avaloncourt
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posted on December 30, 2000 10:20:52 PM new
I've got to see if someone has a reasonable explanation for this. I've seen this several times now and it makes absolutely no sense to me. I went to the ebay home page and an item cycled to the Home Page Feature that was a $5 book. This was just one book with a $5 minimum bid which hadn't been met yet. This was a mundane text-type book which would probably be lucky to get $5.
At first I thought this was a way for the seller to draw attention to his other auctions. Wrong. The seller has about a dozen $5 books for sale and nothing even encouraging people to check out his other listings.
I've seen this multiple times such as a Dutch auction where the entirety of the inventory wouldn't even cover the cost of the Home Page Feature fee if everything sold.
Is there some reasonable explanation why these types of items are showing up in that class of fee or are people just completely blind when it tells them the cost of posting?
[ edited by avaloncourt on Dec 30, 2000 10:21 PM ]
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ed123
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posted on December 30, 2000 10:26:35 PM new
I suppose if they are using an old ebay id that pays by the month without a CC and they happne to have dozens and dozens of them built up, that they could afford to stiff ebay the fees and lose their account and guarantee some sales
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ed123
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posted on December 30, 2000 10:43:09 PM new
Or perhaps for tax purposes
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amalgamated2000
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posted on December 30, 2000 10:43:20 PM new
It's probably just an error. Someone accidentally checked the wrong box, or their software just screwed up.
I see these fairly often as well. I think that this is an indication of how worthless the "home page feature" (or whatever they are calling it) really is. The fact is that a SUBSTANTIAL number of these auctions are listed in error.
Once, when Ebay was touting the effectiveness of their features, I totaled up the closing price for all "home page feature" auctions for the auctions that were ending that day. Even on the last days, the total bids were LESS than the total cost for those auctions.
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magazine_guy
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posted on December 30, 2000 11:21:41 PM new
They may loose $99 on each item, but they make it up on volume. 
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amy
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posted on December 30, 2000 11:41:06 PM new
Magazine_guy...GIGGLE!
You have been watching to many I Love Lucy reruns!
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twinsoft
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posted on December 31, 2000 12:20:59 AM new
A while back, Mr. Lister displayed a bug where the second item in the collection was automatically listed as "Featured." Kind of funny, I wonder how many big-time sellers were stung by this bug without realizing it.
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ed123
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posted on December 31, 2000 12:30:27 AM new
Having extra fees added to ones tab is not very funny Twinsoft.
It also isnt very funny if someone were go register with vero and go wild ending auctions for "mega compiolations" because they *thought* that a version of their sniping tool *might* be on it because other sellers selling similar products do have it on their cds.
[ edited by ed123 on Dec 31, 2000 12:31 AM ]
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kudzurose
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posted on December 31, 2000 07:47:51 AM new
Sounds like a TAXing situation to me. Somebody is afraid they will get audited, and needs some costs they can prove? Something along that line?
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twinsoft
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posted on December 31, 2000 08:31:38 AM new
ed123, no that wouldn't be very funny. Nor would it be funny if you, or another eBay seller, were to take one of my software programs, put it on a "mega-CD," and then sell that CD "with full resale rights."
What's your point?
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ed123
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posted on December 31, 2000 11:26:37 AM new
I didnt specificaly name or accuse you. but it would be nice if a owner of a sniping porgram took the time to make sure that his program was acutaly on a cd of a given seller before emailing ebay as a vero and telling them to end thier auctions leading to a suspension of that persons account for no reason!
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twelvepole
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posted on December 31, 2000 11:35:09 AM new
Twinsoft, ed123, why don't you take your love spat to your own thread? Instead of derailling someone else's.
I'll bet it has to be an error on the seller's part, at first I thought they might have a linked to their about me page or website, but I guess not.
Is curious though.
Ain't Life Grand...
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Shoshanah
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posted on December 31, 2000 11:36:59 AM new
They might make it up in "shipping charges"....
********************
Only an opinion...
Gosh Shosh!
http://members.ebay.com/aboutme/rifkah/
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twelvepole
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posted on December 31, 2000 11:39:12 AM new
They might make it up in "shipping charges"....
ROTFLMAO... could be but hope not.... $5 for the book and $95 for shipping...
Ain't Life Grand...
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magazine_guy
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posted on December 31, 2000 11:58:47 AM new
Well.......I think I figured this one out.
Avaloncourt- I'll bet it's a book dealing with cars, right?
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Shoshanah
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posted on December 31, 2000 12:02:51 PM new
Mag Guy...Hi
Does that mean that the extra 95.00 is actually a down-payment on the CAR to which the BOOK pertains???? 
********************
Only an opinion...
Gosh Shosh!
http://members.ebay.com/aboutme/rifkah/
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godzillatemple
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posted on December 31, 2000 12:24:27 PM new
You think THAT'S bad? I just saw an item which is both a Featured and a Featured Category auction [total fees: $120], and it has an opening bid of $3 with NO RESERVE. But the real kicker is that it also has a "Buy it Now" price of $19.99.
Why anyone would pay $120 in listing fees and then have a $19.99 "Buy it Now" price is beyond my usually ample capacity for understanding....
Barry
---
The opinions expressed above are for comparison purposes only. Your mileage may vary....
[ edited by godzillatemple on Dec 31, 2000 12:25 PM ]
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Shoshanah
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posted on December 31, 2000 12:29:28 PM new
Scratching my head 
Maybe they are hoping to get a lot of hits to their Web Page link...Would be cheaper to pay for a GOOD Search Engine...
Only an opinion...
Gosh Shosh!
http://members.ebay.com/aboutme/rifkah/
[ edited by Shoshanah on Dec 31, 2000 12:30 PM ]
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avaloncourt
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posted on December 31, 2000 02:21:44 PM new
magazine_guy: Sorry, not a car book. I think it was something like Principles of Polymer Chemistry.
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