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Stuck with Ebay bid on Vstrom


NinjaDoc

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Bidding on stuff you don't want to buy just to drive up the average price is wrong. Just because it makes you more money doesnt mean it's "good business."

You only bought the laptop because you accidentally won it.

I also bought it because I wanted an intel mac, and especially one in the unibody shell.

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Bidding on stuff you don't want to buy just to drive up the average price is wrong. Just because it makes you more money doesnt mean it's "good business."

Yeah, like gas stations, public utilities, every company on the stock market and drug companies. No one likes someone driving up the price with false bids or information.

Wow! That actually came out as serious and I was trying to be ironic. :rolleyes:

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Yeah, like gas stations, public utilities, every company on the stock market and drug companies. No one likes someone driving up the price with false bids or information.

Wow! That actually came out as serious and I was trying to be ironic. :rolleyes:

We all hate having to pay more for something because the seller maniuplates you into believing that the 'market' demands that price. Especially for something we can't chose to not buy (medications etc).

Here's an example... Ever heard of the guys who drive up to you at gas stations / parking lots etc and try to sell you sell speakers out the back of their van "Left over after deliveries" kind of thing. At one time they called themselves OmniAudio. They tried that on me a few times. One time they handed me an audiophile magazine with an ad for their speakers quoting a price of $1600. They they asked me for $1000 for the pair. Well, it turns out they never sell at $1600, they put that fake advert in there to make you think they are worth that. In reality they are a decent speaker fro the non-autiophile, but probbaly only worth $100.

So is it good business, or is it a scam/con?

As slimy as that is, anyone (talking generalization here, not individuals) that takes any action that drives up the price of something they sell (by intentionally temporarily limiting quantities, or by bidding up auctions similar items hoping to not have to buy them just to increase the average price that type of item sells for) is hurting many poeple for thier own gain. I'm sure they can rationalize it to themselves, but the rest of us are going to be tougher to convince. "So the Lexus I was going to pay 5k for I instead wound up paying 6k for because you placed bids that you did not intend to be successful just bid it up to 6k... Just so that when YOU sold YOUR lexus it would go for 6k because people would look other auctions to determine the value."

This is not the market in action. This is market manipulation. Don't know if I can point to a law that forbids it, but then I can't point at a law that forbids you to eat dog poop either - doesn't make it right.

Edited by Scruit
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I also bought it because I wanted an intel mac, and especially one in the unibody shell.

That's how you rationalized your unexpected auction win?

You never intended to win that laptop. Unless this following quote was untrue

I ended up with a macbook by accident that way... I bid $600 intending to drive the price up and accidentally won it :p

Kudos for making good on the auction - but you should never have been bidding on it in the first place if the win was "accidental".

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Let me get this straight. You bid a higher amount on a Vstrom than what you were willing to pay for one. Then it just so happened to clear the Reserve. Now you are stuck buying it.

You're a little late. The gangbang is over, we're just cleaning up. :D

- He bid more than he wanted to pay, and got the high bid / met the reserve price

- He retracted the bid

- Somoene else bid the bike up higher than his bid and won it the next day, so the seller didn't lose anything

- Well had a good laugh at him squirming for a while

All's well that ends well, with a lesson learned about bidding for stuff when you don't actually want to win.

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there was another discussion going along side about something else, which was pretty intense,

in short:

i moron, i played, i stuck, i scared, i post, all flame, i sad, some help, i retract , i safe, someone else buy, i happy

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That's how you rationalized your unexpected auction win?

You never intended to win that laptop. Unless this following quote was untrue

Kudos for making good on the auction - but you should never have been bidding on it in the first place if the win was "accidental".

I honestly didn't expect to win it at $600. I thought it would go for more. I was pleasantly surprised when I got it that cheap, but at the same time, I cringed because it's hard for me to justify spending $600 (that's a lot of money for me) on something that I don't NEED. And I didn't NEED the laptop. I just wanted it, and used the bidding up the price B.S. as an excuse to justify me putting in a bid.... "I think I'll bid because I'll probably get outbid."

You're gonna think I'm a douche for saying this, but I've mostly been playing devil's advocate... I sold non-intel apple laptops, not intel ones... so "driving up the prices" on the kind I won would've done me no good. I'd often bid on non-intel ones, simply because I knew them better and knew I could re-sell them at profit with a simple OS reload & writing a better-worded ad.

