Just come to the eBay Report Forum! Scroll down this page to get a listing of all HP items on eBay. Updated daily.

;^)[

a link please????????

I think the point gifron was trying to make is that there are so many ebay items discussed on this forum, that coming here is just like doing a search on ebay.

The curator Dave Hicks wisely included an "Ads Without Auctions" a while back for those wanting to buy/sell without the hustle of eBay. But, how does one get rid of any reference to eBay in the forum itself without tromping on free speech, or possibly a useful discussion? When the first posts regarding Cobubba came, I found them informative and entertaining as well. As many of us here buy/sell old stock or used calculators, the primary market, unfortunately, is eBay. Like it or not, eBay or some form of auction will probably be around forever now regarding the machines we love.

Edited: 24 Aug 2005, 8:37 a.m.

Nothing lasts for ever ... I remember the company that was selling VisiCalc (and all the Visi apps) .. and then Lotus that sold Lotus 123 ... I thought these companies would last forever.

While eBay has a lock on electronic auctions it has a few major weaknesses. The one that comes to mind is that it does not control or manage payments (like Amazon does). If members were forced to pay eBay directly then fraud would be less.

Soooo .. when a new auction company comes along that has addressed eBay's weaknesses .... eBay will be another Lotus ...

I think it was the french writer Molliere who said "The better is the enemy of the good!". Maybe Molliere was a die hard VisiCalc power user who was royally ticked to see Lotus stick it to Creative Arts.

I'm one of those who spend their money buying old calcs. My main search area is eBay. I've a few automatic searches regarding HP calculators active (It's a bit tricky to skip all those ink cartridges in the search).

What I post here are auctions with anomalies, like wrong photos or questionable info (like "HP 14C" instead of "HP 16C"). Sometimes, a precious device is discussed in a thread here. If I've the impression it is a rare item and I find one on eBay, I just tell the audience.

Anything wrong with that?

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Anything wrong with that?

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No.

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While eBay has a lock on electronic auctions it has a few major weaknesses. The one that comes to mind is that it does not control or manage payments (like Amazon does). If members were forced to pay eBay directly then fraud would be less.

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How do you figure that? First of all eBay owns paypal which is the main way people pay for auctions. Second the fraud is perpetrated by sellers not buyers so what difference does it make how the money is transferred?

Chris W

The fraud you are aware of comes from sellers. But if you read the seller's forums, they talk about cases of buyer fraud all the time.

Perspective is key.

But I second the notion that eBay discussions, while they shouldn't be banned, ought not dominate this forum. Accordingly, I vow to try really, really hard to avoid mentioning Co-whozzits or likewise. On the other hand, marvelling at a $220 dollar price for an HP-97 manual does have relevance for a collector who might own one of those manuals, or be in the market for one.

One of the great things about the US, and in general free markets around the world, is that challengers can upset dominant companies. Even the mighty AT&T fell to competition, despite a 100 year government-granted monopoly. Many of the vastly powerful companies of my youth got toppled by upstarts: IBM, Sony, Sears, Pan American Airlinies, Safeway. In some cases, technological change thwarted a company's mission (such as Western Union and telegraphy), but in most cases, it's just that the large company was slower to respond, and a smaller company could better satisfy customers.

It's fun to watch the "upstarts" grow so large that they are targets themselves. Southwest Airlines, though still on top, is getting serious pressure. Microsoft, which challenged and bested IBM, has now been challenged by Google, and the NY Times reports that Google has gotten so big that people fear it, meaning it will be challenged.

eBay may have a temporary "lock" on some form of commerce, but it cannot survive in such a dominant role. Sooner or later, someone else will pick a niche and better fill customer needs. Personally, I belive eBay is vulnerable right now, though it would take about $50,000,000 US to launch an effective competitive attack. eBay has made many mistakes that a competitor could correct. But that's another topic....

Hooray for the overall process that satisfies customer needs through innovation!

And flawed as Ebay is, how would you correct it? Its customer is the seller and it offers its customer (the seller) the best place to sell his product (treasure or JUNK) at the maximum value possible. And the seller is supposed to go elsewhere?

That Ebay is flawed and badly skewed against the buyer is no real concern to Ebay's customer (the seller). And Ebay now has a relationship with Paypal to really rack up profits, expediate sales and cover all the loose ends.

Yeah, eventually something might replace Ebay, but like Microsoft, they are entrenced in a very solid business that seems to favor their existence.

You're right about who eBay's customers are. But the sellers come because there are buyers. That alone is the reason eBay stays on top. It allows them to jack up seller fees periodically with no more harm to their business than a spate of extended whining on the seller's boards. They also do things like showing credit card logos with the Paypal ad on each auction. But the seller has to have a "Premium" PayPal account to be able to accept credit cards, and then they pay PayPal a 3% tax on every payment received, credit card based or not.

That eBay can get away with that sort of thing indicates that they have something more attractive than those tactics are repellent. And that is customers. eBay couldn't get away with slapping (direct) fees on the buyers. People would move on, and eBay would no longer be the dominant player. So they make their site easy to use for buyers, and they charge them no direct fees. Plus the prices are still better than retail, if you're careful. And guess what? it works, for eBay at least.

Edited: 24 Aug 2005, 4:05 p.m.

Most eBay members have PayPal ... yet some auctions accept other methods of payment which removes total cotnrol from eBay/PayPal.

As for fraud ... it is committed by both sellers and buyers: sellers who don't deliver at all or deliver items inferior to the ones they describe in their auctions. As for buyers, you have the ones who win the auction and never pay. I have seen both.