ebay item #2137300687
 

Well, I didn't want to start a thread on an ebay auction, but though I would just to check something. I have been bidding on an Alpha Phi pin from 1929, item number above. A private buyer keeps outbidding me, and I just wanted to make sure that none of you all here are that private buyer. I doubt that a sister would be bidding privately, anyway, but just thought I'd ask.

There's quite a bit of time left on the auction. I plan on bidding again but not until later since I know the other person will try to outbid me and I don't want to raise the price more than necessary. If any of you have been bidding on the pin, let me know and I won't bid again. Otherwise, I'll try to win it. Also, if any of you think it's a bad idea to post about ebay auctions on here, let me know. Thanks!!

I don't know who the private buyer is but I believe that tyoregon is the father of an Alpha Phi who outbids people all the time. APhiGal can shed more light on this one...

LD

LOL! Tyoregon told one GCer that he was the father of a Pi Phi and another one that he's the father of a KD!

Tyoregon is a collector! He bids on EVERYTHING! In the NY Times article on pin collectors, he brags about bidding high on Kappa keys on purpose just to raise the prices. He does seem to bid on Pi Phi items alot including arrow pins that aren't badges. But.....if he wants your GLO badge he'll snipe you high at the last minute. All you can do is bid what yo're willing to pay and then just hope it's high enough. Good Luck!

Yeah, I see tyoregon all the time. He ended up winning that other Alpha Phi pin that I posted earlier and wasn't sure if it really was a pin of this Alpha Phi. For some reason, he doesn't really bother me, and I know I've heard before that he has a daughter who is an Alpha Phi.

I'm a little bothered by the private buyer though, because why does someone feel the need to hide his/her identity and feedback when bidding? Every time I bid $1 higher, private01 will outbid me right away. So I'll wait and try to get him/her at the end. The whole badge thing isn't that big a deal to me like it is to some, but it seems very romantic almost to "rescue" a badge from 1929. It just seems like a cool way to be connected to a sister from a long time ago.

GOOD LUCK valkyrie!!!!!!! I hope you get it ;)

aoe, ronnie

here is a question
 

I bid on things all the time on Ebay..... i bet anything he has it set to proxy bid and everytime you bid he is set to bid no matter the price. So basically your just fueling his price and he in the end has to pay it , but on the other hand that guy( if it is a guy) gets the badge :(

Laura

Laura, from bidding earlier, I think I've figured out that private01 just has his bid set about $1 over the last high bid, because I was able to outbid him right away. However, then he comes back and bids again, I'm guessing just high enough to outbid me. That's why I'm going to come back toward the end of the auction and bid higher, and hopefully he either won't come back before the end (yeah, right) or he won't be willing to bid as much as I did. But of course tyoregon might sneak in there as well, but when I last checked he hadn't bid on this particular badge since very early on and was outbid pretty quickly.

Or we try the sneak approach... we all go in at the same time and bid and bid high agaisnt him so he cant win!

I think your approach will work. if you bid maybe higher then the $1 you might get it. these tricky ebayers ( or should i say sneaky and obessed) ebayers who are private buyers and such need to be eradiciated off the face of ebay!

In a way it isn't fair how they can manuevre and manipulate the program and edge others out.

Exactly -- I was planning to bid as close to the last minute as possible, and bid the highest amount that I would possibly be willing to pay. Then hopefully he'll (love how I assume it's a he? ;)) be sitting there bidding up $1 at a time and he'll never catch up to my bid. Or so I hope...

can't wait to hear how this ends.....

valkyrie

Not to discourage you but chances are the bidder put in a very high bid and ebay automatically outbids you by $1 everytime...literally the second you place your bid it gives the previous bid priority. The only way you can win is to exceed that bidders maximum bid in the last few seconds and hope they aren't watching it.

For example...
Pin shows at $25 by Bidder XXX
You bid $30
Automatically tells you that XXX is still high bidder at $31
What you don't know/can't see is that the maximum bid XXX put in is $200

So you can keep bidding but until you bid over that $200 you will always be outbid by bidder XXX.

I hope my geeky rambling makes sense.

Aphigal, you totally make sense. The thing about private01 is that I would bid like $1 higher and then I would be the high bidder, so I think that he's only bidding as high as he has to at any moment. But, earlier today tyoregon was the high bidder again, and it looks like he and private01 have been bidding and it's now up to $100. If my high bid at the end won't win, that's okay but I figured I'd try, although I'm not willing to spend much more than where it's at now. Something about a private bidder just really gets on my nerves, though. So we'll see what happens. :)

:)

Yessss!!! I just won the pin. It's a little more money than I wanted to pay, but I get kind of riled up by these auction situations. But -- ha! I got it!! :) I'm so happy. I ended up beating tyoregon by $2.50.

I think I saw him bidding on a lazy phi pin a while ago. Didn't that end up going for an obscene amount of money? I would sure love to rescue one of those, especially.