So ebay is nice

[kafka47]

Where I find most eBay sellers to be stinkers are in that they are very poor losers. If the list something small like 10 dice for .99$ they then add p&h fees of $12 to cover their loss on the grounds that they can charge handling fees of any amount (not true, eBay has a policy of reasonableness). Another drawback that eBay refuses to deal with claims under $25, and sometimes the internal clock of paypal is screwed up so you end up shelling out up to $24.99 with no recourse. Sellers like sellers everywhere are good, bad and in between. Secret is find one that you can trust and build a relationship. My favorite one for Traveller stuff is a guy who goes by the handle Timmon who will selling some more stuff soon.

 

[JohnHaus]

I've both bought and sold on ebay. A couple of hundred items total.

If an item doesn't have the shipping fee stated, I will not bid (if it's something I really, really want, then I email him and ask what it will be).

I've been known to snipe since early bidding only seems to raise the final price.

When selling, I state that I will only charge shipping, never handling. If I know what the final price of shipping will be, I state it. So far it has worked for me.

 

[Darkhstarr]

Sniping can be annoying, especially when there's been no bids on an item, & you place a bid the last day & lose it to a sniper who hits a few seconds from the end when you can't bid again.
As for people who bid up prices not all are shills. Some are just jerks who like to bid items up just to annoy. I've seen it at art auctions at SF cons over 3 decades. I have had the joy of seeing it backfire & having the smuck get stuck with a piece they didn't want a couple of times. The most annoying auction experience happened at a con auction. I had the winning bid on a piece of original art & had it stolen from the con personnel before I could pay for it. Of course not all Traveller stuff sells on ebay at very low prices. I have some Judges Guild stuff that didn't sell. I thinking I might donate them to the local gaming con's fundraising auction.

 

[Hal]

Originally posted by The Shaman:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by ChipH:
Could they not just make another print run of BtC?

That's probably prohibitive costwise.

I've never seen it, but I've read that BtC has a lot of errors in need of fixing, too - any G:T fans out there who can verify this? </font>[/QUOTE]As a GURPS fan, I can verify that the book has a LOT of errors in it. Point of interest: I was working on creating a populated database that would basically take the scut work out of GURPS FAR TRADER. It was intended to also use GURPS SPACE for 4e to generate planetary data so I can just click on a world name, and it would pull up the data. I was rather surprised when I got tired of dealing with 7 pages of errata - and went back to the original Traveller database from another program (HEAVEN AND EARTH). The shock my friends, was in discovering that there were something like FIVE star systems in HEAVEN AND EARTH that weren't in GURPS BEHIND THE CLAW and/or GURPS FAR TRADER. Grrrrr.

So what am I doing now? I used the original listings from Heaven and Earth in the original Universal World Profiles, and then translated THOSE into GURPS terms. Later on, I might go back and use the planetary Diameters listed in GURPS BEHIND THE CLAW, or I might just make it a random die roll and enter those numbers in.

One last comment on my project and then I'll let it rest:

In reading the rules more closely with FAR TRADER, I discovered something I really didn't like. To wit: there are rules that more or less simulate the concept that there is competition for freight by other traders. These rules are that you roll against the character's merchant skill to see what the "price per parsec per dton" is on the assumption that the characters are bidding against others to get the best price they can get. A poor merchant roll results in low income per parsec per dton. A good merchant roll results in Higher than average prices per dton per parsec. Oddly enough - there is NO such mechanism for getting passengers. As I mentioned to Mr Thrash, before he got to making snide comments - it seems mighty odd that they can estimate the tonnage required to handle a world's shipping, but that they can't estimate how much tramp freighter tonnage is in port. I found it interesting too, that a Player Character ship in a port that wants service for 3,000 dtons of tramp service daily, has to roll for competative pricing on freight, but gets to CHOOSE to take all the available High Passengers in port that day. Hmmm. Competition my ass.

 

[Klaus]

Well I've just acquired both BtC and TTA from eBay, so now I'm very happy indeed.

There's nothing immoral whatsoever about a last minute snipe bid. Tis how I got the TTA. If you want something then you are beholden to use any and all means that are not illegal or dishonest.

eBay is like poker. Bluff and counterbluff are all legitimate actions.

Originally posted by Manax Darkhstarr:

As for people who bid up prices not all are shills. Some are just jerks who like to bid items up just to annoy. I've seen it at art auctions at SF cons over 3 decades. I have had the joy of seeing it backfire & having the smuck get stuck with a piece they didn't want a couple of times.

Not so. Not all such bids are to annoy. You can have tactical bidding, just as you can have tactical voting. Sometimes you have an opponent bidding on something you really want, who is also bidding on other things. By making them pay more for that stuff, they have less money in the pot to bid on the thing you want. And it's a risk; if the other bidder doesn't take the bait, then you end up with something you don't want. C'est la vie. This may be devious, but it is not dishonest, and is all fair. Your opponent may be losing, but the seller wins.

Caveat Emptor, and all that...

 

[Darkhstarr]

Originally posted by Klaus:
Well I've just acquired both BtC and TTA from eBay, so now I'm very happy indeed.

Not so, indeed. I did say some. And those are instances that I knew that spite, not tacttic were in play. But that also part of the game you have to deal with in live auctions. And personally I don't like sniping-I prefer a straight forward bidding competion. I get a better feeling losing due to being outbidded & having a chance to decide whether I really want the item-and I won't snipe another bidder for the same reason.

</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Manax Darkhstarr:

As for people who bid up prices not all are shills. Some are just jerks who like to bid items up just to annoy. I've seen it at art auctions at SF cons over 3 decades. I have had the joy of seeing it backfire & having the smuck get stuck with a piece they didn't want a couple of times.

Not so. Not all such bids are to annoy. You can have tactical bidding, just as you can have tactical voting. Sometimes you have an opponent bidding on something you really want, who is also bidding on other things. By making them pay more for that stuff, they have less money in the pot to bid on the thing you want. And it's a risk; if the other bidder doesn't take the bait, then you end up with something you don't want. C'est la vie. This may be devious, but it is not dishonest, and is all fair. Your opponent may be losing, but the seller wins.

Caveat Emptor, and all that... </font>[/QUOTE]