Ebay Bitching! Need to vent? Vent away!

CAUTION - PISSED OFF AUCTION LOSER VENTING BELOW!!!!!

Let me preface this post by giving it an R rating - no one under 17 allowed unless accompanied by a parent or guardian....

Now, with the disclaimer out of the way...here's the story, as some in this community know, I've been trying to uncover photographic and printed evidence as well as collecting relics from Baltimore's Hawaiian Room at the Emerson Hotel for years now. One mug has eluded me and finally low and behold I happened to find it on Ebay. I still had days to go before the auction was over so I held off...I initially placed my bid with Esnipe and was content just to wait for the auction to end and put in a maximum bid of $155.00; assuming the bidding would get no where near that amount and easy as that I'd be able to complete my Hawaiian Room mug collection. I even contemplated doing a sleazy thing by offering the seller $100.00 to end the auction early. Days went by and I found myself in a dilemma, I kept checking the auction and with only a day left there were still no bids and the initial starting bid of $4.00 still remained. I got nervous because I didn't want Esnipe to screw up the auction for the one tiki mug I'd found myself lying in bed at night fretting about when and if I'd ever find one. So I figured the coast must be clear, I canceled the Esnipe bid and manually placed a bid for $155.99 for the mug I assumed I'd be clearing a spot on the shelf for in the next week or so!

Now here's where the language is going to get coarse... I go to check up on my bid and I've been fucking outbid!!!!!! Son of a bitch! I am absolutely livid - I feel like sending this bastard high bidder a piece of my fucking mind! What the fuck!!!!? I hope the god damn mug arrives at his house in 5,000 pieces - this mug was supposed to be mine and I'd rather see it destroyed then in the dirty ass hands of some ass who probably has no connection to what was Baltimore's only tiki bar! He (or she) probably didn't first hear about the place from his father when he recounted a youthful experience of leaving a high school dance, going to the Emerson Hotel to get served tiki drinks and watching a mesmerizing exotic floor show! He probably hasn't done research on this place - uncovering little more that a couple small articles about its demise and a matchbook. He probably hasn't checked Ebay every day for the last 3 years for keywords Emerson Hotel and Hawaiian Room. He probably hasn't grilled people on TC with giant postcard collections in the hope that someone has a postcard revealing what the interior of this illusive place looked like. He probably hasn't called the phone number for the former manager of the demolished hotel only to be informed by his widow that the man had been dead for 2 years. He probably hasn't made calls to the Baltimore Sun, the Maryland Historical Society, the Baltimore Historical Society, the Enoch Pratt Library, etc. anxious for leads on where to uncover more about this urban archaeological mystery. He probably didn't get that nervous giddy feeling in his stomach when the Pratt e-mailed an actual list of the items that were auctioned off from the Hawaiian Room in 1971. The only thing this bastard probably knows or cares about the Hawaiian Room at the Emerson Hotel is this fucking mug and the fact that he unknowingly outbid someone who has daydreamed of this stupid ass ceramic vessel for many an afternoon over the last few years! The only thing I know for sure is that the bidding is now too rich for my blood and I'll have to go on wishing and hoping that one will magically appear. I feel like I've been kicked in the stomach...I've spent a week obsessing over a fuckin' mug that I won't even be in the running for! I know this post sounds nothing more than sour grapes but in all seriousness, I've never been this hurt losing an Ebay auction.

Anyone else feel my pain?

JohnTiki

Aloha from the enchanted Pi Yi Grotto in exotic Bel Air Maryland!

[ Edited by: johntiki on 2005-01-27 13:00 ]

[ Edited by: johntiki on 2005-02-24 16:40 ]

I do! I think we should all start posting our rantings, it would make for an excellent thread. Also, have you e-mailed the highest bidder? Maybe explained your situation, etc? Perhaps he(She) will be a good soul and sell it to you at a resonable price. Good luck!

First off, you guys are driving me nuts throwing around the C-notes on the mugs and menus! :lol: There are only a few mugs I'm really looking for anymore but the bids are too crazy for me. Menus are insane.

Second, you really should snipe on something important. At least manually snipe as late as you can if you're worried about esnipe (I've never used an auto sniper myself so I don't know what kind of problems you were worried about).

