I sell on e-bay... not so much in the plant area, but am TRYING to help DH clean out his shop and the container behind it, so have a fairly active e-bay store. The rules for e-bay are that it is "forbidden" for a seller to sell a listed item outside of the auction venue. If you are caught, they can suspend you from selling. This is not to say that it never happens. On one hand, it is better for a seller to sell outside the auction as they would not have to pay a final value fee (the largest fee for selling something on e-bay) on the item sold. On the other hand, the auction works as some protection for the seller if they end an auction but payment is never received. As a buyer, you can always ask, but don't be offended if a seller declines to sell something to you outside of the auction. One thing that is definitely NOT against the rules is asking the seller if they have any inventory for sale that is not currently listed... that is kind of a way around the going against the rules thing. Hope this answers at least one of your questions. I have been active on the LA as well, but so far it has only been on the buying side :). Julie

Now, see *I* wouldn't buy a house in a sterile, taupe-beige-ecru, homogenous neighborhood with "covenants" and "open floor plans". I would rather live in a box on the street - seriously. Those cookie cutter places make me throw up in my mouth a little. But, I also live in a college town with more than our share of, well, character. (One of the older areas of the city has victorians that look like fallout from a Crayola plant explosion.) My neighbors might hate my gargoyles, but I don't really care for the bowling ball garden or the bathtub grotto down the street, so we're even. They are, however, the nicest people you'll ever meet and when we have a blizzard, we all get together and help each other dig out. And we have great cookouts come summertime. Are your neighbors nice people? I went to an open house this weekend (just for fun, as we were walking by), and the seller had placed little signs throughout the house pointing out things and/or giving extra information e.g., "look - original hardware!", "don't forget to check out the linen closet behind the door". I thought that was really creative, as most people just lack the ability to see past the most basic things. Perhaps a little note in the house or the listing details mentioning the "eclectic character" of the neighborhood and how sad you are to leave such a great community of people or something. Or, just invest in a nice, big ol' fence. ;)

I just took a look at that website. It said our home was worth about $179,000--we just sold it (haven't even gone to settlement yet) for just under $200,000. Another house, a block from me was zillowed at $190,000--they sold about 6 months back for $140,000--and had a hard time getting that. The prices for other houses in my neighborhood were similarly all over the place--some were at least $50,000 too low, others were way high. Your agent should be providing a whole stack of comparables. We've had 2 agents in the past year, each supplied us with about a dozen recently sold properties that were similar to ours, so we could evaluate the current local market. Personally? I'm not sure I'd go with an auctioneer/agent. Seems a little iffy to me. I'd further recommend that they use an agent affiliated with one of the large chains, the kind that specialize in both local sales and relocation sales. For our first agent, we went with an older, established 'little' firm--thinking age and experience were the way to go. Didn't do us much good. This time around? We went with young and hungry (our agent is about 30, and a real go-getter) who's with one of the huge chains that does a lot of relocation sales. And we sold in 6 weeks, in THIS economy! For a lot more than we expected to get for our house. Can you suggest to your parents that they talk to at least 3 or 4 different agents, from different agencies, so they can make a more informed choice on who will best represent them? I have a feeling, that if they talk to almost anyone else, this guy will be out the door.

In your settings you can choose to have your buying history private. If you do & you win an auction it will come up User ID kept private. Otherwise it will come up w/ the asterisk's. Ebay started using the asterisk's to protect members from scam 2nd chance offers, other against the rules contact & general privacy.