Hi all,
I just lost out on this:
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/310761212961?ssPageName=STRK:MEDWX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1435.l2649Purchases made through these links may earn this site a commission from the eBay Partner Network

Soon after the auction ended, I got the following message (through ebay):

I see you were the second under bidder of the omega watch that sold tonight.
The winner bidder is from overseas and i dont want to send the watch overseas it may get lost. the winner bidder id was : i***1
So if you are interested please let me know
kind regards mike or you can call me thanks mike 0416-207-xxx

His message included the winning bidder's name. Indeed, the winning bidder is from Turkey, and the item does say posts to Australia only. Looking at i***1's bidding history:


you can see that it doesn't appear to be a shill, he only has 2 bids ever with this seller (for this item), and no retractions.

Further, when you look at the seller's other items and sales, they have all been within Australia. Views? Thoughts?
And just as importantly, what do you think about the watch itself!
Thanks,
Daniel

 

First the watch itself. Connie 168.029 SS in good condition is a USD 500-700 watch.
This watch has some issues that I believe you already know:
- Missing one end link
- Scratchy crystal
- Missing 12 oclock marker
- Flaky lume
- Gunk/ dirt or surface corrosion at the back near lugs and case back edge
- Poor condition bracelet.

The good thing:
-Clean movement, no missing jewel, no suspicious different color parts, no scratch in rotor
- Case is still sharp, scratchy but only little polished so another round of light polish will make it shine again
- Bezel intact, this is 18 K white gold, good to have it there. with light polish it will sparkle.
- Dial looks original in relatively good condition. Hands and crown are also correct.

IMHO at AUD 330 - 340 (Now USD 310-318) it is a nice catch. Almost all issues could be easily corrected, except the missing marker.

As for the bidding.......the end price is already fair (even good)......you shouldn't worry about that.

Just my 2 cents

PS: I look at the bidding pattern and top 5 bidder background IMHO it doesn't appear to be shill bidding. Or if it is, the seller is very very good.

 

How did a bidder from Turkey manage to win the auction if the seller only ships inside Australia?

 

By not reading the restrictions and bidding anyway.

 

if you want it, you could ask the seller to relist it as a BIN, this would reduce your risk

 

I remembered once I also got the opportunity as second winner bidder. After negotiating the price the seller set up a limited time exclusive offer via Ebay. I forgot was it through BIN or some other mechanism.

 

Its actually the sellers fault on this, they should have set their account to block bids from countries they don't want to ship to.

 

That's what I meant. If you do it right, nobody should be able to bid except those you want to . . .

 

Seller just does not want to send overseas. Bit like US only sales.
Wouldn't look much past that theory.

 

I am not too sure about that. I know a seller in Italy, who always lists his items as shipping to Italy only, but I am still able to sneak in and buy things from him (looks like he's never happy to ship to me but he did anyway)

I cannot see his items from ebay.com or ebay.ca but with ebay.it I can bid and buy things from him

 

ebay.necessaryevil

 

hahha I wired money into his account, pay extra international shipping fee, he must be happy with a customer like me.

(maybe his English is not good enough, only says ciao to me)

 

You have to explicitly EXCLUDE them. Here's my list...

Shipping to: Worldwide

Excludes: Africa, South America, Costa Rica, Dominica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guadeloupe, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Martinique, Nicaragua, Panama, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Turkey, Yemen, American Samoa, Cook Islands, Kiribati, Micronesia, Nauru, New Caledonia, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Wallis and Futuna, Western Samoa, Mexico, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Russian Federation, Albania, Andorra, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Republic of, Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Guernsey, Jersey, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malta, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Svalbard and Jan Mayen, Ukraine, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Macau, Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan Republic, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, Georgia, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Maldives, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan

 

Don't see Scotland on the list

 

I see you have all the Thievistans and CarJackistans listed.

 

And NJ is also specifically excluded!

 

That was exactly my thought.

 

Did that last night, within 5 minutes of him messaging me. So far no response. We wait and see. He is in Sydney.