From: sgold@well.sf.ca.us (Sam Goldberger)
Subject: Re: Holiday NeXT Sale!!
Organization: Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link
Date: Sun, 27 Dec 1992 08:26:17 GMT

In <1992Dec27.020553.15912@netcom.com> abell@netcom.com (Steven T. Abell) writes:

>jimlynch@netcom.com (Jim Lynch) writes:
>>> ... if commercial posting isn't supposed to be here, it shouldn't be.
>>> I'll go see the play if you'll help keep commercial posting off the net.

>The problem is differentiating Sam Goldberger's post from anything else in
>these groups. If it's OK for you to sell your used stuff here, it must be OK
>for Sam. Or perhaps these groups should all be shut down. After all, this
>hardly falls under the Internet purview of "research". But then, not much
>net news does. Should we dismantle the network?

>Steve abell@netcom.com
I think Jim has a point here: if commercial posting is, in fact,
forbidden here, then I shouldn't be posting the kind of message
I did. However, Steve has made two very good points as well:

1) The very title of the group ("marketplace") specifically
connotes commercial activity, since that is what goes on
in a marketplace. Following Jim's login, this group
ought to be disbanded, or at least renamed. Do we want this?
2) The line between commercial and non-commercial is very 
difficult to discern, especially in a small market. If, as
a result of advertising my personal machine, I am able to
get more for it than I could from anyone else in Moosejaw,
Alaska, is this a commercial post? If I sell it for more
than I paid for it, does *this* make it a commercial post?

That having been said, it is pretty clear that my post
*was* a commercial post, in that I'm not just posting
a single machine but a group of them, and I am making
it clear that it is explicitly within my scope of business
to sell and support those machines.

My logic was as follows: there is no real commercial market
for used NeXT machines apart from this group. There is such
a market for PC's and Mac's and, to a lesser extent, Suns.
For those platforms, there are specific resellers and publications
that "make" the market (in the economic sense of the term)
by establishing bid and ask pricing. But if you are a NeXT
owner, just about the only way to establish the value 
of your machine is by reading this group.

Moreover, I reasoned, if I were in the market for a NeXT and
had internet access, and further, if there were a number
of machines available for sale, I would certainly want to
know about them. This would be particularly so if those machines
were reasonably priced. So, putting on my buyer's hat,
I would want to see such posts on the net, rather than
finding out about such availability after it was too late.
Furthermore, I would want to do business with someone on
the net because of the built-in safety factor of the semi-
public nature of the medium. Anyone who could stand the
"heat" in this flaming kitchen is probably on the up-and-up,
because any mistake or dishonesty would be broadcast worldwide.
Finally, if that person had direct internet access and read
his/her mail with some frequency, I could be assured of
a reasonable level of support.

Given these arguements, and further given that as a result
of posting on the net I can keep the prices of the machines
low, I believe that I was correct in making the post.
I think the net result is that everybody wins.
That is a "Spherical Solution."

Sam Goldberger (smg@orb.com)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.marketplace