Jerry wrote about the De Rosa Time Trail bike seller:
> As a completely opposite example of an eBay seller, I had contacted the
> seller of the Baines someone outed a week ago with some questions to which
> he promptly replied. When he ended the auction early, I emailed him twice
> in the last few days to expesss my disappointment and my continued
interest
> if he relisted. Today, he replied, apologizing for not answering sooner,
> explaining that a deal to buy a used BMW, to which he was going to apply
the
> Baines proceeds, had fallen through, and offering to make me a copy of the
> original 1935 Baines brochure, if I was interested.
>
> Fortunately, I think there are more good people like this on eBay than
there
> are jerks like the one selling the Derosa. I'm thinking of inviting the
> Baines seller to join our group.
I have another example of a super-honorable seller on Ebay. I was able to score a fantastic deal on a 'buy it now' option on a bike on German Ebay recently. I was able to get the bike for about $400, which is only a fraction of what the bike could have reached had the 'buy it now' option not have been offered. Anyhow, a German 'collector' from Kiel (the parentheses are mine to signify that I can't respect the man as a collector after what he attempted), by the name of Dietrich Schmidt, tried to hijack the bike from under me. He sent an email to the seller saying that the seller was under no legal obligation to sell the bike to me as the item description stated the bike was only available for German delivery. Therefore as a non-German registered bidder, he could cancel my bid. In the same email he also offered to pay close to $1000 for the bike. He then continued to pester the seller, with increasing offers for the bike, ending up offering a bit more than $1500 for the bike. Well, the seller did the morally and ebay-ethically correct thing and sold the bike to me for the contracted price. So, if you ever see any products offered up by a seller with the ebay handle mr.mtb I can guarantee that you are dealing with a super-honorable person. As a small gesture in recognition of his honesty, I added a 'packing reimbursement' that he didn't even ask for in the payment. He even offered to refund that to me until I said that was a little thank you from me.
Steven Maasland Moorestown, NJ
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