1913 Old Town Near Mequon, WI on eBay

I don't know..

I asked the seller if the hull was canvas or if it had been fiberglassed. It looks like canvas, but you never know.............His reply was, "I don't know".

??
Dave
 
Build Sheet

I did send him a message on eBay and inquired as to where the build sheet scan was that he mentioned in his description. I noticed today that it was added.
 
Since I live in Mequon, I asked the seller if I could look at it in person. He replied that he just stacked six motorcycles in front of it and can't let everybody in.
I was also thinking it could be glassed.
howard
 
In another e-mail, I was told by the owner unless the canvas was glued down he thinks it is fiberglass and that he doesn't think that the glass should be a deal breaker. He also mentioned an $8000 price tag for a new, (not even antique yet) Old Town. I'm speculating here, but I think he may be right about the glass and have a reserve set really high.
I'm gonna pass.

Holy Cow! It has turned into a real bidding war!
 
Well, I would bet dollars to donuts that inwale and out are both broken where the yellow rope dangles to the "thwart".

It has not hit reserve and is now four times more than my idea of its worth. I believe I saw one recetnly sell for under three hundred that was nicer.

but this one is old and maybe in a good location for a strong market.
 
The most recent bids for the 1913 canoe all have feedback ratings less ten and the reserve has not been met. This may just be a shill bidding as described at http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/seller-Shill-bidding.html since it seems very suspicious. It looks like the last bid from someone with a feedback rating of more than 10 was $205 which sounds more realistic for this canoe.

Benson
 
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Percentage of being a good seller

I wouldn't do business beacause of his 98.something rate listed. 99 or 100% for me. Lower means he has bad problems in the past. To much ofr me too
 
Howard Caplan said:
I was also thinking it could be glassed.
howard
Control + to blow up the photo's.
Looks glassed. I would guarantee broken rails near the yellow (scene of the crime) tape.
 
This auction ended at $1426!

I hope we see the canoe re-listed, with the seller stating "the buyer never paid up, so I had to list it again"... which would indicate either a fake sale or a buyer who wised-up.
 
Even if it is not fiberglassed, $1426 seems awfully high for this boat.
I was trying to apply Benson's comments about the fake bidding taking place to the actual winner who seems to have placed only the winning bid. While many of you understand the ins and outs of ebay bidding, I am a novice.
Does the first time bidder on this item winning suggest anuything about shill bidding?
howard
 
Wow, and here I figured this canoe at about 300 tops.
Maybe the economy isn't as bad as we thought. :)

As for the winning bidder, he/she has a feed back of "20", meaning he/she has won and received feedback on "20" items. He/she was currently only bidding on 1 item. I didn't see any indication of "quantity" of past bidding activity.

I hope he/she is happy with the canoe.

Dan
 
re post # 17:

"While many of you understand the ins and outs of ebay bidding, I am a novice. Does the first time bidder on this item winning suggest anything about shill bidding?"

Howard, it really doesn't tell you anything other than that the person willing to offer the highest bid prior to expiry of the listing won the auction. Doesn't matter whether you are a novice or veteran bidder; doesn't matter at what point during the auction you bid, as long as you offered more than anyone else. If you bid high enough, early enough, you can even become a winner by a one-cent margin (i.e., you could win even if you didn't surpass the under-bidder by the usual required bid increment, as long as your higher bid was placed earlier). High proxy bids can be submitted early, and eBay will simply increase them as necessary until your maximum is met. A lot of bidders today simply 'snipe' at the very end, putting in their high bid only during the last few seconds.

I have followed eBay since its inception, and been a member for 12 years, both as a buyer and seller. There are a lot of things to be desired in the way of improvements, in my opinion, especially in the area of fraud prevention and better policing from eBay. In the beginning, eBay was far more civilized and folks were helpful to one another. Honest dealings were the norm and community spirit outstanding. Last-minute, 'snipe' bidding was frowned upon; you were expected to bid openly and fairly as you would do at any auction. Then, the 'sharp' people realized that 'steals' could often be made by waiting until the last second. Computer programs were developed to do this for you automatically, so that you don't even have to follow the course of the bidding anymore. Eventually, sniping became just about the only way to win an item. Now it's commonplace.

As eBay grew, so did the lack of civility, the increase in dishonesty, and the seeming interest of the owners to focus more on the 'cash cow' potential of raking in uncounted nickles and dimes while worrying a lot less about the rip-offs taking place. That philosophy seemingly has pervaded management thinking over the years. Oh, there's a lot of public talk about 'policing' and fair deals, etc., but ask anyone who's been involved how much help they really ever got from eBay in getting a 'deal gone bad' sorted out. You spend days trying to report events, only to get nonsensical, robotic emails back. By the time something gets done, the crooks are long departed. eBay now requires all sales to be payable through PayPal, and offers insurance against default that it doesn't provide if other payment methods are used. All this is supposed to be in the interest of preventing fraud. What they don't tell you is that eBay, which owns PayPal, makes an additional 2% to 5% commission on these sales from the sellers, just like other credit card companies such as Visa, M/C or Amex. The smaller, less active seller takes it in the ear and gets chased away from eBay, who is really far more interested in 'power sellers' with volume sales and discounted junk.

