I must admit, I am becoming extremely discouraged by the attitudes of
various posters on this list.  I was particularly annoyed by the post
suggesting fake bids.  Ironically I was preparing an e-mail to send to
the list to warn sellers on ebay of an experience I would hope never
happens to anybody.
 
My fiance sells items on ebay.  We just went through an extremely rough
time because a competitor on ebay decided to use illegal and evil ways to
destroy us.  This person(s) created fake ebay registrations and used them
to high bid our items then retract the bids or not follow through with the
auctions.  It cost us money in the form of auction fees, as well as lost
sales, to have our auctions ruined this way.  This person(s) also left
false and slanderous negative feedback.  We had to spend a lot of time
researching this person(s) and all of the fake ID's.  Eventually we were
able to have ebay remove the negative feedback and suspend the
registrations.  We received death threats!  This person(s) threatened to do
us bodily harm and destroy our business!  It was mentally and emotionally
exhausting.  All because this person(s) couldn't deal with a little
competition.
 
Please, folks, use your heads.  If you don't like the item for sale, don't
read the description, don't bid on it, don't bid on the seller's other
auctions.  But be honest, be responsible.  Have you checked the seller's
other auctions?  The ferret hide is the only such item he's selling.  Read
his/her feedback?  644 positive responses take a long time and a lot of
hard work to earn.
 
Have you tried entering "deer hide" or "raccoon hide" or "mink" or "ermine"
or "ocelot"?  You will find a TON of taxidermy-type items.  Are you going
to try to destroy all of those sellers as well?
 
I don't really care for taxidermy.  I would never skin or preserve any of
my animals (hell, I couldn't even bring myself to bring Gizmo home to bury
him).
 
But that's my opinion.  As long as it's not a BFF hide or a snow leopard
or the last tazmanian tiger, let it go.  Everyone has preferences that
are different from yours.  Don't try to destroy someone's livelihood just
because you don't agree with them.
 
Aileen ... in her neon-yellow, flame-proof, moon-suit
[Posted in FML issue 3018]