Poll - discussion of current on-line auctions...

At the moment, the policy here is not to allow discussion of current on-line auctions.

Following some discussion of this policy towards the end of another thread [url=http://0flo.com/index.php?threads/5932 I wonder if it's now time to review the decision we reached earlier.

Please make your views known by selecting one option below. Many thanks in advance...

 

well done dave was wondering if something like this could be done
pete

 

Personally I have always believed that such discussions can effect the outcome of online auctions, even by the way of bringing it to someones attention who otherwise may not have known about it. If individuals spend the time to search the web to find that hidden treasure why is it fair to make others aware of it that don't put the effort in? I hope this makes sense but as a frequent online buyer I spend the time searching the web worldwide and I think it's good practice by forums such as CPL to consider how it could effect the possible outcomes.
I like this policy and have addressed it on another Aussie forum I am associated with and used CPL as an example of this policy being used by the moderators. I might ad that the Aussie forum I'm refering to is not lamp related but another interest I have.
I hope I'm not alone with this view, as I think this point should be considered by the Moderators as I'm sure it will be.
Just my 2 bobs worth anyway.
Dave.

 

I'm with you, Astroboy.

 

Me too.
I can't see why people are so interested in spoiling other members chances to score on online auctions. (Strangely enough, they only do this on auctions they aren't interested in themselves... )
Let those who actually have put some work in finding those misspelled or misplaced auction be rewarded by not spoiling the auction to the public.

However, the item in an auction can often be of interest for a discussion for different reasons, but then I think our system here already works very well.
It's just to wait out the auction and then post it here with the question you had in mind.

 

I voted yes only because I'm leaning toward the yes more than the no if that makes sense.

I can see both sides of the argument and yes it would be annoying if I discovered some mistyped lamp no one was bidding on but me and it was suddenly mentioned in a thread.. However that is the nature of online auctions, you don't know how many are watching it and something that appears to have no interest can suddenly attract a lot for no apparent reason anyway.

I think what swayed me was not so much the thread on the lamp that was being sold for what in my opinion was silly money but more some of the threads on sellers who clearly employ shill bidders and other nefarious means and who eBay do nothing about. I do think it is important and useful that these people are exposed preferably before someone has handed over their hard earned cash... One seller in particular appears to have some nice lamps and I wouldn't have noticed just how dodgy they were unless they had first been flagged up on here and I looked back over their previous auctions.

 

As a member of CCS where this is allowed I offer my personal thoughts: I do sometimes highlight auctions on CCS but only if it is a 'Buy-it-Now' type sale. If it is running as a standard auction I do not. However, I sometimes come across an item that I know may be of interest to a particular member. In that case I will send them a Private Topic.

There are also occasions when I will see an item for sale that I know may be of interest to members and should be in the Reference Gallery (of both CCS and CPL). In that case, I send the seller a message asking for permission to use their images. I have never been refused and have often been e-mailed hi res original and additional images. I do not however, post those images until the auction has ended.

Best wishes,
Terry

 

What ever you vote it should be the same for CCS and CPL, can't see any sense in it being different. Maybe One of the two should change.
Personally I wouldn't mind at all if someone was saying the price of my auction was too high because if someone wanted to have a bid it would be up to them, everyone has a brain so they should be able to make their own decisions. Don't like red tape but think there might be a lot of curtain twitching going on if the rule changes.I noticed my auction had a couple of minor mentions while it was live.

 

I was always dead against allowing auctions being posted but when a thread on here like the one on the sdr promoted such a lot of posts and interaction I began to wonder its got to be good for the site.
We all used to get lamps from various places carboots\fairs and so on but there is not so much about these days so some one collecting now most will come from ebay I should think. I cannot remember last lamp I bought on there but I look but the things I see put me off

this sums it up well for me

at one time ebay did care, a dodgy seller became no longer a registered user booted off not seen that in a while.

Posting a lamp up on here is not going to make any difference to what it makes if you want it you will pay what it takes but may help other less experienced collectors stop getting ripped off

cheers pete

 

Where I'm from the more people that attend an auction, the greater the demand and the higher the prices generally go for. So I look at it that way, the more people that know about an online auction or item the more attention it gets, and that can result in over inflated outcomes, which is great for the sellers but not so much for the bidders.

