Quote:
Originally Posted by Othen
Ha, ha Dave!
It does seem a bit off that the seller has marked the motor car as sold but allowed the auction to continue, it also seems slightly odd that there were 31 bids on the first day, but none since (I’m not sure everyone interested would have noticed the ‘deposit taken’ notice). Perhaps there is an innocent explanation: maybe the seller is just trying to avoid the auction charges?
I’m a simple soldier, I may well be wrong but somethings seems not quite above board here.
Alan
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It's that rotten i can smell it from here Alan!
He could avoid auction fees by saying the item is no longer available/lost/broken/sold elsewhere. I suspect his line of reasoning is that by saying "Deposit taken", it will encourage people to send messages basically saying "if the sale falls through, can they have first refusal?".
By leaving the auction running, it may still attracts bids from genuine buyers who haven't seen the "Deposit now taken" bit and they'll be expecting to secure a car if theirs is the highest bid. It also means that if it gets to auction end and there is a clear high bidder, if the other sale goes ahead, he has to tell that bidder "Sorry but it sold elsewhere, added deposit taken to the listing" or if it doesn't go ahead, he simply contacts the high bidder and arranges hand-over date for the car and the money respectively to each party.
I think it's called hedging your bets but from a seemingly underhand way.
