Well done Nev. Curse those 'USA-only' sellers.
On the subject of resellers, I have mixed thoughts. The main advantage I guess is what has already been mentioned above - once you've bought a couple of things from a particular seller then you get a good idea on the item quality you can expect, the reliability of the seller, etc.
The problem I have is with what constitutes 'market value'. If a reseller buys some items here and there, whatever he can get at a good price (based on his experience, knowledge etc) and can sell them for a profit, then good luck to him. The problem arises when a reseller can set the market value for a particular item. For example, with modules
H1 and
H3, there are relatively few of them in circulation. A fair market price might be $100 for
H1, $40 for
H3 (for arguments sake). Theoretically a reseller could bid on EVERY H1/H3 that came onto the market, and be willing to pay up to $200 for
H1, and $100 for
H3 - he normally wouldn't need to pay this much, but he makes sure he bids that high on every copy available.
When he sells, his opening bid price is also his limit - $200 for an
H1, $100 for an
H3. The reseller picks up every copy being sold by anybody but him for anywhere between $100/$40 and his limit, and the only way anybody else will get hold of a copy is to pay his asking price, either on his auction or over that much on anyone elses. He ensures a profit for himself, and he also sets an artificially-high market price - but even though it has been set artificially high, it is still the market rate for everybody except the reseller.
I would have thought this scenario would be pretty far fetched, but after watching the auctions for a while (I picked those two examples because I'm after a copy of each) I think it's what Cougarrinard (sp?) is doing.
The only way to beat him is to not buy from him, which I won't. Or sneak under his guard like Nev has done - there will be occasions when one will slip by without his notice (especially when the seller doesn't use either the code or the module name in the auction title).
Sorry for the long post, but it's the one thing that annoys me the most about collecting.
Regards
Mike