Televue Plossl 32mm on eBay

[Adrian Condon]

Hi,

Interesting interplay on eBay for a Televue Plossl 32mm.

It was sold/won on Saturday 10th August @ 18:01 for £80, there were 15 bidders.

A fair price given that it is used and does not have the Televue box.

It was re-listed on Sunday 11th August by the same seller but as a Buy It Now

for £99.99 and ends on this Thursday.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Tele-Vue-32mm-plossl-/221266323846?ssPageName=ADME:B:WNARL:GB:1123

This is just 25% more than the winning bid!!

I think it is now over priced given that you can purchase a brand new one from

Lee at Green Witch for £120 with a Televue box etc.

It will be interesting to see if it sells at the new price.

No reason given for re-listing by the seller.

Cheers

Adrian

[S.A.M]

Well noticed Adrian, Trying for a quick profit maybe, hoping to trap somebody into buying it?

Peter

[John]

Well noticed Adrian, Trying for a quick profit maybe, hoping to trap somebody into buying it?

Wouldn't be the first time but even the original price was a bit high considering the lack of the box and the recent reduction in new Tele Vue prices.

Lets hope nobody falls for it.

[Adrian Condon]

Hi Peter and John,

The Update.....

The eyepiece failed to attract buyers at £99.99 Buy It Now .... Strange ....

So it is now re-listed as a Buy It Now for £94.99.

Still over-priced.

On further investigation.... The winner/buyer on Saturday night is interesting.

In the last 30 days the winner has bought 11 items all from the same seller!!!

They have one retracted bid.....

No feedback given for any of the 11 items.

I don't have to say much more......

Cheers

Adrian

[oymd]

well spotted!!

just reported it...

[Adrian Condon]

Hi,

The eyepiece failed to sell for a merge £94.99 on a Buy It Now.

It has been relisted for £90.00 Buy It Now today.

I still find it strange that the winner at £80.00 who retracted the bid..... Bought items from this seller

after the retraction. If somebody did a bid retraction on me I would blackball them on my list of buyers.

We have to wait until Monday to see if it sells for £90.00.

The offer price is still too high in my view.

Cheers

Adrian

[Moonshane]

personally I wouldn't want to pay more than about £65 for a 32mm TV Plossl and I'd certainly not buy from this guy.

[Chris]

I saw that and thought he was having a laugh! They would have done well to take the 80 quid, greed will be that persons down fall, well hopefully.

[Moonshane]

I think the inference above is that it is their mate that's the top bidder (so far) hence the retractions.

[ibraidwo]

I think the inference above is that it is their mate that's the top bidder (so far) hence the retractions.

I inferred the same - someone getting greedy

[cantab]

In my view when eBay stopped showing full IDs of bidders they created a perfect shill's charter. /tangent

[Chris]

Oh right, didn't think of that, too pure minded you see No thats terrible though if true and they should show the full bidders ID to at least stop self bidding, I wonder why they stopped?

I saw a suspected case of this the other day when I was watching a DSLR camera which only had one bid on it right upto the last few minutes, then another bid appeared with the same number of stars as the person selling. maybe they expected it to sell for more then panicked and self bid on it to boost the price and prevent it from selling cheap? The number of stars was zero for the seller and zero for the bidder so it could have been someone who had started there account from scratch for some reason? Ebay certainly leaves you speculating a lot!

[Adrian Condon]

Hi,

The Televue Plossl is no longer on the seller's eBay site.

If he sold it for the £90 then he got a very good offer!!

Will watch for any feedback....

Cheers

Adrian

[Adrian Condon]

Hi Folks,

It is totally and utterly unbelievable!!

The Televue 32mm Plossl was removed from Buy It Now.... yesterday, I thought that the seller

had found gullible buyer, but I was wrong.

It is back on eBay as a proper auction item, Saturday evening and is currently at £21.00.

One of the bidders is back offering £20, his offer on the first auction was £79, I wonder what his

final offer will be this time around.

Does anybody know how much eBay will charge for 5 insertions of the same item to-date.....

And, will a retraction take a role this time around?

I am a sorry git to find this interesting!!!

Cheers

Adrian

[cotterless45]

After using ebay for a number of years, I get a feeling of a wrong'un. The first thing to look for is many bids in a short time at the start of an auction.

This is usually the seller/ accomplice pushing the price up. Then there's relisting as detailed above.

I've been very lucky with ebay before all this silliness and greed got a grip. There are still many genuine sellers and buyers out there, just take care and stick to an amount that you can afford,

Nick.

[lardy]

Just asked the seller .. quite intrigued myself :-)

[Bukko]

Thanks for the link, Adrian, you have hooked another one watch this story unfold...

Frankly better than Eastenders, for sure.

The Ebay link is now on my "favourites" list and I am sitting here waiting for him to post Lardy's question and answer... Holding my breath... Any minute now...

