Ebay Buyers - <sigh>

Rohumpy - ebay - on second chance offers - defaults to your bid on the item. And as far as I know there is no way you can change that figure.

KHJ - don't insult me. I've spent well over a decade studying the text, the history of the Qin and Han dynasties, the religion and philosophy of the pre-empire period, ping-far (the so called "Art of War" and the Tao Te Ching. Perhaps you would like to tell me something that is warlike about ping-fa and I will tell you what the meaning is.

I'm not interested in detracting from the thread topic. I made the statement that I found your comment that it had "nothing to do with war" to be confusing. Anybody is free to purchase the book translation, or, can do some Googling/Wikipedia and see for themselves whether it has NOTHING to do with war. That's all I have to post on the matter.

most of my japanese customers dont leave feedback I asked one of them why not and this is what they said. "we will not say something good or bad about you and take responsibility for it in all the world"

maybe its a cultural thing as long as they dont leave negative or nonsensical feedback such as write useless messages here it makes no difference to me as long as they are happy and keep coming back

the most interesting case I had was a gentleman bought an expensive souv sheet from me then harassed me every other dya asking me when ti was going to arrive sent me a nice email when it arrived saying he was very ahppy with my service and very satisfied but then simply would not leave a feedback. I could never figure that out.

same thing happened to me and I seriously lost all faith in paypal after that

Paypal is as far as I know totally owned by ebay. Neither gives a hoot about small sellers. They like three things only: big sellers, lots of happy buyers and profits.

er how about a lil thread on game theory I always wanted to discuss with an expert?

well it might still salvage the boat for us before the high tide comes in know your listing and know your fees and you will always make a sale

now lets start the research I am sure you can do more than just justice to it.

If I see 'buy now or make an offer', I realise staightaway the seller doesn't expect to get the initial asking price. I go hard and offer 30-40% the first time (you can make three offers).

The second chance offer proces has been abused by sellers who use shill bidders and rather than indicating multiple stock, it suggests the seller is manipulating the sale process. I tend to relist the duplicate item and email the underbidders accordingly.

As as seller on ebay here is what I have noticed. Fixed price auctions tend to never sell, and the best way to actually sell something on ebay is to get the bidding going and attract attention with a reserve. I also agree that it is strange that second chance offers are so rarely accepted by buyers who have just the night before bid the stamp up to the same amount as the second chance offer.

Again back to my point of the psychology of the bidding war and its effect on selling at a reasonable level.

Another issue with selling is the typical ebay buyer doesn't want to purchase unless he/she feels they have bought the stamp for way less than its really worth

As a buyer on ebay (of allsorts, not just stamps) I think that sometimes a second offer might be rejected for the simple reason that the bidder has already purchased a similar item in the intervening period, or has at least begun to bid on one. If you lose an auction and you still want a particular item, you tend to have another lined up on your watch list, you can even set up a way for ebay to bid automatically on your behalf on the next item in a list if you lose the first one. That would not be an unusual scenario, I would have thought.

other times it's buyers remorse.. I might see something and excitedly bid on it. then later, decide I dont want it. well, i'm stuck. since now I have to buy it, but if someone outbids me.. Then I am okay..

btw.. I NEVER accept second chance offers when someone comes in at the last hour or so and outbids me, someone who hasn't bid before.