HP Forum Archive 10

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A public "thank you" to TomD and Jürgen Message #1 Posted by Dave on 21 Jan 2003, 5:46 p.m. I just wanted to thank both TomD and Jürgen for their willingness to let me buy an item on e-bay that they had bids on. You guys were very nice to let me do that. I appreciate it very much! Thanks again.

Re: A public "thank you" to TomD and Jürgen Message #2 Posted by Cr Toloss on 21 Jan 2003, 9:55 p.m., in response to message #1 by Dave I echo the appreciation to Tom and I tip my hat to you Dave for saying loud. I Have dealt with TomD for a few years. I owe most of the hard to find HP Calc collection to him. Always there when I need him.

Say it ain't so... Message #3 Posted by gifron on 22 Jan 2003, 9:07 a.m., in response to message #1 by Dave Please say this is not in reference to bid suppression activities... If two (or more) bidders agree not to bid against each other in an ongoing or future auction, they are engaging in bid collusion, and it is illegal - Not just "eBay illegal," but really illegal, as in against the law. The bidders may think they are just helping each other out, but it usually cheats the seller out of a higher price for his goods. No doubt, these were "after the auction closed" agreements between the seller and the two bidders... Right?

Re: It ain't so ! Message #4 Posted by Dave on 22 Jan 2003, 11:51 a.m., in response to message #3 by gifron I don't think I want to hash this out in the "forum of public opinion" any more than to say that I don't believe that any laws or even e-bay rules were broken. Turns out that the seller is trying to renig on the deal anyway, so e-bay will make a determination of whether their rules were violated.

Re: It ain't so ! Message #5 Posted by John K. (US) on 23 Jan 2003, 5:35 a.m., in response to message #4 by Dave As I understand it, any "scheme" to manipulate prices in an acution is illegal, be it inflating prices through "shill" bidding, or supressing them through "ring" bidding. The latter usually operates as an agreement between two or more individuals to bid no more than a given amount on an item, or to allow a specific individual to bid unopposed, and then to hold a private auction or exchange among the members of the "ring." The usual goal is to keep "public" prices low enough that such items don't attract speculators, or to keep items of a specific type within a small circle of "true" collectors. Of course, the details probably vary by jurisdiction, and since I'm not a lawyer nor do I play one on TV, YMMV.

Re: It ain't so ! Message #6 Posted by David Smith on 23 Jan 2003, 1:45 p.m., in response to message #5 by John K. (US) If you dig into the fine print on Ebay, they say that they are legally NOT an auction... just a name-your-own-price service. I don't know how or if the federal auction rigging laws apply, but Ebay does have policies against shilling, etc. I have also seen articles in newspapers about people being prosecuted for such things on Ebay... don't know how they turned out though.

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