eBay (preying on the stupid?)
Created | Updated Mar 18, 2005
Ebay can be listed as one of the few things in life that will always be a good idea. For those of you who have never tried it, it's just like North America is having a huge garage sale, and their neighbors (Europe and Australia) are invited. Everything is used, nothing is where it should be, and nobody has any idea how much anything costs.
This is why eBay is a great resource for those of us who do know how much things cost. Everything there is either wildly overpriced, or a free gold mine. The key to shopping is to find the things that are practically free, wait until they are mere seconds from being over, and then bid as much money as you are willing to pay. Due to eBay's ingenious bidding system, you enter only as much money as you are willing to pay for the item, and eBay automatically bids incrementally on your behalf. That means that if you are willing to buy a toaster for ten dollars, and the current bid is only five, just enter ten and eBay will automatically beat all other bids up to ten dollars.
Selling is also of premium importance on eBay, because there is usually somebody who wants to buy what you have to sell, and they have about three times as much money as it costs new. You put it on, let the auction run for nine days to hike up the bidding, and somebody buys it for a huge amount of cash.
Now, is this preying on the stupid? If eBay users were smarter, wouldn't eBay in itself just fail entirely. No rational, well-researched person would buy an overpriced product, and no normal person would put an item out for sale that is terribly underpriced, so nobody would buy or sell anything at all. This leaves us with the conclusion that eBay exists for the sole purpose of stealing money from the ignorant. For shame.
This is why eBay is a great resource for those of us who do know how much things cost. Everything there is either wildly overpriced, or a free gold mine. The key to shopping is to find the things that are practically free, wait until they are mere seconds from being over, and then bid as much money as you are willing to pay. Due to eBay's ingenious bidding system, you enter only as much money as you are willing to pay for the item, and eBay automatically bids incrementally on your behalf. That means that if you are willing to buy a toaster for ten dollars, and the current bid is only five, just enter ten and eBay will automatically beat all other bids up to ten dollars.
Selling is also of premium importance on eBay, because there is usually somebody who wants to buy what you have to sell, and they have about three times as much money as it costs new. You put it on, let the auction run for nine days to hike up the bidding, and somebody buys it for a huge amount of cash.
Now, is this preying on the stupid? If eBay users were smarter, wouldn't eBay in itself just fail entirely. No rational, well-researched person would buy an overpriced product, and no normal person would put an item out for sale that is terribly underpriced, so nobody would buy or sell anything at all. This leaves us with the conclusion that eBay exists for the sole purpose of stealing money from the ignorant. For shame.
