Ebay idiocy

[Sellam Ismail]

I thought I'd weigh in on the latest policy change on eBay.  I didn't know 
about the new change until someone e-mailed me about it.  The only change 
I've noticed recently is that one is not now allowed to randomly send a 
message to another user with whom they have not done business, which leads 
one to ask why they have the fucking contact link there in the first 
place?

Through the years there have been these recurring bitch sessions over 
eBay's increasingly idiotic policies.  In the meantime, I and Patrick set 
up an alternate for the computer collecting community that was tailored 
for our specific needs and desires, taking into account all the bitching 
and pissing and moaning over eBay's abominable system.  We got the first 
implementation off and running with big plans to expand it further, which 
have yet to materialize, and I'll get into that in a second.

But first I want to take the time to congratulate the community for the 
big fuck you they gave to the VCM.  It has always been the intention that 
we would start charging at some point for using it, but we never got to 
that point.  The usage was so minimal anyway that it didn't make sense to 
start charging until we could get a reasonably active user base.  
Granted, we could've done a lot more to promote and advertise the site, 
but the CC list community here damn well knew about it and was constantly 
reminded about it by myself and Marvin, and inspite of that the activity 
just never materialized.

Patrick has since gone on to bigger and better things, having washed his 
hands of the CC list and community at some point last year when he 
couldn't take anymore of the petty bickering and flame wars that regularly 
erupt (this is paraphrasing what he told to me).  He turned the site and 
its maintenance over to me and I've been running it solo ever since, 
mostly just approving all the new accounts and handling the very rare 
issues that crop up.

For the most part, the VCM has been there processing transactions (for 
FREE) on autopilot, and running rather well considering.  If it wasn't for 
Marvin--who was fed up enough with eBay but, more importantly, savvy 
enough to realize that the VCM is better for selling a lot of stuff, 
especially when there are no listing fees--the VCM would effectively be 
dead.

I know people are using it, because I see you swooping in and grabbing 
some of the better stuff being offered for great prices (someone just 
bought a nice IMSAI 8080 for around $1,200, which is a pretty good deal).  
I buy a lot of stuff from Marvin, who is listing a lot of fantastic stuff 
for extremely reasonable prices.  There are other people regularly selling 
there too and probably making a decent amount of money, COMMISSION FREE.

Now, getting back to the expansion of the system.  I do still have a lot 
of plans for the service, mainly in the area of making it a bit more 
friendly in the interface.  When we launched it we had a service that I 
felt was superior to eBay's crap system.  In the meantime, eBay used their 
billions of dollars of capitalization to make their system easier to use, 
integrated a lot of stuff, etc.  Me, I'm still sitting on my IPO until the 
next irrational dot.com boom, so my funds are limited, as is my time, as 
is my ability to make any changes to the VCM since Patrick owns and 
controls the server and wrote all the code (based on a system he'd already 
designed for a past client of his).  Now that Patrick is out of the 
picture, I'm faced with having to port the entire system over to my own 
server, which I would like to do so I can finally take it into Phase 2 and 
beyond.

But quite frankly, why the fuck should I even bother?  You guys don't use 
it anyway.  You keep using eBay, and you keep bitching about how stupid 
they are and get all up in arms when they make yet another bone-headed 
policy change, and there sits the VCM doing everything you want, allowing 
you to communicate with whoever the hell you want without any over-bearing 
surveillance system in place to make sure you aren't doing something 
sneaky to deprive us of revenue, with the guys who built and run the 
system completely available directly via e-mail for any suggestions, 
complaints, praise(?) [hardly any, if you're wondering], and doing it 
without asking you for one god damn penny.

So tell me, seriously, why should I bother moving forward with the VCM?  
You want an alternative?  It's already there, and I'd like to continue to 
build on it and improve it and make it the premier place for trading in 
old computers, a de facto replacement for eBay, like I originally 
intended.  But I'm certainly not going to waste my time unless people 
actually decide to USE IT.

Is there a reason you don't use it?  Is there something about the 
interface you don't like?  Is there one or two or three or five reasons 
why you don't like it or don't want to use it?  If so, why didn't you say 
so?  You could've always e-mailed either myself or Patrick, and like the 
few people who did bother to give us feedback, your comments and 
suggestions would've resulted in immediate changes to the system.  Try 
getting that from eBay.  As O. Sharp pointed out, try even finding a 
fucking way to communicate with eBay!!  They make it nearly impossible for 
you to get a hold of them because THEY DON'T GIVE A SHIT ABOUT YOU.  They 
just want you to buy shit from sellers to that they can get a cut of their 
money and they want you to shut the fuck up.

I see now that I've been relegated to ranting about eBay it's time to 
start winding this up.  In conclusion, I'm quite serious about my queries.  
The VCM has been out there for years and inspite of the lack of 
advertising 1,881 people have managed to find it and sign up for an 
account.  Logically, that would make for a very strong and active user 
base.  As far as I can tell, about 1,800+ of them don't actually do 
anything once they get an account.  Why?  Why didn't they spread the word 
to other collectors and to sellers on eBay so that they could convince 
them to sell their stuff on the VCM instead?  I'll tell you one reason 
why: sellers make more money on eBay.  And that's fine.  eBay is good for 
making money selling crap.  eBay is a crap market.  The VCM is a 
marketplace for the serious trade of vintage computers for serious vintage 
computer collectors, hobbyists and afficionados.

If you want to buy/sell/trade crap, continue using eBay, and give them 
your money and shut the fuck up because they don't care about you (only 
your money).  If you want an alternative that caters specifically to the 
vintage computing community, use the VCM.  Tell everyone you buy from 
about it.  Sell your fine vintage computers on it (sell your crap on 
eBay).  Use the god damn system.  It's there and for the foreseeable 
future, it's free.  Use it or lose it.

In closing, many thanks to Marvin (whom I am also proud to count as a good 
friend) for utilizing the VCM to its fullest, and congratulations for the 
many thousands of dollars he's made COMMISSION FREE selling his stuff 
there for the past several years, and congratulations to the other 
sellers, and to the many people who have bought stuff in the simple and 
relaxed environment that is the VCM.  Marvin and the others are the ones 
who deserve the credit for keeping it alive.  YOU could be the one who 
helps to make it THRIVE if you would just USE IT.

http://marketplace.vintage.org

or

http://www.vintagecomputermarketplace.com

Please direct any replies to me via e-mail.  I am not subscribed to the 
list and might not see any follow-ups you post.

-- 

Sellam Ismail                                        Vintage Computer Festival
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International Man of Intrigue and Danger                http://www.vintage.org

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