13 Oct
2005
13 Oct
'05
8:57 p.m.
On Thu, 13 Oct 2005 23:32:58 -0400 (EDT)
William Donzelli <aw288 at osfn.org> wrote:
Agreed, but as someone who participates in a lot of auctions, in-person
and online, I would hesitate to pay the 'high bid amount' that was
realized in a competetive auction for a second unit of the same type.
The 'high' bid amount was realized due to a perception of 'scarcity' on
the part of the collective bidders. Unless the original winning bidder
is looking for yet another of the same unit, the bidding for a second
item should close at a substancially lower price. It is, of course, the
seller's right to list the second item or not, at the time he deems it
will be bid up to the highest price. But my experience is that if
you're patient and wait it out, the market becomes saturated and the
price drops.
I won't deny that I have sold rare silicon on eBay for much, much more
than I had any idea it would realize. I also won't deny that I sit on a
substancial quantity of said chips and intend to one day sell these
'rare' chips again on eBay, again for what will probably be a high
price. And I'll state here that I have publicly offered to sell said
chips to people on this list for a much lower price.
I'm
talking about high-priced "one of a kind" items here, not lots.
For example, if this seller were to ask me about a second chance on
this instrument, I'd be very leery:
OK, yes, that is valid - I would be suspect of that, unless the second
chance offer came a few weeks later, and if I see from the feedback
that the original deal went thru.
For such a big deal, I would want to leave a pretty good paper trail,
as well.
For old computers, however, it is reasonable to think that often a
number of a rare item might show up in a dealers hands. In fact, is
has happened quite a few times with me, with fairly rare items
(Comdyna and EAI analog computers), and I have seen it on EBay as well
(anone remember the auction lot of six (!) IBM 2501 card readers?).