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A Parable for eBay....

Once upon a time, and a very good time it was, there was a doughnut maker named Sam. Sam loved making doughnuts, and he was very happy. He charged a fair price for his doughnuts and, because they were very good doughnuts, people from all over the city came to his little doughnut shop to buy them. Sam took great pride in knowing that he was selling a good product at a good price.

Now, the city where Sam lived had some very peculiar laws about doughnut-selling. They were laws unlike that in any other city in the country. The first law stated that no doughnut shop could remain open after 5:00 PM. The second law stated that any doughnuts sold between 4:50 PM and 5:00 PM had to be sold at half their regular price. These laws were a minor annoyance to Sam, of course, but it was all part of the privilege of living in such a wonderful city. Besides, most of his customers came earlier in the day, so it was all right.

After awhile, though, Sam started noticing a disturbing trend. More and more people were waiting until the very end of the day before coming in to buy doughnuts. The doughnuts would just sit on the shelves all day long, and then there would be a sudden rush during the last 10 minutes. Unfortunately, not everybody could fit in the store, so many doughnuts went unsold, and the ones that did sell were sold at such a low price that Sam was unable to make a profit. In fact, sometimes so many people tried to cram into his little doughnut store at once that they got stuck in the doorway and then nobody was able to buy anything. Sam decided to call these last minute doughnut buyers "snoopers", since they would always hang around peering into his window waiting until the clock said exactly 4:50.

Sam tried everything he could think of to fix this problem. First, he asked the city council whether he could possibly keep his store open later at night. Maybe they could change the law so that the doughnut stores had to close at 5:00 PM unless there was a customer in the store, at which point the store could stay open for an additional five minutes. Alas, the city council refused his request. Next, Sam tried closing his shop earlier in the day, figuring that if the "snoopers" really wanted his doughnuts they would have to come earlier. Sadly, Sam discovered that that the "snoopers" were only willing to come if they could get a great bargain on the doughnuts, and absolutely refused to come any earlier. Then, Sam tried offering incentives to people to come earlier, such as a free cup of coffee with every doughnut purchased before 4:50 PM. It was to no avail, however. The people that already came early got an extra treat [at Sam's expense], but the snoopers still refused to come any earlier.

With no other alternative left, Sam finally decided that the only thing he could do was to raise his prices. He decided to charge twice as much for each doughnut, so that the mandatory 50% reduction would lower his price to what it was before. He hated to do this, because it penalized the few customers who were willing to come earlier in the day, but that was just the way it had to be. Sam still sold many doughnuts, because they really were great doughnuts, but he no longer felt very good about selling them. Sam's regular customers were very upset, and stopped coming at all. And the "snoopers" still showed up at the last minute to do their doughnut buying, even though they were now paying more for the doughnuts. They weren't very happy with the price increase either, but at least they were still getting their doughnuts "half-off", and that was all that mattered to them, apparently.

In the end, of course, Sam closed his store. Too many people complained about his high prices, even though he made the best doughnuts in town. And he simply couldn't afford to lower his prices again, since he would lose all his money. And so, everybody had to get their doughnuts in the freezer section at the local supermarket. Nobody liked them, though, and everybody said that they really wished that Sam had never closed his store, even the "Snoopers".

So who was to blame for this sorry state of affairs? The lawmakers who made those silly laws in the first place? Perhaps, but they undoubtedly had good reasons for enacting those laws, right? The "Snoopers" who took advantage of those laws? Perhaps, but they were only doing what was allowed under the law, right?

The moral of this little tale? Beats me -- go find your own moral. I just enjoyed telling the story....

Regards,

Barry [a.k.a. "Godzillatemple"]
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