Ebay Altair

From: Richard Erlacher <richard_at_idcomm.com>
Date: Wed May 10 13:55:43 2000

As usual, sir, you've overstated your case. You clearly demonstrated your
position, namely that you not only don't want to pay anything for what you
want, but you won't pay for the shipping either. In fact, you'd prefer to
be paid to take it, which, I've heard, does happen. In most cases that
would make any of us happy. However, that doesn't apply to every situation.

You call prices ridiculous, when, had you passed first semester economics,
you'd know that it only takes one person to set a price higher than your
own. The market sets the price. If the supply is small and the demand is
great, the price may be higher than you want to pay. That's the nature of
capitalism. Take into consideration that not everyone agrees with your
opinion about this, and not everyone agrees with your position on many other
things. That's not vindictiveness, it's LIFE! The end result is that you
sometimes have to pay more than you want to pay for something you really do
want. You just have to want it more than you want the money. It is, after
all, a trade. If the price reflects the convenience of having it NOW,
perhaps you can save a few bucks by waiting for the next one to come along.

The market for old computers is like the market for anything else. If you
have lots of money and no food, you happily give up some money for some
food. If you have SOME food, but perhaps not what you'd like today, you
have to decide how much of your money you're willing to pay for a given item
of food. If you're in the habit of paying $1 for a hamburger, say, and
someone else wants bo buy them all for $1.25, YOU may dislke that, but the
vendor and the other buyer won't have that problem. Perhaps if you'd
ordered your burger half an hour sooner you'd have gotten one for $1.

Once the market, in the form of a bidder, says an item is worth more than
you're willing to pay, the decision of whether you'll pay your price is out
of your hands. Someone else has set the price. You can choose to raise
yours, but there's a risk involved. That risk doesn't apply if you're hard
over on your price. Sometimes it's wise to take that positon, but if you're
bidding for something you need, as opposed to something you might want, the
price you're willing to pay might be higher. What's more, if your
disposable income is high enough, perhaps a couple of orders of magnitude
higher than what you have now, your price might be higher as well.

It makes no sense to say a price is "too high" if you don't have as much
money as another buyer, or if you don't have as great a "need" for the
article on which you're bidding.

Dick

----- Original Message -----
From: foo <foo_at_siconic.com>
To: <classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org>
Sent: Wednesday, May 10, 2000 8:48 AM
Subject: Re: Ebay Altair


> On Wed, 10 May 2000, John Wilson wrote:
>
> > I seriously think eBay is likely to trigger some kind of 12-step program
> > for auction junkies. Really, it's a bit like gambling, people get
really

<snip>

> A point well worth quoting. This is exactly what I have said in the past
> and it is correct.
>
> eBay is a sickness. Those who continue to defend the prices paid for
> items bought from eBay are only trying to justify in their own minds the
> fact that they are spending way too much money on things they really
> should not be.
>
> Of course I will be attacked for saying all this, but then addicts do get
> bolshie when confronted with the reality of the situation.
>
> :)
>
> Sellam
>
Received on Wed May 10 2000 - 13:55:43 BST