Re: Continual amazement!

In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (John Warner) wrote:

> I continue to be amazed how many people bid higher than the value of a
> first edition listed on ebay. Twice recently, I have bid on a near
> fine copy of Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth. I set my upper
> bidding limit at $26.00, which I thought was approximately what I
> could purchase a similar copy through ABE. Both times people,
> including a book dealer, have bid the price as high as $35.00. Am I
> missing something?  I guess people get caught up in the bidding.  My
> practice has always to approximate the value prior to bidding on a
> book.

Imagine a deerhunter on the trail of a buck who just went over a
blackberry thicket & to pursue it further means getting all scratched up &
injured. A perfectly good buck is bound to turn up later who's an easier
shot & maybe even bigger. But while in the heat of the moment faced with
three acres of biars to stalk through, it can actually seem like FUN to
get injured rather than admit to failure & try again elsewhere.

For some people ebay is addictive. Winning becomes much more important
than the actual market value. And many people just don't even bother to
look anywhere else. Some may feel they already spend way too much time
nurding around on the web as it is, & don't want to waste time comparative
shopping. Since they'd be noodling around eBay anyway, they would rather
bid ten dollars too much than succumb to a second or third netnurd
addiction just to save the price of a lunch.

-paghat the ratgirl

-- 
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
   -from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
See the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com/