posted on February 1, 2001 12:56:58 PM new
Reading through this message board, it's easy to forget how fun and entertaining selling on eBay can be. For as many awful and annoying things that happen, I'm sure there are just as many humorous occurances.
One thing that just cracks me up is that I have a Beta copy of "Desperately Seeking Susan" that I have sold FOUR seperate times. Never once has anyone actually sent payment for it. The last time I listed it just to see if it would happen again, and it did! And these are all different bidders! I even tried once on Yahoo with the smae results. It just kills me! So, a word of advice: if you want to avoid deadbeat bidders, avoid Beta Madonna movies at all costs!!
I often get a big chuckle from my some of my international bidders letters. Mind you, I have enormous respect for anyone who has the tenacity to learn a foreign language, but some of these letters tickle my funny bone. When one of my bidders BidPay-ed me an extra $50 by mistake, I asked him how to he wanted to handle it. He replied:
"Oh my god !
It is a happening and my mistake.... I'm sorry. Excuse me, Can't you have my girl friend send Christmas present with the
money exceeded if you weren't tired ?
Girl friend and me's photograph is attached.
She is certainly glad.
If, won't please you tell it my idea is impossible ?
Thank you !"
And he did send a picture of him and his girlfriend! Apparently, it was for a present for his girlfriend, and I tucked the extra money inside and all is well, but I thought that letter was pretty cute!
posted on February 1, 2001 01:22:57 PM new
Fun topic! Thank you.
Once in a boxlot, I found an old enema kit. At that time I had no clue of its value. I didn't even want to touch it!
I was going to throw it away, but a friend told me to run it on eBay under a medical category. Reluctantly, I did.
In the description I went on-and-on about how "silly it was that I listed the item, I'm sure nobody want's it, but it may have some medical value. Da da da..."
The auction closed at approx. $500.00! I was totally shocked. I applogize all over the bidder for the description. He/she replied that they thought I was joking in the auction and knew the value!
NOW, things are carefully researched before anything hits the trash can! hehe
posted on February 1, 2001 01:42:07 PM new
My most recent funny happened last night.
I had a buyer from Venezeula win an auction using BIN. He emailed asking if I had other items he needed. I did, and directed him towards one auction I already had up on Ebay. The other items he was looking for i put up in a lot for him to buy using BIN.
Ended up turning a $15 sale into a $40 sale... was very happy to have gotten a lot of things he needed.
He emailed me when finished -
"Thank you for making e-business with me."
I told my fiance and he said, "I wondered if you two-timing me behind my back through Ebay..."
*snort* Making E-business with me... *giggle* Just sounded so cute and sincere from the guy...
posted on February 1, 2001 02:03:19 PM new
This is not really funny but it sure made me smile. A couple of years ago I auctioned a softcover collection of Dennis The Menace cartoon strips. It turned out that the winning bidder was the artist for the daily Dennis The Menace strip and he had me mail the book directly to one of the Dennis The Menace gag writers. We exchanged a few e-mails and he sent me a pencilled and inked autographed sketch of Dennis personalized to me. I now have it framed in a mat with an autographed photo of Dennis' creator Hank Ketcham and an autographed photo of Dennis The Menace TV star Jay North. One of my treasures! Just goes to show that you never can tell who you'll be dealing with on ebay.
James
posted on February 1, 2001 02:48:50 PM new
A couple funny things . . . .
A couple of years ago I had a specific collection of vintage jewelry items and the same collector kept winning them -- always sniping by the way. He was buying them for his wife but really enjoyed "the hunt" and "the snipe." We developed a real frinedly rapport. One day an item closed when his family was scheduled to attend a local restaurant to celebrate his son's birthday. He brought his laptop, had the maitre d' bring him a phone at the appointed time so he could snipe! Too much!
