Well, this auction has been a disaster since we first found it. And now, with 3 minutes left. the auction site closed down.
SHILL BIDDING?
Well, here is why. With just under 9 minutes to go, I see my bids are almost all bid up to the EXACT maximum. (3/4 were bid up to the max I had put in and 1 was just under). Now what are the odds of this considering how different my bids were? I took a shot of the bid summary at that time, and here it is:
I contacted POTP at 6:52 and told them to call me as I suspected foul play. Because of this, they canceled the auction. They felt it would look bad, and it probably would.
And then when I wrote that this smacked of shill bidding, they wrote:
"No idiot it doesnt what it smacks of is you sabotaging the auction from start to finish"
OK, well, calling me an idiot is not the way to resolve an issue.
Star Trek Forum User Philippe had the same problem:
Well I noticed exactly the same thing. I had a bid on one item 1 hour ago at my maximum and I was already feeling it weird but possible if we follow the increments process.
So I did increase my bid just in case to what I thought would be still a fair price but less than what we saw in PIH auction for the same item. Then my bid went fast to exactly my new limit. Was going to look at the number of bids to compare with previous one when the system "crashed".
You can imagine I feel this is a bit awkward. So hopefully somebody will have bid more than me during the crash because if not there is no way I will pay for this unless I know exactly what happened and I can see the bidding history. Even so would trust the bids if those are from someone from the forums. If not would still feel fishy.
Guess the forums will have quite a few comments to come on this auction.
Cheers,
Philippe.
AUCTION DISASTER
This auctions has been a disaster from Day 1.
1) Fake items
2) Wrong photos
3) Bad descriptions
4) Failure to disclose damage
5) No provenance
6) Crappy software
And then instead of coming on the Star Trek Prop, Costume & Auction Forum and taking feedback, all Kevin did all week was bitch about collectors who knew nothing and whine that a member of the forum was using the name "Star Wares", which is the name of a company he supposedly bought. (No trademark, and no licensed business in CA, despite claims of both by Kevin Martin).
Was I wrong to want to cancel my bids? This auction was a disaster. I wanted to see it successful, and that is why I went to see the stuff and posted photos. But when you have fake items, and the photos and descriptions are so bad, and there is no provenance, well you are setting yourself up for failure.
I look forward to discussing this with you all on the Forum.
Alec