I think that Mahrii does make some very good points. While I dont know what the person bid in her auction, there's always the chance of having that happen and having someone bid low, unappealing pins that are not comparative to what the pin is worth. While everyone brings up the fact that you can win things for extremely cheap on ebay. It's also the fact that the seller has the choice to put it up for whatever price they see fit. If they want to put it for a dollar, they can. With the auctions here, that's impossible. We are not bidding money, but other pins and often times the worth of the pin lies with what the auctioneer wants. What if they do want some of the rack pins because they dont live next to any of the parks? But that's not the only thing they want?
I like the idea of at least three bids before selling. I also read suggestions about stopping bidding before the time. Well that just makes that the new end time, but maybe if it's no new bidders in the last ten minutes or so? People can change or add to their bids in that time, but someone cannot bring in a new bid?
Glad you brought this up. Thanks for understanding that Im bringing up points. What I think I keep getting lost in translation is that I totally understand the fact that when you offer a pin for auction, it is a risk you take, and I would be totally fine to end up with a hidden mickey even if I had indicated no hidden mickey's wanted. It is not the value of the pin I am bringing up, as value is really in the eye of the beholder. It is offering a single little bit of protection or choice to the auctioneer, not to keep them from getting junk but from getting only one bid. We can and will never be able to compare ourselves to ebay, again, we are not a business, we are a community of traders that love our forum and want to enjoy trading with eachother and make it fun and enjoyable.
The bidders, are protected by the forum, the moderators, the rules. The auctioneer is at the mercy of chance.
With regards to your question about end time, I don't mean that there would be no new bids accepted after that time. I mean that if there are no bids for the auction at all until lets say even 5 minutes prior to the auction ending, that the auctioneer would be given the OPTION to end and relist.
For those who make comparisons to other auction establishments, such as ebay, remember, that even there the auctioneers are given the opportunity to cancel an auction, they have choices to list for a certain starting amount, they have options to pay for buy it now, for reserves, to offer best offers, to end a listing and relist it, and I am sure more. Both seller and buyer are protected by ebay and paypal as well. In our situation, only the person bidding seems to be protected.
Ultimately, we all have a choice in the forum anyway, we could do what ever we want and take the infraction, and go on with our daily lives.
My goal with this post was simply to get us to think about ways we could make this experience better.
I'm not worried about the pin that I'm losing, yeah, I paid a lot of $ for it, but its just a pin. I am hoping to prevent abuses in the future from this loophole. I didn't see how this loophole affected the forum until this happened.
I enjoy my time here, and I am looking to see how to offer some ideas to improve upon.