Trotter wrote:

Deagol wrote:

I know the seller and asked him about it - it's not a serious offer, it's just a way to circumvent ebay's rules on exchanging contact details.

Should we report this seller to eBay, as the seller is deliberately trying to circumvent eBay's rules.

To be fair we'd report anybody else trying this sort of thing.

I don't think selling a bookmark that happens to have your phone number on is actually breaking any rules

Deagol wrote:

I don't think selling a bookmark that happens to have your phone number on is actually breaking any rules

I don't disagree - Andy is a good guy, but for someone else with a nefarious deal in the works, there's nothing in this listing that eBay could act upon. They don't ban photographs of items that happen to have contact info on them.

I'm confused. As a business seller Andy's address is at the bottom of every single eBay listing anyway. What purpose does this serve?

Khamûl wrote:

I'm confused. As a business seller Andy's address is at the bottom of every single eBay listing anyway. What purpose does this serve?

It doesn't serve any purpose. Anyone looking would think it was an overpriced bookmark and not be enticed into contacting the seller (as they would assume ADCs other prices were also silly).

I don't believe the explanation for a minute. Or if the explanation IS true, the seller is IMHO misguided (especially as no one here "got it").

Deagol?

Not sure why there is so much suspicion / confusion. He just points someone to the bookmark auction if they want his phone number or email. It's not there to be accidentally stumbled upon. It's at a high price to dissuade anyone from actually buying it.

Deagol wrote:

Not sure why there is so much suspicion / confusion. He just points someone to the bookmark auction if they want his phone number or email. It's not there to be accidentally stumbled upon. It's at a high price to dissuade anyone from actually buying it.

Oh, OK. I guess it makes sense if he points the person at it via the eBay messages. I feel like a more sensible approach would be to simply have a website with decent SEO and tell them to Google "ADC Books", then there isn't a weird bookmark auction. But each to their own!

Suspicion comes from the fact that there are loads of absolute shysters that specialise in Tolkien, especially on eBay (I'm not saying ADC is -- I haven't ever heard anything bad at all). Consequently odd stuff gets noticed.

Deagol wrote:

Not sure why there is so much suspicion / confusion. He just points someone to the bookmark auction if they want his phone number or email. It's not there to be accidentally stumbled upon. It's at a high price to dissuade anyone from actually buying it.

I understand that, but that's really not that obvious. Why doesn't he just categorically state that in the listing itself? There are lots of sellers out there with placeholder listings and they don't sort-of still look like they're selling something. The listing states "Stratford", bookmark states "Moreton", business address states "Northumberland". Business details already gives you phone number & email address. That's where I'd look if I knew nothing about this seller...

Andy used to live in Moreton back in the day. Now he's one of those lucky folks with a second home.
Andy does pretty well with this bookselling malarkey, so his business isn't suffering!