17 Dec
2005
17 Dec
'05
11:09 p.m.
Rumor has it that John Allain may have mentioned these words:
Big rule of low(er) price negotiation.
The more enthusiasm you show, the higher price you get.
Merch's Corollary:
The farther away from home you are, the more costly your car parts are.
"Don't let 'em see your Michigan license plates in Oregon."
;-)
Another rule: asking more than 50% off is asking almost
too much of anyone.
Depends on how unknowledgeable the people are of what they're selling. The
last 2 CoCo2's I've seen at garage sales were marked at $70 and $75 each -
bare, no carts, minimal cables. One wanted an extra $20 for the CCR-81[1]
tape deck. We're talking 4, maybe 5 years ago, tops... Pentium 3's &
Athlons were cheap & plentiful at the time.
The first one I told the people that the machine w/tape deck was worth
about $10, they thanked me for the info and asked me what I'd pay for it. I
said $5. They were quite surprised, but when I told 'em I had 5 already (I
was underestimating) I didn't need another one very badly. They sold it to
me for $5.
At the second place, I told them the same thing, they got all indignant,
looked at me cross-eyed and said "Like you'd know." I told them "I do -
I
own several and I keep up with what they're worth." They then accused me of
trying to undercut them - I told them "I own six now, I don't need another
and I'm not buying yours no matter the price." They said "Would you take it
for $1?" I refused & walked away.
Just say "This machine will not run any modern
software at all -- no
internet."
Many would not believe the sign. A lady bought a Ford dealership 68020 Unix
server because it was in a big case. She asked me afterward: "It's bigger
than my machine now, so it'll run Windows faster, right? ... And boy this
sucker's heavy!" I calmly explained to her that it would not, and at first
she wouldn't believe me, until she couldn't figure out where to plug in the
PC monitor & keyboard.
Laterz,
Roger "Merch" Merchberger
[1] The CCR-81 is notorious for being not very trustworthy with one's data.
If you're looking for a Tandy data tape deck, search for the CCR-82 -
*very* good deck.
--
Roger "Merch" Merchberger | A new truth in advertising slogan
SysAdmin, Iceberg Computers | for MicroSoft: "We're not the oxy...
zmerch at 30below.com | ...in oxymoron!"