Another time, I auctioned a record album I found at a local garage sale. "Cracker Jack Presents John Philips Sousa." The cover looked like a Cracker Jack box. Well, it closed at over $60, there is actually a Cracker Jack Collectors Society. The man who won it had to be a wedding, so he had a fellow Cracker Jacker protect his bid and since she "won it" for him, she sent me the $$, as well as her business card. Here is this gray-haired granny type, just full of life and smiles, decked out from head to toe in the Cracker Jack sailor suit!
posted on February 1, 2001 03:48:15 PM new
While at a live auction in a town about 250 miles away, I bid on a box of old hymn books. Since I play the organ, I always enjoy looking at these old books, and figured if I couldn't e-bay them, I'd just keep them for myself. Most of them came from another state clear across the US. Several months later I finally got around to sorting through the box. At the bottom was an old cookbook which I thought was a neat find--and it became a great find when I read the inside flyleaf and discovered it was printed in 1934--and was an old recipe book from my own church which had since burned down. In checking with other members, I think I've got the only surviving complete copy of this book!
posted on February 1, 2001 04:09:59 PM new
Thanks everyone for your great and really funny stories! I'm home sick with the flu today and these are really cheering me up! The enema thing is just insane, it just goes to show you that your trash may be someone's treasure!
And, who knew there is such a thing as a Crackerjack club? Hilarious!
Martiniswiller (not my name on eBay)
posted on February 1, 2001 06:24:48 PM new
Usually I just lurk in here, but I would like to add my unusual item sold. One week at auction, I bought a box of items to get a small bisque doll. In the box were 6 old metal gum molds. I put them on eBay and got 8.00 for them from a professor in dentistry at a college way up north. He was tickled to get them. It seems he has a collection of old dental items. BTW, I still have the small bisque doll. LOL
posted on February 1, 2001 06:43:38 PM new
Mine isn't so much funny, but shows what a small world Ebay can be, plus, a touching story. Almost 2 years ago, when I was first getting into selling on Ebay, I was in Georgia attending my brothers wedding. Well, we had some time to kill, attended an estate sale. After the wedding, we went back again, to see what might be found in the house. It had been elbow room earlier in the day. My hubby happened upon an old bible, in so so shape.
Went back home. A week or so later, I listed it as OLD FAMILY BIBLE NEEDS NEW FAMILY. I put a description, plus included some info about the family that was in there. A day or so later, I got an email asking for more info. It turns out that she knew a member of the family. He ended up buying it. I had an old postcard that was from his Great Aunt, he'd met when he was a child, and was tickled that I offered to scan it for him. I gave the postcard to him, with the bible. What a small world at times.
*LOL* I want to add. At that sale, I had a chance to buy a CASE of 75th anniversary coke bottles. I got 4, but did my hubby let me buy the whole case? NOOOOOOOOO!!!! I was taking a 50 cent item, and selling them for $6 and up.. You guessed it I make sure he remembers that when I happen on an item he's not sure will go.
[ edited by carolann56 on Feb 1, 2001 06:52 PM ]
posted on February 1, 2001 07:35:23 PM new
Great topic...thanks!
I once ran an auction for a vintage purse by a famous manufacturer, and luckily for me, there was an detailed article on vintage purses in a recent issue of a fashion magazine--so I took a nice photo of the bag, with the magazine opened behind it. Shortly after the auction began, I got an e-mail..."hey, what issue was that article in?" After three or four people asked about it, I got smart (takes me a while!) and listed the magazine.
The three-month-old, mass-market magazine sold for over three times what I paid for the vintage bag. The purse ended with no bids.
(Edited to add...hope you're feeling better soon, martiniswiller!)
posted on February 1, 2001 10:08:50 PM new
Thank you all for sharing your stories - they're great!
Like most of you I buy on eBay as well as sell. One area I always check is my grandparents last name because they and my great-grandparents manufactured Swedish snuff in my hometown from 1895 until my grandfather's death in 1960.