 

Agreed. The selling price is set by the 2 highest bidders. Everyone else is irrelevant.

Sid.

 

Of course the price is set by the two highest bidders.
But it's just as Astroboy say; exposing auctions on a forum (like ours) will in many case mean that a lot of people who didn't think about bidding suddenly is in the game, and in the end that will mean that the price will go higher than if it not had been mentioned in the forum.
And as said before: why shall "lazy" people be served good auctions here for nothing when another member in the smae forum has put some time in to find the auction, and was hoping to get it for a reasonable price?
What is the fun in spoiling good deal for our fellow members in here? i just don't get it...

But I can accept the reason Pete is more in to. To warn buyers from shady sellers, etc., but that has nothing to do with a regular revealing on the usual auctions.
It should be possible to work out a system for just the "warning thing".

 

Surely if you'd put time and effort into finding a poorly listed item then you would keep the discovery to yourself until after the auction ends. I can't see why anybody would want to search through thousands of ebay listings to find 'hidden treasure' and then post their finds on this forum.

Sid

 

But that is what people do.
It puzzles me too why...

 

Yes, I was also thinking along those lines but saw the 'policing' of it as likely to be problemmatical - it would be a subjective call by the Mod team i.e. you, Christer!

I can definitely see a case for not allowing threads posted for no other than altruistic, though possibly misguided, reasons i.e. I'm not going to bid on this but I think other people might want to.

On the other hand, I can also see a case for allowing threads which are designed to prevent members coming to grief in some way i.e. shill-bidding, bad experience with this seller and so on.

If that distinction could be drawn and it's not too difficult to administer, I'd venture to suggest the majority of members would be happy with that compromise...

 

Gets my vote

 

Tricky,,,,on one hand its good to make the forum aware of an interesting item and we can all discuss it , even to a point of helping a fellow forumeer win the auction,It would also be good to link to some of the more stupid descriptions to add a bit of humour..
However if i'm biding on a Tilee Pawafin Doenut and am the only bidder at 99p then my views may change....
Is it something for subscribers only ?

 

And if there were two (or more) of them interested, how would we decide who to help?

Yep, I can see that and I've often been tempted to post such auctions.

Yes.

 

True that may happen but it's a double edged sword as it also means your existing collection is worth more in a similar auction...

I think prices are already going up anyway as several people are now seeing profit in a can of brasso!

 

Several very good points have been made here so far 8) & i have read some very humerous posts here in the past about auctions where sellers have really gilded the lily so to speak

But as a word to the wise & in no way teaching anyone to suck eggs a few observations

1. Auctions have always been subject to dodgy dealings as far as shill bidders are concerned & it's a chance we all take when we bid on ebay or even the local town auction , honesty where money is concerned can be a bit tricky for some peoples conscience's

2. Informing payed up members who are unaware of the pitfalls/false descriptions of stoves or lamps can only benefit their decision to pay out hard earned cash & i for one would be greatful to any learned member here for that unselfish service , although even this could be usurped by the unscrupulous , again where money or avarice is present

3. Realistically any of the above could occur with or without malice intended & that is just a fact of life , "you pays your money & you takes your chance"

I agree that anyone ( myself included ) who has trawled through to find a bargain on ebay would be miffed at losing out , but again this is just being in the right place at the right time & you can't win em all .

Many times an item i have been looking at suddenly digs up a a similar one from a totaly unrelated catergory badly listed & i have won a real bargain i didn't even know was there two minutes before Just luck again or persistance who knows

Sorry for going the long way round

Stu

PS Happy with the proposal to allow this

 

Hi !
Wheres the rest of the site members ?

Don't just sit on the fence , get up and give us your ebay views !

Please !

mick

 

Gneiss, I must say that I don't care what my collection is worth since I never sell anything. I'm just a collector.

