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In lugnet.market.services, Matthew Gerber writes:
> I've wanted to share this story since I first started posting to LUGNET, but
> couldn't find the information to share until doing some digging around the
> house on other LEGO related business this evening.
>
> This story is a warning to my LUGNET friends about an extremely unscrupulous
> E-Bay seller
Matt,
Wow!
You have single-handedly, though perhaps unknowingly, indicted all of
capitalism.
For the trouble of extending Lego Shop @ Homes reach and advertising, for
taking on the risk of selling at a loss, for bringing to market something
that is in demand, for selling to you an item that you wanted at a price
that you found acceptable, you have cursed out this seller, attacked him for
lackign scruples, and then labeled him a jerk.
The practice that you refer to in your diatribe is commonly known as drop
shipping, that is, having an item sent directly to a customer from a
participant further up the distribution chain. In the end this increases
market efficiency by lowering shipping costs, reducing the need to finance
an inventory, remove the need for all kinds of overhead and make better
utilization of the packing and shipping efficiencies of a large organization
like S@H.
Brokers do this all the time, the value added being the information that
they provide. Now, I know that many on the web expect all information to
come to them for free (minus the cost of their computer, their connection to
the web, the energy required to run their machines and the value of the time
it takes to find information), but when things are free you get what you
pay for. When analyzing and/or critiquing that last sentence, be sure any
counter examples truly are "free", and are not just examples of times where
other users bear the true costs of a service.
Your broker could have instead ordered the item himself, waited to receive
it, then listed it on ebay at a higher price, as would be necessitated to
cover the additional shipping.
Or, he could just have chucked this all and not done any of this. Had he
taken this path you might not even know about the existence of the very set
whose existence (and availability) made you happy, minus a litters buyer's
remorse.
It might be time you read up on your philosophy and your economics a bit. I
recommend a nice introduction to capitalism, like
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0451147952
(Heck, I’ll even sell you well read copy, at a good price)
By your own account you did not bother to ask questions before bidding.
You should ask yourself who you are truly mad with over this transaction
It may have been rude for the seller to not respond to your post auction
questions, or it may be that he simply sends out a canned email to every
bidder, figuring that the time for questions had passed.
You have learned a lesson on the utility of shopping around, the value of
information, the benefit of checking your premises before purchasing, and on
the disappointment that can happen when you contract while not fully being
informed about the nature of the transaction at hand.
By my book, you learned this lesson without having to spend much in the way
of tuition.
(What next, complaining that the cost of tuition is too high on the basis
that all your teachers ever do is pass on knowledge learned by others in the
first place?)
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Message has 1 Reply:
Message is in Reply To:
 | | My worst E-Bay/LEGO Experience-A Story, A Warning
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| I've wanted to share this story since I first started posting to LUGNET, but couldn't find the information to share until doing some digging around the house on other LEGO related business this evening. This story is a warning to my LUGNET friends (...) (23 years ago, 11-Jul-01, to lugnet.market.services)
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