Re: Do you sell on e Bay and use \"Private Auctions\"?
I use Private auctions when selling expensive items so my bidders are not recognized by other and are not "shamed" because they have paid a lot of money for an item that some other might feel is over priced. The old car hobby is a small world and some people have a lot of money and don't mind spending a lot of it on a particular part that they either want or need just to get it. As an example, last year a "rare" trunk light for a 1966 Chevelle sold for $305 in a open auction. That person was "ostracized' by many because he outbid everyone else. In a private auction, that can't happen. Some people sell items that they know the market only has a small amount of bidders and many times bidder won't bid against each other if they can be seen, so a private auction eliminates that problem. You don't know that you are bidding against a friend. There are many legitimate reasons to use a private auction. I had one last week for a rare piece of New Old Stock Corvair glass. It was a private auction. After the auction ended, I had the opportunity to send the second highest bidder a "second chance offer" to buy the part since I have an additional piece of glass, and it turned out to be someone that I know is very close friends to the high bidder. In this case, I know that one wouldn't have bid against the other. Also, in this case, I didn't make the second chance offer to keep this a secret. Sometimes a sale isn't worth ruining two peoples friendship. I don't know that it might have happened, but I won't take that chance, even though I did nothing wrong. I will just put the second piece up for auction at a later date. A private auction also keeps another vendor from e mailing bidders offering to sell the bidder the same item for less than the current bid item without going through the bid process if they have the same item. There are many legitimate reasons to keep the bidders names from being disclosed. These are only a few of them. Not everything is a scam. ...... not all e bay sellers that use Private Auctions are bad...
