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Date: Sat, 31 Mar 2001 09:00:50 -0500
To: "Tom Scales" <tscales@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
From: Skip Williams <skipwilliams@xxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [OM] Goodbye
Cc: olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Tom,
Thanks for the sentiment. I'm already uns*ubscribed though. If anyone
wants to contact me, you'll have to do it off-list.
To the list and the anti-Ebay'ers - Yes, there's a lot of Ebay topics these
days, but that's where the action is. If this was 10 years ago, we'd all
be talking about what we found at the local Mom & Pop store or the flea
market or the pawn shop. But 900f that action is gone. The luxury of
privacy with regard to buyers and sellers prices on Ebay is non-existant.
Sorry, but that's reality. Remember, this is an OLYMPUS list, not a nature
photographers, etc. list. There's a pre-disposition towards equipment
here.
Here's how I saw things:
Another list member send me a private message about this auction for a
couple of brochures that was VERY high. I then wondered if we had missed
something. $35 ea sounded too high for a couple of $5-10 brochures. So I
became curious, and did a search to see if this bidder was buying other
equipment. It's not illegal. Ebay gives you that capability freely. (as an
aside, I noticed that a Japanese buyer purchased a LARGE amount of Pen F
equipment several weeks ago, IMO grossly overpaying and probably inflating
future sales. It's these rogue buyers that buy at cost-no-object who drive
up auction prices. But that's the auction game, and I understand it.)
That was when I saw this gentleman buying a lot of OM equipment. That's a
pretty unusual occurrence these days. Very few people drop $3,500 on
relatively normal OM gear in a 30 day period anymore. So I mentioned it,
and then responded TIC about his not being able to tell the difference
between an OM Lens Handbood and a couple of brochures. And I got slammed.
I feel that I'm a good community member, but when that type of attack
starts without a personal email as a prelude, it's time to get out. IMO,
you shouldn't attack someone BY NAME in a public forum without a private
exchange. It's just not nice.
As an aside, I was starting to work on updating my price archives, but I
think I'll just hold off on that project for now.
I'll go back to picture taking for a while.
Skip
At 07:41 AM 3/31/01 -0600, you wrote:
>Skip,
>
>Don't go off list because of this. I don't think all this was really
>directed at you, and certainly not by the majority. It went from an
>observation on your post to an intellectual discussion.
>
>Personally, I thought your observations were dead-bang on and interesting
>conversation topics. You're right about it being impersonal and everything
>we right could be taken several ways, but I knew you were kidding and it
>surprises me that others didn't. Let's face it, I take a lot of abuse for
>my purchasing habits and I know most people are kidding. The people that
>aren't, I just ignore.
>
>It is kind of the same with the BIN posts. I think they're valuable, and
>I'm the one posting most of them. Even if it is for a common item, I'd
>rather see it go to a listmember. The 28-48 was a perfect example. They're
>unusual and hard to find at that price. Heck, I would have bought it for
>$139, as I suspect my snipe was close to that.
>
>You'll always have disagreements on a list about lots of things. We can't
>please everyone. It's a community and occasionally there are pi**ing
>matches.
>
>Let it roll off your back. We don't want to lose such a valuable
>contributor to the list. I wouldn't be the zuikoholic I am without the
>incredible information you provided (ok, you could read that two ways <g>).
>
>I would hope that those that directed their wrath at you would step up and
>apologize.
>
>Tom
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