Ebay Altair

From: johnb <dylanb_at_sympatico.ca>
Date: Tue May 9 20:34:55 2000

<snip>
>
> However, as it's been pointed out before, it only takes *2* bidders to
> make a runaway auction.\\

That's what I *hate* about auctions.

> This hardly qualifies as an "ordinary" price.
> And in the case of the above auction, it only took *1* as it was a
> reserve auction, with an apparent reserve of $10k. There was quite
> a spread between the highest and next highest.
>

Altairs generally sell between $3-4K. I remember last year they were selling
for around $2K.

> As most dealers in antiquities or other "rare" goodies will tell you,
> the price of a single (or even a few) auctions doesn't really set a
> "price." Now if you saw the same event for several auctions in a row,
> then you can start to take it as evidence of a trend.
>

Agreed. I never use just one auction or sale to justify "value". I did
notice on that auction that at least 4 people wanted to pay over $4000.

> Not that I think eBay (or auctioning in general) is bad - it's just
> that a single, outrageous price is not an indicator of a trend.

I generally find eBay sells items for *less* money than the real world when
it comes to classic computers. A *lot* of deep pocket collectors won't use
the service to purchase old computers from. I have been told by many that
they would rather do private offers or sales as eBay would *really* blow the
prices out of perspective [take Nathan Myhrvold bids for example] . I
personally will have a running KL10 available for offers but would not want
to sell such a mini as a "featured catagory item" on eBay - some items just
don't sit well on eBay.

> But to belie my words, eBay *does* seem to have it's share of high
> bidding fools - I've probably been one myself on occasions when I
> *really* wanted something I'd been seeking for a long time...
>

It only takes two!

john
Received on Tue May 09 2000 - 20:34:55 BST