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Re: [OM] Ethics Revisted

Subject: Re: [OM] Ethics Revisted
From: Frank van Lindert <lindertv@xxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 24 Aug 1998 20:09:16 GMT
On Mon, 24 Aug 1998 12:34:33 EDT, PCACala@xxxxxxx wrote:

>Hi all:
>
>Recently I expressed my opinion that setting high reserves on eBay, having no
>one meet the reserve price and then soliciting unsuccessful bidders was poor
>ethics.  I had a hunch that certain companies/sole proprieters were doing this
>as standard operating procedure.  Here is an example of such by the so-called
>Pittsburg Camera Exchange (a.k.a. Bernies Photo), who doubiously claims to
>have the largest stock of used camera equipment.  Note that my unsuccessful
>high bid was $92.00, with 19 bids submitted:
>******
>Thank you for bidding on this item.  The reserve on this item was $155.00.
>If you are interested in the item at this price, please send us your zip
>code so that we may figure out the cost of S&H to your home or business. 
>
>We will reserve this item until you have had a chance to refuse it, before
>offering it to the next highest bidder.
>
>Thank you for your consideration,
>***end***
>
>Gary Reese
>Las Vegas, NV

Exactly the same happened to me today, with the same standard letter
out of their computer. Only the amounts were different: my high bid
was $60 and their reserve was $150, for a Tower branded Olympus
35-K...

The gap seems to be very wide, and it is indeed in both our cases.
But please do not forget that the seller cannot see what the bid limit
of the high bidder is. This is a consequence of the proxy bidding
being used...

The seller only knows the actual high bid amount, being below the
reserve, and not about what the seller was prepared to pay at maximum.
Same applies for the buyer: he doesn't know anything about the
reserve, or what the seller would let go for at minimum. 
Both the reserve and the bid limit are kept secret unless seller and
bidder start to negotiate in a private communication.

In other words, even if I had bid $140 for the camera the seller
wouldn't have known other than my actual $60 high bid. In that case I
might have been interested in his offer, which BTW I think was very
polite in this cases. This time I wasn/t interested though - my limit
was $61...

I don't like reserves at all, and I would appreciate if eBay in all
their listings made clear which auctions have a reserve and which
don't. But since reserves are common practice, I appreciate when
sellers give the high bidder a chance to raise their bid to bridge a
possibly narrow gap - and some sellers do offer to meet halfway which
is even more appreciated.

Frank van Lindert
Utrecht Holland.



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