Third, if you check your nemesis' ID history you'll find that you got taken by old maxifac. A bigtime ebay tiki high roller. I have heard (here) that maxifac is an alter ego for kohalacharms. I dunno if that's true but at least you got beat by a known "tiki player." His first bid beat you but then he still went in and put in another. God knows how much. $500? More?

Fourth, I DO feel your pain. ALWAYS bid as late as you can! You see how maxifac bid twice? That means he bid and then reconsidered. You must not let your enemy reconsider! It may not have mattered in this case but it's just good practice. Hope you find another one soon for $5!

I'm sorry you had such a heartbreaking experience. As Hale Tiki says, consider emailing the person who won it. They won it fair & square, of course, but they may be willing to consider parting with it. You never know... perhaps this person has their own history with the Hawaiian Room, you could get another piece to your history puzzle if nothing else.

And of course, you want to always bid as late as you can. This has been hashed & rehashed here before as one of the fundamental flaws of eBay, but in live auctions, especially for hotly desired items, you'll notice the heavy hitters who are actually interested enough in an item to spend a lot of dough never jump in right from the beginning, they wait as long as they can before jumping in. On eBay this works even more to your advantage because of the inherent time limit. Whenever I've bid on an item I simply couldn't stand to lose, I sat there watching it in person (don't trust the auto-snipers), and jumped in with my bid with only a very few seconds to go. That's how eBay works, those days of time leading up to an auction are essentially just days that an ad is running, the real bidding period is in those last few minutes. Again--less than ideal, but that's how eBay is structured. Who knows, you still might have lost. I have before, as when I was bidding on Traderpup's Zombie Village mug.

If nothing else, remember that at the end of the day a mug is still just a mug... you want it for what it represents, and there's value there to be sure, but that value resides in your own warm thoughts of the place, and those are still intact.

John - I do feel your pain... I've had similar things happen to me in the pursuit of Disneyland memorabilia - out bid by a certain Hollywood agent who has a great deal of money, and little understanding of the history behind it, or the love that I have for it.... So - yes, when you are passionate about something you've grown up with, and someone takes that away (Ebay is deadly for giving you feelings of ownership when you don't actually have the item in hand) - well - it feels personal... It totally sucks - and if passion and knowledge were the criteria for obtaining these things, you'd probably have had that mug a long time ago...

Having said that - you tipped your hand by not sniping...

I hate bidding wars. So I Esnipe. I use it on all my auctions - ones that matter and ones that don't... It's only failed on me once, and that was my fault for not updating credit card info. I set an absolute limit for every one of my auctions, place it with Esnipe and forget about it (no reference to your nemisis there!). Otherwise, you are in serious danger of what happened to you happening! This person (who may very well be a TC'er) is obviously a serious tiki collector (I tracked down your auction)... Has a history of not just paying a lot for tiki items, but collecting in quantity as well. He or she obviously responds to bids, which creates a bidding war....

You still have time on this auction (18 hours I think). Here's what I would do - decide how much I would spend - the absolute limit (based on your financial situation as well of course) I would spend if I thought that this would be the last one I'd ever see. Type that amount into Esnipe & try & get a good nights sleep. If you are more commited than him - than you'll win. Yes - you may regret having to have paid through the nose (I have many times myself), but your search will be over (if I understand your above post), and you can be done with it. And if you don't win - at least you will have the satisfaction of knowing you made him pay more than he/she would have...

If I wanted this mug as much as you seem to - I'd shoot for the moon on it. You still have time!

[ Edited by: Tangaroa on 2005-01-25 19:03 ]

Also, stay on the hunt. Think of every possible way that a person, who knows nothing of Tiki, would describe the item you want. Was that mug exclusive to the Hawaiian Room? Because I'm pretty sure that I've seen it before and someone described it as looking like from Planet of the Apes (probably here on TC)!

[ Edited by: Kono on 2005-02-10 16:37 ]

Everyone's got their reasons for collecting certain mugs, and I feel your pain. I'm pretty sure that kohalachars/maxifac reads TC, so maybe he'll see your story and reconsider. Don't know. He might have six of them anyway.

