I have to agree that there's advantage to the seller, but there's advantage to
the buyer as well.
First of all, how else can you find what you want with a simple search?
Secondly, how else could you find the stuff sorted by the criteria that you
demand? Thirdly, I've never seen stuff I needed for my system that I use every
day in the flea markets, yet I've been able to snag a couple of GB of SDRAM in
128MB and 256MB chunks, for somewhere on the order of half what I'd have had to
pay locally. I guarantee that the flea market won't contain stuff like that.
Ebay seems to facilitate distress merchandise liquidation. When I bought those
256M SDRAMs, the same things were priced at $60+ at Costco and $49 at MEI, with
a rebate that one might or might not get, but 7.8% sales tax besides, which
offsets shipping for sure.
I just passed up a 9.1 GB HDD in the original packing and sealed bag that was at
$12 or so today. Now, I don't know what the HDD will sell for, ultimately, but
I have yet to pay >$5, shipped, for the 1GB types I use in trays instead of JAZ
media. I bought a PII heatsink with two fans for $7.95 shipped, with two fans
suitable for two socket-7 heatsinks that had flakey fans, and all from my chair,
with nary a phone call or automobile ride.
That may not be everyone's luck, but I've been smiled upon, I guess.
Dick
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ade Vickers" <avickers_at_solutionengineers.com>
To: <classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org>
Sent: Saturday, August 04, 2001 7:51 PM
Subject: Re: Ebay madness
> At 5 08 2001 01:47 am, Claude wrote:
>
> > 2-Ebay is crap for a buyer. The concept of the "auction" is something that
> > advantages the seller...period
>
> Well, yes and no.
>
> eBay has become good for the seller, mainly because there are people
> prepared to spend silly money on junk. It is nigh-on impossible to pick up
> a "bargain" on eBay these days.
>
> Auctions, however, are not solely for the benefit of the seller. To take a
> non-computing example, property auctions in the UK typically save the buyer
> a wedge compared to wandering down the local estate agent. In this case,
> both vendor and purchasor win to an extent: The vendor is more likely to
> sell his pile, the purchaser is more likely to get a bargain.
>
> I confess: I'm an eBay buyer, and I will continue (probably) to get stuff
> there. In the absence of suitable flea markets (unless: can anyone tell me
> where there are semi-regular boot sales et al in East London?), eBay
> represents the best source of old kit.
>
> OK, sometimes I end up paying silly money, but then - what *is* money?
> Maybe I'm lucky enough to have a decent income, but I'd rather have a bit
> of fun AND end up with some interesting stuff (much of which I intend to
> hang on to - not to make cash later, but because I'm interested in it),
> than trawl around in the rain looking for a "bargain".
>
> Looking at some of the other threads (what is a collector: depth vs.
> breadth), I see a bit of both in me. I started out looking for depth, and
> in the end I've gone for some breadth too. I *want* to re-build, in depth,
> systems I've personally used (MZ-80K, CBM8032, BBC 'B'/Master & QL in
> particular), but at the same time, I'm happy to tinker with stuff I've
> never used before... I've got 2 Epson PX-8's ATM. I've *never* seen one
> prior to picking them up on eBay...
>
> I'm not above a bit of soldering to repair a system either. But then I'm
> not going to make it my lifelong ambition to buy/acquire dead machines with
> a view to repairing them. Life's too short, and besides, I'm a klutz with a
> soldering iron...
>
> Anyway, before this turns into a life history / rant, I leave you with
> this: Some auctions are better than others... Yahoo seems to have plenty of
> sellers and few buyers, so maybe you can get a cheaper bit of kit over
> there? Not that there's much PDP-x kit, mind...
> --
> Cheers!
> Ade.
>
>
Received on Sat Aug 04 2001 - 21:42:00 BST