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[OM] Online auction editorial

Subject: [OM] Online auction editorial
From: "Frank Costa" <red_rover@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 1 Dec 1998 09:25:06 -0800
    I've recently been searching for a decent deal on a 50 3.5 macro, so I
decided to check out the offerings on a certain infamous auction house
(rhymes with over-pay, wrong-way and D-day, you get the idea). As luck would
have it, or so I thought, there were 4 auctions going for this item at the
same time, so I assumed I'd be able to snatch one under $150 without too big
a headache. How wrong I was. It seems that the typical modus operandi is
this:

    3 or 4 people bid on the item in a humane, sane manner. You enter the
most your willing to pay, the computers do the rest, incrementally matching
other bids until you win or are overbid. Everythings just dandy. That is
until a maniacal, shameless, profit-driven collector-seller comes along and
bids at the last minute(sometimes within the last 5 seconds, I kid thee
not), and takes his prize at a couple of bucks over the current high bidder,
thus guaranteeing him any item he wishes as long as he's willing to stay at
his computer 24 hours a day with 6 timers on the wall, sans life. I saw the
same fellow get 3 of these lenses in this manner, and I was the high bidder
on 2 of them. Now I know this is not against any rules. I also know it would
be sour grapes to insist on some rule against this. Ultimately, you need to
leave matters of ethics and morals in the hands of the buyers and sellers,
and hope honesty wins out. I'm not very familiar with auctions, this being
one of my first attempts at one. I'm sure there's probably some slippery
slang term for the situation I've described. Maybe I'm just a sore loser.
Whatever the case, I think I shall save my sanity and stick to straight
sales from now on, even if it mean a few more dollars. Just my three cents.




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