6 Apr
2005
6 Apr
'05
10:45 a.m.
I maintain that Ebay does reflect the state of the market subject to a
couple of limitations.
1) Ebay is a *retail* venue although bargains can be had.
2) Looking at *only* the final bid price to determine value is stupid!
My general rule of thumb is to go back to the third highest bidder as
that eliminates the "game players" who bid with the "Oh yea, take
this"
mentality.
For myself, unless something is offered at substantially less that what
I
think it is worth, I don't bid. Not regularly checking ebay now helps
with
this approach :).
A while ago I was discussing EBay-like prices with
people (for old
computer stuff). Their argument was that EBay prices reflect the true
state of the market and the true worth of classic computer items.
I can see their side of it I suppose; I was just amazed that - coming
from a buying point of view - they just didn't believe that a world
existed outside of EBay. Which is fine by me if they want to keep on
paying EBay prices for things (whether they believe they're being ripped
off or not) - I'll just carry on using my brain and getting hold of
things via other routes.