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Mahrii

Active DPF Member
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Hi everyone,

First, this post is meant to be constructive in nature, hoping to make our wonderful forum a better place, not to cause drama.
I am not upset with anyone as no one has hurt me in any way. Just want to clarify that.

Please, please, keep any negative comments to yourself, if you have somethig to say in this post please let it be constructive, even if its criticism. We can all agree or agree to disagree but I am sure we all could find ourselves in either side of this issue.

Recently, I posted an auction and due to several reasons that really don't matter to the issue at hand, it was buried behind a couple of pages in the auction threads. I had remembered and looked it up a few minutes before it expired and realized that nobody had bid on it, so I let it be and decided I would just re-list it, since it had not been bumped. Today, I get a message from a person, who in their own right, waited to bid until the minute before the auction ended, saying they had won my auction and wanting to exchange information to complete it. I went to look at the thread and noticed that as soon as that person posted a bid, many other people were shocked that they had missed the auction and that they would have liked to bid.

I am briging this up, because I am chosing not to honor the auction and take an infraction in hopes that something can be changed in the future and to hopefully prevent this sort of thing happening again to anyone else. The person who bid a minute before the auction ended is not at fault in this situation, as they placed a bid seconds before the expiration time. They are reporting this situation to the moderators and that is within their rights as DPF members and it is according to the current standing rules.

I am coming forth with a solution that I hope would seem fair to everyone, and one that I have brought up in the past. I propose that we consider instituting a change to the auction rules, that would require a minimum number of bids or at least to have the first bid placed more than 5 minutes prior to end of auction at the very least.

Many things can happen in our daily lives that could prevent us from bumping a post/thread or posting a leaderboard. This could end up becoming a huge problem for us in the future, one that would not, in my opinion, foster good trading practices nor the drama free environment we all desire.

Again, please no flaming posts. If you have nothing nice to say, well you know.....

Lets keep this topic positive even if there are differences of opinion.

Thanks
 
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Wow, I just saw that thread and the least I can say is...wow, that did go under the radar and I too would have bid had I noticed it. WITH that said, I have to say "constructively" (I have no intention of starting drama, DPF has had enough of that lately) that this is unfair to the bidder

I understand that you got cheated out of an auction (we can all see that) HOWEVER, it is the risk you are taking by putting it up for auction. Similar to Ebay, if you put it up for $0.99 and only one person bids on it, that is the way the cookie crumbles Things don't always work out so well and I'm sorry this one did not but on the Auction it clearly states that the prize goes to the winning bidder. By doing this is only promotes people in the future to say:

"I didn't get enough for this grail pin I put up, eh, I'll just take an infarction"

and this is pretty much setting up a sort of reserve like on Ebay. Perhaps in the future a reserve type rule can be placed in where a certain caliber of pins must be put up to even be considered but considering that isn't a policy right now, I'm sorry Maritza, I really am, but I do not think it is fair for you to deny the winner their pin. I mean, consider if you were the winner, let's say you found a Designer Ariel for $100...A STEAL (considering she just sold for $500 this morning). How would you feel if the seller said "I refuse to sell it to you, I'm getting cheated out of $400. Unless you are willing to put up another $400, I'm not selling it to you." Would you not feel disappointed and extremely cheated out of? I know I would. Sure you have to understand where the seller is coming from, but that was the risk the seller took when they put the pin up for auction

Maybe you can contact the winner and see if they'll send a few more things out of the kindness of your heart because it doesn't take a blind person to know that that trade would normally be EXTREMELY unfair but at the moment, I think you should honor it. Whether you do is up to you, but I believe you should. I'm sorry this happened.
 
I was going to post my personal opinion... But I'll review it with the team before anything is said. Feel free to discuss as needed here, constructive is always good, but let's not get this thread closed. K?
 
I understand your situation - but I would also say that it should be honored. Its part of the risk of auctioning a pin...
 

I think we can all say that we agree with Kupo, you need to honor the bid.
 
I just won a book on ebay worth £20 for 10p plus postage... its probably going to cost the seller more than I paid to even post it. I feel guilty, but thats the risk they took
 
Many of us have been disappointed with our trade auction results but that is the risk we take and it's the forums rule that we honor the bids. I'm so sorry you are disappointed, but I would honor the auction. Pin karma comes back around, something good will come back around to you!
 
anzaryaa said:
i agree with mahrii
Click to expand...

That's fine anzaryaa, we all differ in our opinions and I think it's healthy to have a calm conversation knowing that everyone has different opinions, would you mind clarifying as to why you agree with her? You're completely entitled to what you say, so please do not fear that you will get bashed ^_^
 
Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. Hopefully everything evens out in the long run. If the auctions only get honored when it is to the advantage of the seller, why would anyone participate?
 
