Greedy E-bay idiots!

From: John Foust <jfoust_at_threedee.com>
Date: Mon Feb 23 07:37:10 2004

At 10:23 PM 2/5/2004, Teo Zenios wrote:
>He might have no idea what he has, but he knows you will pony up $2,500 for
>it so maybe $4,000 might be reasonable to somebody else. You might call him
>greedy, but I don't see why he would be stupid? eBay has been around for
>quite a few years and more people are listing items (and selling them) now
>then every year before so somebody is making some cash (besides UPS, USPS,
>and Fedex anyway).

eBay's short-term auction model works well for all parties if
the items sell quickly. They're missing an opportunity for items
that don't sell quickly, but that people want to sell.

Based on my proven inability to come up with an idea that someone
else isn't already milking, there must be an auction site like that.

It would be more like Sanford & Son - a digital junkyard - than an
auction house. Give an easy Access / SQL / XML interface for uploading,
and let the parts warehouses list what they have. Let the items sit
there until sold, and only then would I pay the listing fee. Encourage
junkyards of whatever type to list their inventory and keep it current.
Heavens, let me search reliably by barcode or parts number.

Maybe this isn't even a centralized service like eBay. Maybe it's a
distributed service, spidering a database that my web site advertises.
Maybe this is the pot of gold pitched by all the XML evangelists.

You ask who'd pay stupid amounts for a manual or some other small item?
Well, I have. If I'm in a pinch, and the client is footing the bill,
I've paid the stupid price for all sorts of replacement items.
Recent stupid purchases: 6 gig IDE drives for $100+ because I needed
the exact model to attempt a brain-transplant to rescue the data.

Another reason for the stupid fixed price shipping model: many of
these operations have employees. They're not just one person sitting
at home selling items in their spare time. Selling one item does
have a fixed cost in time and trouble.

Then there's my maxim regarding any mail order sales: The cost
of goods should be covered by the shipping and handling charge.
All else is gravy. :-)

- John
Received on Mon Feb 23 2004 - 07:37:10 GMT