Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

A)The reason I didn't bid $4000.00 is that I didn't think the bass was worth $4000.00 and B)I did not know that your max bid was $3500.00. I bid what I thought the bass was worth within ebay rules and I lost, fair and square. I'm not crying about it. I understood that you wanted the bass more than I did and I moved on.

If fights did break out at auto auctions because of competitive bidding then that's not truly a free open auction market.

Jeff, instead of bidding against fellow forum members wouldn't it be easier to email me and say whats your max on that bass.If you were willing to bid more then $3500.then i would have said take it.You didn't answer my question ,was that you that wanted the that c64????

No, it wasn't me that wanted the c64. But thanks for the consideration.

What you are proposing is a noble thing. It would have worked in this situation, so I'm sorry I bid against you.

Jeff, I'm merely stating how it should be, not how it is,i prefer it this way. If theres something with your user ID on it and i wanted to throw in a bid i will email you first,and ask how bad do you want this...you might say its going to high for me go ahead.whatever.John Slog [owner of guitar villa]called me last week and asked if it was i that was bidding on a split tailpiece,i said yes and he said go ahead if you decide you don't want it let me know.

Whoooeee, boys-it's called Prozac!! And best of all, it works....

This a prime reason and example of keeping your Ebay bids an intentions private-and not on the forum- sometimes people can be offended unintentionally.
IMO of course.

Ken-I'm not trying to fight with you, but I have a point to make and a few questions:

How you are proposing auctions be handled among forum members is a well intentioned thing. You're looking out for your friends on the forum, not stepping on toes, hoping they look out for you, etc. and I admire that.

So here goes. You said: "If theres something with your user ID on it and i wanted to throw in a bid i will email you first,and ask how bad do you want this."

This would require that I place a serious bid early in the auction. As I stated above, I have a problem doing this. Because of the potential for fraud on ebay, and the possibility of competing bidders seeing how I buy and what I buy and using that information against me, I very much prefer to keep my serious bid to myself until the final seconds of the auction. This is exactly what I did this time. I put out my goofy low-ball bid early, and chose to keep my serious bid to myself until the final seconds.

Here's my question, Ken: What if a non-forum member had placed a bid two days before the auction closed for $3400.00? You obviously would still have been the high bidder, and I think the auction price would then be $3450.00. Would you have left your bid in, or retracted it?

And what if I had emailed you and told you I was willing to bid $4000.00 for it. Would you have then retracted your bid? How would you know I wasn't bluffing so that I could win the auction for $2400.00?

Again, I'm not trying to be a jerk, I'm just trying to have a discussion. Also, I'd like to invite other forum members to participate.

I agree with you Dave Ricard!

Prozac,is a antidepressant,which has absolutely nothing to due with our opinions,Its not a mood stabilizer[i for one don't believe in such drugs].and keeping your bids and intension's private is your own business and no one is being offended.Jeff and I felt we needed to settle our differences and i believe we did.My father committed suicide due to depression,both of my brothers and i have been diagnosed as having manic depression[they take zolof]i weight train and keep my head above water,i also have heart disease and i still don't allow myself to get depressed.It can be controlled it takes willpower.Anti depressants [in my opinion]make people screwier than they are.

Jeff and others this forum is to learn and discuss Rickenbacker's which we all love.my view is if there is something that someone is actively pursuing- i choose to stay away, thats how i plan to be.

Kids....if I have to stop this car, you're both gettin' it!

Yes! Dad.

I have found in my Ebay buying experience that for most auctions I'm serious about I must determine my top price and bid within the last few seconds of the auction to have a real chance of winning the auction most of the time. In this reguard I agree with Jeff. This is a really great forum with many great people participating and it demonstrates a true brotherhood. I believe in forum members looking out for one another and not wanting to step on each others toes. If it is determined that 2 or more forum members are interested in the same thing it is probably best to discuss the matter off forum and privately if possible.

You mean you agree with Ken, that was my solution.

Thanks for your opinions. I do wonder sometimes if I am in fact, a jerk!

I probably should not get into this, but I find the topic interesting.

I must say that I really admire how helpful and considerate many of you are here. Not bidding on something because one of the other members is interested is pretty admirable.

On the other hand, we are all ric enthusiasts (i.e. collectors) here. We all want more rics, and some of you have tons or are looking for something very specific, so much of the time it is easy to step aside and let a friend win an auction.

The trouble here is that the 72' was not your average ric... not very common, not outrageously expensive, very desirable. This makes it much harder for a group of "collectors" to pass on the auction to another collector. Etiquette starts to crumble, a “collecting instinct” takes over.

I'm guessing Jeff didn't consult Ken because he wanted to win the auction, nothing personal. I don't think anyone can blame an enthusiast for wanting more of what he collects. Is Jeff a bad guy? I don't believe so. Both of you bid what you felt you would pay as a ceiling, and Ken won. Sounds fair. No one was trying to screw the other. The timing of bidding does not matter… you both new what you wanted to pay.

If it is any comfort to you ken, you now know that your new bass was worth every penny you spent. Demand determines value in a market... and the biding prices show that demand is high, and values of 72's are high. Next time a 72 goes up for auction I am sure it will sell for even more (they aren’t making any new ones so I hear… hahaha).

In the end Ken wins, and Jeff's bids just solidify the value of the bass. If the bass was any less desirable, Ken would have bid less, Jeff would have bid less, fewer people would have cared to follow the auction... and in the end the bass would be cheaper... but it would have a lower market value.

But the bass was very desirable… and I must say that I envy Ken for winning it. Money well spent in my eyes. Your average ric would not have stirred up such trouble on this forum. ;P