Just scored another RARE Bolens goodie 
This is one that was WAY under my radar, and one that I really wasn't aware of until about 2 weeks ago.
I was going through a BIG Bolens binder that I have that is chock full of parts and owners manuals, and buried down in the middle of it was a Parts/Owners Operators Manual for something called the 18113 Blade Lockup Kit.
Evidently it's to allow you to use a rear mounted attachment without having to take the front blade off the tractor. Pretty slick idea if you think about it.
Anyway, imagine my surprise when one, a NOS one in fact, showed up on eBay within a week of me seeing the manual.
I promptly put in the first bid, which was $100.00, and set a max bid as it was a 6 day auction.
Now things got really interesting and it became something of a Soap Opera.
I wasn't all that surprised that a day or two later someone out bid me and I resigned myself to an "it sure would have been nice, but too much for me" and went about my business.
Not long after that I got a PM asking me if I had been bidding on it. I told the person yes, and they said that the bidder was willing to retract their offer if they knew that it was me that was after it. I replied that I was indeed bidding and that if the high bidder wanted to retract in my favor I wouldn't be opposed to it but I wouldn't ask him to do that if he really wanted it, as I know that he's a serious collector as well.
He contacted the seller and told him that he wanted to retract the bid and his reason for doing so. The seller allowed the retraction, and the bid went back to the original $100.00. It stayed like that until the final minute or two of the auction when once again, I was out bid. I was a bit disappointed but not all that surprised, and went about my business.
Shortly after the end of the auction, the next day I think, the seller contacted me and said that the 'new' high bidder was wanting to retract his bid, saying that he made a mistake, had multiple windows open, bid on the wrong item, etc, etc.
Seller said that it looked, and sounded, to him like the bidder was just trying to run up the bid with no intention of buying it, and then had an "OH POOP!" moment when he got stuck with the high bid.
Evidently negotiations were made and the seller contacted me again. He had allowed the retraction and that it was mine if I wanted it. He asked for my phone number so that we could talk rather than do a lot of emailing and messaging, so I did and we had a nice 2 1/2 hour chat earlier this evening where he gave me all the details, including names (one of which I already knew), of the whole mess.
We settled on a mutually agreeable price and the deal was struck. It should arrive some time next week.
In any event, sans pictures, here is the link to the original listing.
http://www.ebay.com/...cvip=true&rt=nc
Once it get's here I'll scan and upload the manual for our archives.
