As an avid collector, I naturally watch for clothes pegs and pins to be listed for sale on EBay.
Some years ago, I was doing my daily search and "6 Art Deco clothespins plastic or bakelite" came up for auction. with a starting price of US$25.
I was hugely excited by these pegs and kept a very close watch on them during the following week. Nobody bid on them at all and the auction was due to finish at 3 a.m. Melbourne time.
I waited until I was just too tired to stay up any longer (2am) and then put in a ridiculously high bid of US$50 and went to bed confident that they were mine.
The next morning, I was up early and eagerly logged on to EBay to confirm that the prize was mine.
Shock, horror, Oh No! Another bidder had waited until the last few minutes of the auction and had captured my pegs for $51 - that's known in the trade as "sniping" and I must admit to being a sniper myself on occasions.
But I was devastated - what could I do?
After a lot of thought I illegally wrote to the winner and asked if he was prepared to sell just one of these precious pegs to me. I told him I was quite happy to pay whatever he asked and quite understood if he wanted to make a profit.
Back came this wonderful reply "I collect bakelite items and I only need one so tell me what colours you would like and I'll post you a couple for free".
How about that - what a lovely guy.
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