Snipe S/W?

From: Richard Erlacher <edick_at_idcomm.com>
Date: Thu Dec 21 09:36:44 2000

I'm often tempted to "jump" Sellam's arguments just because HE's the one who
made them, but you have to allow for the fact that "where you sit determines
what you see." He's in a different situation than most of us, and in fact
I'm in a different situation than most of us as well. He wants to complete
a really broad selection of classic computers and computer-related
hardware/software. Some parts of what he wants are pretty rare, and for his
purposes, he really MUST have them. Most of the rest of us are pretty
narrow in our respective specialties. He's not.

Now I can see how it p*sses him off when he sees THE one item he's needing
to make a section of his collection work a certain way go for about $2k more
than he's prepared to pay, particularly when he didn't buy it for $50
because he thought that was a mite high.

The fact is, there are many different points of view out there among the
general public, some of which might be quite inconprehensible to those of us
who are trying to build a relatively homogeneous collection on a budget
somewhat less than the national debt. The priorities of those building an
"eclectic" collection might even be lost on those with a homogeneous one.
If you're building a collection of Cromemco S-100 systems, you might be
willing to pay quite a bit for that last really rare item in the collection.
If you've got ten such items to collect, as Sellam certainly has, the price
is a MAJOR issue, and the fact that the one rarity needed to complete one
segment of his collection is currently available is, perhaps, not as
important as that fact that paying too much for one such item may make it
difficult to pay what's reasonable for another.

My own situation is that I've got very little that I want, yet have quite a
bit of "stuff" that should be of interest to someone else, and I'm
interested not only in getting each item to a "good home" where it will be
used and not just grist for the sell-and-trade mill, I'm also interested in
getting the best price or trade for what I'm offering. eBay hasn't done
much for me, but I have, essentially, gotten pretty much what I paid, 20
years ago, for the more uncommon items. A couple of times that hasn't
worked out so favorably. Since I'm not a buyer, I can't object to high
prices. Consequently, I don't agree with Sellam's complaints that eBay
prices wind up too high. It certainly hasn't worked that way for me.

Dick

----- Original Message -----
From: "Rich Lafferty" <rich_at_alcor.concordia.ca>
To: <classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org>
Sent: Thursday, December 21, 2000 12:50 AM
Subject: Re: Snipe S/W?


> On Wed, Dec 20, 2000 at 10:21:29PM -0800, Sellam Ismail (foo_at_siconic.com)
wrote:
> >
> > > I have no idea if eBay selected Vickrey's model, or duplicated it by
> > > accident, but AFAICT the only difference between theirs and his is
that
> > > with eBay, the winner pays one bid increment above the runner up's
bid,
> > > instead of exactly the lower bid.
> >
> > What are you talking about? Wouldn't "one bid increment above the
runner
> > up's bid" just mean the high bid??? And again, they did not use
Vickrey's
> > method.
>
> No. If we're both bidding on an auction, I bid $1000, and you bid $30,
> I'll end up paying about $31, if the minimum bid increment is $1.
>
> > > Is this O/T, or what?
>
> Hrm, I didn't respond to this part in the first bit of the
> message. No, I think strategies to win auctions is pretty on-topic on
> this list.
>
> > Always is, and obnoxious to boot.
>
> Agreed, you are. Painfully and consistently so. I've never seen
> someone bring me so close to unsubscribing so often. Maybe it's just
> time for a killfile. If only mail had long References: threads.
>
> > I motion for the creation of the > "!_at_%^$# eBay Gripe Mailing List"
> > and that any message coming to CC that > has "eBay" (case insensitive)
> > within the header or body will be > automatically routed to that list.
> > Then people who actually care to wade > through all this eBay bullshit
> > could subscribe to that list.
> >
> > Can I get a second?
>
> I'd prefer that "bullshit" that's relevant to buying and selling
> classic computers to much of that which spews forth from you.
>
> I'd also prefer you get off your high horse and realize that there are
> other people on the list than you, despite what you'd *prefer* to
> think.
>
> -Rich
>
> --
> ------------------------------ Rich Lafferty ---------------------------
> Sysadmin/Programmer, Instructional and Information Technology Services
> Concordia University, Montreal, QC (514) 848-7625
> ------------------------- rich_at_alcor.concordia.ca ----------------------
>
>
Received on Thu Dec 21 2000 - 09:36:44 GMT