It was being offered about privately.

Al.

Perhaps Fred its because its such a "great sign" ?? in my opinion its up there with the top "10" of enamels and lots of collecters would like to own one,,even more so one that hasnt been fannied around with..to be honest mate i would rarther go and buy a "repro" and know its "repro" than buy summat that has had welding here and there and the odd face drawn on by someone just out to make lots of doe..ive always wanted a coloured 5 boys to add to the collection but with todays prices it dont look as if its  gonna happen so i might just grab my kids felt tip pens and colour  in the one ive got...

I think they are using my initial offer (before I knew it was on Ebay) as a reserve price.

Al.

maybe we need more action???

Here is the reply from the seller after I asked him what was going on with the sign.

....

Hello Al - True enough, you did. Since then however, I've received I don't know how many messages with abuse, insults, not worth more than £50, sell to me or else and the like, so I decided to talk to and visit one of the more helpful collectors. My wife and I visited and saw the vast collection. My wife, with woman's intuition (!), decided she liked this individual, so we took the advice with regard to value and now have a quite high reserve. If I remember correctly, you did make an offer but said you didn't want the sign for your collection but could probably use it for a swap ? We were advised to expect more and even if the sign doesn't make the reserve, there is always the auction house at Chippenham with their annual enamel sign sale this coming June. Unless, of course, I'm tempted to take one of the offers being sent to me. I did appreciate your offer but as the hammer price last year at Chippenham was £1500 plus the fees for a figure of c£1765 I hope for something not too dissimilar. And yes I know I'd have to pay their not inconsiderable fees. Some really nasty comments came from an 'xxxxxx' with the eBay Id. of 'xxxxxxxx' who stated that the enamel sign collecting community were all laughing at me because messages to me and my replies were being shown on my listing. What this obnoxious cretin coudln't grasp was that I added a bit of information to my previous listing twice I believe. None was from either a message to me or any reply back.

......

Sounds like people are getting really nasty over signs on ebay. This is the tenth time this year I have heard people getting abused by people trying to spam signs off the net.

Cheers

Al.