Re: ebay rant
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To me this is at least decieving, and borders on fraudulent. These ads are meant to pray upon people who may not be as "swift" or "savy" to this stuff as others my be.
Some may figure this as a marketing tool to get their ad seen, but the reality is that ebay has search tools and hundreds of sub-sections to help narrow down searches, then guys like this bung it all up for the intelligent users, and at the same time provide a means of ripping off the less informed.
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It's pure marketing. We all know that a vast majority of commercial advertizing is deceptive to some degree. Marketers have to carefully deceive people into parting with their hard-earned money. Most of the time it's basically harmless: "Better eat your Wheaties." Or else what? What happens if I don't eat my Wheaties? Well, nothing, the Wheaties people would just like you to buy Wheaties.
There's almost always some amount of "snake oil" involved in a sales pitch. It's up to the buyer to know snake oil when he sees or hears it. EBay is just another marketplace where snake oil flourishes, much as it does on a new car lot. If you don't know your way around then the sales people will take as much money from you as they can get.
The line between good marketing and pure bull___t is usually very blurry. EBay just brings it all into our homes and puts it 18 inches in front of our faces--uncomfortably close for most people.
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