Subject:
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Re: When is "Not an Auction" really an auction?
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.market.theory
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Date:
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Thu, 2 Dec 1999 06:17:54 GMT
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Viewed:
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293 times
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In lugnet.market.theory, Derick Bulkley writes:
> Be warned: serious ranting below.
>
> I'm awfully tired of notices posted to marketplace.buy-sell-trade, stating
> something like:
>
>
> "big Lego for sale.. ...this is NOT an auction... ...highest offer received
> after..." etc.
>
>
> This isn't an auction? It sure is the heck isn't a sale for pete's sake!
>
> In fact, the American Heritage Dictionary defines an auction as follows:
>
> auc·tion (ôkshn) n.
> A public sale in which property or items of merchandise are sold to the
> highest bidder.
>
>
Actually, I just had a even screwier variation on this. I had an email
solicitation that follows (minus identifying details):
My name is Chris. I have set 4555 Frieght Loading Station and 4537 Twin Tank
Transporter, due to finances I have to sell them. If you are interested, the
sets is sealed in the box and I can send you a picture if you would like. I
have an ebay account, if you want to look at it, to give you a glance at my
character, <email address deleted to protect the guilty> it is the same as my
email address. I would like $80.00 for the 4555 and $70.00 for the 4537 and I
will pay for shipping in the US. If interested in ether set please email
back, if not just delete this message and look for my other lego auctions that
I will be having soon on ebay. Or if interested I have other lego sets for
sale.
Thank you for your time Chris
After replying that I was interested and receiving confirmation and where to
send the check, but before I could actually send the check, I then got this
email:
------Original Message------
From: "Chris" <email address deleted to protect the guilty>
To: Steve Martin<martinsa@mail.com>
Sent: December 2, 1999 12:09:05 AM GMT
Subject: Re: Lego 4555 and 4537
Steve
I have had four other offers for the set, so I'm going to sell it to the
highest bidder.
If you are interested for maybe $95 I will probably sell it to the first
email.
Thanks for your time, Chris
To which I then replied:
Chris,
This is a pretty crappy way to behave. If you are going to run an auction,
run it as an auction. Don't send out individual emails to people saying that
you will sell them a certain set for a given price then backout. Feels a lot
like a store doing a bait and switch.
Steve
So, was I over reacting or is this really bad manners on his part? I must
admit I'm pretty pissed about the whole thing.
Steve Martin
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Message has 4 Replies:
 | | Re: When is "Not an Auction" really an auction?
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| (...) I don't think you were over reacting. I'd be pretty pissed if that happened to me too. Let's say I was selling something for $100 (not auctioning) and you agreed to pay me that amount. Then someone else offers me $150. It would be very unfair (...) (25 years ago, 2-Dec-99, to lugnet.market.theory)
| | | Re: When is "Not an Auction" really an auction?
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| (...) I think your reaction was entirely justified. But being one of only a few Chris' active on LUGNET and eBay I resent the potential bad publicity you have given to anyone named Chris and any doubts you may have put in the mind of anyone dealing (...) (25 years ago, 2-Dec-99, to lugnet.market.theory)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | When is "Not an Auction" really an auction?
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| Be warned: serious ranting below. I'm awfully tired of notices posted to marketplace.buy-sell-trade, stating something like: "big Lego for sale.. ...this is NOT an auction... ...highest offer received after..." etc. This isn't an auction? It sure is (...) (25 years ago, 1-Dec-99, to lugnet.market.theory)
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