You can try to sell on Amibay.

^^ not worth shipping to Europe. 🙁

I listed a CDTV on there a long time ago and had a bunch of people try to chince me out of my last ten bucks on sale price while seemingly willing to pay $100+ for postage. One of them tried to report me for 'breaking the rules' when I rejected his offer. I ended up taking a bath on it locally. I'm getting fed up with the buy & sell game in general.

The issue is even if I make ten or twenty bucks on something, I've still spent HOURS taking really good pictures, writing an accurate description, meticulously packing it up, waiting in line at the post office, ensuring the buyer gets their tracking number, etc. I don't do a half-ass job when I sell things, but that really stretches the line where I get to call it "worth it."

Hmmm.... Can't you get around those scammers on eBay, selling the stuff "Untested - As is".
Then writing that it was not tested recently, that it was working last time, and due to time shortage it will be sold "as is".

Yeah, I've got a few bigger-ticket items ($100+ actual historical sale prices) that I've been thinking of putting on there, but it's all stuff that businesses like to buy from other businesses, mostly old server gear. I don't know what will happen if a random private account offers it up. (My Ebay account dates back to 1998(!) and has all of 41 positive feedback.)

I literally lose money on the packaging & handling if I sell something for less than ~15 bucks right now.

Well sir... Then I am all out of ideas.

^^ that's alright, this thread is really just a rant, didn't mean to get into the intricacies of buying & selling on ebay (which is getting a little close to a prohibited topic around here.) Thanks for your input.

It's like, everybody goes on about "nooo, that thing has value!" but as soon as it touches MY hands, I have to pay someone to take it out of them again. Blaghsjkdjhrfkjsgl.

(...and UN-like apparently 99% of the people who sell things locally here, I DON'T smell overwhelmingly like weed, I don't make people meet me at a gas station and show up drunk, I don't take nine days to reply to "hey, I want this, when can you meet up?", I use sentences & punctuation rather than incomprehensible garble, and I post high-res photos of what I'm selling, in focus, taken in daylight, and NOT lying on a grungy floor or filth-inundated '70s carpet. Apparently all of this puts prospective buyers off??)

xjas wrote:

I've done my best trying to keep things out of the landfill and turn it around to get re-used, but let's be honest, no one wants this crap. People would rather plonk a grand on a brand new useless 4K TV & and an iphone that depreciates like a dropped egg than dare use something old, even if they're working minimum wage and pushing three kids around in one of those triple-wide strollers. I hate this town.

I don't know what the point of this thread is, I'm really just ranting. Hopefully it doesn't come across like I'm trying to violate the forum rule against trading; as I said, I really don't think any of this is even worth shipping. I think tomorrow I'm gonna start loading some things in the minivan. Ugh.

Well at least the electronics recycler can sell the recycled materials to Samsung which can then produce a 60” 4K tv that will depreciate like an empty unused Chinese shopping mall in a ghost town and end up at the recycler within 4 years because an 8K model came out 😵

I’ve tried to sell some old Tandy TRS-80 documentation, the first Osborne 1 portable computer (working), an Acorn Archimedes (working) and many other really old computers: I ended up having to conclude that for some things there’s simply no demand anymore. I didn’t get any offers, not anything. I eventually threw them in the dumpster, I too was tired of advertising the stuff. If people want something from me, then they have to pay for it, period. The dump is frustration and costs free, so it’s easy for me to just trash old hardware.

Well, about few years allready, i have just destroyed everything beyond repair, anything that i dont need, and does have some kind of pseudo 5-15 Euro/Dollar value, and just dumped it, and i live stress free, hey my time also is worth someting, allso my nerves.

xjas wrote:

I use sentences & punctuation rather than incomprehensible garble, and I post high-res photos of what I'm selling, in focus, taken in daylight, and NOT lying on a grungy floor or filth-inundated '70s carpet. Apparently all of this puts prospective buyers off??)

