so I read an article on geek.com about shill bidding. this is the process of artificially inflating the bid amount on a product. I have mixed feelings if this should be legal or not. I'm kinda thinking it should be LEGAL. you represent yourself... the auction house or person represents getting the most money for a product that they can. if they find a good way to sucker you into it then you were too weak to begin with! what do you'all think?
Tuesday, November 09, 2004
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2 comments:
if they are willing to eat the fees to relist, then yes, it's ok. ALSO, if they do not retract bids that reveal your maximium proxy bid, then yes, it's ok.
i like the conclusios about using sniping as a soltuion to protect yourself.
as you'd have to ask a dishonest person to be honest in order for the above two ammendmends to shilling on ebay, i'd go with 'not allowed' as I've found it hard to trust people who make it blantly obvious they are after more money from me. They could aways ask, or set the minimums higher. duh!
this seems to me like the question should we allow gambling.
smart people know shill bidding goes on and pre-set a price they are willing to pay. people who think just bargains are on e-bay and un-informed about particular products end up paying too much. smart people know that gambling is not a profit making venture and so they determine the amount of money they can loose as an entertainment expense and stick with it. people looking to get rich quick and the un-informed about the fact that casinos make gobs of money end up squandering more than they can afford.
as christians i think we cannot participate in either activity if we know people are going to get hurt. on the other hand i don't think there is anything inherently wrong with a little gambling or adding a little excitement to e-bay. i know that illegal betting is more detremental to society than legal betting (or at least am pretty sure, actually i don't have any good facts to back this up, i just think this). as for shill bidding i think it leans more on the side of there is no good in this practice, i am thinking that there is no way that you can claim that this would not hurt people (since we know pretty much everyone is a moron, i include myself in this).
so my conclusion is that shill bidding should be illegal.
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