Another Rushmore Bargain

This looks like the same page which sold a couple of months ago:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/United-Stat...047675.l2557

But there are a couple of changes. You now get two fewer stamps, and the "CV" has more than doubled as a result.

That image has bothered me too, since it is decidedly anti-American, based on the stereotype of the morally bankrupt American who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. Note that the Statue of Liberty and Mt. Rushmore both have prominent SOLD tags on them. And where is it that Uncle Sam is taking Miss Liberty? Over the cliff.

That imagery may look clever to some people, but it has a sinister underbelly. It's particular brand of sophistry is sometimes used to justify ripping off American buyers by predicating a moral premise that the ugly American deserves what he gets. If we had the people who represent themselves in such images, I am confident we would find that they fundamentally despise Americans, American government, and American Law. They use cartoons symbolically to stick it to us, and then freely do so in their business dealings.

They know what they are doing!

Sounds like the kind of hate that someone who had been deported from that country might do... oh wait, yes, I guess that fits.

Shill bids or not, those are some nice stamps

Well I think we have it all figured out now. Here's the story. Mint_Stamps listed it originally and used shill bidder I**O to bid it to $3455 before selling it to shill bidder t**a at $3505. This is the listing mentioned in the body of the forum with its link.

Then shill bidder t**a took out two stamps, added two stamps and under his pseudo username Rushmore_bargains relisted it. Now our shill bidder I**O bid it to $444 and then two of our other shill bidders g**t and another well known shill bidder from other Rushmore auctions O**O has bid it back up to $2862.

I think probably the intent here is to find an uninformed buyer with more money than sense that might suddenly bid.

I had missed the message on Rushmore Bargains logo. I love this forum. It allows us to really understand what ebay lets run for a "fair auction venue with an even playing field" They should be ashamed of themselves...but trust me....they don't care.

Here's a picture of the two listings with the minor changes made.

The saddest thing is that there are indeed folks who will outbid the shill bidders. Not too often, but it happens. I am personally aware of four different buyers in the last few years that got stung by these UK-"cartel" sellers (really one person as far as we can tell). All of them eventually got their money back - several times with virtually no help from ebay, rather thankfully, thriugh their credit card company. But it is pretty safe to assume, I think that for every one who DID manage to get his money back because he recognized that the material was misdescribed (I had a hand in expertizing quite a few of the stamps involved so the buyers had good "ammunition" to appeal to ebay, PayPal and CC companies in each case), that there are FAR many who do not have the skill level necessary to recognize the problems many of the stamps I examined possessed; regums, reperfs, repairs, misidentified stamps (a rare (for example) 1869 "no grill" variety counted for $25,000. in a lot was actually a much-more-common Reissue that cataloged $1,500!). And when they don't have the skill level or use expert help.......well, they lose and the bad guys win.

I am with you Essay, they laugh in the face of the US buyer while screwing them. They are blatantly laughing at the people they are stealing from and buyers continue to do business with them.

Easily understood, though.

Bidders take clues from one another; how could they not?

The less they know, the more likely it is that The Other Guy knows more than they do.

TOG's bid is also a clue as to the market-clearing price, as Basil & I would put it.

If $2500 is the market-clearing 'fair' price, and I only have to over-pay by $50 to 'win' the lot, I am getting stamps 'worth' $2500 for $2500, and the thrill of victory for $50, which does not buy two movie tickets & two 'casual dining experiences'. Quite a deal, really.

It all plays more easily with 'collections' than individual stamps, of course. Checking the catalog price & recent auction results of one stamp is one thing, but doing the same due diligence on twenty different items and then, G-d Forbid, using m-a-t-h to arrive at a lot price is a lot of work.

Taking your pricing clue from The Other Guy is much faster, and more suited to the click-by-click life.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

Pretty bold statement. Worthy of libel actually.

Prove to me they are shill bids please.

I just love the graphic Rushmore uses in his listings- the cartoon of Uncle Sam chugging from a bottle of Jim Beam and Lady Liberty smoking a joint and both driving off a cliff. Anyone bidding on items from a seller who'd put something like that on their listing is asking for whatever they get. Just my opinion.