ebay has a problem- and so might we all…. |
 |
November 15th, 2007 -- by Martin Snyder
I have a several obscure interests (sailboats, old Japanese cars, optics), and I am an avid ebay user. Over the years, I have used it for many business items as well, especially stuff like software, consumables, and office materials.
I believe that ebay has had a large and growing impact on our economy in at least two important but not talked about areas; the need to produce fewer items and the establishment of predictable values for large numbers of objects, both mass-produced and artwork.
From snowblowers to trumpets, manufacturers have less demand because idle objects can now find their way to new owners with low costs and risks throughout the transaction.
If you want to know what something is worth, there is a good chance ebay can tell you quickly, with real-time information on arms-length sales.
One famous way that ebay has been a leader is through it’s feedback system, which along with buyer and payment protection programs, reduces transaction risk. By publishing ratings from buyers and sellers, ebay has established one of the most widely used credit rating systems in the world.
There is no doubt that good feedback will increase your profits as a seller.
But a certain irrational human tendency creates a problem for users with perfect feedback records- that being our habit over overvaluing perfection. It’s my feeling that a 100% record, especially with a high number of transactions, will yield significantly higher sale prices than a 99.5% record.
That factor creates an asymmetrical situation between a user with a 100% record and one without one. And the problem is that the person with a perfect record can’t afford to provoke a negative rating as retaliation for placing one on a bad seller or buyer. In effect, to protect that 100%, you can’t leave bad feedback.
Ebay could do something along the lines of not allowing a negative against any 100% record of more than 50 transactions without human review, but justice costs money. The biggest transaction I have made on ebay was buying a used Benz diesel. The car was 8 years old, 25K miles, creampuff. It was Honda money but rolls like green money. It’s the color of money. I did not know what I was getting until it rolled off the truck. The seller had 300 car sales, with 100% feedback. Would I have bought with 98% feedback?
Maybe not.
There may be a lesson here about recruiting, but also about political power and social control. If we overvalue the unblemished, we greatly enhance the power of those who can create so-called blemishes to control us. In a just society, that first blemish after a number of years should require extra careful process- be it a ticket on your driving record, a bad relationship with credit cards, criminalized political protest, or becoming a casualty in the so called war on (some drugs used by some classes of people some of the time).
I also find that as I get older, imperfection becomes more dimensioned, and illusions of perfection about anything recede.
December 17th, 2007 at 10:19 am
Martin, thanks for this very thoughtful post. I’m thinking of the popular adage “it takes a lifetime to create a reputation, and only an instant to lose.” - you can replace “trust” for reputation in that phrase as well. It’s a compelling question as much more of our working lives are conducted online and our identities and personas become ever more vulnerable both to our own missteps as well as the criticisms and barbs of others, whether mis-directed or not.