eBay Disaster

sell... As a seller I look at the number of watchers: - 0-9 likely to go for the starting price - 10-15 likely to be one serious bidder, price tends to dribble up from the starting price. - 15+ war likely to be declared between multiple serious bidders and the price can go ballistic. A complete, untested PDP-11/10 system (eventually found my variac but too late to fire up the system) sold for ~$100 from a $0.99 starting price. In Australia just some of the parts and PCBs for a 1974 Electronics Australia EDUC-8 microcomputer (contemporary of the MARK-8) has attracted a bid at the $100 starting price while another auction for PCBs and some parts for a reproduction MARK-8 has not attracted a bid. All can be explained by the size and composition of the market. In Australia there are only a very limited number of people in my city who have an interest in a PDP-11, the MARK-8 is obscure and relatively unknown as Radio-Electronics magazine had limited market penetration, while Electronics Australia's EDUC-8 project would have been seen by Australian professionals and enthusiasts I'm in Australia and there can be category mismatches between the eBay.au site and the rest of the world. So that what you an auction you think should list into an equivalent category on eBay.com appears to just disappear and searches will fail unless your buyers are searching only at the top eBay level. Most eBay.com buyers appear to be unaware of this limitation on searches. Then there is the opposite of an eBay disaster where the object is just to find homes for stuff. On eBay you don't have to wait for the end of a 7 day auction to sell something. When trying to find a home for something oddball like a core memory system from a PDP-11/20 I'd be happy to accept a $0.99 starting price bid from anybody who expresses the least interest. End result is a happy buyer and you get the cost of the eBay listing fee covered. Does surprise people who don't know this option of eBay, plus this can upset people who expect to snipe an auction.