Spelling mistake costs eBay seller

I've searched there boards but couldn't find this posted. Please chow if necessary.

I've just found this article:

http://asawmy.blogspot.com/2007/09/h...t-on-ebay.html

It tells the story of an ebay seller that sold an extremely rare bottle of ale (Allsopp Arctic Ale) for a fraction of it's value due to a spelling mistake.

There's a link to both auctions in the article and it all looks on the up and up but I have a hard time believing that someone selling such a valuable item would make so many simple errors (misspelling the item's name, failing to set an appropriate reserve, etc...).

There's a discussion about the second auction on the ebay boards here:

http://forums.ebay.co.uk/thread.jspa...dID=1200145296

Has anyone heard about this? It seems too good to be true.


HT

[Ariadne]

I haven't heard about this particular instance, but I have seen my parents get less that they should have for items due to spelling errors. They seem to have misspellings in their auction titles quite often; when I spot one I email to tell them but sometimes it is too late and they already have a bid on the item. They don't sell anything nearly as valuable as the ale in the OP, but they have certainly lost money due to spelling errors.

My husband got a 1793 edition of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey on eBay for a scandalously cheap price. The seller had no idea what the book was since it is in German. It was listed as Homer Ilias Odyffee and the seller seemed to think that was the full name of the author. I don't know how much the book is actually worth (certainly not a fortune), but it is neat to have such an old book for such a low price.

Originally Posted by Ariadne

I haven't heard about this particular instance, but I have seen my parents get less that they should have for items due to spelling errors. They seem to have misspellings in their auction titles quite often; when I spot one I email to tell them but sometimes it is too late and they already have a bid on the item. They don't sell anything nearly as valuable as the ale in the OP, but they have certainly lost money due to spelling errors.

I don't currently have an ebay account but when I did I used to I used FatFingers.co.uk. You enter an ebay search and it lists all auctions that could be a misspelling of the search. very useful.

Originally Posted by Ariadne

My husband got a 1793 edition of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey on eBay for a scandalously cheap price. The seller had no idea what the book was since it is in German. It was listed as Homer Ilias Odyffee and the seller seemed to think that was the full name of the author. I don't know how much the book is actually worth (certainly not a fortune), but it is neat to have such an old book for such a low price.

There's nothing sweeter than a bargain. I recently bought the first four seasons of Cheers from a retail website for 49p instrad of £49.00.

Bargain!

HT

[Morrigan]

It was too good to be true: "Woodul isn't expecting to cash a half-million check anytime soon. The bidder, known as "v00d004sc0re" on eBay, called him the night the auction ended.

No hard feelings, Woodul said.

"I talked to him the evening of and he basically said he wasn't going to follow through," he said. "He came out up front and said it was a joke bid." "

Well, a hoax bid, at least.

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/artic..._A2_spanc46672

Morrigan

Originally Posted by Morrigan

It was too good to be true: "Woodul isn't expecting to cash a half-million check anytime soon. The bidder, known as "v00d004sc0re" on eBay, called him the night the auction ended.

No hard feelings, Woodul said.

"I talked to him the evening of and he basically said he wasn't going to follow through," he said. "He came out up front and said it was a joke bid." "

Well, a hoax bid, at least.

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/artic..._A2_spanc46672

Morrigan

Thanks Morrigan, I knew there had to be more to the story.

HT

[rogue74656]

A poster at the end of the Tulsa World article claims that it was brewed in the 1980's by Carlsburg-Tetley.

I have emailed the company seeking more information.

-rogue

[snopes]

Originally Posted by Hypno Toad

Thanks Morrigan, I knew there had to be more to the story.

But the article does say:

So, what will Woodul, known as "collectordan" on eBay, do with his antique, now sitting safely in a safety deposit box? He currently has no plans to sell it or even re-list on eBay, despite six-figure offers for the bottle.

That would seem to indicate the bottle is indeed worth much, much more than he paid for it, even if it's not quite worth half a million bucks.

- snopes

[snopes]

I'll use this thread as an opportunity to segue into a related tale:

I could swear I read a news story maybe 10-12 years ago about a guy who spent a few bucks to purchase a rock at a rock show. It turned out that the "rock" was one of the largest uncut emeralds (or maybe sapphires) in existence and fetched well over $1 million upon resale. The original seller filed suit to reclaim some of the lost value, but he had no case because neither he nor the buyer knew the rock's true value at the time of the original sale.

