posted on August 21, 2000 05:38:48 AM
First off, I don't think I spelled familiar right. Sorry, but it is one of those morning!
Had someone bid on 2 of my auctions yesterday. They closed last night. They outbid people with good feedback. They of course had 0 feedback. I cringed. I had a right to.
I emailed them and, quess what, the email was returned.
I believe I will set my preferences at at least 2 or 3 from now on.
I know it isn't fair to new bidders who are honest, but I am so sick of this.
Okay, I ranted, I am through now. Thanks for listening.
"Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first."---Mark Twain
posted on August 21, 2000 09:01:11 AM
Most of my bidders are new, so setting the rating higher will lock out a lot of good people. Also, if you set the rating to 5, it doesnt prevent new people from bidding. They just have to enter a CC number. It doesnt even have to be their number. So of course, the jerks know all about this and just go right ahead. I have found only one way to deter the jerks.
-set your minimum at 0
-do NOT use a buy price
-put an email link right in your auction
-put a notice "due to the high number of phony bidders at Yahoo, we request that you email us upon bidding. If you do not email us, we reserve the right to cancel or ignore your bid."
- you might also want to add "there is a buy-it-now price of $x. Bid $x, email us and it's yours."
-if you get a bid from a zero who does not email you, cancel it. If he's legitimate, he will email back asking why he was cancelled. If he does not email back, assume he was a deadbeat and sigh with relief.
posted on August 21, 2000 09:07:53 AM
With regard to these two auctions, you can go to the closed auction page, remove the bidder(s) whose email was bounced, and the second-high bidder then is notified by Yahoo that s/he is high bidder.
I'm not sure whether or not the second-high bidder is obligated to purchase at that point.
But Yahoo makes it painless to get rid of the icky ones. After you remove them from these auctions, place both of them on your Block list and they can't bid on any future auctions from you.
posted on August 21, 2000 09:41:45 AM
Thanks to both of you for your suggestions.
I didn't know about that setting the limit higher could not stop phonies from bidding. I thought that was a way to end it, but I guess not. Didn't know about the credit card no. thing either.
About removing the bidder whose email bounced, I didn't know I could that either. I am on my way right now to try to figure out how to that. Wish me luck.
Thanks so much.
"Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first."---Mark Twain
