Auction Results for Government Elk Hunt on Ebay

Auction Results for Government Elk Hunt on Ebay



note: See story at the bottom!



Some of the government wildlife officials predicted that the elk hunt would bring $80,000.00 to $100,000.00 on E-bay but the auction ended at only $17,700.00



**************************



http://cgi.ebay.com/Tennessee-Conservation-Elk-tag-First-elk-hunt-150-yrs_W0QQitemZ200360985418QQ





Tennessee Conservation Elk tag-First elk hunt 150 yrs!

This is 1 of only 5 permits available for this year!



Item condition: --



Ended: Jul 26, 200919:00:00 PDT



Bid history: 68 BidsSee history





Winning bid: US $17,700.00





Shipping: FREE shipping US Postal Service First Class MailSee more services See discounts | See all details

Estimated delivery within 12-15 business days



Returns: No Returns Accepted





Coverage: Pay with and your full purchase price is covered | See terms



*********************************



Take a look at the bid history for the auction, see below!



It seems strange to me that most of the bidders raised their own bids when they already had the top bid. It looks like some of the government wildlife officials were just trying to get the bids up to impress someone and hoping to snag a real bid. I guess there was not much interest in hunting one of these risky elk since they had not been properly tested and monitored for disease.



It's a shame that TN's wildlife and livestock was put at risk for disease by importing these elk that did not meet safe import regulations in regard to disease issues.



********************************



http://offer.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewBids&item=200360985418





