In article <
[email protected]>,
Bill <
[email protected]> wrote:
> Ryan Cousineau wrote:
> > In article <[email protected]>,
> > Bill <[email protected]> wrote:
> >
> >> Werehatrack wrote:
> >>> On Thu, 06 Jul 2006 09:59:56 GMT, Ryan Cousineau <[email protected]>
> >>> wrote:
> >>>
> >>>> I would describe the pricing on Craigslist Vancouver as "pure comedy
> >>>> gold."
> >>>>
> >>>> Also fun: minimal sizing information, blurry photos, people who think
> >>>> their bike is a collector's item, overpriced bike boom trash...
> >>>>
> >>>> Craigslist ranks about second to police auctions as the land of crazy
> >>>> bike pricing.
> >>>
> >>> Todays classic from that venue was an ad for an almost-new tandem bike
> >>> for just $350. The photo was not half bad, and the bike looked
> >>> familiar. I got curious, and checked a hunch. Sure enough, it was
> >>> Kent from Wal-Mart; it sells brand new for $250.
> >> Try what I try on Craigslist. Go for the free stuff and see if you can
> >> be the first one there. I don't but a friend of mine does, and he got a
> >> working laptop for $2.00, and that was only because he felt so guilty he
> >> had to give the lady something.
> >>
> >> Remember, neither Craigslist not Ebay require great quality photos,
> >> although they may make the difference between a sale or not. I tried
> >> listing stuff on Ebay with no photos and got 0.0 responses. As soon as I
> >> put photos on my web site and a link in Ebay I got tons of bids.
> >>
> >> This country is visually oriented. Why do you think television has
> >> trumped radio in all but cars?
> >>
> >> Bill Baka
> >
> > Bill, (and please understand that the following phrase is a term of
> > endearment I picked up in rec.bicycles.racing) you dumbass, the need for
> > photos has nothing to do with visual orientation, especially as a
> > national characteristic.
>
> You misunderstood what I was trying to say. Craig's list and Ebay
> require photos or no bites. Newspaper want ads don't have photos, but
> how many people with Internet look at the paper when they can just
> search for a word and let the 3GHz electrons do their work. Did you ever
> notice that on Ebay when you go to buy a hard drive, for instance, there
> will be a picture, probably pulled from the manufacturer and there will
> be bids on it. The items with no pictures have no bids. Yet, we all know
> that one hard drive looks pretty damn much like another.
There's a few nits to pick here:
-I think visual orientation is a global, not a national phenomenon. It's
probably as nearly universal as a human trait gets, given how visually
oriented our species is. It was this weird comment by you that got me to
respond. Quick check: is blindness or deafness a worse affliction?
-yes, a picture will have price benefits beyond its mere
conditon-evaluating value. even a generic HD picture, if it's of the
right component, can help confirm that you're bidding on the right thing
(proper interface, drive sticker matches, etc). And pictures serve as a
signalling device to experienced eBayers about the kind of seller
they're dealing with. No photo is one of those signals (along with bad
descriptions, private auctions, bad feedback) that you're dealing with a
seller who is inexperienced, incompetent, or scamming badly.
> > Photos are the only way for a buyer to evaluate the condition of used
> > goods from afar.
>
> Read the above. A hard drive can look brand new and have so many bad
> sectors it is unusable. Same goes for just about everything with
> creative photography.
Honest photography will look honest. The pictures will reflect the
described condition. Noted blemishes on a used frame (for example) will
be photographed so that I can clearly evaluate them for myself.
Electronic components are not very easy to evaluate by sight, but an HD
auction that didn't describe the drive's usability accurately would
garner bad feedback. Fool eBay buyers twice, etc.
The use of photos has a lot of practical advantages even if it's a stock
photo. If the stock shot doesn't match the goods described, I
immediately start asking questions.
> Condition descriptions are not standardized (except in
> > a few specialty collector markets like comic books, coins, and stamps).
>
> Yeah, yeah, red book (coins), blue book (cars), etc. ad some nauseum.
Compared to how many markets there are on eBay without standard grading
(pretty much all sporting goods, for example), I think these are the
exceptions, not the rule. Even in places where there might be grading
standards, a lot of stuff simply isn't described within those standards.
My wife is into doll collecting, and it's just a crapshoot.
> > Blurry photos are almost as bad, since they conceal more than they
> > reveal. At least Craigslist is a regional market, so in theory you're
> > supposed to go see the goods before putting out good cash, but the
> > prospect of driving halfway across town to poke at a pig in a poke does
> > not appeal.
>
> You are merely re-enforcing what I said, like a picture is worth a
> thousand words. That saying will always hold true. Said friend and I
> will not drive over 2 miles to check out anything without a picture
> unless the deal is so good that we jump up and burn rubber, literally,
> we use his Lincoln, and sometimes we get unbelievably lucky, like him
> getting a free laptop.
> >
> > Say no to sales with bad pictures,
>
> You still haven't justified the "Dumbass" comment since I spoke no
> untruths. When was the last time you heard of a family gathering around
> the radio for a Saturday night special? Never you say? I'm old enough to
> remember it, and the country was probably better off without television
> and now the Internet.
I apologize for that: I shouldn't dump insider jokes from other
newsgroups here where they look like insults. I shouldn't have said it,
and I'm sorry.
> About those pictures....I want to be able to read the serial number of
> the bike and see a good close up of the working stuff, not the seller's
> opinion of how great the condition is.
Right! That is the definition of good photos. The lousy blurry photos
force you to decide if the auction is worth sending in clarifying
questions, taking a chance on the unknown, or both. Every little thing
that is wrong with an auction offering tends to increase the number of
questions to the seller, decrease the number of interested bidders, or
both. That there is a hierarchy of utility among photos (no pictures,
stock shots, blurry "real" shots, good shots) should not surprise anyone.
--
Ryan Cousineau
[email protected] http://www.wiredcola.com/
"I don't want kids who are thinking about going into mathematics
to think that they have to take drugs to succeed." -Paul Erdos