e-bay item

From: Marvin <marvin_at_rain.org>
Date: Mon Mar 1 14:46:51 1999

Doug wrote:
>
> On Mon, 1 Mar 1999, Marvin wrote:
>
> > seems like harassing people who post ebay auctions (and other items
> > elsewhere) really doesn't do a bit of good except to provide a bit of
> > irritation.
>
> I thought we'd been through this before. The only thing advertising an
> auction does is encourage a bidding war and drives the price up. This
> benefits the seller, and nobody else. Are you suggesting that somebody
> else might deserve the item more than the people who had already spotted
> it and/or bid on it?

I am suggesting that if sellers don't see prices that get their attention,
some of this stuff would never be posted, and would very likely end up
recycled. Is that what you are after; to have people not even bother to post
stuff and recycle or dumpster it instead? What affect do you think the VCF
might be having on the collecting of computers? I'm sure Sam gets leads
(since he has posted some/most/all of them here) and without the publicity
that was generated by VCF, that would not have happened.


> If somebody mentions something here that was offered via Usenet or some
> other sales outlet, then the advantage would have gone to anybody who had
> been actively looking for the item and had spotted it earlier.
>
> Given that you're a frequent seller on ebay, I can only guess at your
> motivation for bringing this up again. Surely you're aware that ebay
> slants the advantage toward the seller (the reserve trap door, the
> silly proxy system, national advertising, etc.), that prices of classic
> computing stuff on ebay is spiraling out of control, and that buyers could
> use a break.

*Major* distortion of my selling status is not appreciated. First of all, I
have rarely sold any classic computer stuff on ebay. Second, ebay in and of
itself is an advantage to *both* buyers and sellers (and that has been
stated many times on the ebay boards) since stuff appears there that some
people have never seen, and probably would never see excepting a venue like
ebay. Trying to discourage sellers from listing (that I assume must be what
you are trying to do since why sell anything if it is just to be given away)
doesn't now seem IMNSHO a very good thing to do. Do you *really* think that
the Altairs, Poptronics issues, S100 stuff, etc., etc., etc. would even be
posted on ebay if the prices they might command were not available? It
sounds to me like you prefer to shoot yourself in the foot.

Since you seem to really dislike the concept of ebay, what do you think is a
better idea?
Received on Mon Mar 01 1999 - 14:46:51 GMT