The best rule of thumb: 'caveat emptor' - buyer beware! Be skeptical of all statements re the goods offered. Check out the seller; carefully review their feedback. Be sure of what their 'return' policy is, and keep a record of all exchanges of info. There are still lots of nice folks on eBay; your instincts and a bit of common sense will help you find them.

Good luck.
 
sniping

To Roger Young--

Not to hijack this thread, but I just a comment for you and others who seem to "frown" on sniping on eBay --

I have placed bids on eBay for years, and have been using a sniping program for quite some time for reasons that have nothing to do with "sharp" dealing or "making a steal."

I work for a living; I ride the subway to and from work; I drive a car from time to time; I run errands, do chores, entertain myself, and spend time with my family -- all activities that preclude being in front of a computer for
extended periods of time. And I usually don't care to be up at 1 or 2 am, although that is merely late evening for a west coast seller.

My goal as a bidder is to win the auction at as low a price as I can. When bidding, I don't care to place my maximum bid early, only to have someone overbid me by the minimum increment after hunting out my maximum by repeatedly placing small, increasing bids. That happened a number of times when I place my maximum bid early because I knew that I would be otherwise engaged during the final moments of the auction. Indeed, I missed out on taking part in a number of auctions when unexpected changes
in schedule prevented me from getting back to a computer to place a bid.
I now of no rule or custom in any auction that requires bidding early or not bidding at all. In "live" auctions, experienced bidders regularly wait to near the end of bidding on a desired item, in order to avoid "auction fever" or to minimize the chance of starting or escalating a bidding war.

This evening I was the second highest bidder, on a canoe (not the subject of this thread) for which more than 30 bids were placed before mine, over several days. My one bid was beaten by another last-second bidder who also placed only one bid (also probably using a sniping program). I entered my bid with my snipe program much earlier today, in an amount that I had settled on a couple of days ago. My bid turned out to be more than the minimum increment over the next lowest bid; the winning bid, of course, beat mine by the minimum increment, though I expect that the actual bid placed exceeded mine by more than the minimum. My bid was honest, and fair, as was the winning bid that beat mine -- the auction was not "stolen," and there was nothing "sharp" about my bid except that it was close to the winning amount. What is wrong with this? Why should anyone be frowning. Any one of the earlier bidders could have bid more than I did, and they would have beat me, and maybe beaten the actual winner, but all of the other losers bid at least $26 less than the winner. Anyone paying attention knows that a bid may be placed in the last seconds of the auction and beat earlier bids -- whether placed by someone who has placed 10 earlier bids, by someone who personally places just one bid at the last second, or by someone who uses a sniping program. What is wrong with this? Why should anyone be frowning?

Maybe the seller of the canoe I bid on is frowning -- it sold for much less that the one that is the subject of this thread, although it sold for a pretty good price ($646) in my opinion. The seller had earlier twice offered the canoe with reserves that were not met, and he was asking $1500 for it in a WCHA classified ad. I think his expectations were unrealistic.

But if any losing bidders are frowning, it's just a case of sour grapes -- and sniping has nothing to do with that.
 
Greg:

With respect, I think you missed the overall point of my comments.

I really was responding to Howard's question of whether a last minute eBay bid from a new bidder could be a 'shill' bid: not really or necessarily.

As for my comments about eBay having become a 'less civil' more fraud infested place over the years, I do not apologize, for that is certainly my experience, along with many other 'early years' participants. I have personally been victimized on several occasions - photos stolen, fraudulent repros of my goods offered by others, bidders lured away by promises of being able to buy the same rare item elsewhere at a fraction of the cost.

My comments about 'snipe' bidding were given in a historical perspective. Originally, it was frowned upon by many eBayers. So much so that there were lengthy debates about whether it should be banned, or whether bidders should be barred from coming in at the last minute unless they had posted an earlier bid. It was a more 'genteel' community back then. Individual sales predominated; there were no 'power sellers'. That was the historical (as opposed to hysterical) backdrop against which my comments were made. A great many eBayers at the time felt 'sniping' was 'sharp', almost immoral. By and large, eBayers were helpful to one another. It was not unusual for one eBayer to write another less knowledgeable seller advising that something being offered was rare and worth far more than was being asked, or to offer a whole lot of info a seller may not otherwise have had. I guess many of us were simply naive innocents trying to help one another as well as finding a bargain.

