It's interesting to note how some preconceptions can affect prices in a noticeable way, case in point: Tseng video cards. These (the VLB models in particular) are usually listed at insane prices, probably because of this prevalent notion (not just in this forum) that they are "the absolute best of the best", while there are many other cards that are just as fast (or even slightly faster) that don't have the same "fame". Especially considering that among all the "fast" VLB cards, the Tseng models are usually the ones with more game compatibility issues.

I think the problem in this particular case was that back then the Tseng cards were a great option not just because of the speed, but because they were considerably cheaper than the other "high-end" options.

Now, at this point it seems that all VLB cards seem to be considered "collector items" and they command absurd prices, but a few years back, this Tseng obsession, while annoying, also made some card listings go pretty much unnoticed, which allowed me to get for quite cheap a boxed Diamond S3 Trio64 VLB and a couple of Paradise Bahamas S3 864, which are all in my opinion more rare, just as fast and have better image quality than the Tsengs I have. So it's not all that bad in that sense.

schmatzler wrote on 2020-07-22, 18:12:

One thing I really don't get are people that enable the "price proposal" option on eBay, but then act super weird when I actuall […]
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One thing I really don't get are people that enable the "price proposal" option on eBay, but then act super weird when I actually use it.
I wanted to buy a piece of hardware a while ago and made a reasonable offer to the seller and then he counter-offered with one measly Euro less than the original price.

Why even use this feature if you're just virtually spitting into people's faces then? 😁 That's really weird.
Sometimes I even get a message like "Sorry I'm not willing to offer it for less than I've listed it".

Maybe these people are clueless and don't know how to disable the option or they just want to mess with people out of pure ego...

I've talked about this with a seller before, and apparently this feature is turned on by default sometimes without the seller even noticing.
I made an offer on an item that didn't sell forever and it kept being relisted, and I kept increasing the offer at first and then started offering the same amount every time it got relisted... apparently at some point the seller probably got so annoyed with me that they just accepted x3 and then told me they didn't even intend to have the offer feature on but that it was on by default and they didn't know how to turn it off.

I had that happen most recently with one of the sound cards I sold. After 1.5 years. It was a NIB card and I still had some left so I sent him another card. Very first card I have had that was bad out of around 1,000 or so that I have sold. He apparently bought the card, never opened it, and didn't have the rest of the parts for the build until then.

I also had a buyer once claim the item wasn't as described for an antique camera lens I sold. It was one of those really old fish-eye add-on lenses that you screw on to the front of another lens. The ones that people were using to make the HAL9000 replicas. Anyway, I took really great pictures of it, and had a very detailed description of the condition (the black coating or whatever was separated inside the lens, causing it to look kind of weird when looking at the lens from the front.) It still worked perfectly fine as that didn't affect the optics at all.

So after the buyer gets it, they claim that it wasn't as described and are going to have to pay to get it serviced.... uggghhhh. Stupid person. So I gave them a partial refund to be done with it.

I've also only ever had a single eBay feedback that wasn't positive. Got a Neutral one once.... and the buyer put in the feedback that the card was not compatible with their computer... Never contacted me or anything. Really????? Whatever. People can be so lame.
If you have a problem with something I sell you, contact me and I will help you get it sorted.

Overall though I have not really had any horrible experiences selling on eBay. Then again I am quite OCD about picture and description quality so my listings probably turn scammers off.

for me ebay is still somehow the best place for bargains... on the local classifieds almost everyone asks whatever the highest ebay price is for run down "untested" machines and people who sell good condition tested machines ask for twice the ebay price usually, I don't get it really.

Rant of the moment:
digging out an old motherboard that used to work perfectly fine, hooking it up and running into stupid problems that don't make any sense and make the board unusable.

My current aggravation is a no-name 440LX board that I was going to sell off. I thought it would be a quick test but I have little patience to give to this thing.
One odd problem maybe resolved, but Win98 still refuses to use accelerated video drivers with it.
Years ago I think it ran Win2k, so I'm going to install that and if it still won't work then I think I'm tossing it.

Rant #2:
The hopeless state of search engine pollution when you try to look up information on anything that's obsolete.

cyclone3d wrote on 2020-07-22, 18:28:

What is interesting is that a lot of time when I watch items, I will get offers from the seller for anywhere from about 10% off to 25% off. Guess they are hoping somebody will buy it at the asking price.

