11 May
2000
11 May
'00
10:16 a.m.
Stu wrote:
I can't agree that Ebay is unfair, assuming everyone is familiar with the
rules. The auction system itself is prone to manipulation however, and I
dislike the practice of sniping, as a flurry of bids in the last minute of
an auction reduces it to little more than a lottery based on "who can click
on the button in the last possible instant".
Sniping (bidding in the last seconds of the auction) is an on-going argument
that has some strong opinions on both sides. It is most certainly NOT a
lottery or even close. It does take advantage, or perhaps even promote,
ignorant (of the item value) bids. Sniping would be totally worthless if
people would bid what they are *willing* to pay rather than what they are
*hoping* to pay.
Ebay is also not responsible for the
"Industrialisation of nostalgia", it is
merely a manifestation of it. We have more money or "stored work units" as
one poster put it, but disproportionately less leisure time with which to
expend it. Nostalgia is compelling and services like e-bay can re-acquaint
ourselves with lost youth in a satisfyingly compressed timeframe with the
I have thought about that it a bit. The question arises: is it nostalgia, or
is it the desire to collect the main factor behind what prices an item will
bring? I don't consider usage of older equipment a good reason for higher
prices. An Altairs, etc. do not have a lot of practicaL value by themselves
since "better" machines are available at far less cost with far more
support.