Selmer on EBAY

Xjax · October 2013

Congratulations to the new owner and the seller. I love how a $0.99 starting bid gets the juices flowing. I was imagining a flight to Toronto to meet a new guitar... Which of course was folly. I hope it turns out to be as wonderful as my imagination believes it might be.

So, if I have this right, the new owner can now attend the secret, annual Selmer Guitar Owners meeting in Davos Switzerland and dine on endangered animals with John Jorgenson and Michael Bauer and Stochelo Rosenberg et. al.? Right? Isn't that how this works?

C.

MichaelHorowitz · October 2013

I know the owner of this guitar and he told me he canceled the auction so it didn't actually sell. He's a bit inexperienced with eBay and inadvertently set up the auction incorrectly and wasn't able to change it. We'd all love the opportunity to own a Selmer at a price like that, but as you'd expect he needs a lot more $ to part with it.

M

teyoung · October 2013

I don't think you can pull an ebay listing at the last minute.

Xjax · October 2013

Hmm, it seems a bit disingenuous to cancel an Ebay auction as it nears the end rather than at the beginning if you made a mistake in posting it... Which leads to one reason why ebay stinks -- the penalties for sellers and buyers who do not follow through are not stiff enough keep the process legit. If I were the guy who let a bid hang out there for $12,810 and it was the "winning" bid I'd be a bit perturbed.

Regarding Michael's comment "we'd all love the opportunity to own a Selmer at a price like that." Actually, only one guy, who knew about the auction, was willing to put that amount on the line for this guitar today. So, it seems to me this was what the market was willing to bear at this time, for this particular guitar, being sold online under these conditions i.e. without an in-person inspection/test drive etc.

EmmettRay · October 2013

I watched the last 2 minutes of the bid and just as it got to 1 minute left the bid suddenly ended with this message "This listing was ended by the seller because the item was sold."

teyoung · October 2013

Xjax wrote:

Hmm, it seems a bit disingenuous to cancel an Ebay auction as it nears the end rather than at the beginning if you made a mistake in posting it... Which leads to one reason why ebay stinks -- the penalties for sellers and buyers who do not follow through are not stiff enough keep the process legit. If I were the guy who let a bid hang out there for $12,810 and it was the "winning" bid I'd be a bit perturbed.

Regarding Michael's comment "we'd all love the opportunity to own a Selmer at a price like that." Actually, only one guy, who knew about the auction, was willing to put that amount on the line for this guitar today. So, it seems to me this was what the market was willing to bear at this time, for this particular guitar, being sold online under these conditions i.e. without an in-person inspection/test drive etc.

My thoughts exactly

MichaelHorowitz · October 2013

Xjax wrote:

Regarding Michael's comment "we'd all love the opportunity to own a Selmer at a price like that." Actually, only one guy, who knew about the auction, was willing to put that amount on the line for this guitar today. So, it seems to me this was what the market was willing to bear at this time, for this particular guitar, being sold online under these conditions i.e. without an in-person inspection/test drive etc.

Actually, its a not a real test of the market as he pulled the plug at the last minute which is when most of the serious offers come in. I know of two people who tried to submit much higher offers for it but weren't able to becuase the bidding closed early.

TPC168 · October 2013

So the winning, or in this case losing, bidder was willing to pay just under 13k for a guitar whose original owner decides to cancel an auction at the 11th hour because he inadvertently didn't know the rules. The seller can change the format of his auction during its course, but this way of going about it ain't right. Was the seller unaware of how to conduct an Ebay auction during the beginning, middle, or end phase of the process?

If there is less than twelve hours left in an auction, you can pull ad. The only catch is that the highest bidder gets your item.

Michael Bauer · October 2013

Stop with the "free market" bullshit! The market wasn't willing to bear it, because the seller wouldn't sell it at that price. It's a two-party bargain. Sorry, but no one on earth is going to sell you a Selmer for $13,200 Canadian. There are "Selmers" out there for that, but the problem is, they really aren't legit. They are Frankenselmers or other parts guitars, or total frauds. There are bargain Busatos as well, but always of questionable provenance.

Where the seller made a mistake was not putting a reserve on, which was his right. Pulling the auction at the 1-minute mark is essentially saying that his reserve wasn't met. You wouldn't have been pissed if he had posted a reserve, so why be upset if the seller did it a different way? I think the way he did it was inelegant, and perhaps he should have done it with a reserve, but to give a Selmer away for a third of its value was not in his interest, so he didn't do it. You want him to give up $20K+ because he isn't internet savvy? It wasn't happening. The only guy with a right to be upset is the guy who bid $13,200 Canadian, and for all we know, that was the seller.

The Ferrari-in-the-garage days are over; the internet has effectively killed the dream of the bargain guitar...or car. It's the price we pay for all the good stuff it has done.