sellers market

From: Marvin <marvin_at_rain.org>
Date: Fri Mar 19 18:15:04 1999

Sellam Ismail wrote:
>
> > That's why eBay operates the way it does, still more or less isolated from
> > the transactions, yet able to bring in lots of dollars because they charge
> > the speculators money regardless of whether they sell their item or not.
> >
> > Does this seem different to you?
>
> Yep, no money involved save for what the buyer wants to give the seller.
> All transactions baed upon personal reputation. No system that
> encourages over-bidding and unreasonable price escalations. Just pure
> open-market-based buying, selling and trading.

I was born yesterday, but it wasn't that late in the day. Ebay *is* an open
market (except in the brain damaged recent decision to unilaterally ban the
sale of firearms.) There is absolutely nothing to force a buyer to bid on
anything there, and the last I heard, browsing was still free. Anyone
sticking their head in the sand and thinking that vintage computers will not
appreciate in value is just fooling themselves. And has been said many
times, most of us do not collect for the investment value, but rather
because there is a sense of preserving history.

Have I left anyone out of being insulted :)?

Personal reputation is generally the only reason I (and a number of other
people I know) get a lot of the things I do given to me as well as leads on
other "good" stuff. The other side of that coin is that I am not free
(ethically) to sell off this stuff for personal profit. BUT, it takes time
to develop a reputation, and what you are suggesting will only work with
people that have known each other for quite a length of time. That, almost
by definition, leaves out a public list.

I don't see any public alternatives to ebay and the like. A number of people
have written comments (not too many on this list) that they have found
things on ebay they have been trying to locate for years. It seems rather
ostrich like not to acknowledge the value of ebay, etc. At least everything
there is open for the scrutiny of all involved.
Received on Fri Mar 19 1999 - 18:15:04 GMT