I'd love everyone's thoughts. Here's what happened.

[steve B]

Originally Posted by Stampsfan

Especially when you have listed exactly what you're looking for. Not hard for someone with an already dubious reputation figuring out how to take advantage.

Or potentially someone else collecting the same thing dishing out some payback for having lost out on earlier auctions.

For a while back when you could still see the bidders there were a few Japanese bicycle collectors with pretty deep pockets. And once in a while they'd get mad at each other over having won or lost a particularly nice item. The prices they drove each other to as retribution were amazing. Often better than 10X retail.

Of course a couple people here knew one of them and when we were debating why he'd paid 500 for a pair of French toestraps, his response through them was that he had it presold to a dealer for 1000 who in turn had a buyer at closer to 2000. The 500 guy spoke English but was uncomfortable emailing directly even when assured that his English was more than fine. The dealer and end buyer didn't and felt they couldn't do Ebay because of that.

Steve B

[JustinD]

Originally Posted by steve B

For a while back when you could still see the bidders there were a few Japanese bicycle collectors with pretty deep pockets. And once in a while they'd get mad at each other over having won or lost a particularly nice item. The prices they drove each other to as retribution were amazing. Often better than 10X retail.

Man, I do not miss those days.

There were several bidders that would watch everything I bid on as we collected the same material. I could only snipe because one of them would see I had found something and outbid me otherwise.

That and always getting a profanity laced eBay message every time I sniped someone who felt that bidding at the last second is unfair... that was fantastic.