E-bay complaints

[Lyle Bickley]

On Monday 04 July 2005 07:11, Joe R. wrote:
>    What is it with all you people that want to wait till the last second to
> bid and then you whine when don't win. Late messages aren't necessarily
> E-bays fault. The InterNET is a network of servers, relays, etc and
> messages can be delayed for many reasons. That's one of the good things
> about E-bay's system, you don't have to be there or even on-line when the
> auction nears it's end, the system will do the bidding for you. I NEVER get
> outbid on things that I really want. I'm sure Al and others can tell you
> the same thing. You lost because you wanted to play stupid games with
> E-bay's system!
>
>    I don't understand why some of ypeople on this list are always
> complaining about E-bay.  Where else do you think you're going to find a
> complete Microprofessor MPF-1 for £16 and never leave your desk? If you
> want bargains you have to go hunt for them or take the occasional one, like
> this one, that show up on E-bay.  If you don't like E-bay's high prices
> then get off the computer and go start looking in the surplus stores, scrap
> yards, flea markets, etc etc etc. There are still PLENTY of bargains to be
> had. I have a LOT of great computers (3x SB-180s, 2x Rubicons, 2x Altairs,
> 10x Intels, 13x AIM-65s, HP-9100, 4x HP-35 Red Dots, 5x HP-1000s, PDP-8,
> etc etc etc etc) and NONE of them came from E-bay. I got ALL of them the
> hard way, by LOOKING!
>
>    my 2 cents worth,
>    Joe

I'm with Joe on this.  I'm a huge fan of eBay - it has enabled me to contact 
and purchase/sell items all over the world.  It is a fair system - and 
certainly equal in "fairness" to any sealed bid auctions that I also 
participate in.

It's also a mystery to me why anyone complains about not getting an Email from 
eBay. I never count on Emails for anything that is time sensitive.  We are 
dealing with a huge network that does not have any SLA (Service Level 
Agreement) for response time or latency guarantees.

There are lots of ways to "play" eBay as a buyer - and if you really want 
something you merely bid the maximum amount you're willing to pay for an item 
- and the only way anyone will beat you is by bidding more - whether by 
"standard" bidding or sniping.

I also practice sniping in addition to "regular" bidding - because it feels 
more to me like a sealed bid auction - and I've worked sealed bid auctions 
for more years than eBay has been around!

Lyle
-- 
Lyle Bickley
Bickley Consulting West Inc.
Mountain View, CA
http://bickleywest.com

"Black holes are where God is dividing by zero"