Soul Star (new)

[Willard]

no... do u have the copy?

[Thunderbird]

Has it occurred to anyone that this private buyer may be someone who is in the process of obtaining the rights from the developer/publisher (whom ever owns them) to sell this legally? That they made a secret offer in light of this situation, so the Jaguar community isn't floaded with a bunch of cheap copies instead of a professional quality release? I'm not saying I know for sure that this is what did happen, but no one has even considered the possibility here yet. The seller of the Soul Star cd, etc. may not even know.

 

If something reasonable like that were happening, then I'm sure that would have been noted as a reason for the underhanded auction termination. Since that was not mentioned, I would bet that no such thing has happened. The fact that everything is all "secret" and the buyer is anonymous, it looks even worse.

 

A more likely explanation is that something fishy is going on.

 

I'd be willing to bet that the seller decided that THEY could make 100's of cheap copies and sell them for $50 apiece and made up a bogus story to justify the end of auction.

 

Anyone care to wager?

[Willard]

I agree with thunderbird, the winner would have posted it up on AA or retro-planet would.

[justice_is_blind]

I'd be willing to bet that the seller decided that THEY could make 100's of cheap copies and sell them for $50 apiece and made up a bogus story to justify the end of auction.

 

Sounds like easy money to me.

[retro-planet]

A lot of the people posting on this discussion thread are right about one thing and wrong about a whole lot of others.

 

In hindsight we agree that we should have put something on the auction to invite private bids.

The story is that prior to deciding on an auction we did have private offers which quite frankly were not attractive (including one from a well know underground publisher).So we threw it open as an auction and a member posted a link to the auction here as a point of interest.

 

If we like it or not private deals off the back of an E-bay auction are common practise.Anyone with any auction experience would know this.

 

We were also wrong in being honest about why the auction was cancelled.

What we should have done was closed the auction early and either not responded to anyone as to why or what happened or to have said that it didn’t work or that it just wasn't for sale any longer.

We didn’t do this and choose to be open about what had happened so that others knew the outcome and what had become of it.

 

Why don't we stick to the discussion of this thread which is will the buyer reveal themselves?

 

We have sold it to a private buyer who (at this stage)had told us they want to remain anonymous but has the intention to get the game published and we (and others) believe them.

As far as we know they do read the boards so will be aware of what is happening.

 

We have said from the start we were not interested in burning multiple copies and did not make a copy.

If you believe us or not is down to you.

 

We remain gratefull for all the help that was given to us and the friends that we have made along the way.

For the others who are not so happy with us then all we can say is sorry if we have offended/upset you but this was never our intention.

 

Cheers,

 

R-P

[LinkoVitch]

Personally I think this is insaine. Retor-planet has every right to pull an item from ebay before it completes for WHATEVER reason they see fit.

 

Complaining that they have hindered everyones chances to win the auction is crap too. For all you know this private buyer could have said "I will give you $500 for it, in cash NOW" This works out better for retro-planet as they get their cash now and a lot of it in one go. rather than that private person bidding on it and getting it for say $175 (which would be good for the private bidder, but not so good for retro-planet). I would guess this occured because the private buyer wished to remain private and not have their details on ebay, or whatever.

 

If someone has the cash to do this, then most likley you didn't stand a chance of winning the bid anyway.

 

it may be irratating, but at the end of the day retro-planet is under NO obligation to sell ANYTHING they list until the auction ends. You can pull an auction even if bids have been made as long as you do it before the end of the auction, it's still your property!. Ebays policy of outside bids is that they are not covered by them in anyway.

 

well thats my 2p

 

@willard... must say I never knew you could buy a keyboard with autofire on the shift key

[Mendon]

Kind of interesting.... I'm almost sure if the private buyer of this item was a regular AA user, all the posts would be GREAT DEAL, WAY TO GO, AWESOME etc... there would be almost none of this complaining going on about Retro Planet.

 

Maybe what determines whether a deal is rude, underhanded, and mean, or great, fantastic, and awesome is WHO benefits.

