reflections on ebay

From: Marvin <marvin_at_rain.org>
Date: Thu May 11 10:16:09 2000

Stu wrote:
>
> I can't agree that Ebay is unfair, assuming everyone is familiar with the
> rules. The auction system itself is prone to manipulation however, and I
> dislike the practice of sniping, as a flurry of bids in the last minute of
> an auction reduces it to little more than a lottery based on "who can click
> on the button in the last possible instant".

Sniping (bidding in the last seconds of the auction) is an on-going argument
that has some strong opinions on both sides. It is most certainly NOT a
lottery or even close. It does take advantage, or perhaps even promote,
ignorant (of the item value) bids. Sniping would be totally worthless if
people would bid what they are *willing* to pay rather than what they are
*hoping* to pay.


> Ebay is also not responsible for the "Industrialisation of nostalgia", it is
> merely a manifestation of it. We have more money or "stored work units" as
> one poster put it, but disproportionately less leisure time with which to
> expend it. Nostalgia is compelling and services like e-bay can re-acquaint
> ourselves with lost youth in a satisfyingly compressed timeframe with the

I have thought about that it a bit. The question arises: is it nostalgia, or
is it the desire to collect the main factor behind what prices an item will
bring? I don't consider usage of older equipment a good reason for higher
prices. An Altairs, etc. do not have a lot of practicaL value by themselves
since "better" machines are available at far less cost with far more
support.
Received on Thu May 11 2000 - 10:16:09 BST