I wonder if he knows SGL is watching his every move ???

[lardy]

The first winner couldn't/didn't pay - I then relisted it as buy it now (with the instant payment option) but it did not sell, I relisted the eyepiece a second and third time, still didn't sell - so relisting as a three auction and hoping the winner can/will pay this time.

Hope that lifts some of the mystery.

Answer from the seller

[Adrian Condon]

Hi Lardy,

Great reply from the seller......

Strange that the winning bidder who failed to pay is now re-bidding!!

If the final bid was £80.00, why insert it as a Buy It Now for £99.99

when you cannot get the bidder to pay the £80.

Secondly, and more crucially why would you sell two other items to the same non-paying bidder

after he re-tracted his bid.

I don't watch Eastenders, but it is getting better than S@N.....

We keep watching.....ladbrooks may open a book on another Buy It Now.

Cheers

Adrian

[Adrian Condon]

Hi Folks,

Has justice been done at a price!!

The Televue 32mm Plossl has now been sold on eBay.

http://offer.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewBids&_trksid=p2047675.l2565&rt=nc&item=221272188885

It sold for £72 which is £8 less than the last time when the bid was retracted, that's 11% less.

The bidder who came second the last time offered £79 then.

It is the same person who offered £79 last time won this time.

Interestingly, the retracting bidder put a bid in this time at £70 stage...(nothing wrong there then??)

Also, I didn't know that the Post Office have up'd the postage costs by close to 43% since 10th August!!!!

Yes, postage has gone from £3.50 to £4.99.......

So it appears that greed doesn't pay.

I still feel that price was a tad on the high side.

I am waiting to see if the eyepiece re-appears in the next few days.

Thanks for the fascinating replies.

Cheers

Adrian

[crashtestdummy]

Definately report it as it's illegal to bid up an item

[Adrian Condon]

Hi,

I have reported two of the auctions for the Televue 32mm eyepiece to eBay given the observed bidding

practice of possible upping the bids by the same bidder in both auctions.

The bidder won the first auction, re-tracted the bid, and then bid on other items from same seller.

The same (re-tracted) bidder bid the price up in the second auction.

This bidder has now had 13 bids with this seller in the last 30 days and has not bid with any other

Seller in this period.

Reading eBay on "Shill" bidding, this is a good example of it.

If this practice is proved it is illegal in contravention of the Business Protection from Misleading

Marketing Regulations 2008 and the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008.

These laws were introduced to combat Internet trading mis-selling and fraud.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1292179/eBay-seller-fined-bidding-auctions-boost-price.html

I wonder what action eBay will take if any, given they stand to lose the seller fees.....

eBay have access to all the facts, especially the documentation re-tracting the

bid in the first auction

and the fast re-listing within 2.5 hours of the end of the auction.

Because eBay do not publish the bidders names, we cannot contact the winner and get their view on the issue.

I believe the benefits of Internet trading in all its forms depends heavily on trust.

The more people report these possible breaches to eBay the quicker trust will be restored.

Cheers

Adrian

[oymd]

it will DEFINETELY show up very soon..

An obvious scammer...

And I do not agree with some of the previous comments about "GREED"..

This is not greed, some thing that can afflict any one of us occasionally..

This activity is outright criminal and I would classify it as theft..

I blumming hate these guys...

Ok...I feel better now...

[Adrian Condon]

Hi,

An update....

No response from eBay..... Surprise....

The seller currently has no items for sale.

The winner at £72 left the following feedback.

"delighted with the purchase. As described on time and good value"

The buyer is from Preston and has been using eBay to sell a lot of Astro gear recently.

He has 4 items currently for sale. I now have the buyer's identity.

Since he is happy with the purchase of the Televue 32mm Plossl, I wonder if he has studied the

bidding trail?

If he bought to sell, ( which he appears to do) there will not be a big margin, given that it failed to sellat £90 as a Buy It Now.....and free delivery.

The buyer has in fact spent £76.99 so far on the eyepiece.

Interesting to see if the item re-appears on eBay in the coming weeks.

Cheers

Adrian

[Adrian Condon]

Hi,

For those who are interested in this thread here is the latest update......

The Televue 32 mm Plossl is back on eBay, which we thought might happen.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TELE-VUE-32-MM-PLOSSL-EYEPIECE-/271276270775?pt=UK_Telescope_Eyepieces&hash=item3f295364b7

It is being auctioned again, starting at £40.00 with one bid.

The interesting thing is that the P&P has increased from £4.99 to £5.99!! Just 20%, trying to save on

sellers fees.

Remember he has to sell for around £80.00 to cover his costs....

The previous seller has had no items for sale since he sold the eyepiece for £72.00 plus £4.99 postage.

He has received feedback on previous sales, latest 10/Sept/2013 for sales in August.

Interested to know what price the eyepiece will sell for this time around.

Cheers

Adrian