Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/03/03
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]> on 3/3/01 9:28 pm, ray tai at razerx@netvigator.com wrote: > > > The seller is "Macklam" from Montreal. So he put it up on ebay the same day > > for a quick profit. I wonder if he even has the lens since there are no > > pics. So in the end another LUG'er made out. > > Hello Ray, > > Yes, I do know "Macklam", I have done business with him in the past. He is > a fellow LUGger. D--n... This incidence too leaves me a bad taste in my mouth. It's true that we are really just a collection of enthusiasts who like Leica gear, and we really have no obligation whatsoever to each other. However, having been a member for 3 years, and having met a couple of dozens of LUGgers over time, I do feel that I want to treat members as my friends. I am also a member of other special-interest mailing lists, from tandem cycling to Aleksandr Skryabin. These mailing lists allowed me to meet those who share the same interest as I do, and I have met some of my best friends through these channels. These are friends I would not have met otherwise, and really enriched my life by being able to share my peculiar interests. I have financially benefitted from participating in these mailing lists. I have been offered competitive prices for goods that I wanted, and respected that the seller wanted to pass them onto someone who would appreciate them. There have been times that I ended up not liking the stuff, so I have then offered them for sale at a later date. When the things were bought from a fellow mailing list member, I always offer it back to members of the list. When there was no taker, I sell them through other channels, including eBay. There were times I made substantial profit, while I've taken small losses too. I've found this incidence of buying something from a member, then putting it on a public auction immediately to be in bad taste. The spirit of this mailing list always has been that we all have something to share so that we can "help" those who need a little push, or be awed by the experience of some of the most established photographers around. I thank members like Jim, Tina, Ted, Sal, Doug and Kyle for making photography so interesting. I thank members like Marc, Joseph, Tom and Erwin for making Leica gear so interesting. There is no way that I contributed more to the community that I received, but I was really, really disappointed to see someone taking advantage of another in such a public manner. Something good was spoiled. In this free market, the price of goods is only as high as someone is willing to pay for it. "Macklem" discovered a price discrepency between two markets: LUG and eBay. While it is natural for traders to take action when there is an arbitrage opportunity, but I think it should stay out of here.