Beware Aaron Amethyst

[darriengamefox.livejournal.com]

WHO: Sexonfireiscool on FurAffinity

WHERE: 
http://www.furaffinity.net/user/sexonfireiscool/

WHAT: It was an auction he had told me I won and then immediately rescinded it because "Someone outbid me" after he said it was closed.

WHEN: The auction started about four days ago. His shit started two days ago.

PROOF: http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/3599681/ <- The journal 

http://i.imgur.com/set1W.png <- his posts on my page.

EXPLAIN:  Ok, so Aaron decides to put up an auction for a piece of art starting at 25 cents. I decided it would be nice to just get the auction going by giving the minimum bid. Two days passed and no one outbid me. I get a shout on my FA page saying that I won the commission and that he'd give me his Paypal. He then decides to post a depressing journal saying everyone is cheap and that I won the auction. This however caused more people to bid. He turned face and told me that I didn't win and that I had been outbid AFTER posting to the journal AND my page that I had won. Needless to say, I wasn't pleased. After I called him out on this on the journal he posted, he hides my comments.

Comments

[obsidianwolfess.livejournal.com]

I clicked on the link to the auction and see that the winner of the auction bid $20. The bid history shows that you were the first bidder at 25 cents, but you never bid afterwards. So by those facts, technically.. You didn't win the bid. (Why he would tell you that you did, before the auction ended, is beyond me.)

The artist should have never told you that you won the bid prematurely, before the website auction ran out. That's his mistake, and I agree with the beware warrant there. I also feel that this post is valid, based on the artist's horrible attitude. He sounds nothing short of ungrateful, even AFTER people outbid you on the piece. (And I quote, in case of bawwwletion:
"I even tried to cheer myself up with an auction starting at 25 Goddamned cents, but you guys are so cheap on here, inkbunny, and twitter, that I could only get one goddamned bid from anybody!"
"EDIT: Holy fuck, really? It takes one depressed journal to make you realize I had an auction going? Smooth~")

The beware is warranted for his horrible attitude, insulting you as a bidder, and shady business practices. Guilt tripping people is no way to attract customers. Unfortunately, people responding by bidding is only going to reinforce that behavior, I fear. :\

[korth.livejournal.com]

^Even though I posted, totally gonna agree with what they said. Much better written out than my brain wants to do right now XD;

[darriengamefox.livejournal.com]

I *would* have kept bidding if I had known he had guilt tripped others into bidding. However, when he told me I had won, that caused me to think that hey, I didn't need to bid anymore. Then he turned around and said I didn't get it because people started bidding. That made me lose all interest in his auction due to the fact that he had said I had won, then said I didn't because he posted a depressed journal to gain more bids.

[blackberrypie.livejournal.com]

This is pretty much exactly what I was thinking.

[korth.livejournal.com]

Did the auction actually close, or did he just sort of give up on his auction and was saying you won? Because it appears that the auction did not close until yesterday.

[kayla-la.livejournal.com]

I see what you're saying, but honestly the moment the guy went 'You won, tell me what you want and I'll give you my paypal', I would personally see that as closing it. I discussed this post at length with a couple of people before approving it because it was a little iffy to me, but I just couldn't get around the idea that the guy basically broke a contract. I would have felt like a hypocrite rejecting it since I know if it were the other way around and the auction had closed but the guy had refused to pay the 25 cents, we would be going 'The amount of money doesn't matter'.

Hopefully that made sense!

[linksage.livejournal.com]

Despicable behavior.

If you're not willing to take the disappointment of something not selling, or selling lower than you think it should, you shouldn't hold an auction. Taking it as a personal affront and going back on something you're legally bound to do just because you didn't make as much as you wanted off of it is NOT okay.

Thank you for the warning. :c I've had some minor problems with him as a commissioner, but not enough to post about here. At least not yet. Still have to send him his piece.

EDIT: A little confused about what happened with the actual auction after reading above comments, but I still think his guilt-tripping is unacceptable and beware-worthy in itself.

[kayla-la.livejournal.com]

Generally your best bet is to just set the minimum price to something you won't be upset about if it sells for that. I'd never start an auction at 25 cents, that's for sure.

[obsidianwolfess.livejournal.com]

I'm guessing the artist has no clue what a "minimum reserve" is on an auction. That'd solve a lot of his problems right there. :P

[bailzzararco.livejournal.com]

It also sounds lousy to me, too. Also, if he didn't want to part with something at such a low price, he shouldn't have started the bid so low, either. It's totally uncool to tell someone they won, and then right away..."uh, never mind."

