The www.esnipe.com business has been around for a long time and has always been contentious with hard core eBay buyers. Not sellers! eBay has looked at the practice for years but has always taken a hands off approach.
eBay's proxy bidding system can make a lot of this look like shill bidding. Click on the link SHOW AUTOMATIC BIDS on the bid History page and look at the timing. It's not that unusual to see a winning bid placed days before the end of the auction and multiple bids placed AFTER the winning bid. The proxy system will automatically bid for the "highest" bidder.
I spent a LOT of my early eBay days investigating shill bidding. As time went by, eBay developed algorithms to automatically spot shill bidding and bring it to the fraud investigation team's attention. As time went by, these algorithms got more and more robust. I'm not saying this auction was not shilled but I'd want a closer look at the bidder's (r***r) relationship to the seller. The seller's a bit unusual since he mainly sells low dollar collectible coins. Hmmmm
I wish my method of deduction carried the wisdom of your experience. I looked at the price and bidding history and thought immediately it looked fishy and overpriced. Thanks for the explanation bud.
Fist Bump to Lee for the honorable mention. It should be noted however, he has seen way more 700B's at one time in his shop than me.
For the newer member 88Z52; see post below to what Lee's referring too.
Yeah, I'd say it's an addiction, but better for your health than most other vices.
I myself have used epay for years and years. An yes I even shelled out a penny or two for one of these amps off that site. However, at the time; they did not go for even THIS much. And mine was in pristine cosmetic and factory original condition. (I think it even came with a wood case).
Now this is just my opinion and I don't know this for a fact, because I do not work for ebay, (so take it for what it's worth). I believe one of the double-edged swords on automatic bidding is first you have to decide just how much you would be willing to shell-out for the item. If you just "want to win it", you might take the gamble and put in a high bid you don't think even YOU could afford and nobody else would be willing to pay either BUT.....then beware. Someone else might think the exact same thing and put in say.....a bid of like $2,000, ALSO thinking nobody would ever pay that. Well if YOUR crazy bid was $3,000..., you're gonna win it at $2,000 and a penny. Because your bid was the highest. So you end up paying above the other guys crazy bid. Of course neither of the crazy bids will be that high unless the amp actually hits $2,000. It's a gamble really.
In the final seconds of the auction; it's really only the two guys who's auto-bids were battling it out. Every other legitimate bid you actually SEE in the duration of the auction time, are just bids getting outdone by the two top guys. They may have bid 5 days ago.
It's tough to ever know if there is a human being on the other end watching the count down clock in the last few seconds and then hitting the "confirm high bid" button (snipping); or just an auto-bid. Even the sniper can get snipped by an auto-bid in this case.
Of course; it all boils down to supply and demand. What a person thinks somethings worth. If a guy thinks 40 year old boards and dried up electrolytic capacitors are worth a grand and a half........then it's his. Another guy will call that throwing money down the toilet.
I believe, it seems that you can't seem to get a good "shell" for the 700B without paying a high price. Realistically; if these people are white-oaking it; then it's getting gutted anyway, and yes that does seem a lot of money to me to be paying for a shell. We can only guess as to what the motives are behind the price hikes I suppose.......................
Though supposedly the last time I read anything about shells on here; Joe and Lee were close to being able to pretty much build new 700B's from scratch. I think Meter and transformer procurement were the only things standing in the way at the time.
Fist Bump to Lee for the honorable mention. It should be noted however, he has seen way more 700B's at one time in his shop than me.
For the newer member 88Z52; see post below to what Lee's referring too.
Yeah, I'd say it's an addiction, but better for your health than most other vices.
I myself have used epay for years and years. An yes I even shelled out a penny or two for one of these amps off that site. However, at the time; they did not go for even THIS much. And mine was in pristine cosmetic and factory original condition. (I think it even came with a wood case).
Now this is just my opinion and I don't know this for a fact, because I do not work for ebay, (so take it for what it's worth). I believe one of the double-edged swords on automatic bidding is first you have to decide just how much you would be willing to shell-out for the item. If you just "want to win it", you might take the gamble and put in a high bid you don't think even YOU could afford and nobody else would be willing to pay either BUT.....then beware. Someone else might think the exact same thing and put in say.....a bid of like $2,000, ALSO thinking nobody would ever pay that. Well if YOUR crazy bid was $3,000..., you're gonna win it at $2,000 and a penny. Because your bid was the highest. So you end up paying above the other guys crazy bid. Of course neither of the crazy bids will be that high unless the amp actually hits $2,000. It's a gamble really.
In the final seconds of the auction; it's really only the two guys who's auto-bids were battling it out. Every other legitimate bid you actually SEE in the duration of the auction time, are just bids getting outdone by the two top guys. They may have bid 5 days ago.
It's tough to ever know if there is a human being on the other end watching the count down clock in the last few seconds and then hitting the "confirm high bid" button (snipping); or just an auto-bid. Even the sniper can get snipped by an auto-bid in this case.
Of course; it all boils down to supply and demand. What a person thinks somethings worth. If a guy thinks 40 year old boards and dried up electrolytic capacitors are worth a grand and a half........then it's his. Another guy will call that throwing money down the toilet.
I believe, it seems that you can't seem to get a good "shell" for the 700B without paying a high price. Realistically; if these people are white-oaking it; then it's getting gutted anyway, and yes that does seem a lot of money to me to be paying for a shell. We can only guess as to what the motives are behind the price hikes I suppose.......................
Though supposedly the last time I read anything about shells on here; Joe and Lee were close to being able to pretty much build new 700B's from scratch. I think Meter and transformer procurement were the only things standing in the way at the time.
