Re: How redicoulous can Ebay Get?

[news_joe@NOSPAM.com (Burnam)]

I suppose people are going to pay whatever they want even if they know
better. With online bidding it's pretty easy to get out of control and
later regret it. I've only bid on a few things and so far haven't
gotten out of control. Anyways, I have also noticed some behavior that
certainly appears suspicious. So, there are a few sellers that I avoid,
and when I notice certain bidders competing with me even with a seller
that I don't recognize then I move along. There are a billion auctions
out there, and a zillion thrift stores, and a jillion people
(co-workers with families and netnews posters and such that all may
have something I want that they'll even just give to me for free). So,
I always just figure that if an auction involves a person name that
even just once made me think twice then I won't consider that auction.
There are just too many alternatives to bother with it.

I was one of the bidders on one of those system disks that toy_maniac
had on sale. I bid as much as 10 or 11 bucks, I think. Normally I'd
think it's worth about $4, plus S/H = maybe $7...but I bid anyways
because it seemed the convenient route. Later I found what I wanted
locally for under $3 (original disk, in original sleeve), and I'm happy
that I'm not the silly guy that paid whatever crazy amount it turned
out to be ($75??)

Anyways, in bidding I did email to toy_maniac asking for clarification
on the auction. Two similar items, one with the Apple sleeve, one not.
I wanted assurances that I'd get the Apple sleeve on the auction I was
bidding on. The guy responded quickly and was friendly. This is
interesting though...I also asked him about some of his other auctions.
Maybe you saw those? They were "lots of Apple II disks". Each lot
included a few disks (10, 12, etc) which contained copies of Apple II
games and such. He had no qualms with selling off copies of software. I
didn't bid on those.

I know that there's been some huge debate about copyright lately near
hear (comp.sys.apple.somewhere-i-don't-remember), maybe this toy_maniac
missed all that. Anyways, talking about EBay rules...I'm pretty sure
this is another rule breaker for them.