 

Mendon

[Thunderbird]

Personally I think this is insaine.  Retor-planet has every right to pull an item from ebay before it completes for WHATEVER reason they see fit.

 

I have "every right" to say that I think a person is an a grotesquely ugly moron who smells like goat feces and has the mental capacity of an amoeba. Does that makes it the "right" thing to do? Having the "right" to do something doesn't make it the "right" thing to do. It just means it's not against the law.

 

Ethically, it was a totally crappy thing to do.

 

If you are condoning this activity, then I will make a note to NEVER bid on any of your auctions.

 

Complaining that they have hindered everyones chances to win the auction is crap too.  For all you know this private buyer could have said "I will give you $500 for it, in cash NOW" This works out better for retro-planet as they get their cash now and a lot of it in one go.

 

The auction was in it's FINAL HOURS. Your reasoning, frankly, is totally stupid. In fact, ebay has protection plans and various methods to make sure payment ins prompt. Accepting a private bid on the last day of the auction on the basis of getting paid sooner is pure bunk. You're trying to rationalize here.

 

If someone has the cash to do this, then most likley you didn't stand a chance of winning the bid anyway.

 

We'll never know, now will we. I got a PM yesterday from someone who had joined with 2 other people to place a killer bid, but when he went to the page with 5 or 6 hours to go, the auction was gone.

 

it may be irratating, but at the end of the day retro-planet is under NO obligation to sell ANYTHING they list until the auction ends.You can pull an auction even if bids have been made as long as you do it before the end of the auction, it's still your property!.  Ebays policy of outside bids is that they are not covered by them in anyway.

 

Okay, so you'll have no problem if I put my personal copy of BattleSphere up for bid and then cancel it on the last day if I don't like the amount of bidding at that time???

 

I'm positive that would go over well! LOL!

 

well thats my 2p

 

I wouldn't give you 1p for it.

[Thunderbird]

Kind of interesting.... I'm almost sure if the private buyer of this item was a regular AA user, all the posts would be GREAT DEAL, WAY TO GO, AWESOME etc... there would be almost none of this complaining going on about Retro Planet.

 

Maybe what determines whether a deal is rude, underhanded, and mean, or great, fantastic, and awesome is WHO benefits.

 

Mendon

 

Since the auction was won by someone anonymous, for all we know it IS an AA user. That doesn't matter anyhow, because I don't care WHO won the item. They may have gotten a "great deal". I think the shady business practices of "repo-planet" are the issue here.

[jaysmith2000]

I think releasing it is going to be a lot more difficult than the buyer is aware. As most of you know Clint Thompson (Ambient Distortions) has had a copy of this title for some time. He did contact CORE directly and they were less than helpful. I'm not saying someone can't release the game, I'm just saying to do it legally probably isn't going to happen. Either way, I agree with the majority, it's probably a regular here at AtariAge that won the auction. What I'd like to hear is if the game is different than Stone and Clint's copies.

 

Whoever won this, please just step forward and let us know something about the game and what your plans are. Why stay anonymous?

 

Jason

[holy_fluck]

who cares what retro planet does with their item, its theirs and they can sell the way they want to, if they think they can get more by selling privately then they should be able to do it. They are just looking out for their best interests which is getting the most for their item and thats what they did. If you were them, what would you do?

[Thunderbird]

who cares what retro planet does with their item, its theirs and they can sell the way they want to, if they think they can get more by selling privately then they should be able to do it. They are just looking out for their best interests which is getting the most for their item and thats what they did. If you were them, what would you do?

 

Yup. I'm going to now auction of rare items in MY collection and then cancel the auction in the last hours if I don't like the way bidding is going.

 

That's really a cool way to look out for MY "best interests" (a.k.a. "profits")

 

Remind me never to bid on anything you sell either.

[holy_fluck]

It doesnt matter, you probably just mad that you didnt win the auction, would you be as mad if you found out the final price was considerably higher than what you bid on it? or are you just mad that the guy is anonymous and you might never see the game? Its like sometimes when someone wants to sell a car or whatever on ebay, they would say something like "first 10 500 takes it" and if that happens to be on the last day, then what? i've seen this happen before and its nothing new and its not nearly as bad as having a friend or whatever jack up the price so you'd pay more in the end right?

