Dear Al, on list, Sometimes eBay will allow you to contact a fellow eBayer, sometimes they will not. This is extremely irritating as it often blocks me from reproducer research. EBay used to be a wonderful source of information, now as you have noted, this is often not the case. It is like spinning the wheel, you never know. A man I know in Cleveland was kicked off eBay and they refused to listen to him until he took them to small claims court, then he got a phone call from their attorney asking what she could do to avoid coming to Cleveland. He was reinstated. Steve > Today after an auction closed I attempted to contact a fellow eBayer, > Phonofan, to send off congratulations for winning one of the very last Home > phonographs to go out the door of the Edison factory. The machine actually went for a > most reasonable price considering the rarity and the wood grained #10 cygnet > horn. So, Phonofan, if you are on this list, major congratulations to you for > winning this prize.> > Now what surprised me was that eBay blocked my contact to him. About a week > ago on a non-phono related item I tried to contact a bidder about the item the > newbie was bidding on to tell him he was being shilled and that the item was > a modern reproduction. Again eBay blocked me from contact but I thought that > was because it was an active auction.> > Three weeks ago one friend of mine who is into radio, musical, train, etc., > items offered a Lionel caboose on eBay. A friend of ours unsuccessfully bid on > it and eBay put them both out on suspension for shilling. When both > protested eBay would not say why or how they did something wrong, only that eBay's > methods uncovered the alleged shilling and action was taken. Simply put, "You > are guilty because eBay says so!" eBay suggested my friend get PayPal so they > could track his selling better and be sure no shilling was going on. In order > to get back onto eBay they both had to complete an online reeducation course > of eBay rules, none of which they could identify as having been broken by them.> > Big Brother is watching.> > Best Wishes to Everyone,> > Al> > > > > **************Biggest Grammy Award surprises of all time on AOL Music. > (http://music.aol.com/grammys/pictures/never-won-a-grammy?NCID=aolcmp003000000025> 48)> _______________________________________________> Phono-L mailing list> http://phono-l.oldcrank.org