To warn people for dubious sellers is OK with me, and I'm pretty sure that is what Pete mainly was after.
But what is the point of revealing a regular auction just because you not are interested in it yourself?
Is it to increase post counts in a forum?
It is definitely not to help fellow collectors, because you can be assured that there already is another fellow collector watching the auction, desperately keeping his fingers crossed that it won't be mentioned in a forum read by hundreds of other interested people. Especially since many of those people live where the difference in currencies between our countries mean that they have a tremendous much higher purchasing power than yourself.
I say let them search and find the auctions themselves.

 

As a late arrival to lantern collecters anonymous, I'm selfishly opposed to others getting a heads up on what I'm looking for... Realistically, as I'm aware that my chances of obtaining the remaining lanterns that I want is slim to none, I don't have any objections to a "heads up" from someone that's seen a lantern but doesn't want it!

I would suggest that it be for members only and not just restricted to subscribers if this is adopted though (as I think it is for CCS).

There's another side to this - I was looking at an auction (ended several times with 0 bids and re-entered every time) and would have appreciated member's views on it! As it is continuously re-posted after ending I can't post it!

I guess I'm neither strongly for nor against (provided I can succeed in my quest to obtain some older Kerosine Colemans and Optimus lanterns at reasonable prices!)

 

Hi Christer

Thats why i can only afford basket cases Look at my FL6 for example 8) .

I see your valid point on searching & even the exchage rate , but someone is always going to have more money than you or me & if they want it badly enough you'll have no chance

I was looking at an old Primus reflector heater in need of some serious fettling the other day in an auction on ebay , & at the time seemed to be going for a reasonable price

Until in the last few seconds when i was just going to bid what i could reasonably afford , it went for over four times what i was prepared to pay

When you get a bargain it always feels great 8) which balances out the dissapointment of losing another

Stu

PS It's mostly the postage that crucifies me , but we've already been down that road

 

I have no problem with that. That's the nature of an auction.
What I have a problem with is that those people shall be served auctions on a gold plate without bothering themselves. If they haven't searched and found the auction, why shall we help them with it?

I really want to know why people are so keen on spoiling auctions for other members.

As said: Pete's point about revealing dodgy sellers is another thing. That serves a purpose.

 

Hi Chister

I see your point about doing the hard work & it should pay off , but even this sometimes bears no fruit just like the Primus which was badly listed too & i still didn't get it

Even if some auctions are posted i think it will be for members benefit due to falsification of details etc like you said

I don't think it will be many folks showing their hand at least until the auction may have ended if it's something they really want , anyway we all like a guilty secret once in a while

Stu

 

Surely it won't take a year to find out what people think will it? The vote ends this time 2014, Wow what's the point.

 

The reason for that, is that adding a poll isn't an intuitive process and it was late last night when I started the thread. At the third attempt, I obviously didn't change the voting period from it's default value of one year (which is the real problem) to one month as I intended.

In reality, it won't make any difference because we'll easily be able to tell when everyone who wants to vote has done so...

If you mean the £117 one, Stu, you're probably going to have to be very lucky to get one for £25 or so. I've two to dispose of but I'd hope to get more than that for the incomplete one.

You might find the passage of time changes your view on that. It has for me... 8)

We've had 41 votes so far, Mick, and I think that's probably most of the active site members, so pretty good. I doubt we'll get to 50 votes...

 

Hi David

I can dream & i was going to pay a bit more than that though , maybe another £1 or two

So i got these instead......

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/200960336493?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649

Stu

 

The above post from Stu is an illustration of part of the reason CPL doesn't accept auction links. In 90 days time it will be an invalid link. If that was a new thread the reference point for any subsequent discussion would eventually vanish & quite likely render that discussion meaningless.

Discussing current online auctions being against the rules isn't strictly correct which is why some of the discussions have been allowed up to now - the benefit to the members or the site has outweighed any disadvantages.

It's a tough one. I've gained & lost in my opinion when it's occurred on CCS. CCS was becoming littered with redundant ebay links & some members seemed to make it their mission to post anything that may be of interest. We decided to only allow such links in a dedicated forum where the posts would auto expire after 90 days & for viewing by subscribers only.

In the planning stage of CPL all the points above where discussed & as a result we are where we are.

If something amazing comes up on ebay is it really doing the community long term service posting a link from ebay? Far better to post the pictures in the reference sections, ideally with the sellers permission.