Tag: ebay
-
I'm looking at a listing for a ¼" to ⅝" screw adapter, for which the seller warns that I should "please allow 1-3cm error".
A 3cm error would mean that a ⅝" screw could result in a screw thread anywhere between 1⅘" and... minus half an inch, I guess? (I don't even know how to make the concept of negative lengths fit into my brain.)
I suppose this seller could send me an empty envelope and declare that it contained an infinitesimally small adapter. At which point... I'd be the one that was screwed!
Alt
Highlighted item description from an eBay listing. The highlighted section shows that the listing is for a quarter inch to a five-eighth of an inch adapter made of a premium aluminium alloy, and that the buyer should "please allow 1-3cm error due to manual measurement".
-
eBay UK have changed their terms to (a) remove seller fees for most private sellers, but (b) instead of paying-out immediately, payouts are four times a year (or on-demand).
That sounds like they're trying to keep money in their ecosystem. The hope is, I guess, that by paying sellers in virtual "eBay Pounds" rather than actual money in the first instance they'll encourage those sellers to become buyers again (either of other listings, or of eBay's postage and other services). You can cash out anytime you like, but you can never leave.
You see the same technique used e.g. by the National Lottery, who pay out "small" winnings into your online account, knowing that the vast majority of winnings are on the order of only a few times more than the value of a ticket, and so players will be more-likely to "re-invest" if they're not paid-out directly.
Or maybe I'm just being cynical.
-
Typically Busy
[this post was lost during a server failure on 11 July 2004; it was partially-recovered on 13 October 2018]
Another couple of weeks of academic nightmare coming up, followed by the Easter Break (during which I'll be working, ho hum). I've got to do my second "poster session" presentation for my dissertation a week on Wednesday; … -
For Sale: Wireless Network Cable
This auction on eBay Germany (you can use Babel Fish to translate it if you like) seems to be trying to sell a Wireless Network Cable.
(and, for the benefit of Adam, who won't 'get' it: a wireless network, being wireless, doesn't have cables - this is geek humour that even you can understand)