What's the difference between these two eBay auctions?

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#1 Post by **rkawakami** » Mon Aug 27, 2007 9:06 pm

DELL Laptop Memory 1GB 1024MB Ram PC100 (4 x 256MB) NR!
Dell Laptop Memory 1GB RAM MT16SDF3264HG (256MB x 4)

Both are from the same seller and as far as I can tell, both are for a lot of 4 PC100 256MB low density modules. Sure the second one has a typo in the auction title (MT16LSDF... is the proper part number) but looking at the pictures and description it's what I've bought before for the 600s and T21.

As an incentive I've offered to pay up to $70 (shipped) for my win. We'll see how this goes, but I'm not holding out too much hope that he/she/they are going to ship me all four modules for $20.51!

edit: Here's a copy of what I sent the seller: "I am probably as shocked as you are at the final price for this auction seeing how your other one ending up at $81. I will be willing to go up to a total of $70 (shipped). Please advise."

Website · #2 Post by **tfflivemb2** » Mon Aug 27, 2007 10:00 pm

OK, now I know that something has snapped in your head Ray....if you just won 4 sticks of 256mb PC100 for $20.51, and are offering to pay the guy $70!?!?!?

I understand being fair, but come on....

#3 Post by **rkawakami** » Mon Aug 27, 2007 10:44 pm

Believe it or not, that is still way below the market price on eBay. I'm willing to pay under $20 apiece for them in order to keep him from saying there was a mistake in the listing. If he goes that route, I'll file a seller non-performance strike.

edit: BTW, if you scan the completed eBay listings for "256MB PC100..." (I'm not going to reveal my specific search string), you may see some auctions which have closed at a fairly low price. If you click on the link however, the final price is sometimes much higher. Probably the result of last second snipes not being recorded properly by eBay's listing software.

edit2: Here's an example of what I'm talking about with sniping causing incorrect closing prices in completed listings: use "Samsung 256MB PC100 SODIMM Memory" as the search string, click the "Completed listings" option and look for a $12.50 price ending Aug 27th. If you then click on the auction listing you will see the final price was actually $26.01. Which is more or less in line with the other auctions WRT the overall price.

#4 Post by **gator** » Mon Aug 27, 2007 10:45 pm

On one hand, we have IT_Equipment_Express ... and on the other, we have people like Ray. The world is SO unfair.

jamiphar · #5 Post by **jamiphar** » Mon Aug 27, 2007 11:54 pm

I'm not gonna complain if Ray brings the price of 256MB sticks down to $5.13 each.

More power to ya!

The Spirit of X21 · #6 Post by **The Spirit of X21** » Tue Aug 28, 2007 12:17 am

Amazing, Ray! How long did it take you to find your winning auction?

#7 Post by **rkawakami** » Tue Aug 28, 2007 12:48 am

Ran across them a couple of days ago, put both on my watch list and then yesterday set up the snipes. I was watching them at work (in between actual work!) and saw the bidding on the first go up a couple of times in the last few hours. The second one appeared to be ignored. When the first closed at $81 (I had a snipe at $77 which never was placed) I figured that attention would turn to the second auction (they closed 10 minutes apart). For some reason, and I still can't figure out why, nobody made a serious offer except me. The winner of the first one placed his/her bid six days ago. I had a six second snipe, again for around $77.

As the eBay seller appears to be a consignment store I don't know how they are going to handle this sale. Will they tell the customer about my offer? Will they risk getting a non-performance strike filed against them if they refuse to complete the sale? At the moment, I have not yet paid for it since I don't want to force them into anything. I thought that the "carrot" of the extra money would be enough to sway their decision toward completing the sale in an agreeable manner. I wasn't expecting anything from them tonight as they appear to be in Florida so hopefully after I take my younger daughter to school tomorrow (YAY! school is back in session!), there will be an answer to my proposal.

#8 Post by **gator** » Tue Aug 28, 2007 1:00 am

rkawakami wrote:YAY! school is back in session!.

school is back in session

I know, I know, I am way off topic here.

#9 Post by **RealBlackStuff** » Tue Aug 28, 2007 3:37 am

I honestly don't understand why you would not insist on receiving those four RAMs for the final closing price.
People make mistakes, but it should not be up to your ideas of 'fair trade' to compensate them for that!
Enjoy it while the going is good!

Robbyrobot · #10 Post by **Robbyrobot** » Tue Aug 28, 2007 4:14 am

I honestly don't understand why you would not insist on receiving those four RAMs for the final closing price.

I agree completely. If the price had been too high, you would have been held to it. Why back down when the price was too low?

