Auction Houses and blind bidding

[lsutigers1973]

Just for full transparency:

[billwaltonsbeard]

thank God those shorts aren't transparent

Leon,

ebay provides systems that AHs can and should try to mimic.

The reason why AHs don't is because they wouldn't make as much money if they did.

The reason why ebay does is because they know the general public wouldn't stand for the kind of vulnerable position that AHs put their buyers in, as they do with blind bidding and payment without protection.

There's clearly no perfect system, there are simply things people can do to try and make the situation better. I hope that AHs start doing these things, and frankly think they will eventually be forced to as recent rulings have indicated.

It's for the good of the hobby.

[yankeeno7]

For someone who is so vocal about the complaints, I have yet to see any suggestions how to make it better.

Shilling will never be stopped. No AH can stop a friend/relative from bidding on an item...maybe the friend/relative really wants it. Maybe they are shilling. No way to prove it and no way to stop it.

Ebay is a place where both buyers and sellers can do underhanded things with auctions. Unless ebay changes rules, nothing can be done about that either.

I can absolutely see the appeal of AH over ebay. At least with the AH you can decide if you want to trust them or not. From there, you decide if you wan to do business or not. With ebay, you are dealing with a lot of unknown sellers and relying on a feedback which is probably not overly accurate anyway.