Prev: 3 Kernel ROM Adapter Boards...
Next: QuickScan driver sort-of new release
From: redrumloa on 6 Apr 2010 21:31
On Apr 6, 8:58 am, David Murray <adri...(a)yahoo.com> wrote:

> Unfortunately, about 50% of the people who shop on ebay are idiots.
> And I think some sellers take advantage of that.  For example, I sell
> refurbished macs on ebay.  I used to sell some of the older vintage
> models too, but I eventually had to stop.  Because it got to the point
> that about 50% of the ones I sold were bought by some person who had
> no idea what they were buying.  So They'd call me up griping and
> complaining about how old it is, or that it won't do whatever they
> thought it was going to do.  I always advertised it 100% accurately,
> but some people just look and see the word "mac" or "apple" and think
> that it must be some brand-new product and so they bid on it.   Then
> when I tell them that it was advertised correctly they start accusing
> me of being an evil person or ripping people off because there is no
> reason to sell computers on ebay this old other than to deceive
> people.  I've even been told directly that it doesn't matter that I
> listed all of the specifications of the computer, the average person
> cannot be expected to know what any of that means.  When I try to
> explain it is a collectors item or something, they don't believe me.

I don't know about 50%, but back in my early days on eBay (97-98ish) I
had a lot of the problems you mention. I would sell a used laptop with
the specs clearly marked and it would bid up to some amount, like $150-
$250 which was low to normal end for an older laptop (old even for the
time). This was back when a new laptop would run you $1,500 or way up.
Too many times someone would buy it "THIS WON'T RUN AOL VERSION X.XX,
YOU RIPPED ME OFF". From about 1999-2003 I listed in a huge font "NO
AOL USERS BID, PLEASE", most of my problems were always AOL users. Ah
the memories...
From: Dombo on 7 Apr 2010 12:57
redrumloa schreef:
> On Apr 6, 8:58 am, David Murray <adri...(a)yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> I don't know about 50%, but back in my early days on eBay (97-98ish) I
> had a lot of the problems you mention. I would sell a used laptop with
> the specs clearly marked and it would bid up to some amount, like $150-
> $250 which was low to normal end for an older laptop (old even for the
> time). This was back when a new laptop would run you $1,500 or way up.
> Too many times someone would buy it "THIS WON'T RUN AOL VERSION X.XX,
> YOU RIPPED ME OFF". From about 1999-2003 I listed in a huge font "NO
> AOL USERS BID, PLEASE", most of my problems were always AOL users. Ah
> the memories...

Sounds familiar. Only where I live it isn't that easy to assess the IQ
of someone based on their ISP.

When offering an old PC, complete with detailed specifications, and with
a rock bottom asking price to match its age, I still got loads of
questions like "can this PC run XYZ", with XYZ being the latest and most
demanding piece of software of the day which would give even the best PC
money could buy a hard time. Based on the asking price and technical
specifications it should have been obvious that the answer was "No".

Realizing that most people don't understand technical specifications, I
added the line "If the specifications below are gibberish to you, this
PC is not for you" to my offerings. That helped, but only a bit. I still
got questions from people wanting to do things with the PC which was
obviously way beyond the capabilities of the machine.

Nowadays when a sell an old PC I make it very explicit that it is not
suitable for certain applications (e.g. the PC won't play Youtube HD
movies and games released after 2003).
From: Anssi Saari on 7 Apr 2010 15:50
Dombo <dombo(a)disposable.invalid> writes:

> Realizing that most people don't understand technical specifications,
> I added the line "If the specifications below are gibberish to you,
> this PC is not for you" to my offerings. That helped, but only a bit.
> I still got questions from people wanting to do things with the PC
> which was obviously way beyond the capabilities of the machine.

Well, sure. Wasn't that the story with mini notebooks too? Lots of
people assumed they'd be just like more expensive computers, only
cheaper. And then they were disappointed with the performance.
From: Maraud on 11 Apr 2010 00:03
On 2010-04-06 00:35:11 -0400, chiefnerd said:

> Periodically I check ebay to look for interesting Commodore hardware/
> software. Is it just me or does it seem like the number of auctions
> with ridiculous prices are increasing?
>
> For instance, I found a SID chip with a Buy It Now price of *only*
> $129.95. And a C64 motherboard at $59.99. Many pieces of software, in
> particular games, from certain sellers seem to be marked up
> substantially from others and marked as "rare" in spite of the fact
> that they do not seem to be rare at all.
>
> And somebody else is parting out a "working Commodore SX-64 computer"
> with a number of auctions for various components. Why would one part
> out a perfectly good working SX-64? Rhetorical question: the reason is
> money. But to me this just seems *wrong*!

My current personal favorite is a copy of VICE for $50!

From: Rudolf Harras on 12 Apr 2010 03:23
Maraud <C128DCR(at).(cfl.rr.com)> schrieb:

>My current personal favorite is a copy of VICE for $50!

lol... do you have a link?
First  |  Prev  | 
Pages: 1 2
Prev: 3 Kernel ROM Adapter Boards...
Next: QuickScan driver sort-of new release