more ebay madness

What's the deal with the bidders... Bidder 1, Bidder 2, Bidder 3.

Lee

Good catch and great news:

"As the internet evolves, eBay continues to strike a balance between preserving transparency and protecting our Community of members. eBay has decided to change how bid history information is displayed so bad guys cannot target bidders with fake offers using this information. In certain cases, some bidders will no longer be able to view Bidder User IDs on the Bid History page. Your User ID will be shown only to you and the seller of the item you're bidding on. Other members will see an anonymous name, such as Bidder 1, applied consistently to the Bid History page."

Lee Aanderud wrote:

I guess that will wipe out not bidding against someone you know.

Lee

They can still e-mail and ask me if T'm bidding, because I usually am.

Lee Aanderud wrote:

It looks like good news for shill bidders & cons to me. I do not think secrecy engenders trust.

Ebay has been allowing sellers to hide bidder ID for a long time, probably to protect those bidding on p*rn, but I have used the feature to keep Studebaker buyers from worrying about bidding against each other.

BH

Let's face it, eBay does not care a bit about discouraging shill bidders. The higher the final bid, the more money eBaty makes.........

eBay motto: "Let the bidder beware"

Paul

Why not just let it lay until the last minute of the auction and then bid. Would be more realistic...

Did you see the final sale price?

I don't know what to think, either the stuff is becomong valuable, or people are just plain stupid.? Does e-bay reflect the true market value, or does it open products to people who have no idea what they are buying?

$1035 is a bit steep for a book, but it is a rare one.

Bill Glass wrote:

That selling price may well be a fair one. I have had a '53 Commander K since 1966 and I have looked for that book for the entire 40 years. That is the first one I have ever actually seen (but I didn't need it THAT badly). Paul Johnson

Well, The $1000 plus bid was not as nuts as we thought, only 5 were printed.

"Hello Friends; Seems as the bidding on this '53 Data Book excited some folks. It excited me, too. That's why I broke the reserve on it and then bid an outlandish $1010.10 before I left for an executive board meeting of my Chapter this afternoon. I was not here to protect what I thought was a bid that would stand up. It didn't, so I'll take my licks and will learn to do without.

Why bid such figures? As Klif posted, "It depends on how serious you are or how deep your pockets are". I don't have deep pockets by any means, but I am a serious collector of Studebaker collectibles. I have all of the salesman's data books for Studebaker cars from 1937 through 1966, except one- 1953. Why? Because the Studebaker publicity department only printed five (5) copies of this book. The '53 cars had such difficult birthing pains, that specifications/features/models/etc. kept changing even after the cars were introduced to the public. By the time the cars were available for purchase, it was too late to put data books into the hands of all the dealers. The five data books that were finally put together became prototype data books for the 1954 model year.

Why would I spend such money on this item? Ever since Asa Hall told me years ago that he owned one of two known 1953 data books, I have wanted one to fill in the big, dark hole in my collection. I had my chance. It's a disease called Studebakeritis!! Frank "

Bill Glass wrote: