A collector's horror story

Here we meet Dan. Dan lives in a small town, and lives a common life just like many others. Dan loves old bottles, he collects them and has strong feelings about them. He can't explain why he likes them so much, something about them. There's so many of them to get. One day, Dan found the perfect bottle. It's mint condition, worth around $1,200 for sale on eBay listed as "Old ____ bottle" for $25 and is ending in 6 days, 23 hours from now. Dan gets a minor shock though his body. He message the seller and offers them $100 for it up front. The seller just wants to see how the auction will go (basically turns down Dan's offer politely with no good reason). Likewise, Dan politely, inside his head, says "d***it". The seller has like 5 feedback and found the bottle in his attic and has no idea what it is. So Dan waits the whole 6 days, worrying every hour since if he'll miss the auction. Finally almost a week later, it gets down to the last few minutes of the auction. There's 20 seconds left now. Dan's worrying his internet will go out and he'll get outbid. He worries the very second he gets outbid, the connection will time out. Suddenly, with 15 seconds left, the screen goes from green to red. Dan's been outbid! He frantically tries to move up his bid. He's nearly paralyzed in fear. There's only 10 seconds left now. There's this unexplainable deep, cold, empty feeling inside Dan's body and he's panicking more than ever. Suddenly, Dan is now up! The auction is at $35! Then, just as quickly, with only 7 seconds left, the screen goes back to red. Shockingly, it's all over now for Dan. He has lost the bottle he thought he'd never get, the whole week of worries and those last few exhausting seconds. It's over. It's gone... ... ... ...

~Based on a true story []

"Some of the names have been changed from this short film to protect those victimized." [][sm=lol.gif]

That's why Dan should have placed his highest bid and walked away...[]

Dan should have used e snipe

Have to agree with Jim on this one. Bid what you're willing to pay and let it ride.

[] Anybody foolish enough to bid less than 35 dollars onna thousand dollar bottle and then loses the auction because of a snipe a few dollars over his needs to learn to place a realistic bid in the first place..........

Wow. I agree with all the responses. Please tell me what the $1200 bottle is that went for $35...just dyin' to know...

Maybe the Bottle-Gods said, "Being that Dan tied to screw someone, we'll make sure he does not get his precious."

This is what is called Karma.......................not really but.....................

Then like Jim said.........................bid high.

It can be tough when you're poor, but when you see a deal that good, you have to be serious! I would have comfortably bid $500 on a $1,200 bottle. Even if you had to use Bill Me Later, worse case scenario is you sell the bottle for $1,200 and despite the sorrow of not owning the bottle, you're still $700 richer...

If such a bottle comes up again, and money is the issue, Dan would be smart to email or pm a cat named epackage here on ABN so he can help fund said purchase and they could split the profits from the sale. I hear that epackage is an honest dude who goes out of his way to help others...[]