31 Aug
2004
31 Aug
'04
5:42 a.m.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Gary Hildebrand" <ghldbrd(a)ccp.com>
To: "Classic Computers" <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org>
Sent: Tuesday, August 31, 2004 12:30 PM
Subject: re: eBay madness
Yes, notice the number of bids. Somebody thinks
he's got something
higly desireable, but doesn't.
I've found e-Bay, or ePay, or eGreed to be quite inflationary to sane
pricing thanks to too many people with too much time and money on their
hands. That coupled with 'sniping', makes eBay to me a last resort, if
I can't find something elsewhere.
The feeding frenzy at the end, or sniping, is now done by software that
submit your bid with seconds to spare, eliminating counter bids. People
are using computers to beat the eBay computers.
My friend suggested that the incremental bidding be changed to whatever
the MAXIMUM bid is placed. If the item is at $10 and you place a bid
for $100, the bid would then become $100, not $11.00. That would
eliminate a lot of counter bidding, and shills that bid up just to feel
out your maximum bid. Personally I think keeping the bidding secret
until the auction is over, would keep honest people honest. No one
scheme would be fair to everyone though.
I'll stick to swap meets, and other face-to-face deals, as I'll have
less competition. Everything is worthless until someone wants it and
puts some dinero down to prove it. I don't need some rich kid playing
games behind me when I'm dealing with someone one-on-one.
On the other side of the coin, it is hilariously laughable to see what
some people pay for very common items. Caveat Emptor.
Gary Hildebrand
St. Joseph, MO
If you take the sniping out of the auction prices will not go down, they
will go up. Even with sniping if you put a proxy bid in for the maximum you
are willing to pay you can still win. Auctions are great for hyped up
bidding wars between people with allot of cash that don't like to lose. Face
to face deals are nice (for the buyer) when the seller is clueless and the
buyer knows what he is looking at (lowballing the price). Some people prefer
to buy from individuals and then prefer to sell on eBay for profit. When
you have something on ebay that is rare and desirable or even common you
will get a decent price for it on most days. Something common to you is not
common to other people, especially when location is taken into account. I
had to wait for quite a while to get an Amiga 1200 at a price I wanted to
spend here in the US, in the UK they are given away and are as common as
dirt (and this stuff was made here in PA). It takes time to build
relationships with people who dispose of equipment, to get on
mailinglists/swaplists, and to get the word out you collect old computers.
Some people don't want to spend the time and effort to do these things so
they pay more for the opportunity to bid on eBay without having to leave the
comfort of their house.
I have found some great deals on eBay and I have also bid on countless
auctions that I have lost out to snipers, its just part of the game. If you
can wait a while to add things to your collection at the prices you want to
spend eBay is still the best place to look for oddball things that got
scrapped long ago.
The equipment I buy gets used, software that's shrink-wrapped gets opened.
People who pay $10,000 or more for an Apple I board that they put in a glass
case on the wall are odd to me.