Ebay & Ethicacy ponderings

From: Markus Blumrich <ab594_at_sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca>
Date: Wed Aug 19 03:08:05 1998

I know this may be somewhat off-topic (I did throw in the word Altair a few
times though) but I can't help wondering now, what is preventing someone
from setting an outrageous reserve and then simply accepting the highest
bidder's bid. The Ebay rules state (heh - you can believe me this time - I
just re-read them!) "You will not be charged a Final Value Fee if: There
were no bids on your item; OR There were no bids on your Reserve Price
Auctions that met the reserve price." In this case the Altair seller could
accept a bid of up to $9999 and end up owing Ebay $2.

Perhaps the Altair's ACTUAL (=in his head) reserve is considerably less than
$10000 and the person is simply trying to avoid the Final Value Fee.

<G>But is this ethical?

It should be noted that a winning BIDDER can also back out of a sale if
their bid didn't meet the reserve.
Received on Wed Aug 19 1998 - 03:08:05 BST