Ethics and banknote collecting

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 To what length will some collectors go to obtain a rare banknote?
This week I was the winning bidder for a rare banknote on eBay. After the auction finished I was notified by an honest seller that he had recieved a message from a collector regarding the banknote . Here is the message ;

"Not that I'm saying that you should not sell these notes to the winning bidder ,.....But you should know that if the one note you have is really a *C/B, this prefix is previously unknown to the hobby. I think that it's authentic because the serial number ends in 999 as do many other EXTREMELY rare (I some cases unique, as this one might be)Multi-colour replacement notes. This note could be worth in the thousands of dollars (I kid you not!) Just food for thought."

What could be the objective of this type of email? Was the author hoping to get a second chance at purchasing a rare note , or was it a really bad case  of sour grapes? Probably the former.
Also, emails of this type are against eBay policy. Should the author be suspended from eBay?
Your comments and  opinions are appreciated.

rocken

I think this is of very poor taste.

It is not against ebay policy to contact a seller but there should be rules once the item has ended and you are not the winning bidder.

This type of e-mail does nothing but discourage both parties. It was his responsibility to research the item before selling it. If the pictures were blurry and the note not properly described it’s his loss. If the “author” of this e-mail was so honest he should have sent it early in the listing. If he thinks he could outsmart the seller and wanted the note so bad he should have placed a higher bid, in the thousands as specified. You’re lucky the seller was very honest and forwarded you this reply. Hopefully the item will arrive soon.

Jason

I have recieved the note and you can see it on a posting I made on wedneday.However, this experience has disgusted me and has me wondering how often this type of situation happens. 

I would not get discouraged

For the amount of people who flok to ebay there is a very low % of which are deceiving. It just seams that the same ones manage to offend many. The same could happen in a person to person transaction as well as an online one.

The fact is your seller was a good guy and buying from people you trust will always result in positive experience.

 

It is unfortunate that a few bad apples can cause a lot of problems.I have done some research on  ebay policies. The type of infraction that was broken  is called "Transaction Interference". It is a serious offence and can lead to account suspension. Completed auctions are basically contracts which are legally binding , and transaction interference directly tries to break or circumvent  the contract.
It is this type of behaviour which seriously undermines the credibility of internet auctions and should be reported whenever possible.

Yes that is very poor indeed. I agree that it should be brought to eBay's complaint depot. As you have said how many times does this happen?? Who's to say that the writer is not going to follow your transactions around and persist on doing it again to you rocken until they finally get a seller to bite? And yes 1 bad apple can spoil the whole basket. I have had a bad experience as well and I simply made the complaint and it was handled very well. I enjoy eBay very much and I'm sure lots of you guys do to. So don't let 1 you know what ruin it for you. The power and area that such a website covers is unreal and where else can you get this much info or buyers crowd? I wouldn't get to discouraged but 100% bring it to there attention.


        Jeff

Yes bugsy, you are right .There must be action taken or the culprit can continue to sabotage auctions endlessly.I have sent a notice to the ebay safety and trust dept and requested the user be suspended. They said it will be fully investigated and will have the outcome in about 5 days.
rocken.