Your story reminded me of something that happened to me on eBay a few years ago. As I've rambled about before, I really like central valley tiki mugs, especially fresno/bakersfield. My mother's side was three generations in Fresno, and the ol' place has been a big part of my entire life. So I was stoked to get a hold of a Leilani/Luau black moai mug on eBay. My ma used to get blasted there with her college boyfriend and had some great stories. After I won the auction, I got a nasty email from a guy who I outbid. (This person may be a TCer for all I know). He was bent out of shape because he wanted that mug for his infant daughter. He said he was collecting every mug he could find that said Leilani on it because it was his daughter's name. Well, I suppose that was a cute idea, but I certainly thought my reasons were more personally significant than his. Besides all fair in love and ebay, and as we all know, there's LOTS of other mugs that say Leilani! And what the hell is an infant going to do with a vintage tiki mug besides break it and get lead poisoning?

Anyway, I'm not sure what the point of this story was, but I know what you mean when you talk about having a personal connection to a tiki mug.

On 2005-01-25 18:55, Kono wrote:
I'm pretty sure that I've seen it before and someone described it as looking like from Planet of the Apes (probably here on TC)!

Hey, that was me...Sorry to hear about your misfortune John. I am reminded who to contact if I ever find another one.

Sadly, $155.00 is the maximum I can afford so I'll have to let this one go. I'm kicking myself for not just trying to snipe the damn thing like I've done with every other decent mug I've won on Ebay! I never thought about e-mailing the high bidder about my personal sob story but I don't know if I can humble myself enough to do that. What I need to do is thoroughly scour the thrift and antique stores in the state of Maryland - I'm somewhat comforted by the fact that the seller is based here - there has got to be another Hawaiian Room "Planet of the Apes" mug gathering dust locally with my name on it! Thanks for the condolences everyone...

Holy shit! This things gone through the roof!

Check it out...

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=27173&item=7129172994&rd=1

For that kinda money they can keep the damn thing! Now I really don't feel so bad...maybe a decent picture of this mug on my shelf will work just fine until I find one locally!

I search antique and thrift stores all over PA, and used to search DC. You have my word that if I ever find one, its yours for a song, or at least what I paid for it.

does anyone have a pic of this mug?i'll keep an eye out for it. TD

Looking at the bid history for this mug, I recognize that maxifac's (new ebay name as of 1/20: 'fuggettaboudit') main competetion at this point is a very well known and very well respected TCer. I have been outbid by this gentleman for a mug, only to have him pay the seller for it and turn around and GIVE the mug to me because he knew how much I wanted it! I can no way assure that this would ever be the case here, but at least if he does win, know that it will be in the TC ohana, with an esteemed collector who is aware of its history and definitely respects it for what it is.

Doctor Z
Mix-maestro of the Castaway Lounge & Casino,
Redondo Beach, CA

[ Edited by: Doctor Z on 2005-01-25 20:51 ]

Thanks to those who will keep an eye out for me - I'm seriously grateful to have such a loving ohana! Below is a pic of the ugly, expensive bastard!

Thank you, magical thread on TC, for inspiring to bid gobs of cash on an S.F. Tiki Bob.

I feel your pain and have been there over and over...ebay is what it is. You want the best deal wait until 8 seconds left and bid the most you can afford. Ebay is 10 million people trying to scrape their way by and one company making big bucks.

[ Edited by: filslash 2008-09-13 11:48 ]

Agreed. I too was once dependent on ebay to find things. But the more I looked the more I was outbid. Which brought me to my next search. The phonebook. I began cold calling looking for places to search locally. Now I have several haunts that regularly turn up treasure. And we all know it's the hunt that is truly the thrill. Today much richer for my knowledge, I sit back and laugh at what people will pay for the chairs I collect. Knowing I've paid 20-30 dollars per item, and am sitting on the other side of the fence reaping the profit. Ebay a great place to sell a terrible place to buy. But an even better resource center to educate you to the obsessive nature of humans to overpay for items they think they must own. After all it was started as a place to trade pez dispensers.

I too will keep my eye out if I ever see one for $5 or $10 dollars I will definitely send you a pm for 155.00.

I know this is a bit off subject - sorry John - but what does it mean to "snipe" or "esnipe"?

