Stampchat+

I have a question of ethics and eBay tactics. The items for sale are not stamps, or stamp related, except an occasional post card. Rather, it concerns my other hobby, caving, or spelunking to those of you who aren't cavers. (We never use that word.) eBay sellers offer tons of cave related souvenir items, post cards, carte de visits, 19th century photos, books and a whole host of tourist trash offered in the gift stores. Some items are quite rare and desirable. There are many of us who collect items in the field, or did until GS came along.

For many years all the collectors got a piece of the pie and were able to buy cave-related items. Numerous good collections were growing rapidly thanks to the availability of goods through eBay. However, GS, a very rich cave owner and a member of the commercial cave association, began to pervert the entire field and is destroying the field of collecting of cave history. (There is a much smaller supply of artifacts than in philately.) He uses his vast amount of money, gathered from dues of the commercial cave owners in the US, to buy and buy and buy everything related to caves, ostensibly for a "cave museum". No such museum exists, nor is one every likely to exist. I believe this person has that mental illness associated with those who incessantly hoard everything forever, even if it is junk.

The problem is this. If there is a cave photo on eBay with a real street value of $100, he will place a proxy bid of $1000 or $2000 on it, guaranteeing a win no matter who bids against him. He will do this on the smallest, cheapest item even if he has already purchased ten of the same item in the last year. He essentially wants no one else to own anything relating to caving history.

Cavers have been complaining; many of us know the man personally; few like him or ever have because he's a rude and disrespectful man to most everyone. The commercial cave association gives him money just to keep him out of their hair.

So here is the ethical question. A few weeks back some friends of mine and I spiked his bids. On items worth a couple of hundred dollars, we ran his bids up to $1200 and $950 respectively without exceeding his already established proxy. The items still were only worth a couple hundred dollars each. In one day we cost him over $2500 extra. We even took $5 post cards and ran them over $75. We repeated this a couple of weeks later and did the same amount of damage. He became more gun-shy because even his bloated budget had a hard time absorbing these hits, but he did not change his habits of extreme proxy bidding. He did bid on fewer items. We certainly made some sellers very happy.

Now, a whole network of cavers who have been driven from collecting by this man are ready to wreak havoc on him by driving all his bids sky high. Of course, you must bear in mind, he already set his proxy that high. So, is it fair, is it ethical, to drive him nuts with this tactic? We can break his bank. None of us know the sellers, so no shilling is taking place. He may have to resort to sniping, but if he consistently snipes high, he will still be nailed.

What do you think?
_________________
Regards,
Ken Kreager

A different consideration: What would be other alternative solutions to the problem Ken outlined? Just walk away from all items for a while? Try to discuss the problem directly with the aggressive bidder? Other options?

Sheryll: Congratulations on the move! If you're going to be here on the left coast, then there's a good chance we'll have an opportunity to meet in person at some point! (Like at some major West Coast show, for instance.) What a pleasure that will be!