Good morning. I wake up and find events have taken an interesting course.
My crystal ball tells me there is going to be some debate that will probably (and I say this with a sigh) degrade into accusing my of being a scammer, troll, 412 emailer, government saboteur or some other interesting thing, before the days are out. Most likely due to the reserve price I had to set on the property.
I will firstly refer back to a reason I posted for having set the reserve price in the first place;
I also had concerns that the people who were shouting the most 'scam' and trying to put people off buying the property were also the people who claimed to have the most interest in the property. So there is also a worry that said persons may have tried to put off other buyers to keep the price low. How can I tell? trust no one, is supposed to be the Forum motto......
And if by magic, shortly before the auction's end the person shouting scam the most, 'miraculously' has verified everything I have said, how, I have no idea as I in the end, just started ignoring his messages. Now he has at the last moment placed a hugely undervalued bid (whilst of course, warning everyone that the house is in no way ever going to be worth more than what he is bidding)
People have pointed out that I am a NOOB at forums. Yes I am. I have never tried anything like this before. In fact I have never used any other forum except for arrse, the British Army forum. But I have never tried to auction anything. Actually I have never bought anything with a bitcoin in my life yet. I've bought some physical bitcoins, but never used them for a transaction. I look forward to returning to Berlin with some bitcoins and spending them.
And it is interesting. I am trying my best, and I am sorry if anyone does not like the way I am going about it. I am sure, given time, I will settle into the forum. I just decided to go straight in the deep end.
And as people have pointed out, most people would be scared off by the attitude given off. I am personally very disappointed that even though I have made several requests for a MOD to message me about what is going on, for a whole week that request has been ignored. But I'm not scared so easily, and I am willing to try something through to the end.
Now is my turn to point something out. Mr Goat has tried to pull, for all to see, a classic Gustave Le Bon crowd psychology maneuver.
See I might be a NOOB here but I have been round physical auctions all my life. There are two ways to use GleB theory on a crow, positively and negatively, both to the users advantage.
The basic principle of GleB is Submergence, Contagion, and Suggestion.
You wait until the 'crowd' get engrossed in an auction. If you are shilling, you wait until you feel the mood hit the positive peak and you also start to talk/laugh chat excitedly with partners or what seem to be other interested parties. (ever been to an auction and seen that guy laughing loudly with his partner saying wow I never knew such bargains were available, or who seems really really interested in items picking them up and calling over the room, wow I think this ones a collectors item? Thats a person working for the auction house to help the Submergence)
However if you are using it in the negative tack, you wait until the crowd can be contaminated. I've seen many an auctiongoer have a 'loud conversation' next to what seem to be interested parties in an item, mentioning as loudly as possible, defects in the item that they 'saw' or laughing and saying how aunt mayble sold one of those last week for only XXX (always lower than the reserve price of course). At vehicle auctions, look out for that 'expert' who is loudly going into fine detail with his friend about all that is broken/no good about a certain car and then buys it himself.
Suggestion is where you continue the contagion. So you loudly spoke to your partner whilst the car is parked in the viewing zone saying how bald those tires are/how many miles on the clock it has/paints a little scratched/uncle john sold his last week for half the reserve on this one. Now inside as the car is going through you drop comments like wow listen to that engine, theres something wrong with that/hmm that suspension sounds a little rough eh? Watch particularly for the guy who is now no longer talking to his friend and is instead mumbling this to either himself, or even if he is really bold, to other bidders. Notice his friend has already put in a low bid for the item.
Of course a scammer that has managed to get the price low like this, on success, tends to come out with a bunch of excuses right at the end so people don't get too suspicious. 'Oh I thought that coin was an 1897 but it turns out it is an 1898, so it was I suppose worth bidding on' or 'Well, with a bit of work I can do that car up, even though it sounded a little rough' etc. As they walk away from the auction with an item for 1/2, 1/4 or whatever of what it would sell for.
It is a very clever trick and I have watched it in action many many times. How did I get shown this? My uncle happens to be a
PHD consultant Physiologist. Who also likes auctions, and loved to spend hours showing me the way people act.
See Mr Goat has made several errors in his attempt at maneuvers here.
Firstly, he forgot to bring a 'friend'. Or maybe he has but said friend is yet to reveal.
Secondly, he forgot the number one rule, don't personally attack the auctioneer, because then you might find yourself kicked out of the auction house. If you walk into an auction house shouting 'wow this is a dodgy outfit, these guys must be crooks' see how long it is before you are asked to leave. Serious fail. Walk in and gently spread rumors that the items are not to spec or there is an issue with them, thats just freedom of opinion.
Sadly for him, and as he knows, in the first day of the auction when I was trying to persuade him we are not scammers, he insisted on it so many times that he
bought my girlfriend to tears as she is the kind of person who tries to find the owner of a $20 note (seriously she once found one and put on kijiji that she would return it to anyone who knew the serial number......who does that!) and she was really sobbing and sobbing and I even PMd him this fact and he gave not a single thought to the distress he caused her.
And he now things, that she would be happy to be in communication with him to sell him a house? When I shouted 'Mr Goat bid on the house today' downstairs from the office, I can tell you that the dirty words that fell from her mouth actually turned me on a little bit.
Sufficed to say Mr Goat's bid even if it were 50000BTC would be refused now in principle.
Sadly it seems that the auction may indeed not come to pass. Who is to blame? That can be discussed ad infinitum. Everyone will have their own opinion. Mr. Goat is certainly going to loudly and try to defend his status. No one likes to be caught, as Dr. Paul Ekman's 'Wizards project' showed.
Sigh, is all I can say to the whole situation.
