Stewart Pinkerton wiffled:
On Tue, 19 Jul 2005 00:37:16 +0100, "Triffid"
wrote:


http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...DME:L:RTQ:UK:1

(Mobile Fidelity - Crime of the Century)

I hate this, out of a minimum sale price of £20 plus £7 postage, the
owner
gets £12 at the most. I hope this sort of thing doesn't catch on. I
really
wanted this album, but I'm not prepared to line the pockets of these
middlemen too much.

That's garbage. The seller will be getting around 95% less 60pence or
so of the final sale price, and £7 for posting an LP is a ripoff. BTW,
why would you care who gets the split from your 27 quid? Basically,
you're whining because you don't want to pay 27 quid for the album.
This guy is a dealer, he's got *dozens* of those old MFSL albums for
sale, so he gets extra ebay discount on the multiple listings!

The point is that the seller isn't the guy who's actually listed on eBay.
The AuctionDonkey guys take a £2 listing fee up front, then 30% of the final
price. Then they trouser the £5.50 or so change from the postage cost. I
wouldn't mind paying £27, maybe £35 even for a good copy, but this sort of
dealing will either artificially inflate the final price, or since it's an
auction and will find the right price, detract from ebays image as a cheap
and easy sales platform. Also by separating buyer from seller, there is
little point in asking a question about the item on sale, as AuctionDonkey
will have no idea. Provenance is everything, as any avid viewer of Flog It
will know!