THE CCRS 14th ANNUAL RARE AND UNUSUAL ROSE PLANT AUCTION IS NEXT WEEKEND. Here are further details: Saturday, Nov. 15th and 16th. The power point presentation of roses featured in the SILENT PORTION of the Auction by our distinguished authorities will begin on Saturday at noon. Our Speakers for Saturday, November 15, 2014, are Ping Lim (Hybridizer Altman Plants) at 12:00 noon; Burling Leong (Hybridizer Burlington Nursery) at 1:00 PM; Jill Perry (Curator San Jose Heritage Rose Garden) at 2:00 PM; Dr Keith Zary (Hydridizer Spring Hill Nursery) at 3:00 PM; Bob Martin (Hybridizer, Author, ARS Master Rosarian) at 4:00 PM and Cliff Orent (Hybridizer, Author, ARS Consulting Rosarian and past owner Euro Desert Nursery) at 6:30 PM (after dinner). Our Speakers include 5 Hybridizers, 2 Nursery owners, 1 Curator of an important public garden rose collection, 1 Master ARS Consulting Rosarian, multiple ARS CRs and multiple prolific Authors. Dinner with the Speakers will be at 5:00 PM. Several seats are left. Make your reservations via the website or email me. Each diner orders just what he/she wishes and will receive his/her own bill. On Sunday we will hold the SILENT AUCTION from 10:00 AM to noon. We will have volunteers with special knowledge of the plants offered on the floor to attempt to offer advice for those who seek it while they are shopping. At noon the Bidders will take a break for the next hour and a half for a leisurely lunch while all available CCRS members will help with sorting. The LIVE AUCTION will take place Sunday from 1:30-3:30 PM. Keep in mind that the minimum bid in all parts of the Auction is $1. Payment is by cash or check. The Auction may be accessed online at CCRSAuction.com. Online bids for both the live and silent auctions are accepted up to 12 noon on Friday, Nov. 14th, and will be acknowledged by a confirmation e-mail. On Sunday, November 16, 2014, our Proxy Bidders will attempt to obtain plants for online participants, as if they were spending their own money -- plants will be sold to the highest bidder, but only at around $1 over the next highest bid, so even if you bid high over the internet, you are protected from overpaying if there are no other bidders. We will mail plants purchased to warm climates within 2 weeks and special arrangements can be made online for those living in areas with a winter for delivery next spring. With the help of many, John Bagnasco has assembled over 300 really wonderful hard to obtain, rare, endangered and sometimes unique plants. I am certain that you will find something to suite your taste. Please take a moment to check the offerings on the website. We have linked the listings in the auction with the HMF page for that variety to assist you in learning about these roses. We have also provided a form for internet bidding at the beginning of each list of roses to be auctioned, that should be e-mailed to us no later than Friday, Nov. 14th at 12 noon (PDT) if you can't make it to the auction in person. I do recommend coming in person, however, since we always have more roses available than bidders, and many bargains will be available, It is up to you to do your research ahead of time so that you know it when you see a bargain! Internet bidders also get their share of bargains, but some of that is ultimately eaten up by shipping costs, which we ask each internet bidder to pay at our actual cost for shipping (no "handling" fees -- we volunteer for that). See you then, Kathy Strong Here is a link that might be useful: video of prior CCRS auction This post was edited by kstrong on Sat, Nov 8, 14 at 10:07

nosoccermom, that's kind of a tough one. If the item is unique and you can't buy it elsewhere, you could try contacting the seller and asking for a Buy It Now price. (You're sure it's not that they are just relisting an identical item, right?) Hard to know how they will react but I don't see what it could hurt. I would write the request carefully so they can't really tell if you're accusing them of shill bidding or not; if they think you are going to report them, they'll probably just block you immediately and move on. How is the rest of their feedback? Sometimes you can look at the detailed feedback other buyers have left to figure out if the seller is above board, or not well behaved. If they react negatively (or if you find bad things in their feedback) and you decide it's a lost cause, then I'd probably contact eBay and report the practice. As far as I know eBay still does not look kindly on this practice at all. However, I don't think there is really a way to force the seller to act like he should (to make sure you can buy the item.)

The house was for sale for a long time last winter  the owners tried to get out with what they owed ($926), but couldnÂt. Then, the foreclosure process started and they tried to do a short sale. We were told that ours was the *only* bid on the house. What this house has that is high on our list is a large loft that we want for our 2 girls "play" room. But the house has some oddities to accommodate that play area that we thought would turn other buyers off. This house is 3100 sq. ft but only 3 bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms. We reasoned that most people looking for that size house would want at least 4 bedrooms and we have noticed that homes in the area with 5 bedrooms seem to go faster than other homes. Also, the master is down stairs while the 2 kidÂs rooms are upstairs  our RE said most parents want to be on the same floor as their kids and was worried about resale because of this. Also, the master is not very big  probably because it has to share the first floor with everything else. Most homes in this area and especially this size have large master suites. Also  there are zero upgrades  white tile and linoleum floors in the kitchen and bath rooms. We have seen several homes with wood, or tile, or even marble floors and granite counters. So, we were hoping that all of these things would work in our favor. When I said that this house was in line with comps  I meant current listings  that are sitting. So I fully expected this house to go for less. "pocket buyers" Apparently, this was something else I was wrong about. I really have tried hard to do my homework and I am frustrated that I am soooooo wrong about everything. We have our 20%+ down payment sitting in the bank, verifiable income, good credit, and donÂt have to sell anything  we can have a fast escrow. Our price range is $800,000  I guess from all the reading I have done, I thought we were the minority. :-\ I truly believe that we are buying into a falling market  which means that we will loose value in the foreseeable future. A house is more than just an investment, so we are willing to take this gamble  but we just want to be smart about it. We are in too good of shape to make a stupid mistake at this time in our lives. :-\ As for our RE  I truly donÂt believe that she knows this area very well. I didnÂt feel as though she was working with us to establish a best offer  I believe that she wants us happy and if that means buying the house, then we should offer as much as possible. But in this market, IÂm not yet convinced that this is the best strategy. Perhaps I am wrong about all of this too I truly appreciate all of your help and I hope that I have not offended anyone. Jeri

Doris, sounds like you had a wonderful 20th anniversary! We were in Key West about 4 years ago when we took a cruise. I really liked Key West, the lovely streets and I enjoyed touring the Mel Fisher museum and seeing the gold recovered from the shipwreck.(my memory fails me but I can't think of the name of the ship!) Old shipwrecks and recovered treasures fasinate me so Key West has a history of my fasination. Our 36th anniversary was last month but we only had 3 days to go somewhere, so we went to Harrahs Casino in Cherokee and gambled. We had a ball!