[LargeFormat] Yousef Karsh's Camera

[LNphoto]

On Monday, November 24, 2003, at 01:25  AM, Michael Briggs wrote:

>
> On 14-Nov-2003 Clive Warren wrote:
>> Check out the following bargain on our favorite auction web site:
>>
>> http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/ 
>> eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2573232761&ssPageName=ADME:
>> B:SS:US:1
>>
>> Starting bid: US $25,000.00
>>
>> No jostling or sniping, form an orderly queue..... :-)
>>
>> Cheers,
>>         Clive
>
>
> What this link gives now is interesting: "Invalid Item" and ebay is  
> being coy
> about why:
>
>  "The item you requested (2573232761) is invalid, still pending, or no
>   longer in our database. Please check the number and try again. If  
> this
>   message persists, the item has either not started and is not yet
>   available for viewing, or has expired and is no longer available."
>
> This is the same message that one gets several months after an  
> auction, when the
> webpage is purged from their online, public database.  This auction was
> scheduled to end only several days ago, so the cause is different.  
> Most likely
> this means ebay rather than the seller cancelled the auction.  Ebay  
> would
> probably say that they have to be secretive about what happened  
> because they
> might be wrong.   I dislike this secretiveness.
>
> --Michael
>
>

It does sound like ebay pulled the plug. But they can pull it for any  
number of reasons. On one occasion I set up my auctions to add an  
Auction Snipe logo, which Auction Snipe said you could do, and 3 days  
before the end, they pulled all of my auctions. Didn't even give a  
reason, I had to wangle it out of them.

Another time I sent a lot of magazine via media rate, and for whatever  
reason it took three weeks to get from Detroit to Missouri. But the  
buyer was anxious, sent a letter to Paypal screaming fraud. Paypal gave  
me the option of showing Paypal the  trace number or give the guy his  
money back. I had no way to trace it since I gave the buyer the option  
and he declined. I waited. A week after the letter to Paypal went in,  
all of my auctions came down. On the 8th day the box arrived, the buyer  
recinded his snit, but my auctions didn't go back up.

At times ebay and Paypal can be very Gestapo-esque, if that's a word.