Call back in 8 days. Maybe he'll be realistic after his stuff hasn't sold.

This happens all the time. There is nothing you can do. People get $ in their eyes and that is the end of it. Out of pride 9 out of 10 will never lower their prices and just sit on it or throw it out. This is very sad but the reality in many cases. 😁

The same applies to timeshares oddly enough. There are hundreds of thousands of those that people bought at a premium and they do not realize you can pick those up for $1 each on eBay and elsewhere. Nonetheless people list a timeshare they once bought for $40K (plus accrued interest over the years through financing) for $20K. It then will sit out on resale websites for perpetuity. 😘

I really wish more people would do what I do, and search for the items that have "sold" on eBay, and not the items that are up for sale. The sold items give you a better view at what people are willing to pay. Then they need to remember that the highest selling price isn't what they need to look for. They need to look for the most common selling price.

Just goes to show that Tommy Lee Jones is right... People are stupid 🙁

PeterLI wrote:

This happens all the time. There is nothing you can do. [..] Out of pride 9 out of 10 will never lower their prices and just sit on it or throw it out.

Sad but true, it has happened to me at local flea markets more than once and it's anything but decreasing. Seller checks MercadoLibre (local eBay subsidiary), sees the ridiculously inflated listing that's been there for months 'cause nobody's buying and asks the same price, or with a wee discount thinking he's making you a huge favor. When your jaw inevitably drops they'll say "just check MercadoLibre". No way you can argue with that. Even worse, with old video games they're starting to quote US eBay prices which doesn't make any sense - people asking ridiculous prices for a game that's fairly common here just because it's rare in the US and eBay says so. When that happens I tell them "well why don't you sell it on eBay then".

As for the pride thing, I've seen it happen first hand too. Stubborn flea market seller won't budge on inflated price on something common as an old CRT TV (which most people don't give two shits about), doesn't sell, and next morning you can find said tiem totally trashed in a nearby dumpster.

Do like the guys on Pawn Stars do. Ask if that's an asking price or a selling price then tell them you can ask anything you want on ebay, but if people aren't buying that means your price out of line with reality.

sliderider wrote:

Do like the guys on Pawn Stars do. Ask if that's an asking price or a selling price then tell them you can ask anything you want on ebay, but if people aren't buying that means your price out of line with reality.

That would be nice, but most folks seem to be out of touch in regards to reality hence why the greed factor kicks in 🙁

It's happened one too many times that I have crossed paths with stubborn sellers like this.

The only chance you have to get a decent deal from "stubborn as an ox" sellers like this is to catch them when their wife or girlfriend are there nearby...usually they make them sell at a lower price to make more room for non-retro computer related stuff (like smelly candles, dried flowers, vases, picture frames of non-discript puppy dogs and trinkets and other non-essential items)...I am lucky that I have my own space to do my time-wasting retro computing activity away from all that stuff.

Sometimes this can back-fire if the "better half" of the stubborn seller is looking at old computer equipment as a ticket to her (or his I guess) retirement...then you're screwed.

But seriously, it's ridiculous how stubborn some people are.

...this reminds me of a little bit of a related story...well maybe it's not that relevant, but it did give me the same frustrated feeling I get from those Ebay reference sellers...so here it goes.... one time I spotted a really nice what looked to be an old 386 destop AT case with signs of a sound card and video card in the back of it and full of 3.5", 5.25" and nice old CD-ROM drive at a Staples (computer/stationary) store (in their recycling bin) and I asked if I could buy it from them...the manager almost screamed at me telling me that it would be illegal because they have an agreement with a local E-waste recyling company to collect e-waste and givve it to them for what I'm sure is a small fee....I told the manager that I would pay good money for just the computer (as I pointed to the beige retro gem).... I would have paid up to $100 depending on what the parts were just for that one pc (especially because the AT case was in such AMAZING shape)...I swear my blood pressure went up when the manager told me that they couldn't do that...it was so ridiculous...the manager had an aggressive attitude for no reason...I said that there was no need to get angry and to calm down, I was just asking...I just said thanks anyway and walked away...there's no reasoning with these people....I'm sure that the computer just went to a scrap heap and torn apart for all it's "precious metals" (ya right, the $100 I would have paid would be about 10X more than the value of the precious metals they would procure from that one computer. What's even more frustrating is that if I offered the $100 to the recycler, they would just say no...I know because I have tried many times before and they always say it's against their policies because they hhave to protect their customers private information...I told them I don't need the hard drive and it doesnt make a difference.