Taken from the Esnipe FAQ:

"eSnipe places bids on eBay just a few seconds before auction close. Instead of placing your bids directly with eBay, you place them through eSnipe. Our site stores the information you submit until a few seconds before the end of the auction you are interested in. At that point, Rovatron places a bid with eBay on your behalf. This final bidding process works exactly the same way as if you placed the bid manually, so all eBay bidding rules apply - including proxy bidding. The end result is your bids being placed with eBay at the last possible moment - this is called sniping..."

what happens when there are 2 esnipers going for the same item?

I hate competition, so I only bid on items that are really cheap, and have no competitors. unless the competitor is a newbie (has less than 10 reviews) and I'll be on a computer when the thing closes. and then I manually "esnipe", if I'm in the mood.

thank goodness I do not have a tiki mug obsession! it looks PAINFUL!

Hi John,

I truly do feel your pain. As a ruthless postcard collector, I often make people like you very angry. Wait. That wasn't the sentiment I was aiming for. What I meant to say is that sometimes even I get outbid on rare postcards depicting local South Bay tiki locations that I truly have a deep interest in. For example, this postcard of the Polynesian in Torrance, which later became the Latitude 20, of which, sadly I was only able to salvage the Ebay listing photo:

Here's my advice:

1. If the item is well-hidden, meaning it doesn't have the word "Tiki" or the restaurant name in the Title. Then you definitely don't want to advertise its location by bidding on it. Use Esnipe or Auctionsniper to bid in the last few seconds and keep your fingers crossed. I have bidders use my Ebay name to point them towards hot items. They may do it to you as well. I certainly do it to other tiki-postcard collectors.

2. If the item is not well-hidden and you know other tiki collectors are bound to spot it, then put a minimum bid on the auction and put your maximum bid in Esnipe or Auctionsniper. For example, in your case, you would have bid $4 on the auction itself and put $155 in Esnipe as your backup.

The $4 minimum bid acts a deterrent against other collectors making an "off-line" offer to the seller to end the auction early. This doesn't always work, but a seller is much less likely to end the auction early if he already has bidders. He knows this might make the current bidder angry and possibly contact Ebay with a complaint.

On the other side, keeping the $155 in reserve on Esnipe instead of on the auction itself, means that the next bidder's bid will only show up as $5. The bidding is much less likely to get out of hand quickly and you have a better chance of your $155 being the high bid in the last few seconds.

3. If someone DOES contact the buyer and end the auction early, (which is against Ebay's rules), then contact the seller yourself immediately. Explain Ebay's rules, politely, then explain that his item is very valuable and that you and several other bidders you know were going to bid last-minute on it. You may want to even say that the item "sometimes goes for several hundred dollars" - this is tricky. You don't want to give him an exact figure that he can use as a minimum bid if he re-lists, but you do want to make him aware that the $30 he was offered by the off-line buyer is really just chump-change. Say, "Let me prove it to you. Re-list the item with your off-line bid as your new minimum bid. I can guarantee you that you will get higher bids. Tell your offline bidder that you just found out it was illegal and against Ebay's policy to end auctions early and sell them outside of Ebay. Apologize for the misunderstanding and re-direct him to the re-listed auction. If he really wants the item, (and he does), he will re-bid at your new minimum" Often the seller will put the item back up on Ebay very quickly.

Dangergirl - If two people are both using sniping software, then the highest snipe wins, but only by the lowest increment over the the other sniper - just like normal bidding on Ebay. If one bidder has a $155 Esnipe and another bidder has a $250 Esnipe, then the second bidder will win with $160. This happens to me every so often.

[ Edited by: Sabu The Coconut Boy on 2005-01-26 12:57 ]

[ Edited by: Sabu The Coconut Boy on 2005-01-26 13:12 ]

Wow! Take a look at the final price on the Hawaiian Room mug! Way too rich for my blood! Well anyway, I finally got over my discouragement and decided to drop by the local Goodwill, as I often do every afternoon before heading to work, and lo and behold......................................

no, I didn't find the Hawaiian Room mug but I did buy an OMC Hawaii Kai peanut mug for $1.00! Someone up there must be looking out for me...I haven't found anything remotely tiki in 4 months, no exaggeration! I nearly jumped out of my shoes when I saw it. Sure it isn't a mug I've been drooling over for years but it does work as a decent conciliation prize!

