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GA agreements = seller gets screwed?

Posted: Tue Feb 18, 2003 11:38 pm
by Artificial Penguin
These GA agreements would seem to have the result of screwing the seller, at least as far as I understand them. I personally don't sell things on eBay, but I'd be pissed if I did. They seem a bit like collusion, to tell the truth.

Has this point been brought up before? And no, I'm not trolling. I've been bothered by this concept for a while and finally decided to post.

Posted: Tue Feb 18, 2003 11:44 pm
by Grumbledook
No cause if someone wants to post on here that they are selling something, they just declaire it and no one calls a ga on it. Also rare things its accepted no ga can be called. Tbh with you I don't think the seller does get screwed because everything i have asked for a ga on someone else who doesn't read this forum usually bids up the price anyway cause they want it.

Posted: Tue Feb 18, 2003 11:46 pm
by Artificial Penguin
So what you're saying is that the GA doesn't usually get accepted anyway so nobody gets screwed. I guess I'm just not enamored with the concept from the seller's point of view.

But like I said, I'm in the buyer's position usually 8)

Posted: Tue Feb 18, 2003 11:49 pm
by Grumbledook
No the ga gets accepted but i wouldn't say it had that great a difference on the price as other people will bid the price up who don't read tbb.

If you are selling stuff, like i mentioned just post on here that its your stuff and you don't want any ga called on them. Then no one will and your get your moneys worth.

Posted: Tue Feb 18, 2003 11:51 pm
by narkotic
A seller can always opt to include a "buy at once" option. Furthermore, no one forces him to start an auction at 1$. He could just start an auction with a price he feels fine with. If the item is rare/demanded he will sell it anyway.

Actually, I would not argue ebay auction issues with concepts like honesty, cheating or screwing. It's still free market economy, and as we all know there are many ways of dealing with that. What about sniping? What about sellers asking friends to push up the auction if they realize that the item will sell under value?
Furthermore, there are still enough BB maniacs out there who bid like hell. TBB GAs are not monopolies.

Frankly, your agrumentation seems a little bit naive to me as free market (and especially auctions) are not meant to be fair. (planned economy was supposed to be fair, but it didn't worked out, but I'm straying)

just my two cents...

Posted: Tue Feb 18, 2003 11:54 pm
by Snew
Yes, the seller stands to get less for his items. That's why we don't call GAs on things other TBBrs are selling. I'd like to see everything offered here first, though, but that's not important.

It's supposed to work like this:

Auction-Really cool Ogre $1

Tbbr A wants it but will only go up to $5

TBBr B thinks it's worth $10 on his team.

A and B get together and decide that if both of them bid on it, B will get it for $5.50. THere's no use A bidding on it at all so B will bid on it and hopefully get it for $1. B wants it more.

The above scenarion is perfect and doesn't allow for outside bidders driving the price up, which they will do of course. It's a basic and simplified exapmle of the idea.

Posted: Wed Feb 19, 2003 12:37 am
by GalakStarscraper
Yup the seller gets screwed, but as long as its not a TBB member ... could care less (and we don't allow GAs on TBB member's stuff so there ya go).

GAs have saved me several 100s of USD (which means it cause some poor sellers several 100s of USDs), but at the end of the day ... I'd much rather have that money than the sellers, and they had the option to have the starting bid be a higher $$$ amount also.

Galak

Posted: Wed Feb 19, 2003 7:40 am
by BigD
Gotta agree with Galak. The seller does get screwed but personally I'd rather be the happier buyer getting it at a cheaper price or having a mate pick it up at a great price as well. Who cares about the seller? Now if its a TBBer then thats a different story of course but then NO GAs will be accepted or expected by other TBBers anyway.

And of course the seller doesn't have to accept who the buyer is either. That is their right of course as well

BigD

Posted: Wed Feb 19, 2003 10:47 am
by Norse
The GA is my baby and I gave birth to her because I was fed up seeing badly painted models which were NOT OOP being sold at stupid prices because the seller had lied in their item description....

I have a personal vendetta with Ebay as a whole and so don't mind at all if a collective group of buyers works together to ensure sellers do not rip us off.. especially dedicated collectors like BigD, Galak, DFC, SnotsnGrots etc...

If we work together we save a lot of our money.. seller gets screwed?

Damn right and proud of it! :wink:

Posted: Wed Feb 19, 2003 12:04 pm
by Stingger
I don't think anyone gets screwed on e-Bay, you pay your money you take your chance.....one week a Zug figure could sell for £2...3 weeks
later £6-7.
Its all about being in the right place at the right time...and if your not thats
when GA's can help out alot.

Posted: Wed Feb 19, 2003 12:45 pm
by traveller
dedicated collectors like BigD, Galak, DFC, SnotsnGrots etc...
so i got a new handle and i´m now "etc" or what... :o

:wink:

Traveller

Posted: Wed Feb 19, 2003 3:36 pm
by Artificial Penguin
Good points all. I especially like the points about a seller being able to set a minimum value (in secret or in the open)...which means they can't really get screwed.

Also, I totally agree with the fact that there's tons of crap paint jobs out there that get listed as "pro painted". What's up with that? If I can paint as well as what they're listing up there, it is NOT pro quality :-?

a seller's 2cents

Posted: Fri Mar 07, 2003 11:54 am
by boondog
I just love e-bay. It proves one of the basicequations of modern life: boredom + cash = tons of cr*p. I've sold quitesome models via e-bay, usually witha good profit margin. GAs don't bother me. I think they're a good idea. E-bay (and, come to think of it, also this forum) is -at least to me - an anonymous place. GAs basically come down to "trust a perfect stranger" How can this be a rip-off to anybody? As a seller I much prefer a customer with a lower than expected bid who's trusting and honest over a high-bidding troublemaker who's just waiting for a refund over some stupid little complaint.