It can put people off because it makes it look like a professional business listing. Some people assume that means you're making a profit on it so it must be overpriced. But if your listing looks a bit like you might not know what you're selling, then some people think that means they can grab a bargain. Even if the price ends up being the same. Human logic - go figure. On eBay a really nice listing doesn't always work in your favour.

Having said that, it might be a shame to get rid of P4/Athlon XP stuff at this point in time. That stuff is pretty close to the point where it's old enough that nobody outside retrocomputing wants it, yet new enough that most people aren't yet considering it retro and trying to hunt it down and buy it. Likely this is why you're thinking of getting rid of it too. In another 10 years when everyone is regretting chucking out their P4 stuff, are you going to be one of them??? If only you had the space I'd be recommending going around buying more from people in your area if the prices are so low!

There's nowhere you can wrap it all up in plastic and store it out of the way for the long term, to make more space?

I'm in the same boat. I've got a pile of "leftovers" after putting together what I (at the moment) assume to be final builds I'll actually keep and use. South Florida is a black hole for this kind of hobby so I just put the things up on ebay, give it a reasonable price, and leave it as good till cancelled and be done with it. Once or twice a month someone will buy it now or make an offer and I have one less piece of extra crap sitting in my apartment. The only downside is that I have to keep it here until it goes.

At some point I'll just make a trip to the dump and be done with it, but I had MASSIVE remorse the last time I did that when I watched them dump my carefully boxed up loose parts into a generic bin labeled "final disposal". So, for now, it just sits here in a corner of my living room until someone on ebay actually wants it.

Malvineous wrote:

xjas wrote:

I use sentences & punctuation rather than incomprehensible garble, and I post high-res photos of what I'm selling, in focus, taken in daylight, and NOT lying on a grungy floor or filth-inundated '70s carpet. Apparently all of this puts prospective buyers off??)

It can put people off because it makes it look like a professional business listing. Some people assume that means you're making a profit on it so it must be overpriced. But if your listing looks a bit like you might not know what you're selling, then some people think that means they can grab a bargain. Even if the price ends up being the same. Human logic - go figure. On eBay a really nice listing doesn't always work in your favour.

That indeed seems to be the erroneous logic of a lot of people; if the ad looks organized with a decent description and with clear pictures, ''then it must be too expensive'' or ''there's a snag at it''. Perhaps that's one of the reasons why I couldn't get rid of my Osborne I. I did ask a high eBay price, but I was open to any offers (perhaps people are scared by high prices?) and felt the price justified the amount of work I put into it and the condition of the computer. I didn't get any offers, not even after I decreased the price to a below-ebay-level, so it ended up in the dumpster! Sorry collectors: that's what happens if you ignore my offers!

I however don't mind buying from a business if the quality is right and the price is reasonable (I don't mind paying other people's profits).

This thread describes my life. I've made a decent amount of money fixing and selling old parts online over the past two years, but locally it's a joke, and it's very unpredictable. Amibay has been good but only 3dfx stuff seems to sell for me there and my collection is nearly gone now.

Mercari is a great place to sell because of the policies but retro computing people don't seem to shop there much... Yet? I'd try there before chucking everything and they have excellent shipping prices.

Mixed box lots on eBay are a good bet as well.

Sorry that I left, xjas!

I haven't gotten through the selling phase, yet, although i have started to get a few extra valuable items in duplicate that I may be willing to sell later.

The Pentium 4 is no longer a viable system for modern use...certainly not when C2D or better systems are plentiful.

The P4 and better systems seem to be only valuable when they're high-end at this time. There may be a point in time when that is different, but I it don't know if or when that will be.

Hey xjas.. where about are you located? You can PM me if you don't want to put location info in the thread.

I have the same feeling about selling stuff locally where I am at and it is even harder to find stuff I want for sale locally.

