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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Wed, 10 Feb 1999 14:43:51 GMT
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Viewed:
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470 times
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Yes James,
You are a hypocrit (not a word I normally need to spell). I here nothing
good about ebay and have never looked at the site and your comment (5)
doesn't help to get rid of ebay. The best thing we can all do is: when
people post a message to rtl advertising the fact that they have put an
item on ebay rather than rtl, we tell them that we are very interested
in obtaining this item but unfortunately will not have anything to do
with ebay. Making them a direct offer at the same time usually
frustrates the hell out of them.
Mark H.
James Brown 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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Message has 2 Replies:
 | | Re: CFD: e-bay (aka ranting and raving)
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| (...) I certainly understand your point of view, but to me, the "big evil" of e-bay is not buying from it, but selling to it. (I go into more detail on other posts - I'll spare people yet another explanation. For now. :) ) Selling on e-bay sends (...) (26 years ago, 10-Feb-99, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
| | | Re: CFD: e-bay (aka ranting and raving)
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| (...) Speaking as someone who has sold stuff in many places (RTL, Lugnet, Yahoo!, eBay, my own websites, etc) it wouldn't frustrate the hell out of me. Don't make the assumption that the only people selling on eBay are outsiders that the rest of our (...) (26 years ago, 11-Feb-99, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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