"As a ruthless postcard collector, I often make people like you very angry"

I know what ya mean, Sabu. There's this eBay bidder: "Cycl-something". Ewww, this one really gets me peeved. Arrgggh! Just thinking about his sniping little bids make me wanna break something. Where's that POS Hawaiian Room monkey mug I use to hold loose change?

If ya can't beat 'em, sell to 'em! Some-ting like that, eh?

Sometimes a mug is just a mug,
Dr. Midnite; B.S., J.D., B.F.D.

On 2005-01-26 12:44, Sabu The Coconut Boy wrote:
I have bidders use my Ebay name to point them towards hot items. They may do it to you as well. I certainly do it to other tiki-postcard collectors.

Aaarrgh. People do that? How? Is it possible to search for what others are bidding on? I bet that bastard "Sooprised" does that to me all the time, and I'm always 'sooprised' when he does it. Perhaps he's just using a sniping program and I'm too gentlemanly to stoop to such gutter tactics. :wink:

Trader Woody

On 2005-01-26 15:31, Trader Woody wrote:

Aaarrgh. People do that? How? Is it possible to search for what others are bidding on? Trader Woody

easy - go to their user information by clicking on their ebay handle & look under items currently bidding on..... obviously this only works if they don't snipe....

I sure know what all of you are talking about,but these folks have the cash to put your lights out,as far as collecting goes.There is no way I could afford those luscious menus,because they are way beyond what I earn right now.I guess I can only marvel and imagine what it would be like to spend that kind of ching.

Wait till I win the lotto - these bastards are gonna have hell to pay! :)

On 2005-01-26 19:01, docwoods wrote:
I sure know what all of you are talking about,but these folks have the cash to put your lights out,as far as collecting goes.There is no way I could afford those luscious menus,because they are way beyond what I earn right now.I guess I can only marvel and imagine what it would be like to spend that kind of ching.

You ever wonder who you're bidding against? There's no reason that the rich and famous wouldn't be playing on ebay (well, except they have real lives - not counting the reclusives).

There are these plates, they have a kind of pink/red airbrushed fish silhouetted on a whitish background, I can't remember the name of the pattern. Two to three years ago there was an ebayer who would bid insane amounts on these dishes. $200, $400, $600, it didn't matter. For just one plate! He would not be outbid. This person was spending literally thousands of dollars a week on these plates and on prints from a Hawaiiana artist he had a fetish for. We would monitor his auctions for entertainmant just like watching Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. $240 for a fishy bread plate. $1700 for a print. $550 for a fish dinner plate. Day after day after day! And the bidder had a 100% perfect ebay rating. You begin to wonder...who is this? Is this Marlon Brando? Sitting in the jungle of his private French Polynesian island surrounded, a la Colonel Kurtz, by fierce, loyal indigenous villagers and thousands and thousands of pink fishy plates??

I sometimes wonder why I've not stumbled across that ebayer (forgot the nic) again in my Tiki/Hawaiiana searches. What happened to that crazy fetishist? Honest to God, I saw a pair of those fishy plates up for bid 3-4 months ago and I waited for the Big Man to come a bidding. Nah...they went for 15 or 20 bucks.

E! should do an expose on famous people on ebay. I'd watch it if someone gave me a head's up and I didn't have anything better to do.

This problem is easily solved. You'll never be outbid if you only bid on crap that no one else wants! All you have to do is change your tastes.

-Randy

On 2005-01-26 19:32, Kono wrote:
You ever wonder who you're bidding against? There's no reason that the rich and famous wouldn't be playing on ebay (well, except they have real lives - not counting the reclusives).

Ivy from the Cramps bought a tiki lamp I had posted on ebay . I thought that was just about the coolest...

On 2005-01-26 19:32, Kono wrote:

On 2005-01-26 19:01, docwoods wrote:
E! should do an expose on famous people on ebay. I'd watch it if someone gave me a head's up and I didn't have anything better to do.

