[geeks] Bah, humbug

[Charles Shannon Hendrix]

Mon, 02 Apr 2007 @ 12:27 -0400, Sandwich Maker said:

> " From: Phil Stracchino <phil.stracchino at speakeasy.net>
> " 
> " Sandwich Maker wrote:
> " > 
> " > they forgot to set a 'secret reserve'.  this is basically a 'get out
> " > of jail free' card that they disclose to ebay but aren't apparently
> " > required to disclose in their auction, or even that they have one.
> " > 
> " > set the secret reserve high enough and they can just say sorry and
> " > walk away from any deal they feel like.
> " 
> " "secret reserve"...?  I wasn't aware such a thing existed.
> 
> my gf stumbled across it, trolling the ebay vendor info pages.  it
> sounds very unfair at least if not unethical, but it was there in
> black and white.

I can't find anything like that.  Is this something you have to pay
extra for?  As a normal seller, I see no such option in the selling
pages or any of the documentation.

Think you can get a pointer to this?

I know that in some states, secret reserve is illegal in any kind of
auction.  I'm pretty sure they are illegal for all government auctions.

Secret reserve is a hot enough topic that there are a lot of google
hits.

However, I also found references that Sotheby's and Christie's violates
common law and trade commission rules with impunity. They are both so
powerful in the auction business that they pretty much set their own
rules. Neither the US nor the UK trade commissions does much about it.

Maybe eBay thinks they are powerful enough now to play the same games.

I saw a lot of suggestions that auctions should be regulated to help
eliminate the manipulation and scandals that are in the business at
present.

Problems with auctions seem to be becoming a hot topic far outside of
eBay, so maybe we'll start seeing some changes.

Hopefully, we won't have a government over-reaction though.  They could
easily make it worse.




-- 
shannon           | Work for something because it is good, not just because 
                  | it stands a chance to succeed. 
                  |        -- Vaclav Havel