eBay vrs42?

From: William Donzelli <aw288_at_osfn.org>
Date: Sat Feb 12 22:28:53 2005

> If the only other people involved were bidders, I'd agree. But the seller
> and eBay are also stakeholders.
>
> I think it is important to treat sellers of classic equipment well -- we
> want there to be more of them, not less.

Well said. I think I am the only professional dealer on this list (in the
"find crud in basemenst and warehouses and resell it" way, although to be
fair, classic computers are only a small portion of my sales), so I might
be biased.

Bidders colluding is unethical, but is not nearly as bad as shilling or
some of the other shenanigans that can happen in an auction, live or
otherwise. It does indeed hurt the seller and the auction house. The
problem is that it is very difficult to detect - impossible, basically,
unless...

About two weeks ago, I did catch someone colluding on an auction of mine
(an Army radio part, incidently). Actually, he told be that he did not bid
so he could let a buddy get it. It sold pretty darn cheap - about half
what I wanted, and below street price. Bad move on his part, as I would
have never known. So what am I to do?

Well, the two colluders won't be getting any favors from me any time
soon. A shame, since they are both reasonably constant customers.

It should not shock anyone on this list (but maybe it will) - but the best
thing you can do to get cool things for your collection is to get on a
dealer's (or scrapmans's) good side. Almost any decent dealer - computers,
antiques, radios, whatever - does a pretty good chunk of business selling
the better items directly to people they know as good customers,
completely outside Ebay.

See, Vince is correct. Treat us dealers right and you shall eventually
reap the rewards. Vince just gained points, but those in favor of
collusion lost a few!

So what is this rant about? Basically, collude if you must, but you just
might get bit in the ass later - that last rare piece for your PDP-8
restoration could have been yours, but...

William Donzelli
aw288_at_osfn.org
Received on Sat Feb 12 2005 - 22:28:53 GMT