Occasionally one of their old snuff tins/boxes/containers will come for sale on eBay. Of course I buy it to pass on to the great- and great-great-grandchildren. The last time one came up there was a battle between me and another bidder. Usually I have no competition.
After I won the auction (I'm sure the seller was surprised it sold so high), curiously I e-mailed my competitor, explained who I was and asked why he was so interested in this snuff container.
Turns out he had the same last name and bought just about anything he sees on eBay with that name. He lives in Wisconsin and I live in Indiana. What's so ironic about the whole situation is that he has an antique shop in Wisconsin that I've shopped in several times while passing through there when traveling up north.
We both got a laugh out of that and I surprised him last September by stopping in and giving him one of my smaller snuff containers as a momento.
posted on February 1, 2001 10:21:50 PM new
A friend of mine just caught the "eBay fever" last week and has started to do a lot of bidding. Well of course I had to give him the benefit of my experience and spent an hour or two giving him advice on how to avoid the pitfalls -- always check feedback, be sure to read the payment terms, be sure to find out shipping charges ahead of time, etc etc.
That night there was an auction for a CD ending in the wee morning hours, so I put in a proxy bid before I went to bed rather than my usual snipe. I used one of several buying IDs I have.
The next morning I went to check the auction and found that I'd been outbid by my friend! I hadn't mentioned the item or told him my user ID, it was just a coincidence.
Had to call him up and give him the last piece of advice - "Don't go sniping items I've already bid on!!"
posted on February 1, 2001 11:01:56 PM new
This is funny...
...Someone wanted to purchase 1000 condoms from me. Later he desided that he did not want them anymore...
...Curious, I asked why he wanted non-lubricated condoms only for. He was putting on a hunting show. He wanted to use the condoms to make the scopes waterproof.
posted on February 1, 2001 11:45:30 PM new
Triplesnack: I about fell off my chair picturing *that* conversation!! LOL
I had a similar situation with a good friend of mine....she just would NOT quit bidding on this item that I *had* to have. Finally, I called her (with about an hour to go on the auction) and out right guilted her into stopping.
Every time I hear about 'auction interference' I giggle just a bit. People emailing buyers have ZIP on MY auction interferrence....."Stop it right now!! I mean it, you bid ONE MORE TIME and I'm going to post your fat pictures ALL OVER THE NET!!"
Trey....I've heard about using condoms to keep guns from getting wet (usually hunters or survivealist types these days).....what I want to know is WHY the buyer would think you had 1000 condoms available!! LOL
posted on February 2, 2001 03:31:32 PM new
I had a little Dashaund enamel pin and I started bidding at $3 after 5 days it was at $35 I was thrilled. In the last hour bidding went up to and closed at $127. The high bidder emailed me and said it was for his woife's birthday next week and she collects Dashaunds. The second high bidder who was also the only other bidder emailed me requesting if the high bidder didn't come through they wanted it for their sister's birthday that was next week. Come to find out 2 brother in laws bid against each other on this tiny RARE? Pin
All 3 of us laughed.
Joe B
posted on February 2, 2001 04:00:42 PM new
Great Thread !!
Every time my father in law comes by our house, he asks about ebay. "What are you selling", "How much did you get for that thing, etc. But he always has something to say about what I listed or will be listing. Some kind of sarcastic joke. Like, "Oh yeah, that will bring a big buck", or "Everyone is going to be flocking over that". Always a sarcastic funny tone to his comments.
So, one day he is over and I show him an old football book that I picked up. "Neat book, and signed by whats his name". "Should make big bucks on that". As usual, I ignore him, and make no mention of the scribble inside the book when I list it...
So, my eyes nearly pop out of my head when the high bidder emails me with this "Great book, and signed by Mel Heim......Love it"!!
BTW: High bidder was a NFL coach, and Mel Heim was a sportscaster way back when. I never heard of either one until hubby clued me in!
I make sure he remembers that when I happen on an item he's not sure will go.