Hacker News Reader

Comment by dcminter | Hacker News Reader

eBay stops me from typing in the thing I want to search for so they can try to persuade me to use the app that I have expressed zero interest in for a decade or so. Guys, I'm trying to press money into your thieving little hands - why are you trying to stop me?

View on HN

They see it as a win because you've still been using their site for a decade now, and every time they advertise their app there's still a non-zero chance you'll relent, but if they stop pushing their app, that chance drops to zero.

The only winning move is not to play.

The winning move is to achieve inner peace and to stop being bothered by the many imperfections of reality. I've been much happier after realizing that I am not the heroic savior of the universe.

Ah yes, I shall use that other auction site. Which was it again?

Make your own. You could even scrape auctions from eBay. You might think it's impossible but every other country seems to have a homegrown one, and not many people habitually go to eBay.

Many per-country ‘competitors’ are actually owned by eBay.

Such as Tradera in Sweden where I live (they don't try to make me install the app on Tradera at least).

If I'm buying random funkis furniture or computer bits and bobs I can probably use Tradera, and if I want fancy furniture or jewlery or something then there are coalitions of auction houses like Auctionet out there - but as soon as something gets even mildly obscure then there's nothing that has the reach and coverage of eBay.

Starting a new online auction site sounds like a terrific way to throw money away.

It’s a two-sided marketplace, it’d take heaps of cash to crack.

You can't scrape network effects. People don't want to buy something, they want to buy a specific thing and that is only available if there are enough users on the site for one of them to have your specific niche item. And no, not all countries have an equivalent with a user-base that even comes close to eBay.

whitehouse.gov

These little easter eggs are why I read the comment section down to the Nth level of nesting.

And then uninstall the app...

Reminds me of Austin Powers:

21! Blackjack,

"Hit me!"

"...but Austin!"

"I also like to live, dangerously."

Reply on news.ycombinator.com