10 May
2000
10 May
'00
1:16 p.m.
Mike Ford wrote:
Well, it depends on what the item is and who the buyers are. For instance, I
consider documentation to be almost more important than the hardware itself.
Why? Because coming up with hardware is usually trivial but coming up with
docs depends on having a good network of people available or being lucky in
finding them. Given that, I put up some fairly hard to find S-100
documentation about a year ago and it closed at $10. Was I unhappy? No, but
it did give me a good indication of who the buyers really are there.
I've heard a number of (to me) horror stories about people selling things,
but wanting to check first on ebay "to see what it is worth." I rarely deal
with that type of person since I am not interested in paying "retail" :).
Absolutely! The other side of that coin though is
some people are not
interested in looking, and are therefore willing to pay someone else to do
that. Why else would something like ebay be such a success?
We are talking in most cases a SERIOUS amount of value added, not only do I
dig up the rare part, I know what it is, know how to test it, fix it, know
it from the rev b that is worthless, etc. etc. For me, eBay has brought too
many sellers to the market so that prices are often too low for me to buy
and sell items at anything remotely like a profit considering my time to
even pack, let alone find something.