[geeks] eBay question

[Doug McLaren]

On Wed, Sep 05, 2007 at 11:26:32AM -0400, Charles Shannon Hendrix wrote:

| Geoff (and others) should go to some agricultural sales some time for a good
| education in how auctions are used.

If I understand correctly, Geoff understands them fine.  It's just
that they're being misrepresented.

To put some fake numbers into his real situation --

A radio, on ebay.  Beginning bid is $50.
                   Current bid is $60.
                   Reserve is $100, but we don't know that.

Guy posts to a Usenet group, saying `Radio, $50!'

I'm not entirely certain that this is Geoff's situation, but if it is,
I find this to be deceptive.  It may not legally be false advertising
(or may be -- I don't know) but it does offend me enough that I won't
want to do business with this person -- if he'll lie about this, what
else will he lie about?

The auction itself isn't so deceptive but the Usenet post is.  Well,
reserve prices might be somewhat deceptive, but they're well known and
ebay says right there `Reserve price not met' so it's pretty minor.

If he knows that the radio will NOT go for under $100, he should at
least say `Radio, could be yours for $100'.  Less honest would be to
give the current bid and say `Radio, currently at $60' (still, this is
quite dishonest.)

(Of course, my argument doesn't really change if there's no current
bids -- I just included that so I could mention more scenarios.)

Saying `Radio on Ebay, beginning bid $50' is deceptive too if nobody
can actually get the radio for that price due to a reserve.  Perhaps
it's technically accurate (and therefore not legally false
advertising) but it's still misleading.  Saying `Radio, current bid
$60' is also similarly misleading but not technically lying.

What's your recourse?  You don't have one, beyond not buying the
thing.  Perhaps you could push the false advertising angle, but it
seems very unlikely to ever get to court.  Ebay certainly doesn't care
-- it makes them money.

Look at it this way -- the guy is doing you a favor by letting you
know that he doesn't mind being deceptive about the price, so he might
also not mind being deceptive about other things, like the condition
of the radio.  And who wants to deal with somebody like that?

-- 
Doug McLaren, dougmc at frenzied.us
"There are still places where people think that the function of the
 media is to provide information."  -Don Rottenberg