Post #180338 by Sabu The Coconut Boy on Wed, Aug 17, 2005 1:25 PM

I admire this "Cycle.."-something bidder. If the auction has the word "Tiki" in it, he puts a small minimum bid on it right away to discourage the seller from ending early. Then he saves his big-guns for a snipe at the end, never getting involved in a bidding war. If the word "Tiki" is not in the auction and it is pretty well hidden, he just places his snipe and prays that no one else finds it. If the seller does take an off-line offer and ends the auction early, he immediately notifies the seller that the item is worth much more than the offer he got for it. To prove this, he asks the seller to re-list the item with a starting bid equal to what the off-line buyer offered. Strangely, the item always seems to sell for more than this opening bid.

He also makes the buyer aware of eBay's policies regarding off-line selling while at the same time apologizing most humbly if item was really "broken" by the seller's child as claimed.

This "Cycle.."-whatever guy has limited funds to spend on eBay, so has to use all the tools at his disposal in the cut-throat world of tiki collectibles. I think he does pretty good, notwithstanding.

I wish I could meet him, though.

Sabu