Yeah, frustrating. Even more so with people you know.
For the new baby a "friend" neighbour offered we could buy her baby bed which new costs around € 550,- if there is no discounted one available somewhere.
After weeks of not replying what she wants for it she came and wanted € 350,- because that's what people on willhaben.at (fleamarket site, translates to "want to have") ask for it. I was very angry at her and thankfully my gf was in contact with her and not me...
Two reasons for being angry:
- this topic 😉
- trying to sell an 8/9 year old bed to friends for the price seen on some fleamarket site.
When I sell something to friends I look up for how much it sells and then give a huge discount. It's something I no longer need so why ask the normal price when selling to friends...
But that could just be my weirdness and the world runs differently...

(Another thing that woman did:
Her parents rent out lovely little holiday apartments in the countryside. At one weekend she invited us to join her there for the weekend. When we left on monday she asked of us the normal price her parents ask for when renting it out. Asking for the price of the cleaning would have been ok - full price is ridiculous. Swallowed, paid and decided to never follow such an "invitation" again... Didn't feel bad about my big son having puked all over the feather pillows anymore, though 😉)

Not exactly sellers but interesting nevertheless: about a year ago I had the local customs office (!) reference the average ebay price of a sound module that was coming in. The seller was nice and put a below 50 USD price on the form, although I haven't asked for it. So they put in a 10% duty on the average price - didn't care about it really - "Paid like an officer" as we say in my country.
But I was very surprised at the resourcefullness of the customs people.

I've also had this happen to me. I think the most absurd time was when I was looking for a dell dimension awhile back, something in the Pentium 3 range. They make decent Win 98 machines so I was looking for one to toy around with. I put out a want on Craigslist and I got a replay from a guy who wanted $300 because "that's what he saw them going for on Ebay". I'll admit I was a little miffed and told him I felt that was an insane price and felt bad for the sucker that would pay that much, I told him with some patience I could probably find one for under $20 within a few weeks. He just replied back with "that's the way it is when you sell electronics"

soviet conscript wrote:

I've also had this happen to me. I think the most absurd time was when I was looking for a dell dimension awhile back, something in the Pentium 3 range. They make decent Win 98 machines so I was looking for one to toy around with. I put out a want on Craigslist and I got a replay from a guy who wanted $300 because "that's what he saw them going for on Ebay". I'll admit I was a little miffed and told him I felt that was an insane price and felt bad for the sucker that would pay that much, I told him with some patience I could probably find one for under $20 within a few weeks. He just replied back with "that's the way it is when you sell electronics"

Typical...I'm almost sure no one even bought it from that guy yet..another unused waste of a good system that could have gone to a good home and seen good use.

"that's the way it is when you sell electronics"...haha what a joke

retrofanatic wrote:

soviet conscript wrote:

I've also had this happen to me. I think the most absurd time was when I was looking for a dell dimension awhile back, something in the Pentium 3 range. They make decent Win 98 machines so I was looking for one to toy around with. I put out a want on Craigslist and I got a replay from a guy who wanted $300 because "that's what he saw them going for on Ebay". I'll admit I was a little miffed and told him I felt that was an insane price and felt bad for the sucker that would pay that much, I told him with some patience I could probably find one for under $20 within a few weeks. He just replied back with "that's the way it is when you sell electronics"

Typical...I'm almost sure no one even bought it from that guy yet..another unused waste of a good system that could have gone to a good home and seen good use.