#11 Post by **rkawakami** » Tue Aug 28, 2007 4:25 am

I don't believe that they made any mistakes in the listing or description. My feeling is that they will attempt to get out of the deal by claiming any number of excuses (items are "damaged", "missing", etc.). Why? I've already have had this happen to me twice before when I've won with a particularly low bid. Yes they should honor their end of the "contract" but eBay's only recourse is for me to file a non-performance claim against them, the end result being I do not receive the merchandise. Hopefully my offer, even though it is quite low considering the current market price, will be enough to get the seller to complete the deal. I get the parts I want (cheaper than what I was willing to pay for and cheaper than most of the other deals on eBay), the seller gets more money than he would have otherwise received had I played hardball to begin with and hopefully everybody is happy.

If the seller's initial response to me is along the lines of "whoops, we meant to put a reserve on this auction" or "there was an error in the inventory and these modules don't really exist", THEN I will play hardball and let them know my offer is null and void and that they should expect a non-performance strike.

Even though eBay says that there's a contract established between the seller and buyer, there's no teeth behind it. eBay can't force the seller to give my those parts at the winning price. The same is true if the buyer decides not to pay for something (s)he won. The only thing that can happen is a bad mark gets put into your file, along with a virtual slap on the wrist. Of course too many of those can get you kicked off of eBay but people can always setup another account.

kensplace · #12 Post by **kensplace** » Tue Aug 28, 2007 2:56 pm

I would have just paid the final price, and if they didnt send it, they didnt send it...

They could also possibly rip you off, say you pay them the 70 dollars by paypal.

They send you a pile of junk, you file a claim, and you get the money refunded - surely the refund would only be for the final auction price, not the full amount paid..

Also, if you dont trust them enough to honour their contract with you as the winning bidder, then why pay them more money? You either trust them, or you dont...

#13 Post by **rkawakami** » Tue Aug 28, 2007 6:15 pm

Well, since it's now 7pm in Florida and no word was received from the eBay seller about my offer, I went ahead and paid for the auction ($20.51). Now we'll see what happens....

@kensplace: Good points you make but I had already thought this through when I made my initial offer. I did not notice at that time that the seller was a consignment shop so that required a slight adjustment on my part. As I said earlier, this has already happened to me twice before (winning at an absurdly low price; possibly three times but I don't for sure on that last one) and every time the seller claimed there was an error in the listing and either canceled the sale or reduced the number of items shipped. So this time I thought I'd take a more aggressive role in the transaction. I again did the same thing in the previously linked thread where I offered to cover the additional shipping charges. Thus the "up to $70" offer. Since they have not replied after one business day, I figured I'll go ahead and pay for the auction and see how things progress. Note, it was not my intention to pay the $70 upfront even if they replied. My intention all along was to only pay the $20.51 first. If the seller is honest enough, they would refuse my extra payment. If they choose to accept my offer I would send a separate payment after the modules were received and verified working to my satisfaction. That of course would require some trust on their behalf that I wouldn't go back on my word ("trust is a two-way street"). The fly in the ointment, once I realized that they are a consignment shop, would be the possibility that they wouldn't tell their client about my offer and pocket the extra $$$. My only solution to that would be the feedback that I would leave:

"Felt real bad about low winning bid so I gave them extra $$$$$!!! Thanks! A+++++" (exactly 80 characters

)

Of course there's no guarantee that the client would see this but that's the best thing I could think of. If I were that client and the company only gave me $15 or so for four 256MB modules, I would be very curious to see what the eBay buyer would say about the deal.

#14 Post by **rkawakami** » Wed Aug 29, 2007 11:48 am

This story just keeps getting more interesting...

As I said last night, I went ahead and paid for the auction as is ($20.51). This morning I get an email (well, actually two) from them. Here's the subject lines:

"Your purchase will be shipped by PayPal Shipping with U.S. Postal Service®"
and
"Item Shipped: Dell Laptop Memory 1GB RAM MT16SDF3264HG (256MB x 4)"

Both appear to be the standard, automatic notices issued when the item has been processed.

#15 Post by **rkawakami** » Sat Sep 01, 2007 4:20 pm

End of story:

The four Micron modules were received earlier today via USPS Priority and have been running memtest86+ in a T21 and T22. After the first pass through the diagnostics (one hour) no errors have been detected. Eventual home for these four will probably be in the T22 and a 600E or X.

I still cannot believe this deal...

#16 Post by **gator** » Sat Sep 01, 2007 4:53 pm

Awesome deal Ray. Congrats on the purchase!

What's the difference between these two eBay auctions?

What's the difference between these two eBay auctions?

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