E-Bay sure has changed.

[BlueJazz]

Years ago I worked as a Helper in an Auction house and although antiques and such usually can have a fairly broad resale value (for even the same item), most ordinary objects, such as good Bikes, Telescopes, Hi-Fi Amps, and what have you, usually are based on a scale such as this:

One year old Item in good shape:
40% of original cost or lower= A Steal
45-60%= A good Deal
65-75%= About the right price
80% or higher= You're a Sucker

I use to see cool stuff on Ebay going for about the 50-60% range..No More..

Now..I see stuff on E-bay (same old year item)
CONTINUOUSLY going for 80-90% of the original cost.

Are there really that many Suckers out there?
..Geez..

[sendero]

1. Apparently...

... I've noticed that too. Not only on used merchandise, but on new items as well.

It's rare indeed that I can't find a better price for anything I need elsewhere on the internet.

[qnr]

4. Well, I just bought a bottle of toner for my laser printer. The

recommended replacement was $84.00. Other places selling just the replacement toner were in the $30-$45 range. The place I bought it had it for $5, and I had it in my hands in 2 days.

Edit: Note that this was an outright purchase, not an auction.

[sendero]

5. I should clarify..

... that I didn't mean that there are NO good deals on ebay, just that you have to be careful.

I still get mountains of printer ink cartridges cheap, and recently bought a Sirius receiver on ebay because that was the best deal I could find.

But a few years ago most things on ebay were a good deal and I claim that is no longer true, you have to google around a bit before your commit your cash :)

[qnr]

6. Oh, I knew just what you meant, just pointing it out :) n/t

[Rabrrrrrr]

2. You forget the 1 universal constant: Americans are filth-ily ignorant

Ebay, when it began and was only intelligent First-Online people, was fucking awesome.

Now that the illiterati have cheap access to the Internet, and now that the Worldwide Web has been made available to every fuckass Dick and Jane wannabe piece of flotsam, and have been able to bring their particular brand of ingorance to the web, eBay has begun to totally suck.

Deals are still findable on it, but they are few and far between.

And now that any johnny-cake addicted lard-based southern racist asshole can have a "store" on eBay, it's a bajillion times worse than it was.

I used to be able to constantly find good deals from intelligent, suave, college educated people; now it's a goddamn crap shoot as to whether a particular posting will even attempt to approximate English grammar, let alone actually be something actually auctioned, and not reszerved priced at retail value or come from some goddamn store run by a big-haired white supremacist christian fundamentalist resident of Alabama.

[BlueJazz]

3. Damn..Rabrrrrrr..You're full of Piss and Vi niger tonight..LOL!

..I know what you mean though....
I was bidding on an Orion 8" telescope last week (The scope sells New for $569.00)
I bid 420.00 and the fucker sells for 515.00 plus 20 bucks shipping.
I thought to myself "Fuck!..some idiot pays 535.00 for a 569 dollar scope..Shit!"

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

10. Nah, that's just piss... you should SEE vinegar!

LOL

[LynzM]

11. "The illiterati"

Damn! I love it! :rofl:

[Omphaloskepsis]

7. I sold a refurbished 5 Gig iPod on ebay...

I bought it for $199 from Apple. After a few months I sold because I knew that new ones were being released on the next Tuesday. I clearly listed that it was refurbished on eBay. The winning bid was $270. I sent them the iPod and a check for $71..

[Awsi Dooger]

8. Prices seem to go up approaching the holidays

That's only natural. Tons of lazy shoppers looking to fill out their lists online. Ebay is the easiest place to just plug in a name of an item and see what's there.

Last year I intentionally held several items to sell in early to mid December, including an entire laptop I parted out. It worked very well. At least three of the items sold for significantly more than I expected.

The RAM for an old desktop Mac somehow sold for almost twice what I paid for it three years earlier, even though RAM prices had come down substantially since then. I expected $25 and got more than $80 after paying $45. Never underestimate where a bidding war can lead.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

9. I have to agree with the "it's seasonal" theory

I have noticed that things are more pricey in the 3rd Q.

Greed is good, after all.

[grasswire]

12. as a seller, that's not my experience!

Seven years ago when I started selling antique/vintage paper items on eBay, it was like a money tree. People would bid, and bid, and bid, ompetitively. I sold 80 percent of what I listed, for a LOT of dough. I would wake up in the morning, check my sales, and laugh at how much money I made during the night.

Now I sell about 45 percent of what I list. Most items get one or two bids. And I notice that many sellers do more poorly than I do.

[BlueJazz]

14. Oh..I understand what you're saying. There was a time ( on E-Bay)....

...when a buyer didn't have to plow through 12,648 pieces of junk to find an "Actual Antique".
Now..you have scores of items that people try to sell on Ebay that look and seem like they found the crap in a trash can..
..But they call it "Vintage"...Eck!!

[AllegroRondo]

19. I agree with that assessment

About 5-6 years ago, I sold painted wargame miniatures on ebay. At the time, there was a great community of wargamers who would buy and sell games and figues. I knew a lot of great buyers, and some would even look for my auctions because they liked my painting style. If I had dealt with someone well in the past, I would ship the items when they said the check was in the mail.
I sold about 95% of what I listed, and always for well over the minimum bid price. Sometimes it was like watching a shark feeding frenzy if I had some particularly well painted figures up.

Around 2002 it changed. Lots of newbies started selling poor quality stuff with high minimum bids, and high "shipping" costs. Lots of regulars left. Items would only get a couple bids until the very end - and then people would get mad at me because they were outbid at the last second.
Example: I sold a comic book for $2020 - one seller had bid $2000 at the beginning (the minimum) and it sat there for a week. At the end, he was outbid by $20. I got a furious email from him, demanding me to sell it to him for $2500. Dude, if you had bid $2500 from the beginning, the proxy bidding would have kicked in and you would have probably won for $2040. Understand the system, dont get mad at me for it.

I quit when I got burned by a re-seller. Someone asked if I could do "buy it now" on items he liked, because he couldnt be online in the evenings when my auctions normally ended. I did it, he bought them, and a week later he re-auctioned them.

[grasswire]

20. oh brother!

That "re-seller" game is news to me. Ouch!

And I have no sympathy for those people who won't bid their maximum up front in proxy bidding. Too many snipers these days.

[Flaxbee]

13. yeah, it really is not what it used to be...

there is so much SH*T for sale that it is hard to find anything, and discouraging to sell. Sigh.

[lizziegrace]

15. Living in Ohio

I have one word. Longaberger. I have several boxes of it in my basement that needs to be sold. Most are discontinued in their line but I just don't know if I have the patience or the thick skin required to deal there. But, it's doing me no good in the basement.

What to do?

[BlueJazz]

16. Well..selling on Ebay isn't really that difficult ....

Just get an account..which is quite easy and browse items that are similar to yours to get an idea of what to charge.
Of course, if you see some of your stuff going for very low prices, then skip those and just sell the more valuable ones.
It might seem a little intimidating at first but it won't take long for you to "Learn the Ropes).... :)

[lizziegrace]

18. Thanks for the encouragement

I need to sit down and just do it. I have a digital camera and have bought before. It's like any unpleasant task. I'll find just about anything else to do to avoid it. Waiting too long puts me in the middle of Christmas and then there's the January slump.

Today the boxes come up from the basement, tomorrow afternoon (after my interview), I start listing.

:hi:

[grasswire]

21. good for you!

Your particular niche should do very well. Longaberger lives!

And boy, is it fun to wake up in the morning and see how much money you made the night before!

[RogueTrooper]

17. I can't believe

people are doing Monty Python's "When I were a Lad" on an internet site.