Simple Auction Site

[Exhibitman]

This is a silly argument. There are any number of ways I can arrange to manipulate an auction that do not involve software. The sellers on eBay do not see the max bids left and certainly do not control the code, yet shilling is rampant. As an auctioneer in this day and age of Federal investigations into auction house fraud you would have to be an idiot to utilize an easily traced mechanism to manipulate the outcomes.

It always comes down to integrity. The names that aren't associated with bad acts never seem to change, do they? If you don't trust the AH, don't leave a max bid!

[4815162342]

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

This is a silly argument. There are any number of ways I can arrange to manipulate an auction that do not involve software. The sellers on eBay do not see the max bids left and certainly do not control the code, yet shilling is rampant. As an auctioneer in this day and age of Federal investigations into auction house fraud you would have to be an idiot to utilize an easily traced mechanism to manipulate the outcomes.



It always comes down to integrity. The names that aren't associated with bad acts never seem to change, do they? If you don't trust the AH, don't leave a max bid!

+1

[Lordstan]

I'm not sure what the big deal is. Leon answered the OP's first 2 questions in post 2 by referring him to the owner of the software, who is a a very active member of Net54, and answered Mike's follow up question about AH's seeing ceiling bids in post 4. He was pretty clear that it was an option of the software and that you had to check with the specific AH in question as to whether they could or not. No topic was being avoided.

Secondly, IMHO it is not incumbent on the software provider to prevent shady business practices. Breaking a law, perhaps, but even then I think it's a tricky call. Do you hold Microsoft, Apple, or Goolge responsible because people look at child porn or learn how to build bombs using their browsers? I just don't think it's as simple as that. Plus, while I am not a lawyer, I'm not aware that seeing a person's max bid is against any law.

Bad people will find a way to do bad things in all aspects of life. It is up to the consumer to find out the rules and reputation of anyone they are spending their money with and determine if they are willing to deal with them or not. Why would anyone assume that auction houses can't see their ceiling bids? Considering how many trackers are on all these websites we frequent, I always assume that the websites I use can see pretty much whatever they want. If I have a specific question or concern, I ask. If I'm not satisfied with the answer I don't use their services.

I think it comes down to this, if you don't like the way simpleauctionsite software, or any other auctions software for that matter, is used by a specific AH, don't bid in their auctions.

Mark V