Irrational exuberance?
Well this is just not good. Unfair to both buyers and sellers. Very unfair to the second high bidder if he/she was serious. Hopefully the person didn’t read the comments here and decided to cop out on the sword. That is just not honourable, and too bad for those who were serious about the item.
Honestly whether the person would have overpaid or not, it doesn’t bother me as long as they were going to pay. A person can do whatever they want with their own money. And even if a person pays $1000 for a pet rock, it’s not going to drive up the prices of other pet rocks unless such value becomes the norm due to interest and a lack of supply for the demand.
Moreover, interest can also wane at times. Prices can go up, prices can go down just like in the general markets. Sometimes an auction house can sell a Van Gogh for X number of millions and then during a different economy, sometimes it’s just not worth trying to sell it. The only real issue here in my opinion is whether ebay is an honest avenue for those actually serious about collecting. I don’t like the anonymous bidders rule either. I’m not out to memorize names (I just go for what I like), but ebay’s new system works against my instincts at sensing whether or not I’m being taken for a ride.
If it’s not the seller himself (and in this case that doesn’t appear to be the case), then other possibilities could be a shop or another seller trying to run up auction prices to make their offerings seem well worth it. That doesn’t seem to be the case here either however because of the distinct aspects of this particular sword regardless of the condition or quality. The buyers here I think were going for the “perceived” Datu aspect of a sword and unable to assess that aspect beyond the 'brand' of the sword.
Anyway, ebay really needs to clean up the sham it’s started with the anonymous bidding.
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