On Sat, 20 Mar 1999, Richard Erlacher wrote:
> Sam objects to "idiots" bidding against presumably rational people and
> allowing the prices to escalate (he believes) due to the auction atmosphere
> presented by eBay. I don't happen to agree with him. The people who sell
> their good at auction wish for a ridiculously hign price. They don't often
Of course they wish for a ridiculously high price. And my argument, which
you did not address, is that ebay's auction mechanism encourages
such ridiculously high prices.
> It's true, that eBay seeks to benefit by this overall-inane-if-not-insane
> auction environment, simply because their fee is tied to the final bid
> offered. Sam objects to this, while I object to the high precentage of
And thus it is in ebay's best interest to put mechanisms in place which
encourage over-bidding for an item. In the end they will collect the
most revenues from the auction!
> A few days ago, I was visiting Best Buy, which is a common source of
> computer hardware at reasonable prices. I declined to pay $180 for a 10GB
> hard disk because I though the price was a mite high. That was not the only
> reason, but it was a factor. Twenty years ago, I paid $1500 for a 5MB
> Winchester drive. Lots of other people thought the price was a mite high,
> but I paid the price, believing that I needed the drive more than I needed
> the $1500. Does that make me an idiot? Does that make all the people who
> didn't buy the things twenty years ago fools? I think not.
Well, who really NEEDS an Altair 8800?
> All this is an allusion to the fact that it's called a "free" market. I
> guess that means that there's no restriction against fools and idiots.
Its a free market sure, but the prices that come out of ebay auctions are
by no measure "fair market value".
Sellam Alternate e-mail: dastar_at_siconic.com
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Received on Sat Mar 20 1999 - 12:01:17 GMT