[Thunderbird]

It doesnt matter, you probably just mad that you didnt win the auction, would you be as mad if you found out the final price was considerably higher than what you bid on it? or are you just mad that the guy is anonymous and you might never see the game? Its like sometimes when someone wants to sell a car or whatever on ebay, they would say something like "first 10 500 takes it" and if that happens to be on the last day, then what? i've seen this happen before and its nothing new and its not nearly as bad as having  a friend or whatever jack up the price so you'd pay more in the end right?

 

I didn't bid on it. I've already got one, so why would I care?

 

You're missing the point. The problem is that the seller used poor business practices. There are plenty of ways which retailers can legally entice or trick people into their stores, but that doesn't make them right.

 

Why you are defending the shady seller (repo-planet) is puzzling. It would be like defending a car dealer who buys the cars that are wrecked while in transport from the factory and fixes them up and sells them as "new" and doesn't tell the consumer that the car was damaged... (perfectly legal in many states, since the cars have never been sold or used as demos they are legally considered "new"). The dealer has the "right" to do this!!!! Yeehaw! He RULES!

 

If you are trundling blindly through life thinking that retailers have the right to do whatever they want to you then you must be getting robbed blind and don't even know it!

 

Whatever happened to "Customer Service".

[retro-planet]

Thunderbird you are obviously new to the E-bay scene or you would know what you are dealing with.

 

Once again we say that with the auction in question we have done nothing wrong.

we were well within our rights to stop an auction early.

we looked after our best interests (why not.after all it is ours to sell) and A buyer got a deal they wanted.

Anyone with an ounce of initiative could have made us a private offer and many did which weren’t good enough.

 

If you never wanted the item what do you care?

Seems to us your just trying to start a fight.

 

If you have the item already why not donate copies to those that missed out on the auction and who you are sticking up for like your brown nosed chum willard?

[Nick Harlow]

I have a really stupid question Willard..

 

how much programming experience do you have? or does DragonForce have?

 

Have you produced any projects? anything we can see?

 

Can you program in asm, C++ or any decent language?

 

 

 

 

Nick

[Willard]

no, i only programmed pong when i was like... 10, nothing big, the only thing i ever did though I dont think it matters, cuz assembly is completely different?

[JagMod]

Once again we say that with the auction in question we have done nothing wrong. we were well within our rights to stop an auction early.

 

NOTE: Sellers are not permitted to cancel bids and end listings early in order to avoid selling an item that did not meet the desired sale price. This is considered to be reserve fee circumvention. Although there are legitimate reasons for ending a listing early, abuse of this option will be investigated.

 

You have done wrong retro-planet.

Stop trying to talk your way around your abuse of Ebay resources.

 

JagMod

[Thunderbird]

Thunderbird you are obviously new to the E-bay scene or you would know what you are dealing with.

 

So, repo-planet.con has been a member for less than two months longer than I have and thinks he knows everything.

 

It's pretty sad that abuse of ebay has become so commonplace that sellers now require their bidders to be aware that the rules are likely to be broken and to just accept it as a fact of life and not complain.

 

Once again we say that with the auction in question we have done nothing wrong.

 

Not only were you wrong, but you are wrong in continuously claiming you weren't wrong. You failed to admit either of these errors, which is compounding the error and really making you look like a con artist.

 

Ebay has a policy against pulling an auction at the last minute because you don't like the way it is turning out.

 

They also have a number of policies against using ebay to advertise your products and selling them off ebay.

 

They also have a number of policies against "fee avoidance" by accepting offers off ebay.

 

Someone as experienced with ebay as you surely is aware of these policies.

 

we were well within our rights to stop an auction early.

we looked after our best interests (why not.after all it is ours to sell) and A buyer got a deal they wanted.

 

It would be in your best interest to rob a bank too. You could REALLY use that money. Why don't you go and do that too???!?!?!? After all, it IS in your best interest!!!!

