posted on November 21, 2000 10:41:51 AM
Wow, I was just lighting the votive candles in front of my household shrine to Meg & Pierre when I read that vile article. Say It's not's so!
You mean ebay has shill bidders, sham sellers, fake IDs,..... Oh dear... I need a soothing stroll in the ebay Park..
To others viewing this thread please ignore the article and return to the worship of ebay.
(ps thanks,reamond, for the tip)
posted on November 21, 2000 10:55:26 AM
"To be fair, most people who use eBay and similar sites feel they have had positive experiences, and those satisfied users include me. That's partly because scam activity is clearly not the rule."
Yes, but you never read articles about those deals. People get off reading about nasties,
it's human nature to stop & watch a car wreck.
posted on November 21, 2000 11:10:11 AM
That was an interesting read! Kinda puts it all in a nutshell for a new eBay user.
Freedman's warnings seem to paint potential bidders into a corner though when it comes to the issue of when to place your bid. He warns against placing an early proxy because of the potential for getting shilled up. But he says sniping "shortchanges sellers," which would indicate he thinks that it's somehow unethical. Certainly that debate has been hashed and re-hashed here on the boards. It kind of annoys me though that he lumps sniping in with other behaviors that are clearly against the rules. Whether you think it's "ethical" or not, sniping is not against the rules.
He also says, "EBay doesn't require any sort of ID whatsoever from buyers unless they place a bid of more than $15,000." I think it's actually at the $5,000 mark that eBay requires a CC # from a buyer for identification purposes.
His example of a seller being "destroyed" by a single negative feedback does seem to be a little overblown.
Edited to add: Oh, and his explanation of "bid shielding" is not correct. If I was a new user I wouldn't be able to figure out what he was talking about.
[ edited by triplesnack on Nov 21, 2000 04:01 PM ]
posted on November 21, 2000 11:20:12 AM
The article was inflammatory. The author is a moron if he finds sniping unethical. He mentions bidding strategies. Let's talk about poker strategy. Do I show my cards to other players at the table, to make things "more fair?" Idiot.
posted on November 21, 2000 12:19:13 PM
Yes to what twin said...but removing the "idiot"
After all, we all have a strategy, non? Don't you pull the handle very, very slowly after your slot machine has gone 7 times without paying off? You "know" pulling the handle slowly will do the trick...
******************** Gosh Shosh!
posted on November 21, 2000 03:05:48 PM
Every time these articles come out, I feel as if I've read them before. All they do is describe what shilling is, shielding, non-delivery, blah blah blah...
The most laughable part was about sniping. Snipers are shortchanging sellers and subverting the auction process? Gimme a break...
posted on November 21, 2000 06:42:17 PM
Why do people, ostensibly ebay users, continue to post negative stories about ebay?
Negative breeds negative. I find ebay a plus -not the means for my full income, but certainly an additive. Don't you? Otherwise, why are we all here? And why post negatives in two or three different boards, hmmm?
posted on November 21, 2000 07:11:05 PM
"Why do people, ostensibly ebay users, continue to post negative stories about ebay?"
Because there are some negative things about eBay. I think the real catch is that there is (was) so much potential in eBay.
And certainly there are lots of positive things about eBay. I love my customers. I love selling my jewelry and knowing how much people like it. For a person with limited mobility, such as me, eBay is a lifesaver. I have bought everything from gauze bandages to motors on eBay.
But there are some things, some serious faults, that need to be corrected at eBay.
I am not so naieve to think that eBay can do no wrong. And I am not so dishonest or self-deluding as to pretend that there aren't those faults.
posted on November 21, 2000 08:14:09 PM
I hate to go off the subject but... how are all you using html - obviously html doesn't work and I cant find any instructions on how to use it in the forums-
How are you all adding links into the posts?
Please tell me...
Tim
[ edited by svensgaard777 on Nov 21, 2000 08:16 PM ]
posted on November 22, 2000 12:52:54 AM
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I already wrote Forbes and told them that Freeman obviously hasn't done much on eBay and really isn't qualified to write such an article. I told them that not all high feedback sellers are actually more apt to screw a buyer, not everyone shill bids, etc. and I said that many more positives have come from the eBay experience in terms of great people and the advantage of finding those tough items to complete collections, etc. I said he sounded like sour grapes and that I suspect he knows this Peace and heard his lament. Peace probably is a great guy and Freeman got so mad that he decided to take his revenge through the article which - I said - will do more harm to the honest people on the site than the jerks because that's just the way the world works "and Happy Holidays to you too."
