20 Apr
2016
20 Apr
'16
10:15 a.m.
I have spent over 100 hours looking for viable alternatives to selling
computer stuff. Vintage does not have its own place. Bonanza.com is gaining
popularity, but it is not really IT or electronics oriented. Pricewatch.com
and similar sites only deal in reasonably current equipment. VCF does have a
marketplace section, but (and please don't take offense) it is so
rudimentary, and the listings are so outdated, that is does not seem to be
of much use. How do you find what is still available? True auction or
ecommerce software would eliminate stale WTB and WTS listings. There are
many free places to send XML product lists to be added to their comparison
shopping engines, and all of those are very well indexed by Google. If you
make it easy for people to see that it is an open place to buy and sell, 1
page registration, etc., then it will probably grow quite well. If you
really want it to grow, you can get free press releases with many of the
computer related online magazines and communities. If you don't try it, you
will never know J
Thoughts?
Cindy Croxton
Electronics Plus
20 Apr
20 Apr
10:36 a.m.
I have spent over 100 hours looking for viable
alternatives to selling
computer stuff. Vintage does not have its own place. Bonanza.com is gaining
popularity, but it is not really IT or electronics oriented. Pricewatch.com
and similar sites only deal in reasonably current equipment. VCF does have a
Craigslist is the one big eBay alternative. eBay hates craigslist, and
wants it dead. I think a disgruntled employee sold his shares of CL to
eBay a while ago, so eBay owns a portion of CL and tries to make life hell
for them. eBay started Kijiji.com to try to take away marketshare from CL
but it didn't go super far.
On one hand eBay has to make money hand over fist. On the other, the sites
are full of disputes between buyers and sellres. People who don't know
what they are doing probably get taken often, people things by accident
then want to back out, people buy things then try to say they didn't work
and return other items, etc. Scammers galore.
Once eBay owned paypal they could leverage that to help clear up the
scamming versus the old days of money orders I guess.
I don't know what would happen if you had a successful auction site using
paypal. Paypal might get annoyed by all of the fraud issues and try to ban
use, and moving to something like stripe or some direct ACH solution might
be a mess.
I'd love to see an ebay competitor tho.
I have my Cray system listed on eBay, but I really have no intention of
selling it through there. I just want someone who is interested to contact
me via eBay and we can work it out around it.
The stuff I sell on eBay is always stuff I don't care what the outcome is,
I can't sell at cost or low margin and not mentally squirm.
On the flip side, I've bought stuff I'd never find anywhere else through
ebay, be it computers, computer parts, arcade parts, scuba diving stuff
whatever.... It's been a valuable resource over the years. They just need
to lower their damn prices and stop taking fees on shipping.
PS - Anyone have an Oberheim Matrix 6, 6R or 1000 for sale?
--
Ethan O'Toole
7:13 a.m.
On Apr 21, 2016, at 00:03, curiousmarc3 at gmail.com
wrote:
I haven't look at Craigslist much. Isn't it more oriented to geographically local
sales? Can you setup search alerts like on ebay?
Yes, it's geographically oriented. You can do wide area searches on another site
called searchtempest.com. I've never really found Craigslist very appealing,
personally.
--
Mark J. Blair, NF6X <nf6x at nf6x.net>
http://www.nf6x.net/
7:39 a.m.
> I haven't look at Craigslist much. Isn't
it more oriented to
> geographically local sales? Can you setup search alerts like on ebay?
Craigslist rocks, IMHO. I agree that Ebay is draconian and over-corporate.
However, I also agree with others that I've found stuff on ebay I'd never
have had the opportunity to own otherwise.
Craigslist does have a feature where you can search in all cities. I was
able to call and deal directly with a seller 2 hours South of me, once.
However, it is very "buy local" oriented. Most sellers on Craigslist won't
hassle with you if you want it shipped. They want you to come pick it up.
I guess if it was something you really wanted you could pay a courier to
pick it up.
It really depends on the type of gear you are looking for.
Thanks,
Swift
7:59 a.m.
On Thu, 21 Apr 2016, Swift Griggs wrote:
While it may be possible to find neat stuff on Craigs on the coasts or in
other big technology states like TX and select metros like Chicago, here
in "flyover country" it's usually pretty barren.
While a few local options do exist ... mostly Property Dispo at the local
State U, often we find ourselves bringing things in from out-of-state and
eBay has consistently been great at doing just that, connecting sellers in
high-equipment-volume areas with buyers in low-equipment-volume areas.
Without eBay and the retail operation that Herb Johnson was running for
some years, my collection would be nowhere as cool as it is now, that's
for sure.
Best,
Sean
> I
haven't look at Craigslist much. Isn't it more oriented to
> geographically local sales? Can you setup search alerts like on ebay?
Craigslist rocks, IMHO. I agree that Ebay is draconian and over-corporate.
However, I also agree with others that I've found stuff on ebay I'd never
have had the opportunity to own otherwise.
Craigslist does have a feature where you can search in all cities. I was
able to call and deal directly with a seller 2 hours South of me, once.
However, it is very "buy local" oriented. Most sellers on Craigslist
won't
hassle with you if you want it shipped. They want you to come pick it up.
I guess if it was something you really wanted you could pay a courier to
pick it up.
It really depends on the type of gear you are looking for.
Thanks,
Swift
8:07 a.m.
Yes, it's geographically oriented. You can do wide
area searches on another site called searchtempest.com. I've never really found
Craigslist very appealing, personally.
There are services that let people set alerts and it will ping them on
their phone or something. Just post a desireable pinball machine at a low
price to test.
When I was heading to VCF East I almost bought a music synthesizer from a
Craigslist person but he sold it before I was heading up.
Craigslist buyers and sellers can be FLAKY, and at same time you can meet
some awesome people through it (through the buying and selling of stuff,
not including all the personals stuff.)
10:04 a.m.
On Thu, Apr 21, 2016 at 11:07:42AM -0400, ethan at 757.org wrote:
Craigslist buyers and sellers can be FLAKY, and at
same time you can meet
some awesome people through it (through the buying and selling of stuff, not
including all the personals stuff.)
That's my experience. Often people don't know what they have, and thus the
prices are waaay high or waaay low.
I've never seen a Craigslist ad that talked about shipping. Really, it's
local-only.
Of all things I've bought a used vehicle through Craigslist. I went in
very skeptical, but the seller disclosed exactly what was and was not working
and I am satisfied with what I got, half a year later.
A lot of the other ads selling similar trucks were ... sketchy. YMMV.
mcl
10:20 a.m.
I've never seen a Craigslist ad that talked about
shipping. Really, it's
local-only.
I?ve purchased quite a few computers from across the country via Craigslist. Just be
upfront with the seller and ask if they would be willing to ship. I always specify ?are
you willing to drop this off at a FedEx or UPS store and have it packed and shipped at my
expense?. Make it as easy as possible on the seller. 1/2 of my inquiries go unanswered
but 1/2 are willing to go to the trouble. Another issue is payment. Most Craigslisters
don?t like Paypal so you do run some risk of having to send a check or money order.
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-
curiousmarc3＠gmail.com -
ethan＠757.org -
linimon＠lonesome.com -
nf6x＠nf6x.net -
pete＠pski.net -
sales＠elecplus.com -
scaron＠diablonet.net -
swiftgriggs＠gmail.com