 

Anyone with an ounce of initiative could have made us a private offer and many did which weren’t good enough.

 

Anyone with a femtoliter of initiative would have observed the item on sale on ebay AFTER you refused several private offers and assumed you decided not to take private offers and had realized that a bidding war would have gained you much more money. Why would a person make a private offer on something you refused private offers on?

 

PLUS: Why would an upstanding citizen make a private offer for something that was on sale on ebay already? It's against the rules for a ebay user to make private offers for items on sale on ebay, silly!

 

If you never wanted the item what do you care?

Seems to us your just trying to start a fight.

 

Isn't that what General Zod said to Superman?

 

Someone's got to help stamp out criminals. Some people do care about the world and would take action to make it a better place!

 

If you have the item already why not donate copies to those that missed out on the auction and who you are sticking up for like your brown nosed chum willard?

 

Hello?!?!?!? McFly?!?!?!?!! Have you NOT been paying attention? Soul Star is a trademark and a copyrighted work. People cannot just start making copies of a game and sell/trade/give it away it without getting the rights? Legally, you are only allowed to make A BACKUP of software for your own use.

 

I should have expected someone so blissfully unaware of ebay rules to ALSO be ignorant of copyrights and trademarks. I guess I shouldn't be so surprised.

 

I hope you read up on this before you and/or your "anonymous" buyer start churning out copies of the game.

[Guest]

hi,

 

i have been away for some days on the atari jaguar forum. sorry that i was gone for some days. and i will still be gone for some days (someone missed me? )

 

================================================

 

here is my list of the things i have right now:

 

 

[x] atari jaguar development manuals printed out, sorted and in economy pockets.

[x] working jag is in agreement now with an seller.

[ ] bjl cable

[ ] jagcd

[ ] atari st monitor

[ ] cable to connect jaguar to st monitor

[ ] protector se

 

as you can see. my list is short. But i have asked someone for any help about paypal. once i know how paypal works. things will go faster.

 

================================================

 

as for nick harlow.

 

i have programmed pc games for 4 years. nothing special. just games that looked like "dx ball" gta style games etc.

 

I programmed for the IPAQ compaq pocket pc 3760.

 

and i am now learning the underground documents. as these are more fun and more readable for me than the official development manual.

 

================================================

 

As far as Retro Planet & ThunderBird.

 

I dont know whats going on because the auction has alread ended. yes people are angry. and dont get me into this. as i dont want to have an flame war.

 

But if i am on ebay. and want an item very badly. i ask the seller if he could close the auction earlier. and he might do that for me too. which i really appreciate.

 

As far as private mail. i never done that. so i wont say anything about that.

 

================================================

 

I have lot's of worrys at the moment. (i have to goto the hospital because i have pain in my neck and in my back.) So i dont want any flame wars.

 

================================================

 

kind regards,

 

Dragonforce

[Thunderbird]

Why is this dragonforce update in the Soulstar topic?

[LinkoVitch]

NOTE: Sellers are not permitted to cancel bids and end listings early in order to avoid selling an item that did not meet the desired sale price. This is considered to be reserve fee circumvention. Although there are legitimate reasons for ending a listing early, abuse of this option will be investigated.

 

You have done wrong retro-planet.

Stop trying to talk your way around your abuse of Ebay resources.

 

JagMod

 

Assuming that the private offer was greater than the ebay auction, then the cancelation of the ebay listing was not an attempt to pull out because you are not getting enough, or circumvention of reserve fee.

[Mendon]

Since the auction was won by someone anonymous, for all we know it IS an AA user. That doesn't matter anyhow, because I don't care WHO won the item. They may have gotten a "great deal". I think the shady business practices of "repo-planet" are the issue here.

 

I'm honestly at kind of a loss here as I really don't understand what you are complaining about, Thunderbird. I've gone thru the messages and this is what I can gather from reading them (please correct me if I'm wrong):

 

A) An item was listed on eBay

B) People were bidding on it

C) Seller got a private offer to sell the item outright that the seller thought was too good to pass up

D) Seller cancel's auction and sells to person making private offer

 

Please explain to me what is "shady" about this? If a person decides they want something on eBay and have a genuine fear of being sniped at the last minute and make a private offer to purchase the item outright to prevent losing the item, how is this "shady"? If you list something on eBay to make money, i.e. make a profit, and someone makes you an incredible offer that is too good to turn down, how is it "shady" to accept that offer?

