25 Jan
2002
25 Jan
'02
6:22 a.m.
Hmmm. I guess then an xBox being sold at a price above
the MSRP is not
'too high' of a price. Or the example of dead UPS's being sold for $50 a
pop. Or a CISC AS/400 being sold for $140k. Sorry, but a lot of the time
things are available for much lower prices outside of eBay than they are
on eBay. Ignorant people go around buying and selling things for much
more than they're worth on eBay.
There are still quite a lot of good deals to be had on there
though, especially items outside of the computer area. As has also
been mentioned on this list, it has also opened up avenues for people
to aquire things that they normally don't see in their area. It's up
to the individual buyer/seller to do the research ahead of time and
know what the item is actually worth and then decide what it is worth
to them individually.
I personally have no problem with bid sniping. I've
done it myself a
number of times. The problem lies in the fact that some people do not
have enough FINANCIAL RESOURCES to be bidding 2x what something is worth
on eBay. As a college student that has just been laid off from my job at
Purdue (!) I know what it's like. Sure, there are a lot of good deals to
be had on eBay, but there are also plenty of bad deals.
I snipe because there's no other way of getting an item at a
reasonable price unless you happen to get lucky. The people I can't
stand are the ones who bid early and then spend the next few days in
a price war with somebody, driving the price to totally rediculous
levels. Of course, the buyers love it. The way I see it, eBay can't
be compared to a normal auction because regular auctions don't allow
open bidding, with the bid available for all to see, for a week or
more. Closed-bid auctions do, but that's a totally different animal.
You've got to be a fool to place a bid on something at the beginning
of a 9 day auction on eBay and think you're going to get it.
Jeff
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