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I made $100K from a dick joke

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Re: I made $100K from a dick joke

#31

Post by cozzyd »

oaththrowaway wrote: post #19

I sold a laptop on eBay once long, long ago. Someone did the "Buy it now" option but never paid. I'm trying to remember the exact situation (probably more than 10 years ago), but I had exchanged messages with him several times and he always had an excuse to not pay. Then I noticed he was selling the exact same model of laptop so it was easy for me to realize that he had just "bought" my laptop to remove the listing s…

I wonder if he was trying to resell your laptop and wasn't going to pay until he got an order for your laptop

Re: I made $100K from a dick joke

#32

Post by anonu »

oaththrowaway wrote: post #19

I sold a laptop on eBay once long, long ago. Someone did the "Buy it now" option but never paid. I'm trying to remember the exact situation (probably more than 10 years ago), but I had exchanged messages with him several times and he always had an excuse to not pay. Then I noticed he was selling the exact same model of laptop so it was easy for me to realize that he had just "bought" my laptop to remove the listing s…

I cant believe ebay hasnt been disrupted yet...

Re: I made $100K from a dick joke

#33

Post by bloggie »

probably_wrong wrote: post #21

I don't have a great opinion of marketing in general and therefore I'm often unconvinced with arguments like "marketing is about fulfilling a customer's needs" or "adding efficiency to the market". Therefore I feel vindicated when a moderately-upvoted post says the quiet part out loud, namely, "Yeah, we made a fake post and just lied to everyone on the internet. I'm not sorry, because not only was it popular - it bec…

While I understand your perspective, I don't follow the vindication. Viral marketing is a marketing strategy, it is taught in marketing classes. Isn't it naive to believe everything you see on the internet?

Re: I made $100K from a dick joke

#34

Post by lotsofpulp »

oaththrowaway wrote: post #22
probably_wrong wrote: post #21

I don't have a great opinion of marketing in general and therefore I'm often unconvinced with arguments like "marketing is about fulfilling a customer's needs" or "adding efficiency to the market". Therefore I feel vindicated when a moderately-upvoted post says the quiet part out loud, namely, "Yeah, we made a fake post and just lied to everyone on the internet. I'm not sorry, because not only was it popular - it bec…

Just makes me more cynical about everything I see posted. Marketers ruin everything eventually

You can extend that to stories people tell and images they portray in real life.

Re: I made $100K from a dick joke

#35

Post by cobertos »

bloggie wrote: post #33
probably_wrong wrote: post #21

I don't have a great opinion of marketing in general and therefore I'm often unconvinced with arguments like "marketing is about fulfilling a customer's needs" or "adding efficiency to the market". Therefore I feel vindicated when a moderately-upvoted post says the quiet part out loud, namely, "Yeah, we made a fake post and just lied to everyone on the internet. I'm not sorry, because not only was it popular - it bec…

While I understand your perspective, I don't follow the vindication. Viral marketing is a marketing strategy, it is taught in marketing classes. Isn't it naive to believe everything you see on the internet?

It is naive, yet it is still read, believed and scored (and score gives it more trust). The medium still seems trustworthy but the individuals within it are not. And as the internet has progressed, the percentage of trustworthiness has slipped, but can also not be intuited directly from the medium as there are no signals that have meaningfully changed in the medium.

Only anecdotes from outside the medium can inform us to be less naive. Or doing an analysis which takes effort, skill, and time per-person

Re: I made $100K from a dick joke

#36

Post by ninkendo »

oaththrowaway wrote: post #19

I sold a laptop on eBay once long, long ago. Someone did the "Buy it now" option but never paid. I'm trying to remember the exact situation (probably more than 10 years ago), but I had exchanged messages with him several times and he always had an excuse to not pay. Then I noticed he was selling the exact same model of laptop so it was easy for me to realize that he had just "bought" my laptop to remove the listing s…

I had the exact experience selling an iMac on eBay about 10 years ago. Buyer clicked buy it now, my listing was removed, they never paid. They deleted their account shortly after (it was some .ru email address.) eBay had nothing to say other than “try again after X weeks”. Why, so it can just happen again? They admitted they have zero protection against it.

I deleted my account and sold it on Amazon instead. How anyone puts up with eBay I have no idea.

Re: I made $100K from a dick joke

#37

Post by lotsofpulp »

anonu wrote: post #32
oaththrowaway wrote: post #19

I sold a laptop on eBay once long, long ago. Someone did the "Buy it now" option but never paid. I'm trying to remember the exact situation (probably more than 10 years ago), but I had exchanged messages with him several times and he always had an excuse to not pay. Then I noticed he was selling the exact same model of laptop so it was easy for me to realize that he had just "bought" my laptop to remove the listing s…

I cant believe ebay hasnt been disrupted yet...

eBay is interesting. It has consistently high profit margins, but no upward movement in revenue or profit, which peaked over a decade ago, and its returns heavily lag SP500.

I’m guessing investors don’t see much opportunity for growth in the online auction business to make it worth dumping a bunch of money just to take market share from eBay.

Re: I made $100K from a dick joke

#38

Post by walrus01 »

wiseowise wrote: post #18
redeux wrote: post #10

A guy I worked with was fired for sending this to a woman we worked with that he had a grudge against for some reason or another. Apparently he sent it from his work computer, which wasn’t the brightest idea. He sat in the next cube over from me and I wasn’t surprised in the slightest when I heard about it.

> sending this to a woman we worked with that he had a grudge against for some reason or another Sometimes I wonder what the hell is going on in people's head.

The profane joke in the bag of dicks made me think which head he was thinking with.

Re: I made $100K from a dick joke

#39

Post by kgilpin »

anonu wrote: post #32
oaththrowaway wrote: post #19

I sold a laptop on eBay once long, long ago. Someone did the "Buy it now" option but never paid. I'm trying to remember the exact situation (probably more than 10 years ago), but I had exchanged messages with him several times and he always had an excuse to not pay. Then I noticed he was selling the exact same model of laptop so it was easy for me to realize that he had just "bought" my laptop to remove the listing s…

I cant believe ebay hasnt been disrupted yet...

In my kids’ generation (college aged) they all use Facebook Marketplace.

Re: I made $100K from a dick joke

#40

Post by gosub100 »

anonu wrote: post #32
oaththrowaway wrote: post #19

I sold a laptop on eBay once long, long ago. Someone did the "Buy it now" option but never paid. I'm trying to remember the exact situation (probably more than 10 years ago), but I had exchanged messages with him several times and he always had an excuse to not pay. Then I noticed he was selling the exact same model of laptop so it was easy for me to realize that he had just "bought" my laptop to remove the listing s…

I cant believe ebay hasnt been disrupted yet...

They cleaned up their act substantially in the past 3-4 years. There are still scammers, of course, but they seem to be taking action that favors buyers as well. I just don't see how they can protect everyone from all the various scams. If they accept all the risk, it will be exploited by scammers.
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