sellers market

From: Richard Erlacher <edick_at_idcomm.com>
Date: Fri Mar 19 20:00:22 1999

While it's true that ensuring that no money changes hands except between
buyer and seller will remove the incentive on the part of the site owner to
support needless price escalation, that mechanism won't be effective to
encourage sane pricing unless there's a powerful mechanism, probably one
stronger or at least swifter than the legal system, to ensure that the
bidder and seller are held to their obligations.

My problem with eBay is not that the prices are unreasonable, though I've
felt they are. My problem is with the 70% advertised successful completion
rate of transactions resulting from completed auctions. This means that
only seven of ten auctions in which a bidder offers an amount equal to or in
excess of the buyer's demand, result in a transfer of funds for the
merchandise at auction. This doesn't include those auctions which result in
the buyer receiving a brick, and may (?) not include cases wherein the
seller receives a bogus check. It only considers those cases in which one
of the parties backs out.

Unfortunately, I don't see a reasonable method which can be used to fix this
problem. The free market says that an item is worth what someone will pay
for it. How can one depend on the likes of eBay to set the price when there
is no mechanism to bind the parties to their commitment to the agreed-upon
transaction? How can we improve on it? What could we do if we had a site
dedicated to the exchange of computer antiquities and oddities, to prevent
falsely imputed prices resulting from transactions, faked in order to make
record of prices at which commodities can not reasonably be traded?

Before we become too critical of eBay, we should, I think, have a positive
construct which addresses their shortcomings. EBay is, I believe, a good
idea, implemented as well as can be, though perhaps not, which, like our
form of government, is by no means perfect, yet is superior to whatever else
is available.

Dick
-----Original Message-----
From: Marvin <marvin_at_rain.org>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp_at_u.washington.edu>
Date: Friday, March 19, 1999 5:20 PM
Subject: Re: sellers market


>
>
>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 based 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 - 20:00:22 GMT