british-cars
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Re: e-bay

To: british-cars@autox.team.net
Subject: Re: e-bay
From: Mark J Bradakis <mjb@cs.utah.edu>
Date: Tue, 6 Feb 2001 01:44:13 -0700 (MST)
   A general question and your feelings are greatly appreciated, what is the
   attitude toward listing a part for sale on e-bay and then posting it to the
   list as being available, bad idea, good idea, bad manners or what, as a
   general rule I am talking rare and NOS original parts, not used or recond,
   I am not refering to anyone, just asking for me, myself, and I.


Only a week or so behind now, making some progress wading through the cruft.
This question is one with no clear and simple answer.  I've been meaning to
address it for some time now, and as a matter of fact wrote something up
about a year or two ago, thinking I would send it out to all the various
autox.team.net subscribers on all the lists as soon as I finished polishing
it up.  Might as well send it off as is.

mjb.
----


 And now, a word from our sponsor.

You don't hear that phrase much anymore, as the commercials just appear,
while you are sitting there in front of that big vacuum tube entertaining
ourself.  Much like you are doing at this very moment reading this.

And it is likely you've seen your share of commercials on this tube as well.
Yep, scam artists and snake oil sales critters from around the globe have
said, "Hey, why should we *pay* for advertising, when we can send email and
have the chumps on the other end pay for it all?  Such a deal!"

So electrons around the world are jumping about, touting the virtues of
this or that, with the hapless recipient unable to refuse the advertising
coming in C.O.D.  A sad state indeed, but there is hope for the future,
with various legal and technical devices being devised to deal with such
unscrupulous scumbags.

But this message isn't really about that.  Other than one or two examples,
the Team.Net lists are, for the most part, not a conduit for spam.  No, this
message is about commercials of a different sort.  Lately I, as the Team.Net
mom, have been getting more complaints about subscribers using the lists for
advertising their stuff.  Now, on the one hand, being able to offer a few
excess bits of your own, or reading about some random part that you must have
is one of the benefits of these lists.

But then there might be folks who don't just offer a part for sale, but
do something more like "Hey, folks, I have some items I'd like to unload, and
I would appreciate it if you chumps would go over to eBay and jack up the bids
for me"  And there are folks on this list who do have commercial ventures that
are in the areas of interest for subscribers.  I'm sure they would love to
be able to get in free advertising when they so desired.

You can always send automotive related adverts, both personal and business, to
autojumble@autox.team.net, a list whose purpose is to provide a place to
advertise.  Subscribe to it as you would any other Team.Net list.
Send mail to majordomo@autox.team.net and in the body of the message
put nothing but the words

  subscribe autojumble

or, if you'd prefer,

  subscribe autojumble-digest


For the moment, though, my request is simple.  Use common sense, respect and
consideration if you are thinking about offering items for sale on one of the
lists.  At the very least, describe what you have, where in the world it is
located, and the price.  It isn't nice to make folks who might be interested
do the work in requesting this basic info, when a few more seconds of typing
on your part would do the trick.

These lists, with the previously mentioned exception of autojumble, are for
discussion, not commerce.  I don't want to just ban any and all 'for sale'
email, outright.  Finding a needed part through the list resources is an
important part of the value provided.  I simply request that you Think before
you type.

mjb.

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