Subject:
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Re: CFD: e-bay (aka ranting and raving)
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Tue, 9 Feb 1999 18:37:22 GMT
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Viewed:
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372 times
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Yes, eBay's style of auctioning is perceived as unfair by many people
(including me). Many other people don't see it as unfair. The bottom
line seems to be that you can either play by eBay's rules, possibly
hoping for something better; or you can not use eBay.
Yahoo's auction-site has a time-delay rule: the auction doesn't close
until there has been no bid for 5 minutes. This turns the bid into
something more like a traditional RL/F2F auction, where you've got to be
online to bid, but everyone will have a chance to make their high-bid.
I think you'd be surprised at the number of AFOL's who are not
RTL-aware. But what may not be so surprising is that many of the
sellers on eBay (definitely not all of them) are not AFOL. They are
simply sellers of product (sometimes more like scalpers of product).
This has been discussed (and flamed about) at great length. Some
interesting points, some not so interesting. Lots of stuff to be found
at deja-news.
Generally, I'd prefer to buy, sell and trade through RTL and lugnet.
Steve
On Tue, 9 Feb 1999 17:20:07 GMT, "James Brown"
<galliard@shades-of-night.com> wrote:
> Ok, is it just me, or does the e-bay style of auction actually encourage
> "unfair"(1) bidding practises?
>
> On about 2/3 of the auctions I've participated in, or followed, there has been
> a similar flow to the bids. Several people bid on it in the first day or so
> (sometimes more, sometimes less, depending on how popular it is), it reaches a
> fairly reasonable price, and sits there, uncontested, until 4-6 hours before
> the auction ends. Several people bid on it in the last few hours, and in some
> cases, the last few minutes. This sometimes pushes the price beyond
> reasonable(2), but more often, the 'high bidder' is over-turned on his high bid
> by the absolute minimum necessary, before they have a chance to react. One
> (probably extreme) case saw an item jump from 4 bids to 11 bids in the last
> hour, all from only 1 bidder.
>
> I can understand, from e-bay's point of view, why they run it like this, but
> (to be blunt) why would anyone use it? As far as I can tell, the only
> advantage to using e-bay, either as a buyer, or a seller, is the exposure. (for
> sellers, a greater market, for buyers, greater diversity)
> As a buyer, I have been frustrated on more than one occaision, by the bidding
> practises described above, while refusing to sink to the same level (3), and I
> just can't see the point as a seller. If you're not in it for the best profit,
> odds are you aren't trying to sell it over the internet(4), and e-bay doesn't
> give you the best chance for profit - a once, twice, sold format does that.
> As to the exposure, you're not going to catch very many AFOL's that aren't
> aware of RTL & Lugnet - if you're net-aware and an AFOL, they're both pretty
> hard to not notice - so why not just advertise there?
>
> All-in-all, e-bay (to me, at least) seems aimed solidly at the marks. "Hey, I
> know, why don't we set up a service on the internet to do something people are
> fully capable of doing themselves, if they bother to work a little? We can
> charge people a fee of some kind to use our service, we'll design it in such a
> way that it always seems like a bargain, but it will really just add an
> unnecessary layer into transactions where we can skim a small amount, and make
> a huge profit! Even better, we'll aim it at the american public, because
> they're the market with the largest percentage of non-professionals on the
> 'net, and thats the kind of people who will fall for this stuff!"
>
> Ok, I got a little sarcastic towards the end there, but my point still stands.
> All e-bay does (especially in the Lego community) is add an extra layer where
> an outsider pulls money out, and provide an interface for speculators to get at
> us.
>
> My call - boycott e-bay! (unless, of course, you see that really good
> deal...)(5)
>
> 1: Mu opinion, of course, but one I suspect many here share.
>
> 2: reasonable being entirely subjective, of course, but I'm basing my idea of
> reasonable on RTL and Lugnet auctions whenever possible
>
> 3: maybe that's my problem: too @#$@# moral for my own good. :)
>
> 4: feel free to flame - it'll give me an excuse to justify my off-hand comment
>
> 5: sarcasm or hypocrisy - you decide ;)
>
>
> James
> http://www.shades-of-night.com/lego/
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