[tunavoice.livejournal.com]

I reeeeally hate how he called everyone cheap and basically guilt-tripped people into auctioning, that's a huge red flag for me. And then how he says "Holy fuck, really? It takes one depressed journal to make you realize I had an auction going?" That's just... unbelievably rude. And echoing others, if he didn't want people to do that he shouldn't have set the price so low.

I think this beware is warranted mostly for the horrible attitude displayed.

[dragontripmon.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure about this but i took a closer look at that auction and something smells very fishy about it especially the bidding auction. (Take a good look at the bidding history.)
http://www.furbuy.com/auctions/1033142.html

It's odd that the price jumps very quickly from .25 cents to up to $20 dollars.

[kilroyfirelizrd.livejournal.com]

Doesn't look that suspicious to me. IronMania2003 set a proxy bid at $20, it looks like. Metalmilitiaman increased his bid by $5 to see if he could outbid the guy, but stopped at his own limit of $20.

[jakejynx.livejournal.com]

"His shit started two days ago."

Really?

[copper-curls.livejournal.com]

Beware more than justified, in my opinion. His attitude can charitably be described as horrible and I'm not at all sure that he didn't violate Furbuy's TOS by telling darrien he was the winner outside the context of the auction process on the site. He also strikes me as dishonest; I can see where it would be disheartening to have an auction go for only 25 cents, but if that's the winning bid, that's the winning bid. Which, going by his shout on darrien's page, it was.

Thank you for the beware; one more person to block.

[sbneko.livejournal.com]

I think the best thing the artist could have done is just offer it to you both (OP and the new "winner"). That way he'd have kept the original contract, plus sell something a bit more pricey.

I had this issue happen where the winning bid was actually after the end time, but I had neglected to check it as I normally did not put an exact time frame. The real winning bidder contacted me about it, so I simply offered it to both people, since I felt it unfair to cancel the commission after telling the other that they won.

[epiceternity.livejournal.com]

Along with the confusing behaviour and rude comments, I also really don't like the "I'm giving darriengamefox his 25 cent commission, but I dunno. I really am upset with a lot going on right now." comment in the journal either.
It sounds like he's holding it against the OP for 'being a cheapskate' and bidding 25 cents. But if he started it that low, didn't get any other bids and didn't set a reserve, that's not the OP's fault. The OP was doing him a good service by bidding, if there's no one to bid against then again it's not their fault the price didn't rise.
I think this is a beware in regards to the artist's business practice and behaviour.

[shukivengeance.livejournal.com]

Beware against both parties as far as I'm concerned. The artist is an impatient person who seems a bit of a pity-partier, and OP is equally rude. "His shit started two days ago" and telliing the artist he wouldn't bid more than 25 cents. I wouldn't like to work with either of you.

[darriengamefox.livejournal.com]

So, apparently getting the bidding started is rude. Nice to know. I started the bids in hopes that someone else would bid, sadly it didn't happen. I would've gladly bid more had he not pulled the stunt he did. I will admit, I was angered when he pulled it, hence my language. However, I didn't say I wouldn't bid more than 25 cents, just said I wanted to get the auction started, apparently that is rude and wrong *shrug*

[linksage.livejournal.com]

Where is this quote coming from? I've seen it pop up twice and haven't been able to find it despite looking around for myself.

EDIT: Nevermind, found it x_x somehow I kept skimming over it in the OP and thought it was said in journal comments or shouts somewhere.

[cutemoufette.livejournal.com]

I will definitely avoid him with that journal alone.

[kwolf13.livejournal.com]

What a horrible, horrible attitude. Based on that alone, I'll be sure to avoid this person.

[pinstripedtiger.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't touch either of you with a ten foot pole after seeing your attitudes.

[poizenkat.livejournal.com]

I just wanted to point out something fishy, Ironmania2003 whom is the winner of the auction knows Aaron in person.

I used to be a close friend of Aaron, so I'm VERY disappointed in him.

[ironmania2003]

I bid on Aaron's auction quite some time before he put up that depressing journal. I bid on the auction because I live his art & not because of it. Also, I would like to point out that just because I happen to know him in person had nothing to do with the outcome of the auction. Needless to say, the auction was not closed at the time & I feel you are just being a sore loser about the whole thing.