eBay vrs42?

From: William Donzelli <aw288_at_osfn.org>
Date: Sat Feb 12 22:40:54 2005

> But now that I think about it more, I'm even more convinced that not
> only is it NOT like shill bidding, but that there is a different
> seller behavior identical to bidder cooperation. It happens all
> the time on eBay, and I don't see anyone complaining that it's
> unfair.
>
> When there are items that are relatively rare, and several sellers
> have them, it is common for the sellers to arrange informally
> amongst themselves to not list them simultaneously, as that would
> drive down the prices. When they're listed one-by-one, bidders
> can't be sure that there are more available, so they're willing
> to bid higher.

For the record, as a professional Ebay seller, I have heard of this
happening exactly once. The selling community just is not
organized. Frankly, we don't have time to do this for relatively rare
items (and if they are "relatively rare", wouldn't it be odd that a bunch
of sellers all had these things at the same time, ready for market?), and
zero time for commodity items.

What you are probably seeing are sellers volutarily holding back items,
because they see identical ones already up on auctions. No communication
happens, nor is it needed. If I have a vintage cucumber straightener ready
to sell, but I see that someone else just put up an identical one, I am
just not going to sell mine just yet. Just common sense.

What you also might be seeing is the rather common "coming out of the
woodwork" effect. A big sale for an item (rare or not), draws many more
out and up for auction in the following week. Sometimes they are
staggered, sometimes not.

So, no, there is no seller conspiracy.

William Donzelli
aw288_at_osfn.org
Received on Sat Feb 12 2005 - 22:40:54 GMT