Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/10/12
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]My take on this is that the auction until quite recently has been something was unavailable to the general public on an instantaneous basis with such a wide variety of relatively lower-priced items for sale. Most people had little ability (or desire) to go to a big auction house to bid on Elvis' drawers or some such thing. However, if you can snap up a used Leica lens that your corner camera shop doesn't have, it is a different story entirely. Additionally, the reason that the auction houses are in business is that people quite often pay more at auction than they would in a private want-ad listing. The low initial bid price is a teaser which draws people in. Once you've placed a bid and decided that you really want something, it is harder to back away than to make a $5 incremental bid to stay in the game. - ---------- > Date: Tue, 12 Oct 1999 13:55:55 -0000 > From: "B. D. Colen" <bdcolen@earthlink.net> > Subject: RE: [Leica] Re: [f****** expensive] Vogtlander 15MM > > What is it about Ebay that makes normally sane individuals go completely > around the bend? Do people really believe that if something is being > "auctioned," it is automatically a bargin?