 

I am NOT trying to start a arguement or get a flame war going; I'm seriously trying to figure out what you find "shady" about this auction being canceled early, when it is clearly evident that eBay allows this practice (and even gives you a list of reasons for cancelling to choose from) and the seller was out to make a profit, and from his own posts got a profit that made him happy and made the buyer happy.

 

Because of the reasons I listed above, I don't see anything "shady" about this. Correct me if I'm wrong.

 

Mendon

[Kung Fu Guy]

thunderbird, if your so vengeful why dont you try reporting him to ebay?

 

NOTE: Sellers are not permitted to cancel bids and end listings early in order to avoid selling an item that did not meet the desired sale price. This is considered to be reserve fee circumvention. Although there are legitimate reasons for ending a listing early, abuse of this option will be investigated.

 

you might be able to argue on that point, but the wording makes it a little iffy because, he probably did get the price he wanted, (disagrees with above statement), but at the same time he used ebay in a manner to circumvent the reserve auction fees.

 

and as a seller, personally, i think ebay makes a raping in profits on all of its auctions, and that the reserve fee is too high, because if your auctioning off an item which might not sell, you could be out like $10 just for listing with a reserve price. (i wanted to auction off something with a reserve of $400.00, and it would have cost me $8.00, which really sucks b/c what i wanted to sell probably wouldnt have sold)

[Thunderbird]

 

A) An item was listed on eBay

B) People were bidding on it

C) Seller got a private offer to sell the item outright that the seller thought was too good to pass up

D) Seller cancel's auction and sells to person making private offer

 

Please explain to me what is "shady" about this? If a person decides they want something on eBay and have a genuine fear of being sniped at the last minute and make a private offer to purchase the item outright to prevent losing the item, how is this "shady"? If you list something on eBay to make money, i.e. make a profit, and someone makes you an incredible offer that is too good to turn down, how is it "shady" to accept  that offer?

 

This is quite simple.

 

When you put an item on ebay, you are making the item available for sale through the ebay service, which charges a very small fee to put your items on sale in exchange for a percentage of the final sale price. In this way, ebay pays their bills.

 

When a person bids on an item, they are under the belief that their bid will be honored when the auction closes, and if their bid is the highest bid that they are currently "winning" the auction.

 

The way it works is that the person with the highest bid is not supposed to be worried that there are "secret" bids being made and deals being formed in private email that are "ourbidding" them.

 

The seller is not supposed to be taking offers outside of ebay and then deciding who the winner is based on the public and private offers. The seller could use this practice to hold their own "private" auction in email and cancel the ebay auctions before they end. In this manner, they avoid having to pay ebay their percentage of the sale price.

 

For example,

 

Say I put BattleSphere Platinum Super Special Edition on ebay and on the last day it is bid up to $1000.

 

What if a person email offers to pay me $975 cash for the item.

 

If the auction completes, I have to pay ebay for their service of advertising my items. I don't have the rates here but say they charge 5% of $1000.

 

You bid on my game $50 more than the email offer guy did, but I decide I can make $25 more by selling to the lower email offer because I can avoid paying ebay for advertising my sale. After all, IT IS MY BEST INTEREST TO MAKE $50 MORE!!!! LOL!

 

IF THIS IS THE WAY THAT AUCTIONS WERE EXPECTED TO RUN THEN EBAY WOULD NOT MAKE ANY MONEY BECAUSE ALL AUCTIONS WOULD END EARLY WITH PRIVATE SALES.

 

P.S. A couple people PMed me and said that they pointed out the "private" sale to ebay and they were investigating repo-planet. I guess the one thing he said here that was true is that he shouldn't have mentioned the auction closed due to a "private sale". Adding that text to his auction end may be his downfall! LOL!