Bidder............ Bid Amount.......Bid Time



r***u( 52) US $17,700.00 Jul-26-09 18:59:53 PDT







r***u( 52) US $17,700.00 Jul-26-09 17:58:51 PDT







r***u( 52) US $17,700.00 Jul-26-09 09:31:47 PDT







r***c( 69) US $17,600.00 Jul-24-09 14:25:55 PDT







r***c( 69) US $17,500.00 Jul-17-09 13:47:42 PDT







t***u( 430) US $17,500.00 Jul-21-09 17:23:17 PDT







o***l( 136) US $17,000.00 Jul-20-09 08:06:41 PDT







o***l( 136) US $16,500.00 Jul-20-09 08:06:01 PDT







e***y( 192) US $16,000.00 Jul-20-09 04:40:28 PDT







r***t( 62) US $15,600.00 Jul-19-09 22:42:50 PDT







r***t( 62) US $15,400.00 Jul-19-09 22:41:24 PDT







o***l( 136) US $15,200.00 Jul-19-09 18:40:46 PDT







7***6( 131) US $15,000.00 Jul-17-09 07:10:27 PDT







r***c( 69) US $15,000.00 Jul-17-09 13:47:01 PDT







b***o( 0 ) US $14,000.00 Jul-17-09 13:30:34 PDT







z***7( 771) US $13,500.00 Jul-17-09 11:12:28 PDT







7***e( 3 ) US $13,300.00 Jul-17-09 10:54:56 PDT







7***e( 3 ) US $13,100.00 Jul-17-09 10:54:20 PDT







p***p( 7 ) US $12,900.00 Jul-17-09 09:22:44 PDT







p***p( 7 ) US $12,699.99 Jul-17-09 09:21:45 PDT







p***p( 7 ) US $12,499.00 Jul-17-09 09:21:05 PDT







p***p( 7 ) US $12,250.00 Jul-17-09 09:20:50 PDT







l***u( 266) US $12,000.00 Jul-17-09 06:05:30 PDT







b***w( 28) US $11,200.00 Jul-17-09 06:54:13 PDT







7***6( 131) US $11,000.00 Jul-17-09 05:38:51 PDT







e***d( 22) US $10,000.00 Jul-16-09 21:18:07 PDT







7***6( 131) US $10,000.00 Jul-17-09 05:37:02 PDT







d***t( 36) US $9,101.00 Jul-17-09 04:48:42 PDT







s***s( 4 ) US $8,901.00 Jul-17-09 02:13:52 PDT







s***s( 4 ) US $8,701.00 Jul-17-09 02:13:13 PDT







n***m( 176) US $8,501.00 Jul-16-09 20:13:50 PDT







e***t( 146) US $8,200.00 Jul-16-09 20:11:07 PDT







n***m( 176) US $8,001.00 Jul-16-09 20:13:06 PDT







e***t( 146) US $8,000.00 Jul-16-09 20:09:19 PDT







n***m( 176) US $7,525.00 Jul-16-09 19:23:54 PDT







e***t( 146) US $7,500.00 Jul-16-09 20:09:09 PDT







e***t( 146) US $7,000.00 Jul-16-09 20:08:51 PDT







8***2( 100) US $6,550.00 Jul-16-09 20:02:06 PDT







t***e( 253) US $6,350.00 Jul-16-09 19:20:07 PDT







m***6( 107) US $6,250.00 Jul-16-09 19:17:16 PDT







t***e( 253) US $6,200.00 Jul-16-09 19:19:45 PDT







a***g( 8 ) US $6,000.00 Jul-16-09 19:15:44 PDT







m***6( 107) US $6,000.00 Jul-16-09 19:16:43 PDT







m***6( 107) US $5,799.00 Jul-16-09 19:16:19 PDT







e***a( 58) US $5,599.00 Jul-16-09 19:14:38 PDT







2***2( 209) US $5,501.00 Jul-16-09 19:11:41 PDT







0***i( 2 ) US $5,250.00 Jul-16-09 19:09:25 PDT







e***t( 146) US $5,199.00 Jul-16-09 19:05:25 PDT







a***g( 8 ) US $5,000.00 Jul-16-09 19:04:18 PDT







e***t( 146) US $5,000.00 Jul-16-09 19:05:09 PDT







e***t( 146) US $3,500.00 Jul-16-09 19:03:34 PDT







7***r( 681) US $3,250.00 Jul-16-09 19:04:14 PDT







a***g( 8 ) US $3,000.00 Jul-16-09 19:03:55 PDT







a***t( 210) US $2,500.00 Jul-16-09 19:03:13 PDT







a***g( 8 ) US $2,500.00 Jul-16-09 19:03:21 PDT







2***2( 209) US $2,000.00 Jul-16-09 19:02:28 PDT







b***r( 534) US $2,000.00 Jul-16-09 19:03:00 PDT







b***r( 534) US $1,750.00 Jul-16-09 19:02:32 PDT







1***1( 90) US $1,500.00 Jul-16-09 19:01:48 PDT







b***r( 534) US $1,500.00 Jul-16-09 19:01:56 PDT







e***t( 146) US $1,300.00 Jul-16-09 19:01:27 PDT







e***e( 33) US $1,000.00 Jul-16-09 19:01:21 PDT







e***a( 58) US $951.12 Jul-16-09 19:01:04 PDT







e***t( 146) US $725.00 Jul-16-09 19:01:18 PDT







1***1( 90) US $500.00 Jul-16-09 19:00:29 PDT







e***t( 146) US $500.00 Jul-16-09 19:00:54 PDT







1***e( 1 ) US $200.00 Jul-16-09 19:00:50 PDT







1***e( 1 ) US $150.00 Jul-16-09 19:00:27 PDT





Starting Price US $0.99 Jul-16-09 19:00:00 PDT



********************************



Times are tough all over

by David L. Autry



With the economy like it is, even government wildlife agencies are looking at new ways to increase their revenue. The times of relying heavily on hunting license sales for a major portion of their revenue seems to no longer be good enough.



With more and more hunters opting not to buy a hunting license but instead looking to harvest a trophy or meat animal from a privately owned wildlife management area that is tested and monitored to be disease free, government wildlife agencies seem to have decided that the commercialization of wildlife is not so bad, at least not if they are the ones cashing in on the big bucks.



With the decline of hunters and with hunting license sales no longer generating enough revenue, at least one government wildlife agency, the TN Wildlife Resources Foundation, has decided to auction elk hunts on EBay to the highest bidder.



The highest EBay bidder may be disappointed to learn that the elk he or she may be hunting could be one of the elk that was imported from Elk Island in Alberta Canada. This government run game farm at Elk Island is known to have Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) within 100 miles in free ranging cervids and since the imported elk from Elk Island did not meet the CWD monitoring regulations to prove the herd to be CWD free, who really knows whether or not the elk offered on EBay is diseased?



Just a couple of years ago, the USDA stopped TWRA from importing about 150 or 200 more elk from Elk Island because they did not meet import regulations in regard to disease testing issues. At that time TWRA had a scheme to raffle off hunts that by their own estimates would generate $50,000.00 to $100,000.00 per elk, again commercialization of wildlife.



As disease problems continue to grow in wild free ranging herds like Yellowstone National Park in WY and Rocky Mountain National Park in CO, fewer hunters are willing to risk spending their hard earned income and vacation time hunting a free ranging deer or elk only to find out weeks later that the animal they harvested had a disease and is not safe to eat. When this happens, the best the hunter can hope for is to have his or her hunting license money refunded but this is only a very small amount of what the hunter actually had invested.



These government wildlife agencies are the same way about disease testing and monitoring. They are 100% for testing and monitoring privately owned deer and elk herds but refuse to abide by the same regulations when they want to import and release the same species. This was made very clear recently by the comments sent in to the USDA by government wildlife agencies in regard to the proposed Federal CWD Regulations.



Why does there seem to be different rules for different fools?



Either the commercialization of wildlife is fair for everyone or fair for no one and either the disease testing and monitoring regulations should be fairly applied to everyone or applied no one.

If you understand proxy bidding it makes more sense. It may appear as winning bidder is bidding against self but not the case.



Great point about herd testing!

Rusty,



The automated bids can explain what you mentioned but there are about a dozen examples in the complete bid history where that is not the case. There are 12 bids where the bidders had the high bid by automation and yet the high bidder manually overrode his automated bid with a higher bid.



Having almost 30 years experience with this corrupt government agency, I know what lengths this agency will go to when trying to promote their own self interest.



It is a fact that most of the elk in their restoration project were illegally imported because they did not meet state or federal import regulations in regard to disease issues. Just two years ago, they were stopped from importing about 200 more elk that did not qualify for import regulations because we made so much noise about the situation.



We are talking about a government agency with decades of corruption, not just a few minor infractions. This agency has a long history of abuse of power, doing as they please instead of following the law, an agency where the EPA and other government agencies have stepped in and charged them with breaking the law.



I could go on and on but I think you get the picture.