But again, supply/demand determine prices... You said we all hate having to pay more for something... well, you don't HAVE to pay more. Laptops aren't medication, to use your example. If a laptop costs too much, don't buy it. If they cost more than you want to spend... welcome to the club. If you can't find a cheaper one, then that is the market pricing an object based on supply/demand. Not manipulation. If supply is short because there's enough demand, prices go up. Me bidding on something I intend to resell (or in this case want but can't justify buying outright), is a factor of how much an object is in demand.

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Intel or not, generally people bidding on apples don't know the difference and just want one that has the soft white light apple on the top.

The point is you didn't intend on reselling it, your intention was to cause it to go for more hoping yours would as well. I akin this to making a fake account and bidding on your won product, thus making others bid for higher on it. Yes, people could buy a different laptop, but who says you are the one who gets to decide whether or not their "luck" plays out that day and someone gets something for cheap? I heard not too long back about someone getting a lotus for <$20, solely because of circumstances and luck. If others bid on that who didn't want it/couldn't fill the requirements (immediate, day of, pickup) then they just screwed the point of the auction.

/rant, I just agree with the whole "sell things because you don't need it anymore" philosophy

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We all hate having to pay more for something because the seller maniuplates you into believing that the 'market' demands that price. Especially for something we can't chose to not buy (medications etc).

Here's an example... Ever heard of the guys who drive up to you at gas stations / parking lots etc and try to sell you sell speakers out the back of their van "Left over after deliveries" kind of thing. At one time they called themselves OmniAudio. They tried that on me a few times. One time they handed me an audiophile magazine with an ad for their speakers quoting a price of $1600. They they asked me for $1000 for the pair. Well, it turns out they never sell at $1600, they put that fake advert in there to make you think they are worth that. In reality they are a decent speaker fro the non-autiophile, but probbaly only worth $100.

So is it good business, or is it a scam/con?

As slimy as that is, anyone (talking generalization here, not individuals) that takes any action that drives up the price of something they sell (by intentionally temporarily limiting quantities, or by bidding up auctions similar items hoping to not have to buy them just to increase the average price that type of item sells for) is hurting many poeple for thier own gain. I'm sure they can rationalize it to themselves, but the rest of us are going to be tougher to convince. "So the Lexus I was going to pay 5k for I instead wound up paying 6k for because you placed bids that you did not intend to be successful just bid it up to 6k... Just so that when YOU sold YOUR lexus it would go for 6k because people would look other auctions to determine the value."

This is not the market in action. This is market manipulation. Don't know if I can point to a law that forbids it, but then I can't point at a law that forbids you to eat dog poop either - doesn't make it right.

Cash for clunkers? ;)

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And I'm still feeling the effects of that one.

Totally off topic, but I wonder how many of those vehicles purchased through the cash for clunkers program have been repo'd...

Over double that of the normal rate, whatever that may be

source:http://content.usatoday.com/communities/driveon/post/2010/01/many-cash-for-clunker-buyers-have-higher-repo-late-payment-rates/1

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Intel or not, generally people bidding on apples don't know the difference and just want one that has the soft white light apple on the top.

That's a huge generalization, so here's one to match: Most people who spend $600+ know what they're buying.

The point is you didn't intend on reselling it, your intention was to cause it to go for more hoping yours would as well.

For the intel, I wanted to keep it if I won. For the G3 & G4 chips, my intention WAS to resell them for more if I won them. Buy low, sell high. The time I would invest on re-loading operating systems, software, and taking the time to make a decent listing increased the worth of the items.

I akin this to making a fake account and bidding on your won product, thus making others bid for higher on it.

I'm not sure I understand how I'd bid on a won product, since if it's won, the bidding is over, but if you're talking about shill bidding, that's expressly forbidden, so I don't liken shill bidding to what I did... which was bid on an item and then buy it.

Yes, people could buy a different laptop, but who says you are the one who gets to decide whether or not their "luck" plays out that day and someone gets something for cheap?

Exactly! I'm NOT the one that says their "luck" plays out... I have no say over who buys what... If they want it bad enough, they'll pay, and if they don't want to pay that much, they'll find a cheaper laptop.

I heard not too long back about someone getting a lotus for <$20, solely because of circumstances and luck. If others bid on that who didn't want it/couldn't fill the requirements (immediate, day of, pickup) then they just screwed the point of the auction.

But I didn't screw the point of the auction at all... In fact, I was the only bidder and I won that auction and paid for it. That's how it's SUPPOSED to work. Motivation doesn't really matter if you follow through and buy an item you won.

It's not supply/demand if the demand is fake.

My $600 was real. The desire for me to own a unibody powerbook was real. There's nothing fake about the demand for apple laptops.

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