Have you heard about www.iOffer.com? It is a very nice trading community where everything is listed at a fixed price, or you can make an offer to the seller. Good old fashioned haggling and deal making. They don’t charge a listing fee – and get a percentage of the sale price if your items sell. They allow you to import your items from eBay and even better, you can also import your eBay feedback to their site, so you are not starting out with no score!

However as you can see from the chart above – iOffer is right below eBay in size. And eBay seems to be concerned with this sites growth.

I frequent the Yahoo eBay Finance discussion board and eBay’s Pumpers have been busy discrediting the iOffer site today. So busy in fact that there are a bunch of threads on this subject.

It has been said these pumpers work for eBay. The colorful cast of characters includes variations of Seichiro, eLike, And the eBay Tool Seller (who boasts of a 100% sell through each week). They all have had so many ID’s deleted by Yahoo’s board moderators i couldn’t even begin to remember them all. They stalk and harass anyone that posts something negative about eBay!

Today the “tool fool” as he is nicknamed is going by eBay_wonderful. and is doing a good job of trashing iOffers reputation.

I find this quite interesting! And have a hard time believing anyone would go to this much effort to black ball up and coming competition – If they were not getting paid to do it!

Meanwhile if you are fed up with eBay and the horrible way they treat their members, I suggest you give iOffer a try. It’s a real nice site with a good sense of community and trust. Something eBay forgot about a long time ago!

What are your thoughts on this posting??

I wonder if this record collection winner is a Deadbeat Bidder? The buyer “jopsoup” has been NARU’d by eBay.

The Motley Fool – reports the buyer has paid the 10% deposit on the transaction, and in this article claims it is the largest transaction on eBay.

However an article in the Post-Gazette said: “Mr. Mawhinney and Mr. Henderson are expecting a deposit from the bidder within 10 days followed by a closing within 30 days.”

So Just Show Me The Money!!

I just have a feeling someone hijacked the buyer’s account (from Ireland) and is sitting back laughing about it.

eBay certainly didn’t NARU the buyers account for no reason.

This deal reminds me of John Schneider’s, Dukes Of Hazard Series, 1969 Dodge Charger – The General Lee, That brought 9.9 Million Dollars, only to find out someone hijacked the bidders account!

Schneider tried re-listing it with an approved bidders auction. They started it out at a 1 Million starting bid for 10 days, later they dropped it to a $600k starting bid with no takers. Schneider ended up without a buyer – and had plans to sell the car at a legitimate collector car live auction. I don’t know if he ever sold it or not.

Meanwhile i guess we will have to sit and wait if the record collection seller got Fooled by another of eBay’s Famous Deadbeat Bidders!

If it does turn out to be a hijacked buyers account – or just a good ole deadbeat, you can be assured eBay will not be happy either, their FVF would be around $60k.

Updated 02/23/2008: Post-Gazette Update – The Bidder Was A Fraud!

This auction stunk like eBay dead fish by looking at the bid history! Anyone with a good eBay nose could smell this hijacked account a mile away – and the Motley Fool did such a Foolish Job of Pumping Up eBay the way they did.

They must hold a long position on eBay.. Along with elikeebay and seichiro from the Yahoo eBay Finance Board

Even the Associated Press got suckered into believing this was the real deal – and had to issue a retraction statement. You can bet eBay knew it was bogus from the minute it closed, by tracking the person placing the bids IP address!

There is talk about this collection being re-listed, but i didn’t find it on eBay. When i do, i will post a link to it. And lets all wish the seller luck – hopefully he won’t get stuck with another one of eBay’s world class deadbeats the 2nd time around..

UPDATE 02/25/2008: Record-Rama owner thinks he has a buyer

Update From The Motley Fool 02/26/2008: eBay Takes It On The Chin

This is a must archive protest listing!

Click the archive image to get yours – better hurry – it probably won’t last long!!

It all usually starts with a convincing looking email sent by a scammer designed to trick you into giving up your eBay login info.

Once the scammer has your eBay login and password he goes in and lists his scams under your eBay account!

This listing started February 06 2008 – and most likely will run to it’s completion.

The scammer is using a picture showing his email address and auction terms to try and lure you off of eBay into his trap! And they are real good at what they specialize in – stealing money from greedy American’s!

Also of importance is that Google Mail email address – Gmail hides the scammers true IP and identity – making it impossible to trace without law enforcement getting that info from Google!

As you can see from this listings bid history – there have been 31 bids with 7 unique bidders – and 2 bids have been canceled by the scammer!

While you and i can not see these bidders eBay ID’s, The scammer can and sends them an invitation to buy at a discounted price. A veteran eBay member should know better – but a newbie is sure to get snared in this trap!

Here are the scammers images sitting on a free Photo Bucket account – all ready to insert into a listing!

eBay community members used to spend countless hours searching for and reporting these scams to T&S – but judging from the fact this one has been up and scamming 6+ Days – it appears they too are disgusted with eBay’s lack of concern for any of their members!

eBay is just old news – what was once the darling of wall street is now a manipulated trash stock! The manipulation is so easy to spot so it’s the perfect short!

Meanwhile the eBay Burial Continues.. Down Down Down It Goes!!!

eBay sellers continue to complain about the lack of seller security. This auction is making the rounds – so i thought it was interesting enough to archive.

The seller is telling the honest truth about all the ways a sleazy buyer can use eBay/PayPal policies to get it for free!

What ever happened to the Ole eBay we all loved and supported with our buying and selling confidence? Seems that corporate greed and big $$$ took it all away!

When John Donahoe – The AX Man – starts his new house cleaning program it will wipe out what is left of eBay. All that will be left are pieces of what it once was!