Ebay - Am I being naive here.....  

Marie, I think you might have missed
the point of my posting. I'm not moaning about the lack of sales and until now I have had very little trouble with non paying bidders. It has nothing to do with the quality of listings as the part that is vexing me is when someone has bid, won the auction then not paid.
The point I am trying to make is that I am surprised that the recent spate of non paying bidders are all dealers. Not the general public, but dealers. Which brings me back to my original thought that am I being naive to expect a higher level of professional courtesy from other dealers than I do the public.

maybe
the bid and at the same time are trying to sell the item? If they fail on that front they just don't buy it? If they drag it out they could easily get a couple of weeks to move the item. Heck, they could even have you ship it to their buyer.
I sell quite a bit to dealers and, yes, have had some issues.

I would think shill bidding...
I would think shill bidding on eBay is a bigger issue personally.

I disagree
and it's not just Ebay I'm refering to but sales over the internet in general. It's about the behaviour from some dealers to other dealers.

Waffle, I think you might have hit the nail on the head...
I think he may well be punting it around before actually paying for it.

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Aunt Mark
I am loving your crustaceans!

"a) watch auctions you have...
"a) watch auctions you have no intention of bidding on
or
b) bid, then not bother to follow through with the transaction."
I do "a" all the time to see what certain pieces go for in auctions. The greater sampling of auctions, the better understanding I have what the true marketplace value of a particular piece is, versus the inflated asking price often seen online.
What is wrong with that? Watching an item infers no obligation to bid. I certainly understand what is wrong with "b".

This happened to me just once
but it worked out. I re-listed it and sold it for much more the following week so I'm happy but sure was crabby at the time. Mark- I'm staying out of your bed.

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Hi...
Is that really necessary?
It's quite boring and bothering to read such stuff.
There are enough other forums to swap ideas on post-puberal gossip.

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Hi...
Dito.

Apology accepted, then.
Thanks.