I know Mark Mothersbough from Devo buys up photobooth photos that people have found and then put onto eBay. There's also Wayne Hemingway (designer - wrote a couple of books mentioned on TC) who buys up a lot of 60's kitch stuff. No doubt there are many more, but those two have mentioned it in print.

Trader Woody

Kono,that is a great idea! Sure would make me feel better that I lost to Suzy Starlet or Sam Stud,and not Joe Fenslinger from down the road.Would soften the sting a bit.

DAMMIT!

Dammit dammit dammit!

I Finally found MY personal holy grail mug last night and I didn't even get a chance to bid.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=3954961304&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT

Mauna Loa Detroit. The mug I've been hunting high & low for was up for auction for only 12 hours. The whole ending an auction early thing is just downright sh*tty.

1 bid.
guess who.

-Z

Was the auction actually ended early, or was it simply a Buy It Now?
edit
It was purchased with a B.I.N., seems pretty legit to me.

[ Edited by: badmojo on 2005-01-27 08:13 ]

On 2005-01-27 08:10, badmojo wrote:
Was the auction actually ended early, or was it simply a Buy It Now?
edit
It was purchased with a B.I.N., seems pretty legit to me.

There was no Buy-It-Now when I first saw the auction (4 hours into it). It had a starting price of $75. I can only assume the seller added the buy it now option later, perhaps when asked to do so by the buyer.

-Z

Thank God The Tiki Bar Is Open
Thank God The Tiki Torch Still Shines...

[ Edited by: Feelin' Zombified on 2005-01-27 09:24 ]

On 2005-01-26 19:01, docwoods wrote:
E! should do an expose on famous people on ebay. I'd watch it if someone gave me a head's up and I didn't have anything better to do.

Writer William Gibson used to buy up pocket watches on ebay.

kohalacharms is the winner!!!
I've heard /read that they are a really nice person.
Anyway being nosey, have they ever posted any pictures of there collection on the forum or anywhere?

And how do they fund their massive collection?

As I said, I'm just being nosey.

On 2005-01-27 09:46, Kon-Hemsby wrote:
And how do they fund their massive collection?

Drug dealing and white slavery.

Joke! Don't sue me!!!

Trader Woody

This reminds me of a woman that comes into the quilting shop where I work. She buys 5-10 meters(that's $100 - $200) of 10-20 different styles. She's in at least once a month. That's around $2,000 each trip into the shop!

She's a doctor, but in order to use that amount of fabric she must sew and quilt every spare second of her life! We've never seen a quilt she's made, but hear that they're beautiful. We often help her out to her $$$ SUV, since this stuff can be heavy. Good thing she hasn't discovered e-bay!

E-bay mankes me nervous. Whenever I wait for the end of an auction, no matter how little it means to me, my heart goes crazy! I much prefer to place my bid and check back when it's all over. Although I loose many auctions that way. :(

Feelin' Zombified, I feel your pain! This shit has got to stop!! There needs to be better enforcement on Ebay's part to stop these sellers from ending auctions early - this adding a B.I.N. after you've been payed off must be the new loop hole in keeping irate potential bidders from raising a stink? How blantly obvious is it to us that any rare tiki mug that comes up on Ebay will be snatched up by some scheming asshole before the rest of us even get a shot? Off the top of my head I can recall a Ren Clark's severed head, a Steve Crane bird bowl and this taller Kowloon mug (as show below) that recently pissed me off...what can we do?

If I'm not mistaken, a "Buy it now" can only be added to an auction if there are no bids and it has more than 12 hours left before closing. Many people here are quoted as saying "wait till the last minute to bid", yet don't like it if the buyer adds a "buy it now" during the auction. Can't have it both ways.

Someone closing an auction early because they are contacted by a buyer to sell it privately is wrong. Its wrong that the seller does it, it wrong the the buyer does it. Once again, people here complain, but I'd be willing to bet over half the people on this board have done it, either as a seller or buyer.

People complain about Ebay in general, yet they seem to forget that most of us would never even have an opportunity to see some of these mugs no less have an opportunity to buy them without ebay.

Most of us have learned something from ebay. We learned the names of mugs, seen rare pieces, and discovered things that we didn't know existed. We learned the market value of our collection.

