Leo Computers

From: Richard Erlacher <edick_at_idcomm.com>
Date: Thu Mar 18 12:49:59 1999

I don't believe it's a seller's market. The seller has to pay Ebay
regardless of whether a transaction is satisfactorily completed. They
freely admit that their success rate is only about 70%. I'd be willing to
bet that when a transaction falls through, it's the buyer who caused the
transaction to fail, not the seller. Further, since we live in a capitalist
society, it's the market that determines the value, not the utility. What I
dislike about the Ebays of the world is that they take their cut from the
seller in advance, and not from the transaction itself.

In a real estate transaction, where you similarly have a bidding system for
the right to purchase a house, and where you similarly involve one or more
agents on behalf of the buyer or seller, the buyer has to put down "earnest
money" indicating that he's really serious. On the web auctions, they don't
generally do that. What they do, is collect a fee from the would-be seller.
The real-estate guys take their money from the seller, since that's the one
place where there's bound to be some money at the end of the day. In the
antique computer parts market, there's no attempt to ascertain whether the
purported buyer even has the funds he's bidding. They do have an escrow
service which holds the buyer's money in case the seller fails to ship what
was promised. Does any of this sound like an arrangement favoring the
seller?

Dick

-----Original Message-----
From: Eric Smith <eric_at_brouhaha.com>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp_at_u.washington.edu>
Date: Thursday, March 18, 1999 11:36 AM
Subject: Re: Leo Computers


>Ward D. Griffiths III wrote:
>> Since E-slay buyers show no evidence
>> of giving a damn about value rather than cost.
>
>John Foust <jfoust_at_threedee.com> replied:
>> You'd think the average libertoonian would be ready to "defend the
>> undefendable".
>
>Hey, just because us "libertoonians" defend people's right to do whatever
>dumbass things they want to do in the privacy of their own home, doesn't
>mean that we like or approve of their actions. :-)
>
>ePay seems to be a seller's market. There's nothing inherently wrong with
>that, but nevertheless I think it sucks. Of course, my opinion is very
>biased, since I'm generally on the buying end of the deal.
>
Received on Thu Mar 18 1999 - 12:49:59 GMT