Friends, I recently learned something. And, hell, I figure if I learn something maybe YOU can learn something and we can CONTINUE to learn somethings off of each other because that’s what friends do. We teach each other important shit. Now, you may already have known about this practice I’m about to talk about, in which case I’d appreciate any insight because I, like, just learned about this.
So, the above Nintendo World Championship Cart’s ebay auction ended at a whopping $99,902. That’s a BUTTLOAD of money, and I was one of those people with a dropped-jaw and bug-eyes the size of an anime character while all of this was going down. Meanwhile I had NO idea that “ebay” trolling was even a thing, and that’s exactly what was going on. Destructoid got in touch with the seller, and this is what they had to say:
“The unfortunate reality is the second I approached the winning buyer with payment options, they retracted their bid claiming it was a “mistake.” I’m not offering the item to other bidders in the auction to see if any of them are honorable individuals. It may take me a while but that’s about all I can do for now. It would be nice if eBay were more seller-friendly, rather than 100% buyer protection focused.”
Shitty shitty shitty. That’s TERRIBLE. I’m not going to pretend like I know the ins and outs of ebay and wave my e-peen around whilst declaring war on the company, but it seems kind of…off…that something isn’t already in place to hold the bidders accountable. Hell, the few times I have used ebay I thought I was legally bound or some shit to uphold my bids. Guess that’s not the case.
I also thought I was legally bound up uphold mine. lol. That’s why I never use it anymore.
Right?! Surpriiiiiiise!
As I understand it, past cartridges got sold through auction houses. In those cases you need to register beforehand and if you place a bid you’re on the hook for it. Ebay I believe only has this policy for larger ticket items. My friends and I used to scope out cars/real estate/etc on ebay back in the day. The policy at that time is that you weren’t bidding so much as saying what you’d hypothetically spend and then offline you would close the deal. There clearly is a market for that cart, and what I’ve heard its probably $5k-$10k in its current condition. Seller should contact Christies or something and get it included in a lot of other video game merchandise at some point.
Ah. Thanks for the insight.
Funny, i would think a game selling for almost a hundred grand would be considered a “big-ticket” item…
Exactly, that was my point. Any item selling for a large amount is considered speculative. If I bid on an island or mansion its not considered legally binding. I need to negotiate offline after winning for it. I think the same policy holds true with regard to bid trolling. For something like this if it had been run up a few hundred dollars ebay likely would be able to stick it to them, but not thousands or tens of thousands. I think part of Ebay’s policy stems from the fact that every state has different laws with regard to bidding and auctions.
One of the reasons for things like this is a concept called “push bidding” where someone jacks up your bid price. I’ve retracted many bids due to the fact I knew I was being push bidded, only for the item to “sell” to another buyer and then for some mysterious reason that same seller conveniently has another of the same item he’d sell to me for my final bid. There are lots of tricks and traps on eBay as a buyer and a seller you just have to know the rules really well.
When it comes to the downright stupidity of a person, the “bid troller” here is a perfect example of what is wrong with society in general. I wish we did live in a more honest time, but until then, people need to learn that this kind of abhorrent behavior shouldn’t be tolerated. Auction houses are the correct way to sell something of at least +$50,000. You shouldn’t trust eBay with something so valuable. I believe if he tries to go through eBay again with this sale, he will be extremely disappointed.
“Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.”
Technically it is a legally binding contract, but ebay is worried about protecting the buyers and doesn’t care about the sellers, I was told by an ebay Rep that “we are a buyer driven resource” meaning at least to me, as a seller you are nothing to ebay.
A great online auction resource is Hake’s.com they’ve been handeling high end high dollar auctions for years. Well respected and well known to collectors.