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Quite a bargain!

Started by HarrySmith, March 19, 2011, 07:41:19 PM

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wds

#15
Speaking of age, I bought my first "senior citizen" meal yesterday from Ponderosa.  It's ironic, as my first job (not counting paper routes, etc) was at Ponderosa.  $1.35 an hour I think.  I'm getting older, but at least I still have all my hair.  As far as Ebay, it's an auction, and there are many forms of auction.  At an auction house, many items are sold, and withdrawn, before the auctioneer has his crack at it.  I was watching and bidding on a Dean Cosmo just a few days ago, and it disappeared from Ebay.  I sent the seller an email, and he replied that he received an offer and sold it.  I sent a nice email back, informed him of the value, and how much I had planned to bid on it, and wished him luck.  Never for a minute was I mad at the seller or the guy who was able to purchase it before the auction ended.  If anything, I was a little envious.  Ending an auction early does not reflect on one's values.  And yes Doug, it is fun!
Dave

Tom B

I have to put my tuppence worth on Harry's side here, to be honest. He didn't do anything wrong, and I've done the same in the past - it's how I got my Med Blue 500. I could go into the rights and wrongs of a moral framework, but at the end of the day we are all in competition for the phones we want to have. If we let the strict rule apply that the auction runs to it's end, and the highest bidder wins, then that spot belongs to the one with the most money to spend at the time - and there is nothing morally uplifting about that.
As for age bringing wisdom... a wise man doesn't make any judgements until he has all the facts to hand and is able to weigh them all up.  'Nuff said.
Tom

Kenny C

Im with Doug Harry and Tom on this one. Like doug said, When I was at a yard sale and found the 1937 302 I didnt say You have a very rare phone that is worth more than 10 bucks. I paid him 10 and went on my way. If he would have done his research he would have known that he had.I'm sure we have ALL asked for a BIN. just my 0.02
In memory of
  Marie B.
1926-2010

bingster

Quote from: Dave F on March 20, 2011, 06:48:07 PMIn addition, sometimes when I see that an auction item has been BIN'd by another vulture, I will contact the seller and try to wrest it from the other guy by offering a higher "bid". 

Now, that's funny. :)

For the others, let's try to keep in mind that we're a sort of a family here, and just like a real family, we may not always agree with each other, but we're kinda stuck with each other.  So it's important to not get too personal with our responses.  Of course, we're all going to have differences of opinion among the members, but that's no reason to get too personal, or to lash out. 
= DARRIN =



Kenny C

Bingster is right I am sorry if I offended anyone But I still stand by what I said.
In memory of
  Marie B.
1926-2010

GG



The big-picture question is, what are reasonably fair ways to allocate a scarce supply to a high demand?  There really isn't an "algorithmic" or "one size fits all" answer. 

If everyone posts their bids with enough time to see how the pricing is emerging, then the win always goes to the highest bidder.  That seems fair except that it necessarily always favors the wealthy, and in particular cuts new people out of whatever-it-is, in this case the telephony hobby.   

If someone makes an offer behind the scenes, that seems to circumvent the auction process, but in fact all it's doing is favoring the stealthy over the wealthy. 

If someone manually snipes in the last minute, that's substituting speed for stealth. 

What I object to is automated sniping software, since it requires no effort of either wealth, stealth, or speed to use: it enables someone to capture an undue amount of whatever-it-is without having to "work for it" in any sense of the word. 

In natural selection, wealth = strength, stealth = camouflage, and speed = speed.  All of those strategies have proven viable over the course of evolutionary time, and so they persist to this day. 

In any case, what I've also found to be true is that few things in life are irreplaceable, and there is always another one coming along sooner or later if one is patient.  More important to preserve relationships and community, and if that means waiting for another of something to come along, so be it. 

Though, there is yet another variation that I think really demonstrates something hopeful about humans: when a resource is truly scarce, cooperation emerges over competition.  The paradigm case here being Dan's 1948 500 set, which may be the only surviving example of the 500 prototype: that became a whole-community project, with a strong sense of collective responsibility for helping out, given the historic significance of that phone.  Probably the same thing would happen with one of those prototype "touch tone" 302 sets because the number of surviving examples is probably less than a dozen. 

Owain

Personally I'm (usually) fairly happy if something goes for more than I can afford; I tell myself it's gone to a good home where it will be appreciated and cherished.

Conversely I see things listed for 99p which get no bidders, and I hope they don't just get skipped. Unfortunately I don't have the room to offer homes to all homeless phones (or kittens).

Dave F

#22
Quote from: GG on March 20, 2011, 07:53:23 PM
....What I object to is automated sniping software, since it requires no effort of either wealth, stealth, or speed to use: it enables someone to capture an undue amount of whatever-it-is without having to "work for it" in any sense of the word......
 
A comment about sniping --  Long ago, when I first lost out to an eBay sniper, I was pretty annoyed.  I thought to myself, "Now, that's just downright mean and selfish".  I went so far as to contact eBay to complain.  I told them that sniping represents everything that the auction process is not about, and that they should do something to eliminate it.  After all, sniping would be easy to prevent:  Simply add 5 minutes to an auction each time a bid is placed within the last minute.  Everyone would have ample time to think about how much he/she REALLY wanted the item, and then bid accordingly.  As a bonus to eBay, auctions would tend to go for more money than if sniping was allowed.  EBay told me that they actually endorse sniping, as it adds real excitement to the process.  Who among us can say that our heart rate doesn't increase as an auction for a badly-wanted item ticks down to the last few seconds?  I realized that I wasn't going to cause eBay to change, and I gave up on trying.  Over time, I saw something else emerging: Surprisingly, I found that I was winning as many sniped auctions as I was losing, even when others sniped and I didn't.  As it turns out, sniping cuts both ways.  When you snipe, you are leaving others no time to react, but at the same time you are denying yourself any opportunity to change your mind if you decide your sniped bid wasn't as much as you really were prepared to pay.   I guess I would say that my opinion of sniping has evolved.  If you want to snipe me, go for it, but don't be too terribly surprised if you don't win!

On a related point, I find that I must respectfully disagree with GG's conclusion regarding sniping software.   Sniping software is merely a tool, not much different from a power saw or electric car windows.  We use tools all the time to make our lives easier, or to do things that could not be easily accomplished without them.  Whether one sits at the computer waiting to snipe or lets a sniping program do it for him, the main issue is the mindset of the sniper, not the method he chooses to use.  I choose not to use sniping programs, but not for the reason GG has brought up.  In my case, I don't find it necessary or desirable to pay others to do something that is no problem for me to do myself.  However, assuming that one is going to snipe, I wouldn't hold it against him just because he uses software to do it (why write in longhand when you can use a word processor?).  The core issue is whether sniping in any form is or is not a selfish and disrespectful way to behave.  I will leave the resolution of that issue for some future time.