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Originally Posted by snipenekkid
Ummmm, no, they most certainly do not. All eBay provides is a venue to conduct business. Each seller is responsible for the transaction. eBay sells NOTHING to the consumer they do sell space to the seller and that is the extent of their involvement other than some oversight to help ensure transactions are fairly safe and within the law.
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And all Amazon does with the agency books is act as a venue through which the publishers can sell their books at their price, in exchange for 30% of the sale price. It doesn't matter that Amazon acts as a retailer for other books.
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Agency pricing has been well outlined in the thread but it does not apply to the eBay model it also does not apply to other venues such as a flea market/swap meet where the venue only provides a location for the independent sellers to conduct business. Sellers do not even sell under the license of the venue. I suppose it could be argued a consignment shop is a form of "agency pricing" but I don't think it fits what is being discussed here as in consignment shops the shop has latitude in what they actually sell the item for, they can bargain with potential buyers. Still a consignment shop is closer to the agency model being discussed in this thread than pure venues.
The Amazon Marketplace is also just a venue as well and the relationship between Marketplace sellers and Amazon are different legally than the relationship with the Agency 5 publishers.
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These are all agency relationships. It *does not matter* that Amazon provides additional services for its 30%. And it certainly does not matter that they happen to sell other books as a retailer. Why would that matter?
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Just wanted to make the distinction that eBay sells no products what-so-ever. Ebay also is not directly part of the transaction with the consumer unless there is a problem and then they attempt to moderate any issues. Amazon is a retailer who also has what amounts to a hybrid-marketplace with a mix of different types of sellers plus Amazon is a seller in the same marketplace.
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True enough. But I don't see how it matters.
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Originally Posted by HamsterRage
The thing that is anti-free market about it is that (almost) all of the big publishers worked together to impose the agency model. Essentially, they acted as a shared monopoly to fix the prices.
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Those are two different and unrelated points. Most of the big publishers went to the agency model. Where is the evidence that they have unlawfully fixed prices?