06 August 2023

Dachshunds Play Chess

After so many years of the series Top eBay Chess Items by Price (March 2010), I sometimes can't be sure whether I've already featured an item or not. The item in the image below is a good example.

Titled 'Charming Vienna Bronze two Dachshunds playing chess at a table', it apparently sold for $425.00. Ebay has changed the look of its auctions since I last posted about 'Top Chess Items' and I'm not sure how to interpret the info correctly. The index of items returned said,

1 bid
Best offer accepted

The auction itself said,

1 bid
Ended 08/02, 11:06 PM
or Best Offer

So which is it -- '1 bid' or 'Best offer accepted'? On top of that, 'Ended 08/02' (presumably August 2nd) didn't match the end of the auction shown on both the index and the item: 'Jul 25, 2023'.

The description added only,

Liquidating from my collection. Excellent condition. Rare, Marked.

The mark, which was under both chairs, looked like 'BERMANN WIEN' (Vienna) above some kind of cachet. The size of the item wasn't specified.

As for 'whether I've already featured it or not', I haven't. I once used a painting of Dalmatians playing chess in An NN for Chess Images? (June 2018). I last featured a bronze, also from Vienna, in Cold Painted Cats (December 2022).

Ebay has eliminated the intermediate page that was required to see the original listing, has changed the way it presents images of the item, and appears to have added more links to current auctions than it had before. I counted seven rows of multiple (>5) links, most of them for 'sponsored items'. That's a lot of links.

***

Later: Re '"Ended 08/02" (presumably August 2nd) didn't match the end of the auction shown on both the index and the item: "Jul 25, 2023"', when I looked at the bids, I noticed that 'Jul 25' was the day the only bid (marked 'Best Offer') was made. The auction start day was listed as 'Jul 23'. The auction also said, 'Duration: 10 days'. Putting this together, 'Jul 23' plus '10 days' equals Aug 2. Now the dates make some sense.

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