cyclone3d wrote on 2018-04-16, 06:29:
I think it would devolve into the eBay sellers having a place to go to find a list of prices so they could try marking them up even more instead of doing their own research to find what they should sell stuff for.
And then when the stuff doesn't sell for what they think it should sell for, they cancel the sale and say it was because the item was damaged/whatever. And then you see the same exact item from the same exact seller pop up with an even higher starting price a few days later. No, I'm not bitter about some of the jerks that sell on eBay.. not one bit.
I agree with this, and it already kind of has with a lot of other people outside e-bay looking up the prices on these systems and then wondering why in the hell their generic 486 laptop on another site won't sell for 3 1/2 years because they are asking $450 for it. Then mentally deficient people make it worse by paying that much for these old systems which then justifies the cost to the seller so it becomes standard even if there's nothing particularly interesting or different about the system from another of the same vintage that can be had for less.
TBH, I'm really finicky about discussing prices of hardware because I got into this because it WAS cheap. It used to be I could buy up piles and piles of vintage Pentium and older hardware at thrift stores for pennies on the dollar, and that was part of the appeal to me in the 2000's. On one hand I feel like it's doing us a MAJOR disservice because we already have the sellers, shoppers, and the mainstream media (all those articles and clickbait crap about "This man found an old computer in his attic and now has $100,000" or "100 things in your basement that might be worth a lot of money!"). But on the other hand, I think maybe setting a standard, officiated list of values could also help us because then we'd be setting a limit that would prove that people are overcharging massively for stuff on the market.
I could literally write a book on this one.....my methods, how I Shop, how I sell.....in short though.....
I try to be a responsible shopper and a responsible merchant when I do sell my vintage PC stuff.
When I buy/bid, I set a SET price limit on myself, and I don't waver at all. If on e-bay, I'll watch the item in question for months upon months, even years, to see if the seller ever gets a clue to lower the Buy It Now - and sometimes they never do, and fine, then I don't buy their obnoxiously priced hardware. I rarely ever make offers because I find most of the slimeballs on there won't even respond, even if it's $5 under. I think it's absolutely ridiculous that almost everything now is treated like some kind of super-rare, hard-to-find, difficult to obtain Clockmond Diamond in the rough. Especially when said device is AS/IS, untested, or is obviously broken and despite pictures the user is trying to gloss over it, or did not provide enough decent pictures to even know if the thing was not dug out of a swamp, hosed off with a garden hose, and then put on e-bay as "untested - for parts - RARE - $450.99". Honestly we don't NEED these computers, but I also don't want to be the one contributing to the problem by paying $150+ on some old computer because it keeps new people from getting into the joy of the hardware. Unless it's extremely historically significant, and in limited supply - I find it ridiculous to charge over $150 for anything - especially untested/asis.
When I sell - which is RARE - I'll test the whole machine out, post pictures, even video - and give a decent starting price I know someone starting out can afford, and usually the system goes to someone who - at least by seller comments - is very happy with the transaction because they got a fair price, I make a small profit. I also often don't give a Buy It Now price because there's just too many politics involved in that - including what's bringing us this thread, because I honestly can't say what anything is worth. If I put a price over $75, I feel like I'm ripping people off because that's my set maximum price - but if I put it for $75 B.I.N. I'm limiting myself from someone who REALLY wants the machine enough to pay more. I try my hardest to be as fair as possible - and that's one reason I don't sell much. It just puts too much stress on my conscience.
If we really want to get serious about pricing, as a vintage computing community, then we will, someday, need to establish standard prices for various machines just like vintage guitars or classic cars. And it would need to be something officiated to keep people from getting ripped off, and publicized enough to raise awareness that THIS is the going rate for blah blah blah, and this is too much, and this is too little - and based on what condition, completeness, and whatnot. A good thing is we will see less "garbage" being touted as "vintage PC, RARE, Untested, AS/IS" that way - like a certain XT Clone I've seen on E-bay with a busted off faceplate, lots of rust, banged up case, and the thing is going for $150.00 - I would not charege more than $25.00 for that. We also will need to stop being so nice and be allowed by parts of the community where it's often banned, to point out when someone selling hardware or software is being ridiculous or not.