The "Unwritten" Rule - Posting Links to Active eBay Listings

[Dennis Markham]

There has been discussion in another topic regarding the "unwritten rule" of posting a link to an active eBay listing.

http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=2156.msg28799

My position on this is that no such rule exists.

There have been postings made in the past where an auction was discussed to point out deficiencies or inaccurate information regarding an auction.  As mentioned in the above reference posting the Auction Contest is also another example of posting an auction while it is in progress.

So if one posts a link to an auction in progress he/she will not be banished from the Kingdom.

I have a bigger issue with links only being posted when someone wants to refer to the eBay listing as a purpose of illustration.  Those will become dead links in a matter of weeks when eBay removes first the photos and ultimately the posting.  The Forum topics become littered with dead links.  I have suggested/asked that if one wants to refer to an auction---to highlight a particular photo, that the photo be copied and posted here giving credit the fact that the photo was taken from the eBay auction.  Using an item number in addition to the photo will not create a dead link as the user will have to manually insert the eBay item number in order to view the listing.  It does take a little more effort to do this but it makes the Forum cleaner in the long run.

[bwanna]

thx, dennis, for the clarification. i was confused by the reference to the unwritten rule, knowing many times we do post links to live auctions.

the craigs list links end up being dead, too.

[Greg G.]

I can see the point either way, but I lean more towards not worrying about whether it's a live auction or not.  Collector's Weekly sure doesn't worry about it, and they go out to probably thousands of people, albeit they usually only list top-dollar phones, not the lower end, but still collectable, phones a lot of us try to bid on.

[bingster]

Personally, I've never worried much about it, either.  In fact I had never had an inkling that some had been holding back such postings until just today.  I honestly don't think it's that big a deal.  The posting of links goes on with the club listserves, too, if I'm not mistaken.  I'm not sure the posting of many of the links that appear on our little corner of the collecting world would drive prices up much, since ebay's telephone listings are perused by telephone collectors around the world, and while the members of this forum are rather active on the forum, we comprise a tiny fraction of telephone aficionados as a whole.

Regarding the posting of live auctions in the auction contest, I purposely stay away from general interest phones for the reasons expressed in the "con" opinions.  Almost all of the auction contest subjects are phones whose prices will (or should) go well beyond the prices of the average phone.  By the same token, the subjects of the contest, by virtue of their special nature, are already on the radar screens of most collectors, whether or not we have brought attention to them on our forum.

[Phonesrfun]

I don't see why there would be an unwritten rule to avoid calling attention to an auction in only this forum, since it is widely done elsewhere, and as Popeye..... oops, Briny, ....oops Greg has just pointed out, the Collectors Weekly is widely circulated, which does exactly that.  Plus, anyone with access to the Internet (I guess that is all of us) also have access to e-Bay and Craig's lists and can search for themselves anyway.

Where I get uneasy about discussing auctions is where fingers are pointed at a seller's knowledge and honesty, etc.  We have found that phone collectors as a whole are a small universe of folks, and even those that do not participate here can log on as a guest and see what the rest of us have to say about the authenticity, etc about his or her auction.

-Bill Geurts with my 2 cents worth.

[McHeath]

I've been here since the first day the forum opened, and do recall that early on there was discussion about not posting live auctions so that members would have a better chance of winning them if they were bidding.  It was sorta an unwritten rule in the very early days.  There were even some attempts made at not bidding on the same phones as other forum members. 

Of course back then we had 20 members.

So D/P is right that we once had a deal about not posting live auctions and such out of concern that other forum members might be bidding on it.  But we pretty much moved past that, even early on, when we started up the guesstimate bids on a unique phone on E-Bay.

Somewhere along the line of the last 17 months that the forum has been operating I even totally forgot we had that Gentlemen's Agreement in the early days. 

And probably we ought not to worry about it anymore.  We have too many members, and too many phones we are interested in, to keep track of who likes what, who bids on what, who might bid on this or that, and the like. 

Members do kindly point out phones or items on E-Bay that they know so and so might be interested in, I've even scored a phone or two that way.  Very helpful.  But I think our early days deal about not posting live auctions should go gently into that good night.

[Jim Stettler]

I've been here since the first day the forum opened, and do recall that early on there was discussion about not posting live auctions so that members would have a better chance of winning them if they were bidding.  It was sorta an unwritten rule in the very early days.  There were even some attempts made at not bidding on the same phones as other forum members. 

Of course back then we had 20 members.

So D/P is right that we once had a deal about not posting live auctions and such out of concern that other forum members might be bidding on it.  But we pretty much moved past that, even early on, when we started up the guesstimate bids on a unique phone on E-Bay.

Somewhere along the line of the last 17 months that the forum has been operating I even totally forgot we had that Gentlemen's Agreement in the early days. 

