ebay at all, threads like this do help foster a slightly more informed and protected group of buyers/collectors and I think that's a positive point worthy of the threads being posted.

Think of it this way. Not everyone checks in with the Better Business Bureau before doing business with a company, to research how that particular company ranks with the BBB, or to inquire about that companies complaint and customer satisfaction history. In fact, in just about every instance, I would argue a consumer doesn't know that a particular company rates poorly with the BBB until they have an unsatisfactory experience with that company and choose to file a complaint with the BBB.

So would you argue that filing complaints with the BBB is useless because you never see direct results from your complaint? Your complaint, or a million complaints, to the BBB won't shut a company down, and in many cases a company with a poor BBB history won't change its business practices because the complaints themselves don't change their bottom dollar, so whats the point? The point is the BBB allows consumers an avenue to be a little better informed IF they chose to utilize the information at their disposal and do a little research.

Its my opinion that if each of these threads posted about consignors and items effects just one buyer/collector per thread, creates just one buyer/collector who is just slightly more aware and informed, well I think that's a great thing! I'm sure if you ask that one buyers/collector if they thought the thread accomplished something they would emphatically say yes!