Re: [Leica] Re: typical E-bay bad deal

["Joe Codispoti" <joecodi@thegrid.net>]

Javier,

eBay does charge "auctioneer" fees in addition to insertion fees. Check the
following URL

http://pages.ebay.com/aw/agreement-fees.html

I agree that at times eBay prices are outrageous, but it is a good source
for hard to find items.
The individuals who push prices up are the novices who get caught-up in the
desire to *win* sometimes bidding above the new price.

I have placed some of my own items at auction and can attest to the fact
that often expensive cameras or accessories do not fetch nearly what they
are worth unless, of course, they happen to be Leica.

Joseph Codispoti



- ----- Original Message -----
From: Javier Perez <japho@cunyvm.cuny.edu>
To: <leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us>
Sent: Tuesday, June 08, 1999 7:10 PM
Subject: [Leica] Re: typical E-bay bad deal


> Hi
> First of all let me pre-empt any critcisms about being off topic
> by saying that Leica owners as well as owners of just about anything
> interesting enough to be worth hanging on to are the prime targets of
> E-bay
> Therefore this is dead on topic as it affects all of us.
>
> Secondly, let me say that I don't really consider myself to be a leica
> collector
> but rather a selfless sort who has devoted his adult life to
> protrtecting these
> poor creatures (preferrably mint) from the hands of greedy
> sopeculators.....
> Yeah that's me.
>
> Here goes
>
> The only thing E-bay does is, inflate markets. Proof of which is that on
>
> several occasion I have been quoted E-bay prices afer placing WTB ads on
> news groups
> These are of course way off-base prices.
>
> In a real auction the auctioneer receives a percentage of the money the
> item sold for
> You can kick up the price by having someone else bid on your item but
> it'll cost ya
> every time.
>
> With E-bay on the other hand you can place an item, put in the high bid
> under
> another e-mail or a friend's e-mail and falsely jack up the selling
> price. Then, a few weeks later
> you place the item for auction under yet another e-mail name and repeat
> the process
> until some sucker bites. Because the auctioneer never knows if the
> transaction
> took place and because there is no auctioneer's fee there is no limit to
> how much you
> can inflate the value of an item Thus: price fixing
>
> In a real auction the bidders bid rationally, the idea being that you
> are supposed to save money
> rather than spend more. At E-bay, the I must have it type outnumber
> serious collectors or investors.
> The last 5 minutes turn into a feeding frenzy. and the price skyrockets.
> This occurs even in an honest
> e-bay auction.
>
> But what really bugs me about E-bay is the idea of helping someone else
> make money without having
> anything to show for it. The only time I paticipated in an auction I was
> outbid but I ended up helping
> some jerk add 50 bucks to the price of his tuner. The only reason I bid
> on it was because I had bought
> stuff from him before. After that I never bought anything from him
> again.
>
> Usually I get responses from the few defenders of e-bay (sellers of
> course) that revolve around free
> market arguments. I'm not calling for anything to outlawed or regulated
> to death. But I would like to see
> consumers to smarten up and recognize a scam when they see it. Then the
> racket will
>
> Lastly lets remember that the traditional auction was devised long
> before IT came around and the ratio of
> seller to bidders was maybe 1/a few hundred and governed largely by
> proximity to the auction house. Thus
> the prospect of getting a competitive price on an item was very good.
> Today at E-bay that item could well
> be in the 1/million on a hot item. What does that say for competitive
> pricing.
>
> My apologies to the honest sellers who take part in E-bay. You are
> unwittingly taking part in a scam in that
> you help inflate markets disprportionately..
>
> I posted several articles in rec.audio.* a while back and started a
> rukus for a few days. I you want to see it
> goto www.dejanews and search for my e-mail address and auction and scam
> in the old archive. Lets start
> spreading the anti-auction gospel, lest we crucify opur wallets.
>
> Seriously, do you want to see the 4000 dollar chrome M4 in a couple of
> years????
>
>
>
> See Ya
> Javier
>
>
>
>
>
> Andrew Nemeth wrote:
>
> > >Hmm....
> > >Reserve of over 1500 bucks!
> > >Sounds like the typical E-bay bad deal
> > >bout to get worse.
> > >How I hate E-bay
> >
> > How I agree!  No matter how much I read to the contrary,
> > I can't help thinking that ebay is rigged.
> >
> > The bidding always mysteriously jumps 100% 5 minutes
> > before close, so as to force interested parties to
> > cough up 2x as much as they were prepared to in order
> > to get the item they want.
> >
> > Man...  Ebay, Hotmail... net-rubbish!
> >
> > Regds,
> >
> > Andrew N.
> > www.nemeng.com
>
>