Well, off topic, I put this up to sell the above ring, but since you seem interested here's the whole story, be good to hear what anyone thinks..... (feel free to move this thread elsewhere moderators if too off topic)
Whole saga....
The second highest bidder got in touch with me early in the auction to see if I would sell privately. He'd already opened the bidding at £250, but he said he was in a rush. I was talking to him about it, emailing a few times, but as he's in Japan I fell asleep! Seemed like a decent chap, good feedback etc. Next day, I tried to see what was going on and he never got back to me. Later I looked up his feedback and saw he bought another 151BCD pista crank later that night. Fair enough, but bit rude not replying to the few email I sent I thought.
Next major thing I notice, is the item get bid up to £620. I immediately think wtf. The weirdest thing to me was that the new high bidder went straight in at over £600, as there were no auto bids or lower offer first. Immediately outbidding the other guy. Then twenty minutes later there's another bid from him, so must be an even higher bid!?!? Very odd as obviously way more than the item would normally go for. And very odd two people would bid so high. I looked at this new bidders feedback, saw it was zero, so tried to get in touch. No replies.
My conspiracy theorist thought, very odd, maybe it's the same guy outbidding himself with a zero feedback alias to get out of the sale with no bad feedback on his main account. But then I check and the £620 guy is in USA and the other guy who'd been in touch, as I said, is in Japan. So probably me being paranoid. Still, odd the guy in Japan bid up to £600 in the first place. But he's seemed honest and decent when chatting to me. I heard from him again at this point, he sent me an email when he saw he'd been outbid saying "how the f*** did you get it up to that price". He also seemed worried that I may cancel the high bid and know that his was £600. Maybe he figured it might get maliciously bid up as it had become visible. His problem, but I figured still fairer to just run the auction and see what happens. I also want to be able to report the high bidder for non-payment if that is what happens.
As for Second Chance Offers, the £600 bid that the guy in Japan made is entirely up to him to choose whether to honour or not as a second chance offer. As I know he doesn't want to pay that much now, and I have to offer it at his highest bid, what's the point. He has said he may still be interested so I may set it up as a Buy It Now for him after it's all sorted depending on what he wants to pay. This is what Ebay suggests you do if you have a second highest bidder and want to do a second chance at a lower price. And yes, I can offer it to the £310 bidder too, of course, and I might, depends what offer I get from this guy in Japan. But I still have to wait 4 days to report non-payment and ensure I get my final value fee paid back. Also who wouldn't wait four days to see if £620 gets paid!!!
I've never had this experience before so should have cancelled the zero feedback guy when he didn't email me back within 24 hours. Live and Learn.
So that's it. Annoying? Unlucky? Or Suspicious?
