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(...) Actually, no. Ebay is "only a venue" - which is the electronic equivalent of an auction house. They provide a "place" and advertising, whereas any actual auctioning that's done is by the people who buy time. James (URL) (25 years ago, 15-Dec-99, to lugnet.market.auction)
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| | Re: States Go After Online Auctions; $1000 fines
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(...) If I am the auctioneer, and not eBay, then why can't I set the terms of bidding (minimum raises, how the auction ends, etc)? It seems to me that semantically, eBay is the auctioneer. (25 years ago, 15-Dec-99, to lugnet.market.auction)
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| | Re: States Go After Online Auctions; $1000 fines
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(...) ones (...) the (...) Ebay determines the conditions under which you may auction things using their venue (including min bids, increments, etc), but they do not actually auction anything. They sell eSpace to auctioneers. This is (among other (...) (25 years ago, 15-Dec-99, to lugnet.market.auction)
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| | Re: States Go After Online Auctions; $1000 fines
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(...) Sorry to jump in... just putting in $.02-- I'm of the mind to think that legally, it could be arguable that ebay is doing the actual auctioning... I think the best argument is the one previously presented: how is it different from hiring a (...) (25 years ago, 15-Dec-99, to lugnet.market.auction)
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| | Re: States Go After Online Auctions; $1000 fines
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(...) But isn't that analogous to real-world auction houses? They typically aren't actually auctioning anything either, just providing a venue and a caller (didn't want to call them auctioneers to avoid term confusion) in exchange for a percentage (...) (25 years ago, 15-Dec-99, to lugnet.market.auction)
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| | Re: States Go After Online Auctions; $1000 fines
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(...) Hmm. I hadn't been arguing this in a legal sense, actually. Legally I haven't a clue who's doing what. :) My main reason for thinking the auctioneer is the seller is that all eBay provides is an interface between buyers and sellers. Any (...) (25 years ago, 15-Dec-99, to lugnet.market.auction)
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| | Re: States Go After Online Auctions; $1000 fines
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(...) The difference is that eBay (unlike a caller) isn't doing any flogging/promotion for the item. That's my main point. eBay provides an interface, but that's it. My other point (only implied, mostly) is that eBay will (IMHO) promote the idea (...) (25 years ago, 15-Dec-99, to lugnet.market.auction)
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| | Re: States Go After Online Auctions; $1000 fines
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(...) Which is fine until someone somes along and tries to sell something not within the TOS. Then eBay 'censors' the seller & auction by removing it. eBay is trying to walk a fine-line between having no responsibility (a common-carrier auction site (...) (25 years ago, 16-Dec-99, to lugnet.market.auction)
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