Reading Internet

The best thing about EBay might be that you only get to see the personal info and e-mail addresses of those who you do business with.

Imagine for a second a bidder who had his bid sniped from him in the last 30 seconds could retrieve the address of the auction winner.

Murder... violence... bloodshed. The world would sink into chaos.

Do you think I just won or lost? :-D

'Yeah, That's what Jesus would do. Jesus would bomb Afghanistan. Yeah.' - snowlion

A friend of mine recently introduced me to ebay. It would really be a good thing but I'm afraid I'm to e-biz-illiterate to do it on my own, there are so many things to learn and it says you have to talk to the vendour to arrange how to send the package and stuff... Hmm... I saw a nice handbag though yesterday. Maybe I'll try it :)

But I remember someone warning me from ebay because of... err... I don't know.
Was that you, null? :)

"Sie wollen nichts anderes. Sie wollen kämpfen! Sie sind Soldaten! Fucking Wahnsinnige!" - Noel G.

But I remember someone warning me from ebay because of... err... I don't know.

There are crooks and liars in eBay, just as in about every part of the Internet. I haven't had any bad experiences yet, but I've heard of others who had.

'Yeah, That's what Jesus would do. Jesus would bomb Afghanistan. Yeah.' - snowlion

Yeah, that was me. There were some (credible) reports that eBay silently supports fraudulent regular users (because frauds make much more money, of which they get a percentage), and of employees being told not to deactivate some obviously unkosher accounts, as promised in their terms of use. And then there are some rumours (<--read: "rumours") that they're not taking their privacy policy too seriously.

"God is dead." - Nietzsche, 1882 "Nietzsche is dead." - God, 1900

This post was edited by null on May 22, 2003.

Also, I believe that there are a few deals going on there that are more than they appear to be; little black market (or whatever you'd like to call it) sales disguised as God only knows what else.

I'll believe in anything if you'll just believe in anything

The best thing about eBay in my opinion is that there are other people on it. That way I DON'T win every bid I make. Which would be disasterous, to be honest. I reckon I get through about 1 succesful purchase a month. And that's about all I can afford.
The WORST thing about eBay, has already been touched upon. Fraud. So many items I see for sale that have had the box or the manual "lost". You can tell full well from the going price and often the seller's lack of good product information that, in all likelyhood, it is stolen. Seems to be most revelant with software as I guess that's the easiest to rip off. I have been SO tempted to buy these things "in good faith" as they are really cheap often. Problem is though, I'm not sure my conscience would allow it and I'm hazy on the legal position. If I claimed I had no idea it was stolen/pirated software when I purchased it,would I be breaking the law? Guess it's a tough call.

Handling stolen goods is a criminal offense in its own right in the UK.

Unfortunately, this makes even the innocent guilty, as ignorance is not a valid plead against this charge. However, normally the police are willing to forgoe charge if the information you provide leads to an arrest, especially if they can convict for more than one occurence.

Either way, you lose what you bought, and you get hassled by the police. In my opinion, if an item's not complete from eBay, at least items that may have a hazy legal aspect, such as software, then I wouldn't touch it

- J

They will never forget you 'til somebody new comes along... - The Eagles, "New Kid in Town"

If I claimed I had no idea it was stolen/pirated software when I purchased it,would I be breaking the law?

This might differ from country to country, but usually you wouldn't have to fear anything unless the good's dubious nature should have been really, really obvious to you when you stroke the deal.

Hand-labelled copies of expensive software, for instance, is, obviously, pretty obvious.

However, even if you bought the item in good faith you have no ownership rights to it and law requires you to return it to its rightful owner without compensation.

'Yeah, That's what Jesus would do. Jesus would bomb Afghanistan. Yeah.' - snowlion

This might differ from country to country

I second that.
In Switzerland there's the principle of good faith, which would go like this - if, with your current education, profession and things you know, definitely should have known that the software is pirated, you're guilty.
So if an IT manager and a 60 years old housewife from the countryside both buy a copy of Crimosoft Office 2005 on a hand-labelled copied CD, the housewife may get away with it, while the IT manager has a problem if caught.

"God is dead." - Nietzsche, 1882 "Nietzsche is dead." - God, 1900

Well i don't know, I bought a new mobilephone on ebay in january and never eceived it. So I went to the customer protection. Well i received an e-mail in february telling that they are working on the case. Well I lost trust and didn't even hope to recieve my money after 2 months. but about a week ago I got an e-mail, telling me that my case hase been finished and that I get my money back and yeah, received it.

I don't think that will buy anything on ebay again, I always prefered online shops, but it's cool to have the money back.

cya Magic

"The wise have always said the same things, and fools have always done the opposite"-Schopenhauer