Sizzler-
The concept you are not grasping is that "Eric" did not do this in a free market place or on a public street-- if he had I would agree with you. However, MrM entered into a contract with e-bay (a private for profit company) and paid the fee to list his car, and Eric (who apparently also wants to sell his car) serepitiously solicited bidders away from MrM's auction. In effect, Eric was benefiting from and interfering with MrM's contract with e-bay and potential bidders.
Put another way, this is one of the classic problems of economics known as the "free rider" problem. Why should Eric (or anyone else for that matter) ever pay the fee to list their cars on e-bay, when they can wait for others to do so and then solicit bidders away from those auctions and essentially get a "free ride" off the efforts and expenses of others. Creates all sorts of economic problems.
Quote-
"do you object to your neighbor having a FOR SALE sign posted on his front lawn while you're having an open house??? Get real."
Again, this is not what happened. To make your analogy work, Eric would have had to have started his own e-bay auction and essentially competeted with MrM's sale, which as we all know, he did not. As someone has already said, the real estate example would be akin to your neighbor coming into your house during your open house and handing out fliers advertising his house for sale at a lower price.
If you really have no problem with that, let me know the next time you go through the trouble and expense of organizing a sale and I'll just bring my stuff over to your place to sell (and oh, by the way, I'll undercut your price too).
defenestrate - I love it. You really do learn new things every day. Thanks Roscoe.
That's my .02. Now it can die.
Hybrid Mode