I agree with the rest. It should be honored. In the past this has happened to me which is why I stopped putting auctions, but I didn't take it on the bidders even if it was lopsided. I remember when we didn't have official rules and people would just post auctions to see what they would get for the pin by keeping a reserve. That didn't work and was a cause of drama in the forum. I feel that if you put on an auction you need to take the responsibility to keep your post updated.
 
I think the auction should be honored, but I think a minimum of three bids would be a nice starting point, to continue an auction.

Vicki
 
I agree with kupo. I think in situations like this, it is the auction posters responsibility to either bump the post to create interest in their pin or have the thread closed. If it remains open to the end, snipers will take advantage. That's the real excitement of auctions to me.

The auction should be honored because the bidder did nothing wrong and should not be punished.
 
I also agree with AverysFairyTale, when you put something up for trade auction what you get as bids should be considered no matter what the bid, the rules are the rules and if you don't want to follow them, then don't put pins up for the trade auctions. Yes i was disappointed in my auction but the person that won was very nice and I sent out my pins to that person as it turned out I loved all the pins in the bid so sometimes things do work out.
So I feel honor the bid
 
huertajv said:
I think the auction should be honored, but I think a minimum of three bids would be a nice starting point, to continue an auction.

Vicki
Click to expand...

For future use I think that "minimum of 3 bids" rule is a great start! After the auction ends, if there are 3 bids or less, unless the auctioneer loves one of those bids so much and decides to choose it, they can decline all 3. That could be a start, perhaps we can brainstorm in this thread new ideas because as seen by combatdre's post, Mahrii isn't alone in this poor occasion happening
 
I know it probably feels bad that you didn't get a ton of great bids, but unfortunately that is the risk you take when auctioning a pin. :/
I also don't agree with the "three bids minimum" thing... again, I think you know what you are getting into when you post an auction, and if you don't agree with the rules, you should probably just post a "trading" thread and see what kind of offers you get there instead.
 
I feel that the bid should be honored. It is one of the risks that you take when you decide to conduct an auction. I don't feel that a minimum number of bids should be necessary either, but maybe a "reserve" type of disclaimer in the auction stating that any bid must be of a certain minimum value to be acceptable. I don't feel that it is fair to change the rules yourself after the fact just because the outcome was not as you expected or wanted.
 

Well similar to Ebay, a reserve isn't necessary, it is up to the bidder to clarify if their auction is affected by that rule, and like reserves on Ebay, that type of rule may dissuade a bidder from bidding on the pin. It is up to the auctioneer if they want to implement these rules, there are a variety of things they can do
 

That does seem like a great idea. I know I'd be pretty upset if I thought I had won an auction but then was told I couldn't have it.
 
Yes, I too think there could be some type of bid requirement like a minimum of three different users placing a bid, etc, that might help with FUTURE auctions, but for this specific instance, I too feel like a lot of the others that it should be honored, as the rules were followed by the 2 individuals who placed bids, and neither one should be penalized due to the lack of notice of the auction by others. Sometimes auctions anywhere fly under the radar, it happens to everyone, it is a risk one takes when auctioning off items.
 
huertajv said:
I think the auction should be honored, but I think a minimum of three bids would be a nice starting point, to continue an auction.

Vicki
Click to expand...
OK, I totally understand everyone's point of view and I too feel the same about honoring a bid. I know that sounds contradicting. Mi just want to bring this issue up for discussion, and honestly I was thinking if just zapping the person the pin.

I did want to take the opportunity to bring up this scenario to possibly make some changes. Its not about the pin, I'm wanting to bring up this as a principle we want to consider.

My post was buried several pages deep, I would have bumped it, but felt there was not much time left.

What if, we had a rule of requiring a minimum number of bids?

We really can't and shouldn't compare dpf auctions too eBay. Ebay offers the opportunity to use a reserve, to offer best offers, to search for items you are looking for. Auctions don't get buried on eBay, when someone looks up Disney pins everyone's posts get equal treatment. Finally, eBay is a business, we are a community of traders, many whom we consider friends.

I think there is a loophole and an opportunity for people to take advantage of others willingly. It wasn't as if the person placed a bid, and nobody else wanted it. The person deliberately, although within their own rights, decided to wait until the last second, because they didn't wasn't others to see the post in time.

I know we have discussed several times reserves and the like and I don't think a reserve like eBay would work, but I just wanted to make a point here, we could look at options that are simple yet give some sort of protection to the auctioneer. (Even eBay does that)

People may argue, we get too much for certain auctions, yet, that is a choice the bidders make. This situation is a little different than simply getting a bid we don't like,or even just receiving one bid. Its the part of waiting to the last second to make that bid , when there are no bids at well.

Thanks everyone for keeping this civilized.
 


Two bids? Did I miss one? Running over to check.
 
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