Interesting crosspost from the triumphs list, but...
So many pithy quotes describe how I feel here.
"Opportunistic Capitalism is what made this country Great" --Anon.
"The End Justifies the Means" --Machiavelli
or my personal favorite...
"It's not cheating, it's better winning through technology." --Wayne Head
(My former boss)
If there's something on ebay that I really want, I wont hesitate to pull out
the sniper. I have used the online service BidMaster
http://www.bay-town.com/bidmaster with fantastic results. It usually can bid
within the last 15 seconds of an auction. I've successfully beaten other
snipers with it.
I dont see anything sleazy or unethical about using technology to get an
upper hand in what essentially is a game. Ebay is just a game of chicken
played with money. I dont see it being about an auction. You cant go to a
live auction and say "I bid $50 on that item, but only put me down for the
$21.50 that's the next logical increment above the current bid, oh and dont
tell anyone else what my max is."
If the person that complained was willing to bid more than the winning bid,
he should have bid that to begin with. Ebay would have given his bid
precedence. So it's HIS fault for not biddint enough. You cant win the ebay
game by lowballing bids one after the other. You must bid your max to begin
with and let ebay sort out the losers.
If I were a racer, and I used technology to make my car faster, say by
upgrading from a stock cam to a race cam, and the HS4's to DCOE, am I being
sleazy?
What I'd say to that guy is, Life is hard. not happy you got beaten on an
auction? Eat macaroni and cheese for a week and save your pennies and spend
$30 on bidmaster. Otherwise, shut the hell up.
Or, maybe it's monday, I've spent the whole weekend sick in bed, and I'm
just damn cranky.
On Mon, 12 Feb 2001, John Middlesworth wrote:
> The essential difference between an Ebay auction and a live auction is the
> time element. A live auctioneer will be more than happy to keep the bidding
> going as long as hands keep going up in the air. With last-minute bidding
> on Ebay, those with a faster internet connection have an advantage, because
> the screens refresh faster during those final seconds.
>
> Even with that said, it's just sour grapes for this bidder to send you such
> a note. My experience in trying to get computer components on Ebay is that
> the last-minute bidding in that area is taken as a norm; it's as if you're
> not really playing the game unless you bid with only seconds to go.
>
> So just let the guy be bitter. When someone sent me a note chiding me for
> last-minute bidding (sniping, as he called it), it was after HE won the
> auction. What a jerk.
>
> John Middlesworth
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "David A. Templeton" <davidt@opentext.com>
> To: "Spitfire Mailing List" <spitfires@autox.team.net>; "Triumphs@Autox.
> Net" <triumphs@autox.team.net>
> Sent: Sunday, February 11, 2001 6:37 PM
> Subject: Ebay policy question
>
>
> >
> > With all the talk about ebay stuff lately I have a question about "what to
> > do when". In this case I was watching an item for my wife's mustang and
> > another person had a bid in on it, new ebay bidder ( no previous
> history ).
> > I went and bid on it within the last minute and ended up getting the item.
> > Well 10 minutes later I recieved an email from the previous bidder as
> > follows:
> >
> > ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> > Subject: that was cheap
> >
> > talk about sleezy... bidding at the last minute..
> > ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > I am simply going to ignore this email but if more happens to come is
> there
> > a recourse I have with eBay?
> >
> > Thanks
> > David A. Templeton
> > Open Text Corp.
> > Waterloo, ON
> > Canada
> > WebSite: http://trandmustang.homestead.com
> >
> > '74 Triumph SpitSix '66 Ford Mustang (Wife's)'66 Ford Mustang GT '59
> > Triumph TR3a (Project) '99 GMC Safari '95 GMC K2500 Sierra
>
--
________________________________________________________________________
| Chris Thompson ct@cthompson.com |
| 1973 MGB http://cthompson.com/mg/ |
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