The last card I bought recently, the original asking price was $150 or higher.... I had been watching it for I think around a month and then it was lowered to $90. Then I got an offer form the seller for another $20 off so I took it. Shipping was from overseas so the shipping was of course kind of high. Figured since it was pretty much a one of a kind card (no pictures or other information I could find online) I would buy it.. now just waiting for it to get here.

Yeah eBay has had this sort of 'Dutch auction' thing happening for a while. If the seller is not accepting lower prices, I can't imagine that eBay is covering the 10-25% difference? Anyone got any insight into this?

However, as you'd probably know cyclone, there is another sneaky 'feature' that eBay tries to sneak in when you list stuff - Easy Pricing. It lowers the price automatically, and again I'd wager that a number of sellers think it sounds neat and don't understand what it does. It all comes back to paying attention when you're doing the listing, eBay isn't really there for the seller.

This just happened: I wanted to pick up an item but the seller didn't show. When I called his phone was off.
He called back a few hours later, something came up so he couldn't be there.
These things happen, but failure to notify me in advance is a dick move, he could have sent an SMS or mail to reschedule.
On a positive note I bought a few ISA cards from a reseller but he sold most of them to someone else on the same day. Ha offered to send me the remaining cards free of charge (including postage) as compensation for his mistake. I got them yesterday and offered to pay him anyway but he wouldn't let me. Made my day!

The lower offer from sellers is not automatic. If somebody watches your sale, eBay will send you a message encouraging you to send an offer to the person watching.

The easy pricing thing seems dumb to me and I will most likely never use it.

I had a very strange incident that happened just this morning, I made an offer on an item only to see an hour later that it had somehow sold for over twice the BIN price(???) without my offer being declined or anything. Guess I should have just hit the BIN...

EvieSigma wrote on 2020-07-24, 14:36:

I had a very strange incident that happened just this morning, I made an offer on an item only to see an hour later that it had somehow sold for over twice the BIN price(???) without my offer being declined or anything. Guess I should have just hit the BIN...

A strange attempt at shill bidding maybe ?

shamino wrote on 2020-07-24, 07:08:

Rant #2:
The hopeless state of search engine pollution when you try to look up information on anything that's obsolete.

I agree, this is extremely annoying. The other day I was searching reference documentation for some old compilers and a large part of the search results I got were links to threads on fake forums where the OP (a fake user/bot obviously) would ask "Hey, I'm looking for XYZ, can someone send me a link?" (where XYZ is what I was searching for), and then on subsequent posts other fake users would post links (to scam pages obviously) or replies like "Yes! That's it!", "Thank you for the link! It works!". There were entire pages of results in Google that had this type of results, at one point I became so annoyed I wanted to punch the monitor.

I cannot understand that there are people out there dedicated to scamming others with somewhat elaborate bullshit like this, and also screw the search engines and their algorithms that are ultra fast when it comes to removing stuff due to DMCA but fail miserably when it comes to detecting all these scummy sites.

hey at least your finding results that are actually related to your search term :p
even that has become incredibly hard... I remember a time when you put in a search term into google and it would just find what you where looking for, now you have to fiddle for 5 minutes with search syntax to refine and filter results until you maaaayyyybe end up with results that somewhat match your actual search.

TheMobRules wrote on 2020-07-24, 17:03:

and also screw the search engines and their algorithms that are ultra fast when it comes to removing stuff due to DMCA but fail miserably when it comes to detecting all these scummy sites.

I've given up on search engines. They all seem to be over-engineered toward figuring out what you want, completely overlooking the fact that it's already been established... because I typed it in the search box. Just give me the damn results, please.

cyclone3d wrote on 2020-07-24, 13:58:

The lower offer from sellers is not automatic. If somebody watches your sale, eBay will send you a message encouraging you to send an offer to the person watching.

I really like this feature, as a buyer. I've accepted a lot of these and habitually watch items before buying now. It helps that [1] the seller is motivated to shift the item and [2] I don't need it urgently or else I'd have already bought it.

Couldn't resist posting this:

Step 1 - Find local seller asking 100 euro for some old computer parts, say around 15-20 pieces.
Step 2 - Ask price for two or three things I find interesting.
Step 3 - 20 minutes later have your inbox filled with screenshots of ebay of the same stuff way overpriced. Now seller wants 250 euro only for the cards I wanted.
Step 4 - Choose to ruin your day and insult everyone and everything you can - or - take a big breath and let it go ... whatever!

