AuctionBytes.com Question of the Week
January 09, 2000
What do you consider the single most important aspect of a successful auction? (Choose among Auction Title, Description, Picture, Starting Bid, and Other.)
Several U.S. states are proposing legislation that would require licenses for people who trade on internet auction sites. Would you support this legislation? (12/30/99)
Well, if this were a real ballot question, then it would have been soundly defeated! Of the 182 respondents, 87% would not support legislation requiring a license to trade on online auction sites. 6% stated that they would support such legislation. This question also elicited some very interesting feedback.
"Can you imagine what a confusing thing this would be, 7 million licenses to issue? Not to mention, all the licenses issued to professional auctioneers!! And...how will the professionals take to this...could be they would object. As far as I am concerned, this is another way for government to work it's way into our lives regardless of how we feel about the legislation."
(Visit the Web site to read additional comments regarding this question.)
Do you agree with eBay's new feedback policy that only allows transactional feedback? (feedback associated with a successfully completed auction) (12/23/99)
Seems as though eBay has taken a step in the right direction! By a ratio of better than 2:1, our respondents agree with eBay's new feedback policy that only allows transactional feedback. (feedback associated with a successfully completed auction) 63% voted Yes, and 30% voted No.
We got a lot of comments about this question too, including:
"I actually have mixed feelings about this one. On the one hand, I have had some very pleasant experiences with people who have not actually bid on an item but we wound up doing other business - not auction related. On the other hand, it is too easy to have friends and acquaintances write feedback - making it hard to know if any of it is true."
"I feel it is important to leave only transactional feedback as that is how the majority of people, both bidders & sellers, decide who to do business with. The feedback tells you how someone treats bidders or follows through on their bid. There are those out there who place "phantom" bids for fun and either do not respond to e-mail or leave insulting e-mail. It is important to let others know this so that these people can be avoided.
Auctions can be fun but are not a game for the bored or oversized juvenile with way too much time on their hands. The transactional feedback makes everyone aware of where a person stands. It also keeps people from falsely increasing their feedback to unearned levels with a small group of friends who constantly send each other "best person on the planet" feedback attached to no auction number."
"Sometimes a deal is worked out when a minimum reserve was not reached, yet eBay was integral to the deal; and if the transaction went smoothly, why not post positive? Also, (I have not had this experience) There may be a time when
a deal/committment is not carried out by one party, which would seem to call for possible negative or neutral feedback."
See story #7 below: "ALERT: BEWARE OF MAKING NON-EBAY TRANSACTIONS ON EBAY!!"
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Should online auction sites post a list of recurrent deadbeat bidders and sellers? (12/16/99)
AuctionBytes.com has never seen such a strong response to a question (or such an uneven outcome!) The votes we received over the past week overwhelmingly reflected that people were interested in a method of identifying chronic deadbeat bidders and sellers! 93% of the respondents wanted to see a list of recurrent deadbeat bidders.
We got a lot of feedback on this question. I'm reprinting one of the replies we received that raises valid question about the idea of listing chronic deadbeat bidders & sellers. We should remember that an individual is innocent until proven guilty.
All this is simplistic and dangerous. Such polls are inevitably self-selecting and unrepresentative. Even if this survey could pretend even to a modicum of accuracy it would still not legitimate action on the topic surveyed.
Majority support does not of itself justify action which would be contrary to the civil rights of the minority. There can be no justification for publicising the name of any dealer or collector unless the individual has been duly investigated and found guilty of unprofessional behaviour by the appropriate recognised body - or court.
Naming someone on any global communications medium on the basis of one, or even a number of, aggrieved individuals' unproven complaint, even if wholly justified, can be disastrous for that person's reputation when there may be a number of reasons for the action complained of other than corruption. Anyone involved in the legal, or even the political world, knows full well that in very many cases of prima facie misdealing, for every claim on one side there is a counter claim from the other - quite apart from the prevalence of incompetence, misunderstanding, ill health or other reasons for the action complained of.
There are a number of courses of action within the philatelic world open to an individual with a grievance and these should be utilised rather than resorting to publicity without corroborated proof. The moment for publicity is when the legitimate body has come to its decision.
The philatelic world in general is remarkably honest. Valuable stamps are regularly despatched to and from dealers and collectors, often purely on the word of one or the other. In many years of collecting - including buying and selling at a reasonable level - I have only had one bad financial experience, and this was eventually sorted out within the philatelic sphere. Of course there is the occasional rogue, but that is no reason to rush to judgement and to risk damaging innocent individuals.
Don't bother to indulge in such futility. It may make you feel better but it won't do any good. No wonder our political and democratic processes are in such a state if there is such a lack of intellectual rigour even over a topic on which those participating feel passionate. There is no easy solution to complex problems, no matter what the pollsters might suggest!
