Quote Originally Posted by JohnP View Post
If I do know someone is a member, I will often contact them; after all, it's a bit ungentlemanly (I think) to make someone pay their max price if I snipe just a bit under.

+1 for that. And I'd like to add that Byron is always quite upfront in the chat on what he's going after and what his max bid is, as exhibited by gugi's post.

Sadly with the new ebay rules we don't know who we're bidding against and will have to revert to more outside discussion of prices. It will probably result in higher prices as auctions will be more visible and some things that would have previously gone under the radar to be brought into full light. Good for ebay, bad for us IMO. But I do stand by informing the friends you learn and work with of your intentions.