E-bay trauma

From: John Lawson <jpl15_at_netcom.com>
Date: Thu Jan 21 11:10:49 1999

  E-bay: Protectionism or laissez-faire... an old, old debate.

  I personally *hate* e-bay for No Good Reason, and choose not to
participate... not the least Bad Reason of which is my own financial
health. I buy enough Stuff via the Net as it is. But that's just Me.

  Philsophically... E-bay is Capitalistic and Darwinistic. One can
rail against the concept or embrace it. C'est la Vie.

  I spent some years in the Electronic/Aerospace surplus business,
and I have been in thousands of auctions of every type.

  It's like This: Ya win some, an' Ya lose some.

  I know exactly, precisely how it is to have counted every penny
one has to put on something Really Really desireable, only to be
outdone at the last moment by some schmuck with deeper pockets. And
of course, I've been that schmuck, too.

  E-bay is a 'public' forum, ie. access is not restricted. This is a
'private' list (sorta), and is (lightly) regulated; I am violating
those regs right now.

  What the crux of Dougs' and Marvin's contretemps [where's all this
Francais coming from...?] is the Morality of providing a 'heads-up'
to this List of an item on e-bay which might be of interest to one
or more listmembers.

  My tuppence: If I find a nice juicy PDP-11 system for sale, I will
either buy it myself, and crow about it here afterwards, or pass on it
and announce it here for others to consider. Then, IMHO, the same
situation obtains: someone will be successful and the others will be
dissappointed. C'est la Vie X2. I see no difference if the Item is
languishing on a lonely loading dock or represented on a public
auction forum.


  Private Note to Doug and Marv: Could you please patch this up
prior to TRW Saturday (the 30th)??? I'm buying lunch for everyone
in the group (after the T-hunt) and I'd like to eat peacefully...


     ----> ;} <-----



  Cheerz

John
Received on Thu Jan 21 1999 - 11:10:49 GMT