And probably we ought not to worry about it anymore.  We have too many members, and too many phones we are interested in, to keep track of who likes what, who bids on what, who might bid on this or that, and the like. 

Members do kindly point out phones or items on E-Bay that they know so and so might be interested in, I've even scored a phone or two that way.  Very helpful.  But I think our early days deal about not posting live auctions should go gently into that good night.

My Opinion:

I don't think active auctions should be posted unless by the seller.
The reason is simple, Many collectors have favorite search strings that they consistently use. When a good phone comes up, It really "sucks" to have it outed by a well meaning collector, who stumbled upon it.

That said, I debated on posting an active  swirled trimlime auction. I decided to post it, since I also collect swirl sets. I typically try to be quiet or to privately notify collectors that I think would be interested. It is always best to save discussion for after closing.


I think it is a courtesy NOT to post active auctions to the list. If you know a collector that would "love it" then e-mail privately.
JMO,
Jim


OT in the early days of the listservers there was shushing regarding Ebay even ex sisting.

[Dennis Markham]

Jim, is that why I see so many people refer to eBay as the "e-place"?  I just don't under stand when they do that.  It's usually someone that is selling something.  The seller will point out his/her auction and call it the "e-place" like it's a nasty disease or something.  If it is a bad word, then why post the fact that his/her item is being listed there?

[Dan]

I love ebay and everyone in  my famikly is addicted to it, whether it be phones, Longaberger baskets, old out of print records, etc....

[Jim Stettler]

Jim, is that why I see so many people refer to eBay as the "e-place"?  I just don't under stand when they do that.  It's usually someone that is selling something.  The seller will point out his/her auction and call it the "e-place" like it's a nasty disease or something.  If it is a bad word, then why post the fact that his/her item is being listed there?

Dennis,

The complaint about mentioning ebay was that. It was a little known site at the time. People wanted to keep it secret. I heard about ebay thru the listservers.
Regarding the e-place.
I think it is typically used as a courtesy for the folks who "ARE TIRED of hearing Ebay"
Jim

[Dan/Panther]

At least a portion of the original idea, was that if an active auction is  posted in the forum, we could , or potentially could be bidding against each other and driving up the prices;. Ebay has no way to identify the bidders. Used to be you could actually contact bidders, and have conversations off Ebay with them, if someone was bidding on an auction that had more than one of the same item, I would set up an agreement not to bid against them if they would sell me one of the items for half of the selling price. It worked out pretty good.
D/P

[dsk]

As a foreigner I may see things from another angle.
I may even be unfamiliar with whats good behaviour, and would like to be told when i do something wrong, like once I touched something which was turning out to be a political issue.

An unwritten rule is like a rumour, and you don't have to know about it, or you may neglect it. If you find it convenient you use it!

Why should I put in a link to an ad? 

• It may be something I would like you to get.
• I may ask for a hint about if it is good or bad etc.
• It may be something i would like to warn about. (Don't buy this without knowing....)

If I should sell something I would try here too, only fair way is by my opinion to tell it's me who are the seller.

dsk

[McHeath]

We are a very courteous group here, which is a nice thing considering that we have all experienced the other side of the Internet where it can get pretty nasty.

That said, when I'm bidding on a phone I really want I'm going to go for it.  If another member of the forum wants it as well then that's fair for them to bid as aggressively as they wish.  Many of us here collect the same genre of phones, and more than a few times I've bid for phones that other members have won.  No hard feelings, that's the way it works. 

I've also learned about phones here that I missed finding, and even won some on E-Bay. 

Since we seem to be of divided opinion about posting current auctions then perhaps we ought to put it to a vote.  I for one am resistant to have a posted rule about it, we've done well with minimal rules and we have enough rules to worry about in our lives, is my thinking. But a vote would be fair, and give us the feelings of the group at large. 

I agree with d_s_k in that an unwritten rule is going to be just problematic, so I think we need to come to some resolution about this before it causes issues. 

[Doug Rose]

I really don't see an issue. When I first came to the Forum, I posted a Live auction for a Kellogg 730 manual cradle phone. This is one of the first desk sets after the candlestick. I figured it would go for around $300 even though it had coats of paint on it. As the auction went along I thought to myself, I have the dial set, why not get the manual set. I ended up winning the auction for $83.  I ended up working against myself by posting it, but I still got it for 75% less than I thought it would go for. My point is, whoever bids the most on an auction will win, no matter who knows about it. I vote to let the Forum know when a phone that they might want is available. ...Doug

[Dan/Panther]

I would say let's just call it; "all bets off", just post auctions if you feel there is an interest.
Let's not complicate the forum, or make a situation where someone may get offended.
It's not worth it.
D/P