OT? Yahoo Free Listing Day

From: Russ Blakeman <rhblakeman_at_kih.net>
Date: Wed Jan 23 06:19:57 2002

We've had a local a uction problem lately here too, seems that a few of t he
local auctioneers have hired professional shills to come in as regular
bidders and they bid crazily to get the people in the bunch wound up and
into bidding to get the thing going, then they sort of disappear before the
very end when it's 2 to 3 times more t han it normally would have gone for,
especially on industrial items, stuff from belly-up businesses and farm
machinery. Where else would a 1948 Ferguson Ford 9n tractor in fair shape go
for nearly $10k where they used to get around $5k in way better shape. You
have a hard time openly selling one for $7500

Everyone has a gimmick.

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org
[mailto:owner-classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org]On Behalf Of Tothwolf
Sent: Wednesday, January 23, 2002 5:29 AM
To: classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org
Subject: Re: OT? Yahoo Free Listing Day


On Tue, 22 Jan 2002, Pat Finnegan wrote:
> On Tue, 22 Jan 2002, Tothwolf wrote:
> > On Tue, 22 Jan 2002, Ben Franchuk wrote:
> >
> > > I say I have this novel idea -- the seller marks a reasonable
> > > price and the buyer pays that price and gets the product.
> >
> > Sounds like a good idea to me.
> >
> > Wouldn't this put ebay out of business tho? ;)
>
> Yeah, but most people that put stuff on ebay don't have a clue what
> things are REALLY worth. (This also applies to some people that are
> buying things. And no, $40k for a CISC as400 doesn't seem reasonable
> to me.)

(I'm sure someone will flame me for this, but oh well :)

I used to buy *tons* of stuff at local auctions. Lately, there have been a
few idiots who show up at the local auctions and proceed to bid up items
higher than they are worth, and then try to resell their "wins" on ebay.
Often the items are either big and heavy or nonworking.

One common item I used to buy DOA and repair for my own uses were UPS
systems. These were often fried (magic smoke long gone), usually
repairable, and would sell for $2-5ea. At the last local auction, a
wannabe dealer paid $175 or so for a dozen dead UPS. The last auction
prior to that, a different wannabe dealer paid $150 for 8-10 of them.
Notice it wasn't the same people both times, the first guy had already
learned his lesson the hard way. I saw those exact 8-10 dead UPS up on
ebay about a week after that auction starting at $50 each. He never was
ever able to sell those DOA UPS that weigh 30-40lb each for that price.

I'm starting to think they need to institute some kind of intelligence
entrance exam for the local auctions :)

> People would have to learn what stuff is worth first, and that takes
> time- time that people are not willing to spend.

Exactly. Theres no way I'd be willing to pay $50 plus shipping for
something on ebay that I can pay $5 or even $20 for locally.

-Toth
Received on Wed Jan 23 2002 - 06:19:57 GMT