ebay auctions

[Sam KS2AM]

 ... something we all know but its good to see some of this activity documented by a newspaper :

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,176-2570050,00.html


Sam  /  KS2AM

[n3lrx]

I've suspected this stuff goes on quite a bit. But luckily I haven't been bitten by it. I just bid what I'm willing to pay and no more. If I loose, oh well.. I guess some people just have to have it and will pay astronomical prices for it but then who's fault is it?

You can only sell what people are willing to buy. And as long as someone's willing to pay an outrageous price for those gotta have em's it will go on. Nobody's got a gun to their head telling them to bid top dollar or die. So if the price of something goes higher than they wanted to pay or more than they can afford and they bid higher, it's their fault. They should have left it alone and they've got onone to blame but themselves.

The only way it's going to stop is when people stop supporting it by over bidding. If a seller jacks up the prices by shill bidding, let them eat it. If they have to eat enough sale fees paid to ebay for fake sales eventually they'll quit if they don't go broke first.

[nq5t]

... something we all know but its good to see some of this activity documented by a newspaper :

Frankly, perhaps someone should do an expose on hamfests as well.  I've bought a good bit on ebay, been burned once.  But I've been burned many more times than once at the "friendly" local hamfest, by the "honest" Extra class ops selling their "works perfectly" wares.  Only to find out later that that PS-4 poiwer supply was full of cobwebs, live spiders, and gd only knows what else, and to find the sagging and shorted elements of a 3-500Z inside the pretty box.  And that was one of the lesser incidents.

You pays your money, and you takes your chances.  It doesn't matter where.  It pays to know who you're buying from ... regardless of the venue.

Grant/NQ5t

[W1UJR]

I was speaking with KA1KAQ last night and discovered something that just shocked me.

Recently eBay implemented a change in the bidder structure where bidders identities are now HIDDEN once the auction goes over $200.
You can only see the ID of the winner, the other bidders are simply labeled "Bidder 1", Bidder 2", etc.

So I have no way to know who is bidding against me, if they are a friend or associate of the seller.
Certainly shill bidding has been a problem on eBay, but prior to this change one could at least cross reference a bidder to see what else of the sellers they had bid on, no more.

If this not a pure invitation to shill bidding, I don't know what is.
Indeed this a reversal of some 10 years of eBay tradition, seems to me that open bidding was the norm since its founding.

This is most certainly going to make me think twice about the purchase of any high dollar items from eBay.


73 Bruce 1UJR