Im with you on this.....as soon as a nice heuer appears on ebay there seams to be a race to contact the seller and make offers ( I'm guilty too ). Most good pieces seem to disappear from auction. The reality is this practice is somewhat unfair as a lot of potential buyers would not have seen it and also have not had a chance to bid. So don't get too upset when you loose a sale this way Jeff as thats what would have happened if the auction was left to run. You win some, you loose some :)
(btw it wasn't me lol)