"William Sommerwerck" wrote in message
...
It's regrettable that you got burned, but I have no
sympathy for
people that e-mail sellers and buy outside eBay. That's
not
fair to those of us who play by the rules. Dozens of
times I
have been bidding/watching rare items and see the
auction ended
early by the seller who has sold to vultures like you. I
am sure
I'm not the only one that has been upset by such
occurrences.

Excuse me, but just who is at fault in such cases?

BOTH buyer and seller. But the seller doesn't pick a name
out of a hat and make a solicitation to do so. The act must
be initiated by the buyer. And Chong admits in his post
that he has done this before and sometimes gets "stung". I
have no sympathy for either buyer or seller when they get
burned in situations like this. As I said, there are rules
in eBay to make things fair for ALL buyers and sellers.
Those who consistently break the rules don't belong in the
game.

It's not the buyer; he simply
made a request.

Of course it's the buyer. Solicitations to buy off eBay are
specifically banned by eBay rules.
http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/...ebay-sale.html

Nor does the buyer being a "vulture" (which is highly
debatable)
justify his being cheated.

I never said they deserve to get ripped off. I said I have
no sympathy for them if they do. And the use of the term
"vulture" applies to anyone who engages in these
solicitations. They only make the offer to try to get the
item cheaper than they think it will go for legitimately.
And if they are correct about that, they are also cheating
the seller.


Another point...

The eBay rules allow the seller to cancel the listing --
for any reason, for no
reason -- if he has received no bids.

Obviously you don't know what you are talking about here.
There are only four reasons eBay allows you to end an
auction early. To sell an item off eBay certainly isn't one
of them. http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/end_early.html
a.. The item is no longer available for sale.
b.. There was an error in the starting price or reserve
amount.
c.. There was an error in the listing.
d.. The item was lost or broken.

If a potential buyer offers more money
than the seller thinks he'll receive in an open auction,
why shouldn't he cancel
the auction and sell to that buyer?

Certainly not the case here, check the auction--it had a
Buy-It-Now price included.

Who, exactly -- other than eBay, who made
the rule in the first place -- is being cheated?


ALL other potential bidders are. They lose their fair
chance to add the item to their collections. If you would
have any reading comprehension, you would have seen that was
the point I made in my first post.

Obviously intellect and common sense are two entirely
different things. And it looks like you have a severe
ethics problem as well.

jim menning