[Coco] Re: Barden's Assem book

[Roger Taylor]

At 01:56 PM 7/5/2004, you wrote:
>I *always* snipe auctions. Here's why: bidding high, early encourages
>bidding wars. Although your bid is secret there is a way for the other
>person to find out what your bid is: by outbidding you. And when the
>other person does that, he only has to beat your bid by like $.50
>usually. So by putting in your max bid some jackass could beat yours by
>$.50 and you lose the auction. What's the point of that? Of course you
>would pay $.50 more. But if you bid $.50 more the other person will just
>bid past by another $.50

Ah, ebay, the online rummage sale.
...making 50% of the people smash their screens in.
...making 50% of the people laugh on the way to the bank.

I realized that ebay's proxy bidding scheme is actually quite logical even 
though it's not always fair to the bidder.  Because everybody bidding on 
the auction will most definately NOT be at their computer for 3, 5, 7, or 
10 days straight, proxy bidding is the only fair way for 
everybody.  However, I think every bidder should get to see what the 
highest bid is just like you can hear it if you're at a real auction.

As for crooked sellers... the place is SWARMING with 'em.  Once one crooked 
person sees that 50 other crooked people are not being caught for their 
actions, they join in with the scam.  For instance, there's a LOT of ebay 
sellers that purposely charge WAY too much for shipping and "handling" so 
that they will come out smelling like a rose most of the time.  Like, a 
1/4-ounce tube of thermal grease for CPUs, but with a shipping and 
"handling" charge of $9.  Then they ship it in a .64 cent padded envelope. 
The same goes for the Celeron CPU I got 2 weeks ago, I paid $8 for s/h but 
it arrived in a cheap padded envelope.  Gee.... that leaves some cash 
unaccounted for in my book.  Oh.. silly me.. the seller had to crank up his 
car and drive to the post office, 15 miles up the road.  THAT's where the 
handling fee goes in case the auditer comes knocking on their door.  Sure!

Is there a solution to this ebay chaos?  Yes, everybody needs to get off 
their butts and go down to their LOCAL businesses and support them by 
buying whatever you need that they offer.


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Roger Taylor