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Post by jonwiththewind on Dec 16, 2003 3:26:22 GMT 2
This link shows you an auction that has just finished for a Pocketsize Fire: cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3064472298I came across it by COMPLETE coincidence, when it only had 5 minutes left to run (!?! What are the chances). The REALLY wierd thing is I only found it by checking Ebay.com and NOT ebay.co.uk which I usually use for all my "game & Watch" Searching. As the seconds were ticking down I tried to make the auction "appear" on various sites and it was as though it was hidden. At one point I even put in the search term "1981" which I thought would be BOUND to find it, but nothing! Does anyone have any explanation for this (sort-of) Ghost auction. As you can see from the illustrious list of bidders, plenty of people had found it, and BTW Michael - I'm sorry you were outgunned at the end. Some mighty bidding towards the end!! Does anyone have a definitive answer for which terms work on the ghastly "game/watch" combination which this particular seller used. Also, does "Game watch" as a search term find auctions marked "Game&watch" ??
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Post by Southbomb on Dec 16, 2003 4:22:58 GMT 2
Great item, but too rich for my blood! Never thought it would end that high! Sorry about the loss michael! Don't know why the auction didn't show up on your computer. At least you finally found it close to the end. Possibly you are only looking at auctions in UK only? -Matt
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Post by sAner on Dec 16, 2003 9:22:47 GMT 2
Hey Jon! Southbomb is right. This auction wasn't hidden, the seller just said he wouldn't ship outside the US. When you search for this auction on any other ebaysite than ebay.com and you don't change the "available to 'your country' (in your case:UK)" into "available to any country", this auction won't show up. The proper way to search for items is using the "Located in any country" and the "available to any country". That way EVERY g&w auction in the entire world will show up, even when the seller states he/she won't ship to f.e. Europe. Be sure to ask the seller whether he's willing to ship to your country anyway, in spite of stating in the description he wouldn't. Otherwise you might have a problem. If keeping to these basic rules, it doesn't really matter whether you use ebay.com, ebay.co.uk, ebay.nl or ebay.ch, etc. I hope I cleared things a bit for you John? Btw, I'm very sorry for your loss Mike! This item would have suited your collection very well. sAner
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Post by monkeygreen on Dec 16, 2003 11:54:26 GMT 2
I bet the seller of this item was pleased with the final price as she didn't look like a G&W dealer from her feedback. At the end of the day the actual game unit is worthless so it was just a case of bidding on a box albeit a rare one. How high can you go for cardboard? I once paid about $ 200 for a MIMB pocketsize DK Jr but that just goes to show how desirable pocketsize Fire really is. Imagine if Pocketsize had left somesort of mark on the game units themselves ? That would have affected the value even more.
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Post by mpanayiotakis on Dec 16, 2003 16:37:58 GMT 2
Well, there was no problem with the auction Jon, although I found it only a few hours before it ended, too. Like Pieter said, you didn't find it probably because you usually search for items available to UK, isn't that true ? Anyway, search for "game watch" reveals items with the words "game&watch" or "whatsthatgamewatchthing" or whatever includes the words "game" and "watch" in it, so that was not the reason.. I placed a high bid in the end because in my opinion a pocketsize fire is a very very rare item! This is the first one I see in an auction and I know only a couple of people that have one in their collection. If the condition of the box was better, I would have placed an even higher bid! I agree that you bid for the box only but this is the case in most g&w auctions that end high with numerous bids. A mint rainshower costs about $60-70 tops but how much did the last mimb go for ? Michael P.S. In the description of the item, at the bottom, the seller says that he will ship worldwide if buyer pays via paypal. Most of you didn't notice that, eh ? I suppose that this auction could have ended higher than it did if that was a bit clearer.
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Post by foxterrier2000 on Dec 17, 2003 7:50:07 GMT 2
Hi! It showed up 1st time for me(I search on eBay Australia). I considered bidding for a while, but then had a thought..What if the seller just copied that photo, and the box was just an ordinary fire box..You could just imagine the looks on the buyers faces .
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