Lesson learned, only buy the lot, never the single card!

aaronkatrini wrote on 2020-07-24, 18:11:

Lesson learned, only buy the lot, never the single card!

speaking about lessons... never trust that someone hasn't asked before and the cards you want are actually still in the lot.

happened to me, price for the lot was ok, so instead of asking for a few single cards I just said "I'll take it all"
when they arrived I was surprised to see, that every single card I had wanted out of the lot was not there... asked the seller...
"what do you mean missing cards?"
marked them on the listings pictures for them...
"oh they were sold individually already"
then they started being a huge butt about it and I didn't get any of my money back... was local classifieds, so no recourse 😒

imi wrote on 2020-07-24, 18:15:

speaking about lessons... never trust that someone hasn't asked before and the cards you want are actually still in the lot. […]
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aaronkatrini wrote on 2020-07-24, 18:11:

Lesson learned, only buy the lot, never the single card!

speaking about lessons... never trust that someone hasn't asked before and the cards you want are actually still in the lot.

happened to me, price for the lot was ok, so instead of asking for a few single cards I just said "I'll take it all"
when they arrived I was surprised to see, that every single card I had wanted out of the lot was not there... asked the seller...
"what do you mean missing cards?"
marked them on the listings pictures for them...
"oh they were sold individually already"
then they started being a huge butt about it and I didn't get any of my money back... was local classifieds, so no recourse 😒

Sounds like an excuse to report him on eBay, at least.
Speaking about the search engine pollution, GPU hunting is the worst. Try searching GeForce 256 in eBay. All you get are cruddy 8800GTs and low end nvidia trash with 256MB VRAM. Coupled with the distinct lack of PCI video cards, it makes looking for new parts very annoying.

imi wrote on 2020-07-24, 18:15:

speaking about lessons... never trust that someone hasn't asked before and the cards you want are actually still in the lot. […]
Show full quote

aaronkatrini wrote on 2020-07-24, 18:11:

Lesson learned, only buy the lot, never the single card!

speaking about lessons... never trust that someone hasn't asked before and the cards you want are actually still in the lot.

happened to me, price for the lot was ok, so instead of asking for a few single cards I just said "I'll take it all"
when they arrived I was surprised to see, that every single card I had wanted out of the lot was not there... asked the seller...
"what do you mean missing cards?"
marked them on the listings pictures for them...
"oh they were sold individually already"
then they started being a huge butt about it and I didn't get any of my money back... was local classifieds, so no recourse 😒

Spending some time taking the guy to small claims court (assuming sufficient paper/electronic), might be worth it, just to teach him a lesson . Even if you don't win, you will probably make him think twice about pulling a stunt like that again .

darry wrote on 2020-07-24, 18:33:

Spending some time taking the guy to small claims court (assuming sufficient paper/electronic), might be worth it, just to teach him a lesson . Even if you don't win, you will probably make him think twice about pulling a stunt like that again .

yeah, unfortunately my time and nerves are worth more than the measly 2-figure euro sum I paid for the lot.
I know people like that know that and try their luck, so I should go after them on principle... but I really don't have the energy for that unfortunately.

imi wrote on 2020-07-24, 18:38:

darry wrote on 2020-07-24, 18:33:

Spending some time taking the guy to small claims court (assuming sufficient paper/electronic), might be worth it, just to teach him a lesson . Even if you don't win, you will probably make him think twice about pulling a stunt like that again .

yeah, unfortunately my time and nerves are worth more than the measly 2-figure euro sum I paid for the lot.
I know people like that know that and try their luck, so I should go after them on principle... but I really don't have the energy for that unfortunately.

I completely understand .

brian105 wrote on 2020-07-24, 18:27:

Speaking about the search engine pollution, GPU hunting is the worst. Try searching GeForce 256 in eBay. All you get are cruddy 8800GTs and low end nvidia trash with 256MB VRAM. Coupled with the distinct lack of PCI video cards, it makes looking for new parts very annoying.

My search string on eBay for a GeForce 256 was more about what I wasn't looking for, along the lines of:
"GeForce 256 -256MB -GB -HDMI -pcie -pci-e -pci-ex -pci-x -"pci-express" -x16 -fx -6800 -8800".

Could someone please go back in time and tell the PCI SIG to call PCI Express something else!