A Great Find & A Defense of E-Bay

From: Eric Smith <eric_at_brouhaha.com>
Date: Fri Jun 16 17:07:29 2000

John Foust writes:
> Why doesn't eBay realize the great value they have in the historical
> database of sale prices, pictures and descriptions. They're throwing
> away the content that has been created for them for free. They should
> archive the picture.

William Donzelli replies:
> Ebay does not want keep all of the auctions as a publicly accessable
> database, simply because it is not their job. After a few months, they
> can "wash their hands" of the deal, and with it, any disputes that may
> come up afterwards (problems in the car auctions leap to mind). They don't
> want the legal hassles, basically.

They can *sell* access to the archives. As far as problems that come up
after auctions complete, they have potential problems whether they keep
the data or not.
Received on Fri Jun 16 2000 - 17:07:29 BST