"that's the way it is when you sell electronics"...haha what a joke

I found one guy on the internet who had a site that looked like it hadn't been updated since the late 90's but he still had a lot of the parts for sale that he had advertised on the site. I bought two of a particular item from him but he said he could only honor the price for one of them because the website listing was so old and the parts sell for more on ebay now. What I'm wondering is, how many people has this guy stung over the years refusing to honor prices because he couldn't be bothered to update his website for 10+years. And it's not like he's selling common junk, either, so anyone who goes to him isn't likely to find most of his stock anywhere else so they really have no choice but to buy from him. I'm talking about pre-PC stuff here, like parts for S-100 bus CP/M boxes. Who sells any of that anymore? You can't find very much of that stuff anywhere not even on ebay but this guy has a hoard of it. He has a nice little racket going. Lure them in with low prices and then refuse to honor them when they place an order knowing he's the only game in town.

sliderider wrote:

I found one guy on the internet who had a site that looked like it hadn't been updated since the late 90's but he still had a lot of the parts for sale that he had advertised on the site. I bought two of a particular item from him but he said he could only honor the price for one of them because the website listing was so old and the parts sell for more on ebay now. What I'm wondering is, how many people has this guy stung over the years refusing to honor prices because he couldn't be bothered to update his website for 10+years. And it's not like he's selling common junk, either, so anyone who goes to him isn't likely to find most of his stock anywhere else so they really have no choice but to buy from him. I'm talking about pre-PC stuff here, like parts for S-100 bus CP/M boxes. Who sells any of that anymore? You can't find very much of that stuff anywhere not even on ebay but this guy has a hoard of it. He has a nice little racket going. Lure them in with low prices and then refuse to honor them when they place an order knowing he's the only game in town.

haha I swear sometimes these dorks are just looking for some attention...maybe just having someone wanting something they have makes them feel better. Kinda sad actually...Trust me, that guy will probably never sell those items at high prices, he will just be hoping that his phone will ring....I do believe that there are some items (when rare) deserve a higher price, but sometimes the prices are too ridiculous.

I guess it depends...sometimes though rare items in the retro computing world don't appeal to me that much if it isn't usable in a mainstream gaming/computing setup...For example some Roland MPU401 and sound card stuff is rare and something I would like for my setup, but a special super rare SCSI card for a weird server from the early 90's that I would never use doesn't appeal to me....even though it may be rare and you couldn't find it anywhere else, it wouldn't be worth anything to me.

The best example here is Sound Blaster AWE 64 Gold.
Cards alone always go for maximum of 1$ everywhere, but occasionally some crazy people place prices like 100$ 😀 And naturally don't sell a thing.

One guy held a huge price for Terratec EWS64XL for a long long time until he finally decided to sell it for 5$ 🤣

Stojke wrote:

The best example here is Sound Blaster AWE 64 Gold.
Cards alone always go for maximum of 1$ everywhere, but occasionally some crazy people place prices like 100$ 😀 And naturally don't sell a thing.

One guy held a huge price for Terratec EWS64XL for a long long time until he finally decided to sell it for 5$ 🤣

I knew a guy once who stocked up on unopened Atari 2600 games during the video game crash thinking they would sell for big money one day. He kept holding them,occasionally asking big money for some he thought were rare (this was before official rarity guides had been established) and didn't sell very much. He ended up selling over half of them as scrap for the gold in the cartridges and lost a fortune.

It gets annoying when people quote Ebay for pricing, or quote some crazy gold content in boards with no gold in them.

When people quote Ebay tell them fine you will pay ebay prices, but the guy has to use Ebay, pay the fees, ship it to you, and you will say it is different then listed and then do a chargeback.

sliderider wrote:

Stojke wrote:

The best example here is Sound Blaster AWE 64 Gold.
Cards alone always go for maximum of 1$ everywhere, but occasionally some crazy people place prices like 100$ 😀 And naturally don't sell a thing.

One guy held a huge price for Terratec EWS64XL for a long long time until he finally decided to sell it for 5$ 🤣

I knew a guy once who stocked up on unopened Atari 2600 games during the video game crash thinking they would sell for big money one day. He kept holding them,occasionally asking big money for some he thought were rare (this was before official rarity guides had been established) and didn't sell very much. He ended up selling over half of them as scrap for the gold in the cartridges and lost a fortune.

Atari had millions of NIB 2600 carts when they dumped them, anything you can buy in the millions will never be worth anything.

Unknown_K wrote:

When people quote Ebay tell them fine you will pay ebay prices, but the guy has to use Ebay, pay the fees, ship it to you, and you will say it is different then listed and then do a chargeback.

Good point. It is not easy selling on Ebay anymore...a lot of friends of mine have only come out even selling some items! What a waste of time.