People complaining about others spending $100+ on mugs needs to stop. These people have the money and the desire to fill their collection. I can't hate them for that. I'm sure they work hard for their money, have goals, and desires just like the rest of us. Complaining about them is jealously. Sometimes I've noticed when a mug sells for crazy money, a few more show up directly after. People that figure, "hey, I like that mug, but I'll take 200+ for it". In other words, sometimes high priced mugs cause a few more to be available.

Ebay has some problems, and people will always do underhanded things in any business. All you can do is bid hope you get it, and treat others as you would like to be treated.

"No doubt there are many more, but those two have mentioned it in print."

I aint' telling any tales out of school, but John Mayer and Steven Seagal are regulars on eBay, as both buyers and sellers. This is not my world-famous Tiki sales related stuff, other stuff related. Johnny (R.I.P) Ramone was also a big eBayer.

Re: the Mauna Loa drum mug. Usually, sellers who do that(end early) get hosed. That mug at $325, seems in the non-hosiery department overall. However, I could easily have seen the mug going for lots more, lots. I saw it early and it had no "Buy Now"; if I were selling that piece... no way I put a "buy now" on it. Bad business mojo that.

Now folks, they're just mugs, remember? This isn't too important in the scheme of things... not like my Beanie Babies. Any of you guys ef with my Beanie collecting, I'll kill ya!

midnite

Alright,Midnite tiki-you've piqued our interest! What do these folks buy and sell?Tell,please.

I'm not trying to rub it in, but all of you had a chance to bid on that Mauna Loa drum mug. After the first bid was entered, it would have gone to the highest bidder. Starting bid was only $75.00!! No one bided, Buy It Now was added for more than anyone was offering off line, and the first person that saw and would pay the Buy It Now price got it. Totally fair and legit.
I'm going to recommend the opposite of what everyone else will tell you; bid early!

If my initial post smacks of jealousy because my financial limitations prohibit me from obtaining my holy grail, then I guess you could say...you're god-damn right I'm jealous! Obviously I have no reason to cry foul about the Hawaiian Room auction; Frank won this one fair and square. But when you've established a personal connection with a defunct local tiki bar, which you've been fruitlessly researching for 3 years and to stand by helplessly watching a piece of the puzzle slip away, your emotions tend to get the best of you. True the high bidder takes all and emotion has little to do with the decisions of those with a thick wallet and a nearly mad obsession for obtaining every tiki mug ever made but, it doesn't lessen the hurt you feel. The uninitiated may say I'm taking my silly hobby a little too seriously but by venting to the TC ohana it made me realize that I'm not the only one who has experienced this anger and disappointment. Besides, if these high-rolling TC lurkers are so committed to collecting and preserving Polynesian pop then why don't they impart some wisdom? Perhaps they would like to be appreciated and admired by like minded tikiphiles instead of merely serving as kindling for unhappy comments by those us who have been at the receiving end of consistent auction ass whippings!

On 2005-01-27 16:38, Chub wrote:
I'm going to recommend the opposite of what everyone else will tell you; bid early!

Actually you can take a two pronged approach if you're worried about the "Seller ended the auction because the item is no longer available" or the "added the Buy It Now" conundrum.

You can enter the minimum bid to discourage the seller from ending the auction and selling the item on the side and also to prevent the BIN from being added. THEN still wait until the last minute to enter your real bid.

The only problem is, if you're looking at a poorly described item then you may draw attention to it. Especially if you have someone(s) stalking your bids (like Sabu was mentioning above). I don't worry about the sellers ending the auction and selling the item on the side. I haven't seen that much evidence of it personally and it is my belief that it does not occur as much as legend has it.

On 2005-01-27 17:49, johntiki wrote:
Besides, if these high-rolling TC lurkers are so committed to collecting and preserving Polynesian pop then why don't they impart some wisdom? Perhaps they would like to be appreciated and admired by like minded tikiphiles instead of merely serving as kindling for unhappy comments by those us who have been at the receiving end of consistent auction ass whippings!

Yeah, it is odd that the REAL high rollers never seem to participate on the forums.

What is driving their obsessions?? We want to know a about you kohalacharms!

[ Edited by: Kono on 2005-02-10 16:38 ]