Check out this bad auction

What’s catalog retail on this, Loren? Ooops ok, it’s $38 CDN. This seller really didn’t mis-represent the plane. He used catalog text in describing it. He set the starting price at only $19.99. His use of ‘Lie-Nielsen’ in the title was, in my opinion, not to scam anybody but probably to get more hits, from people doing a search for Lie-Nielsen planes. Well, yeah, a little bit shady, but cripes people should pre-select the plane they need by researching the catalogs and THEN do their eBay search by brand and model number. I can’t even recall the basic Stanley shoulder plane number designations without running to my books, much less the upscale planes by number. If a dispute is filed, it would be interesting to know the result!

-- Einstein: "The intuitive mind is a sacred gift, and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift." I'm Poopiekat!!

My thoughts: The listing could have been better. But lets face it, Ebay is stocked by average joes, not corporations with professional marketing teams (generally speaking). I can’t really hold the average ebay seller to the same marketing standards as Home Depot. I see no intent to defraud anyone. The abundance of information suggested that the plane was a Veritas….not a LN. The pictures clearly displayed the brand. Ebay buyers should display due diligence. This buyerclearly failed to read as little as 25% of the listing before placing a bid.
Verdict:
10% fault on the seller for a couple seemingly innocent oversights.
90% fault on the buyer for being an idiot.

Ebay would find in favor of the buyer. The seller unintentionally
misrepresented the item with an ambiguous listing.

I bought some tool parts a while back and the seller only shipped
about half the order. I asked him to send the rest and he
demanded more shipping money. I waited then escalated to
a dispute and ebay froze his account. Then he shipped the
rest of the order right quick.

Paypal will eventually recover funds from disputed deals as well.

The listing was confusing. One place said mini and another said large. Being the sale price was above msrp, I would guess the buyer will be upset. Dont think the seller meant to deceive, but it was a little tricky.

Ebay is a bit vague about listing guidelines, but they actually do explicitly frown on loading up your item title line with keyword bait. I’ve been looking at auto listings, and as an example, a ‘58 Pontiac listing is represented as “54 55 56 57 58 59 60 Pontiac Chevy Corvette Nomad Safari Bonneville Impala Oldsmobile” Just so this person’s listing will come up in a bidder’s search of related, though different keywords. I wouldn’t call it unethical, but it is an annoyance to see people clutter up my search results on an item I have no interest in. Some people might call it just a good marketing strategy, to get their listing included in a broader keyword search. Like everyone doing a search for ’’59 Impala’ will see this guy’s 58 Oldsmobile. Hmm maybe a bidder or two might even consider bidding on it! This plane seller was probably hoping to bring his plane to the attention of potential Lei-Nielsen buyers.

-- Einstein: "The intuitive mind is a sacred gift, and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift." I'm Poopiekat!!

I have mixed feelings on this.

I agree with poopie that there was no reason to mention LN in the title, other than as bait to lure potential LN buyers.

However, there is absolutely nothing misleading about the description that I can see. I don’t think eBay should be responsible for protecting idiots from themselves.

-- Charlie M. "Woodworking - patience = firewood"

Maybe the listing has been changed, but I read it as NOT Record, Lie Nielson.

When searching, you can type those words in (NOT…) and it will not produce Record or Lie Nielson, but every other brand.

I don’t see a problem, I see lots of these types of ads.

I was upset once because the mouth of a plane had a chip on it when it arrived, went back and looked at the listing more carefully, and it was noted in the information.

My fault for not paying more attention…

-- Randy "You are judged as much by the questions you ask as the answers you give..."