Dear All,
I'm not a user of Ebay so I don't know what the rules are, but I do wonder at someone who wishes to reserve the right to end an auction because they simply change their mind. In all fairness, if you set a reserve you should allow the auction to proceed for the allotted time (barring flagrant violations of the auction guidelines). If the reserve is unmet, then it's unmet; no sale, end of story. To end the auction prematurely, on a whim, may lead one to I think you are fishing to establish the market worth of an item (a topic which has been discussed previously on this list) and possibly a higher reserve, something I'm sure happens quite a bit.
I believe that any seller who indulges in such melodramatic sentiment (as stated by Dale) runs the risk of appearing less than genuine about a sale. And from what I read on this list, adverse reputations on Ebay spread like an Australian bush fire and stick like Merri Creek mud (the stuff used to form cricket pitches in Melbourne, Australia).
Personally I don't like auctions. I like to haggle face-to-face with the seller with the goods there in front of us. May be that's just my Italian background and my experiences in the markets with my Grandfather :)
cheers
Peter
Perth, Western Australia
> I gag when someone writes stuff like "I
>reserve the right to end this auction at any time as it brings a tear to my
>eye to part with such a beautiful bicycle." Geez, give me a break!! If this
>seller is one of us (a CR member) I urge you to not indulge in these kind of
>melodramatic silliness, it demean all of us!
>But then I can't even stand cutesy stuff like "Thanks for looking", so maybe
>I am just a grump.
>
>Dale Brown
>Greensboro, North Carolina