Ironic that this thread appears at the same time as Retro Hardware Prices... are NUTS!.... something isn't right here o.0

.... but yes totally agree, have boxes of the stuff that I probably won't ever use again, don't have the heart to part with, but at the same time isn't really worth my time and effort to sort, photograph and sell... given the prices it (probably) won't go for.... then when you add in fees... not worth it really unless it was a box of Voodoo5's... easier to keep it (space limiting of course) until its time, then it will proabbly just get dumped... sad state if affairs 🙁

The issue is even if I make ten or twenty bucks on something, I've still spent HOURS taking really good pictures, writing an accurate description, meticulously packing it up, waiting in line at the post office, ensuring the buyer gets their tracking number, etc. I don't do a half-ass job when I sell things, but that really stretches the line where I get to call it "worth it."

I agree with this statement, and this is sadly a big part of the reason why you don't see many parts online anymore. If I can't make at least $20 profit after shipping, I'm not even going to bother with it. It's also why you see a lot more stuff popping up in Eastern Europe and Russia. They can buy a lot more with the small profit margins in their countries.

I just dealt with this a few months ago as I was moving and had to unload stuff. Unless its actually valuable OR its an item you know somebody wants, you'll have trouble getting rid of it. For example, I had a few older Powermacs and super socket 7 equipment...... nobody wanted them, even local folks I know who collect the stuff. So stripped of parts and off it went to recycling. I also had some older Compaq laptops/parts and Powerbook 100 series parts, those went to someone on youtube whom I know is actively looking for the stuff.

It also surprised me that I literally couldn't give this stuff away. I usually had a pretty good track record giving stuff away locally......nobody wanted it.

I'm in the middle of this myself - even though I bought 2 new motherboards - but one of those is a backup for my 486, the other is to replace a cantankerous board in a system I'm building for a friend (and I'm offsetting the cost by selling the old board, even if cantankerous, it still works and is usable). But right now I've got something like, 7 sound cards.

In some ways, I have already pared down well enough myself. The week before last I had some family stuff going on where I'm moving, and had to take a trip there, so I decided to move some of my collection there (the Tandy 1000 and 286 are staying with some bandmates/friends for the time being with a Rubbermaid Roughneck with all my AT keyboards spare one, and RAM and CD-ROMS).

Right now I'm trying to pare down my box more - as I plan to have ONE box that I will be using for everything for the time being.

The ultimate plan is after we buy a house - my man-cave/shed/garage/whatever will have ONE table in it with the retro PC's setup at it. And then I shall have a stock of spare parts on hand, maybe 3-or-so of each item, maybe more, as space permits. And those items will be REPAIRED instead of scrapped. Unless a chipset is burned up, if it's just caps or resistors or transistors or other discreet components, I can replace those. I want to start keeping SOME of the better hardware in existence in existence. I also plan to pick up an Oscilloscope at some point as it will help with this PLUS my guitar pedal building (which is something I use my 486 for - Circuitmaker 2000 and Trax Maker are my favorite PCB Layout and Schematic Software). I'm already looking into making some breadboard panels for the 486, 386, 286, and 8088.

xjas wrote:

The issue is even if I make ten or twenty bucks on something, I've still spent HOURS taking really good pictures, writing an accurate description, meticulously packing it up, waiting in line at the post office, ensuring the buyer gets their tracking number, etc. I don't do a half-ass job when I sell things, but that really stretches the line where I get to call it "worth it."

If you sell on eBay, the quick, easy way is to just purchased the postage through eBay. You not only get a good discount, but the tracking automatically shows up on eBay. A cheap-ish electronic scale for weighing packages comes in quite handy so you can purchase all your postage from home.
And you also don't have to wait in line at the post office unless they don't have a package drop or a door where they process stuff that doesn't require payment.

Another tip is that for heavier packages, it is usually cheaper to ship through fedex than the post office. Fedex cost is based more on package size than weight. You can also get fedex postage through eBay with a discount.

And, if you want to ship with a discount for stuff NOT sold through eBay and still get a discount, you can always use usps.com or paypal.com. I know through paypal, you get the same discount and free tracking that you would get through eBay. Only USPS and UPS are available through paypal though.

The link to ship through paypal is this:
https://www.ebay.com/gds/How-to-Use-PayPal-Sh … 03242448/g.html (article with link)
https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_ship-now (direct link)