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A Wretched Hive of Scum and Villainy ? Home


A Wretched Hive of Scum and Villainy ?
9/12/2005 posted by Kevin S

  • Want something cheap - go to Ebay
  • Want something quick - go to Eaby
  • Want something scarce - go to Ebay
  • Want something probably stolen - go to ebay

    • Now maybe I have Ebay completely wrong, but to my mind it encourages the flea-market/bargain-hunter mentality inside all of us. Unfortunately there are lots of unscrupulous pewople out there willing to take advantage of joe public and his gullable friends.

    First off you have the scammers, people who try to sell you something that doesn't actually exist, they just gotten some photos off the web and pretended its theirs. What makes me suprised is that the items are so low priced anyone who bids for them must be a complete fool if they think that if an item is 50% discounted from the retail price-tag its is clearly a bargain and must be real !

    Next up is the time wasters, " oh dear I didn't really mean to buy/sell my precious item. Sorry ! "

    The theives; people who sell you stolen things anonymously over the internet via the medium of Ebay. Do you realise that these people were probably out last night robbing a house or mugging someone on the street so that they can bring you the bargain nano IPod with a suspiciouly bad excuse about a lost box, that you a Joe Public bargain hunter will just tell yourself " oh thats right my dog eats boxes too! "

    Ok so I paint a pretty dismal picture of Ebay and I will admit that there are lots of decent people out there who aren't trying to rip you off however, what annoys me is that the structure of Ebay i.e the anonymity of it all is what makes it so easy to be dishonest.

    Example. A flea market somewhere in the UK. John Smith sets up a stall selling fake gear and dodgy DVDs. Will he get nicked by the Police, probably. Other traders will snitch on him ( perhaps ) or a Trading Standards guy might visit the market and spot the villian, and call the Police to arrest him. Simple. With Ebay this is almost impossible to police since there is one big flea market full of junk, goods and stolen items. Too much to handle in fact, and too much anonymity.

    These are of course my opions and I never use Ebay, I am sure that its not as bad as it seems since only the bad things get reported in the press. Perhaps it is time to draw on old adages, "If its too good to be true then it probably is." and "There is no such thing as a free lunch !"