In the end, sniping was allowed. If you note, I went on to say that 'sniping' had become commonplace, and was now just about the only way to win an item. I admit to doing it myself. I don't use programs; I watch the auction's progress and am a very competitive bidder. I lost out too many times, so I changed my ways. I keep a very 'sharp' bidding blade anymore, and don't hesitate to use it. eBay life is no longer the genteel novelty of 12 or 13 years ago. It is cut and thrust, and if one wants to win, one goes with the flow. I don't enjoy it as much, although one can still meet many fine folks. But one is also up against the fraudsters, the scammers, the shills and the last-minute electronic sniping programs. Hey, it resembles Wall Street more and more everyday.

My comments were not made in reference to you, personally. I regret that you seem to have taken them that way. I was merely reflecting upon what was, and what it has now become. Obviously, you can tell that I have reached 'senior citizen' status, where reflections on the 'good old days' are common as is uncertainty about where we are all headed.
 
Hi guys,
I did get more then I asked for over the past two posts. I do understand the nature of a program that will place bids automatically and that is not what I was asking about - I don't think it was, at least. I am more interested in Benson's comments about shill bidding that he thinks took place after the $205 bid, which Benson called the last legit bid.
I placed a bid on the canoe Greg is referring to but the bidding exceeded what I was willing to spend on it and I backed out early at about 300 -350.
My direct question is, what did Benson see in the bidding that led him to believe there may have been shill bidding taking place? And, what does the buyers rating have to do with it?
howard
 
shills and snipers

Howard --

When multiple bids are placed by a bidder who has won few or no auctions (and therefore has essentially no feedback) , the suspicion arises that the seller, or a cohort of the seller, has set up an eBay account for the sole purpose of bidding up the price. By contrast, a bidder who has won many auctions and has good feedback can be presumed to be a legitimate bidder.

In the Skowhegan auction, there were four bidders who had each won hundreds of auctions and had 100% good feedback -- the winner, me, and two others. It is unlikely that any of these four were shills. There were also three bidders with histories of either 0 or 1 auction win. They may have been legitimate -- everybody has to start sometime -- but one or more may have been a shill. The repeat initial bidding appears to have had no impact on the outcome -- I based my (losing) bid on my estimate of the value of the canoe, not on the bid history. The first time this boat was auctioned, my snipe bid was not even entered, being under other bids that had been placed near the end of the auction. The second time this boat was offered, my slightly higher snipe bid was the highest bid, but was below the reserve. And the 3d time, with no reserve, I just came in second.

The Wisconsin boat had two bidders with several hundred winning auctions, and one bidder (the winner) with twenty auctions, all with 100% feedback -- not likely to be shills. But there was 1 with no wins, 2 with 1 wins, 2 with 2 wins, and 1 with 8 wins. The 0, 1, and 2 wins could be shills, but perhaps not. 45% of the 8 win bidder's bids were placed with this seller, but that probably does not indicate a shill, since he/she placed 17 bids in this auction alone, so probably dealt with 7 other sellers in other auctions. It looks like this person just got caught up in spirited (fevered?) bidding against the 0, 1, and 2 bidders, and certainly the price got bid up -- by shills? Perhaps not, but ???? Was the relatively inexperienced 20 winning bidder the victim of a price illegally bid up? Who knows, but one does wonder.

Roger --

I didn't miss the overall point of your comments -- I agree generally that eBay has changed over the years, is now less civil, and that a sharp eye must be maintained to avoid sellers who are ignornant, cheats, and scammers. Nor did I take your comments personally.

It's just that I have never understood the antipathy and hostility to sniping.
When an auction ends at a predetermined time, as do eBay auctions, the late bidder willing to bid high will win, and will, I suppose, upset an early, low bidder who was hoping for a bargain. But that's just the game, and does not make the late bidder incivil or unfriendly, even if he used a computer program to snipe. There is a rough and tumble aspect to virtually any auction -- and over the years I have participated in live auctions and absentee auctions (both commercial and philanthropic). It is not surprising that in the world of large-scale, impersonal electronic communication, electronic auctions might be a bit rougher and tumblier than small, local country auctions. By my experience is that in even the friendliest auction, people employ tactics and strategy in hopes of having a low high bid (the only exception being charity auctions where being the highest high bidder is sometimes a desirable position).

I, too, used to sit at the computer to place a final (and perhaps first) bid personally at the end of auctions , but found that delays caused by my computer or ISP often left me without having placed a bid at all. And of course, as I noted above, personal bidding is often inconvenient or impossible.

I take an active interest in trying to keep eBay sellers honest -- I was the person who told the recent seller of a mis-described model canoe how to withdraw his offering, after being one of several correspondents who informed him that his model was not an Old Town, but a cheap import. I am a bit less concerned with warning an eBay seller that the sow's ear on offer may be, in fact, a silk purse -- the seller has had ample opportunity to figure that out before listing an item, whereas buyers have only such information as the seller chooses to give. Let the seller, as well as the buyer, beware!

But I have always figured that there is nothing improper, unfriendly, incivil, or frown-worthy in playing by the well-established rules of the game.

In friendship -- Greg
 
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