: I've not really been in an acquisition phase for some time for a
: couple of reasons, but I still get a lot of requests to comment
: on and validate watches. And some of those phrase the request in
: such a way that makes it clear that if I also have an interest
: in the watch discussed, they would be prepared to drop their own
: interest and give me a free(r) run. Equally, they will get an
: exhaustive, well-reasoned and honest assessment from me
: regardless of my interest or otherwise in the watch.

: There are a number of words I like in German that either don't have
: an exact equivalent in English, or require a more convoluted,
: less elegant translation. One such is
: "Vorgehensweise". It effectively means approach (or
: "modus operandi" if you don't mind explicitly
: importing Latin into your English), but it's really a little bit
: more than that - it's a way of going about things. And I think
: we often want to superimpose our own Vorgehensweise on
: other people and assume their motives, methods and goals are the
: same as ours. But it's obviously not always the case and the
: whole package is probably at least subtly different for each one
: of us.

: But what I'm getting at is that this isn't an "if you can't
: beat them, join them" situation. When I first started using
: eBay, to buy Autocourse annuals, it was a very frustrating
: experience and it soon become clear that, unless I also used
: sniping tactics (I snipe manually rather than using 3rd party
: software, but the mechanism is more or less irrelevant) then I
: wasn't ever going to be winning anything. So I had to adapt. As
: regards watch buying though, it seems to me that there enough
: people out there still acting in an appropriate manner that we
: don't all have to strive towards the lowest common denominator.
: An eBay purchase and sale is a binding contract but the nature
: of that medium makes it largely unenforceable unfortunately.

: But enough to tempt me to change my Vorgehensweise? I'd say
: not, certainly not as it stands. If literally everyone else does
: it, then I clearly have to reappraise but until then, I'm happy
: enough to occupy the moral high ground and miss the occasional
: purchase :)

Mark, you put that way more eloquently than my vocabulary would ever allow and i don't see myself as taking the high moral ground but i think its wrong to high-jack someones good fortune after the sale has been done....even more so if you know the details and that person who believes they have managed to secure a great deal.

Ebay searches?....think its time to forget about them personally, spend my time doing something more productive. :-)