I haven't been able to find anything on this story since then. Does it sound familiar to anyone?

- snopes

[Cervus]

Perhaps I'm missing something, but I thought it was fairly common for people to purchase a great "find" at a cheap price (because the unwitting seller didn't know the true value) and then turn around and sell it for a hefty profit.

I do it frequently, though the biggest profit I ever made was slightly over $100. I'd bought an original 60's concert poster for the bargain price of $12 and sold it on eBay for $125.

Is it just the amount of "profit" lost from the misspelled auction that makes this a noteworthy story?

[Eddylizard]

Originally Posted by Cervus

Is it just the amount of "profit" lost from the misspelled auction that makes this a noteworthy story?

More I think the amount of profit gained. Since boot sales started up here, there have been various stories told of people who picked up a Picasso or a Ming vase or a Chippendale cabinet for £2 at a boot sale, and sold them for five or six figures. Probably none of them are true, but it's the sort of luck we all wish we could have.

[Morrigan]

snopes, is this it: "Experts are disputing the $2.28 million appraisal given a stone bought for $10 by a Texan who said it was the biggest star sapphire known, according to a report published today. "

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpag...%20Institution

[glisp42]

Cervus, that's how my business partner and I run our ebay business. I'm not sure about our biggest profit but I think it was around a thousand dollars or so. We bought an old Mercedes with a bad transmission for 400 bucks and ended up parting it out for around 1800, though I'm not sure it that counts.

I'd be willing to bet at least half of the people one sees in Antique Malls and Flea Markets are eBay sellers buying stuff on the cheap and then reselling it for profit.

[snopes]

Originally Posted by Morrigan

snopes, is this it

Yes! Thanks a bunch!

I never saw the follow-up articles indicating that perhaps the rock wasn't worth nearly as much as claimed, which certainly adds a new dimension to the story.

- snopes

[Morrigan]

Welcome! I thought it was pretty interesting!

Morrigan

[womprat]

I'm a collector of original Star Wars toys from the 70's and 80's and I've found several great bargains.

Although this didn't happen to me, one collector noticed a rare prototype "Vlix" figure (released only in Brazil for a short period of time in the 1980s) in a random toy lot on eBay. He bought the lot for $1, and later resold the Vlix for $3,500-$4,000

News Group Thread

I personally have bought items with mispellings - vinal cape jawa is always a good one - a real one will hit $300.00 and with that mispelling, I won one for under $10.00. Another item I purchased for $50 and later sold for $1,500.

Really, it's all in knowing your subject matter and having a good set of searches set up across eBay.

-Mike

[Griffin2020]

eBay really needs to start prosecuting (or at least upholding) the contract on some of these really high bids. If they were to do so, it might discourage some of the people who get their kicks out of putting in fraudulent bids on really expensive items. It is one thing to not pay for a $20 item, but a $200,000 item is another thing completely.

[WildaBeast]

I swear there was a thread on the old board about people getting good deals on eBay auctions by searching for common misspellings, such as "labtop." Unfortunately I can't seem to find it, or it was possibly posted in the non-UL Business Bytes forum, where old threads would get cleaned out every once in a while.

[snopes]

Originally Posted by Griffin2020

eBay really needs to start prosecuting (or at least upholding) the contract on some of these really high bids. If they were to do so, it might discourage some of the people who get their kicks out of putting in fraudulent bids on really expensive items. It is one thing to not pay for a $20 item, but a $200,000 item is another thing completely.

Yes, especially now that they own PayPal, they should be able to implement some kind of system requiring that bids over a certain dollar amount be guaranteed by having 5%-10% of the bid amount held in a form of PayPal escrow, to be forfeited if the bidder wins the auction but fails to pay.

- snopes

[Kev-O]

Originally Posted by Morrigan

snopes, is this it: "Experts are disputing the $2.28 million appraisal given a stone bought for $10 by a Texan who said it was the biggest star sapphire known, according to a report published today. "

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpag...%20Institution

I have been to the Tuscon gem show, and the Quartzsite show also....mind blowing is the best way to describe them both!!

[F.T.M]

Originally Posted by WildaBeast

I swear there was a thread on the old board about people getting good deals on eBay auctions by searching for common misspellings, such as "labtop." Unfortunately I can't seem to find it, or it was possibly posted in the non-UL Business Bytes forum, where old threads would get cleaned out every once in a while.

There is a website called fatfingers.com which searches possible miss-spellings for you.