4 Aug
2001
4 Aug
'01
9:42 p.m.
I have to agree that there's advantage to the seller, but there's advantage to
the buyer as well.
First of all, how else can you find what you want with a simple search?
Secondly, how else could you find the stuff sorted by the criteria that you
demand? Thirdly, I've never seen stuff I needed for my system that I use every
day in the flea markets, yet I've been able to snag a couple of GB of SDRAM in
128MB and 256MB chunks, for somewhere on the order of half what I'd have had to
pay locally. I guarantee that the flea market won't contain stuff like that.
Ebay seems to facilitate distress merchandise liquidation. When I bought those
256M SDRAMs, the same things were priced at $60+ at Costco and $49 at MEI, with
a rebate that one might or might not get, but 7.8% sales tax besides, which
offsets shipping for sure.
I just passed up a 9.1 GB HDD in the original packing and sealed bag that was at
$12 or so today. Now, I don't know what the HDD will sell for, ultimately, but
I have yet to pay >$5, shipped, for the 1GB types I use in trays instead of JAZ
media. I bought a PII heatsink with two fans for $7.95 shipped, with two fans
suitable for two socket-7 heatsinks that had flakey fans, and all from my chair,
with nary a phone call or automobile ride.
That may not be everyone's luck, but I've been smiled upon, I guess.
Dick
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ade Vickers" <avickers(a)solutionengineers.com>
To: <classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org>
Sent: Saturday, August 04, 2001 7:51 PM
Subject: Re: Ebay madness
At 5 08 2001 01:47 am, Claude wrote:
2-Ebay is crap for a buyer. The concept of the
"auction" is something that
advantages the seller...period
Well, yes and no.
eBay has become good for the seller, mainly because there are people
prepared to spend silly money on junk. It is nigh-on impossible to pick up
a "bargain" on eBay these days.
Auctions, however, are not solely for the benefit of the seller. To take a
non-computing example, property auctions in the UK typically save the buyer
a wedge compared to wandering down the local estate agent. In this case,
both vendor and purchasor win to an extent: The vendor is more likely to
sell his pile, the purchaser is more likely to get a bargain.
I confess: I'm an eBay buyer, and I will continue (probably) to get stuff
there. In the absence of suitable flea markets (unless: can anyone tell me
where there are semi-regular boot sales et al in East London?), eBay
represents the best source of old kit.
OK, sometimes I end up paying silly money, but then - what *is* money?
Maybe I'm lucky enough to have a decent income, but I'd rather have a bit
of fun AND end up with some interesting stuff (much of which I intend to
hang on to - not to make cash later, but because I'm interested in it),
than trawl around in the rain looking for a "bargain".
Looking at some of the other threads (what is a collector: depth vs.
breadth), I see a bit of both in me. I started out looking for depth, and
in the end I've gone for some breadth too. I *want* to re-build, in depth,
systems I've personally used (MZ-80K, CBM8032, BBC 'B'/Master & QL in
particular), but at the same time, I'm happy to tinker with stuff I've
never used before... I've got 2 Epson PX-8's ATM. I've *never* seen one
prior to picking them up on eBay...
I'm not above a bit of soldering to repair a system either. But then I'm
not going to make it my lifelong ambition to buy/acquire dead machines with
a view to repairing them. Life's too short, and besides, I'm a klutz with a
soldering iron...
Anyway, before this turns into a life history / rant, I leave you with
this: Some auctions are better than others... Yahoo seems to have plenty of
sellers and few buyers, so maybe you can get a cheaper bit of kit over
there? Not that there's much PDP-x kit, mind...
--
Cheers!
Ade.