RaiderOfLostVoodoo wrote on 2022-03-27, 20:08:

Just sniped two OPL3 cards for 21€ shipped.
Sometimes searching for generic terms like "convolute" in the PC hardware section can get you incredible deals.

That's a great approach if you live in the countryside and have an unused barn behind your house, yes.
Also, Konvolute tend to be a bit convoluted and the one item that actually interested you turned out to be DOA.
But sure, been there, done that, all for the heap 😉

I usually try sniping if an item has a starting price at around half the estimated worth, if there's sound indication.
Because chances are, starting at a buck, it would have ended up roughly there. But often, no one else will make a first bid at half that because "meh"...

Cuttoon wrote on 2022-03-27, 17:37:

How is bidding by bots "jacking up" as opposed to "outbidding you"? Actual fraud aside, the buyer will pay those $300 and the se […]
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RetroGamer4Ever wrote on 2022-03-27, 17:30:

I almost bought a DB50XG with an old SBAWE32 PnP in an eBay auction, but bid bots jacked up the price at the end to nearly $300, when it was not even $130 a few minutes before closing.

How is bidding by bots "jacking up" as opposed to "outbidding you"?
Actual fraud aside, the buyer will pay those $300 and the seller the percentage for $300.
I like to (manually) snipe myself sometimes, but aren't you perfectly free to bid $301, days in advance?

BTW., strictly by market value, that is a normal price nowadays.
And old MIDI board especially are just trophy items. If you want the sound, there are new ones around.

I put my first bid in around 3 minutes before the auction closed. After that, someone put in a slightly bigger max bid, so I upped my max bid around two minutes before it ended. Nothing abnormal there. Then a bunch of inflated +$10-$30 bids rolled in the last 90 seconds, most of them in the last 20. Several shotgun bids came within the last 10 seconds of the auction, knocking my "10-seconds left bid" down by the time I was able to refresh the page after bidding and the price had more than doubled in the last minute. The board was in a bundle of various RAM sticks and a GPU, so it would have been a solid buy at $300, cause I could turn around and sell the rest, but it was simply a matter of the bots being faster. I checked the history of the bidder accounts and they are all tech scavengers who focus on that area of auctions.

I get the best deals by making offers, even if there is no button to make an offer. Send a private message and often the seller will work with you on a lower price.

appiah4 wrote on 2022-03-27, 20:09:

Ok, I mean.. I just had to.. […]
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TrashPanda wrote on 2022-03-27, 19:50:

Shill bidding is a thing too, have had a few auctions where that has occurred, you can quickly tell when someone is a shill bidd […]
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Kahenraz wrote on 2022-03-27, 19:32:

There was a boxed Audigy 2 ZS on auction recently with a bid of $32. Some bums started a bid war during the last few minutes and jacked the price up over $100. They were all there watching the listing. There was no need to inflate the price like that right before it closed.

Shill bidding is a thing too, have had a few auctions where that has occurred, you can quickly tell when someone is a shill bidder.

Pisses me off so I start using a sniping tool on a fake account with such auctions just to fuck with them, I dont know why they do it, its so damn obvious.

Perhaps sellers dont realise that buyers KNOW when the seller is shill bidding on their own items, a fresh buyer account with 100% activity on your auction and only your auction is a pretty fucking huge giveaway.

Ok, I mean.. I just had to..

Ill gladly wear that badge if it means shill bidders get what they deserve . .a no sale.

Am I the only one who just uses "buy it now"? Sure I probably pay more, but if the trade off is less eBay stress it seems worth it. 😜

Shponglefan wrote on 2022-03-27, 20:43:

Am I the only one who just uses "buy it now"? Sure I probably pay more, but if the trade off is less eBay stress it seems worth it. 😜

I only do buy it now any more. I know I probably pay more than I should but it saves the headache of dealing with other bidders.

A lot of retro components are overpriced. I prefer to straight up buy things instead of sitting on an auction, but not at today's average prices.

I will still do it if the price is alright. But I prefer to make offers where possible.

As someone from a country without ebay. It seems obvious there are cliques of - well I hesitate to say addicts, but ongoing compulsion sure - people who basically have an ebay habit. Ebay, that great commercial business, are very pleased! Top business success on their part!

I wonder when most of it ever gets properly used. There is not enough time in life, for most of them.

Another variation is knock in a usual decent value bid (around 20-30 more for room in bidding to win), on 10 second point to ending time, then seemingly nobody bidded then price shot up. Because the seller might had set a value on the auction item and that bid put in was too low.

Cheers,

Shreddoc wrote on 2022-03-27, 20:48:

As someone from a country without ebay. It seems obvious there are cliques of - well I hesitate to say addicts, but ongoing compulsion sure - people who basically have an ebay habit. Ebay, that great commercial business, are very pleased! Top business success on their part!

I wonder when most of it ever gets properly used. There is not enough time in life, for most of them.

You really think so? Some people are weird.

On an unrelated notice, I went ahead and got that fancy brand COAST module. Only thing still missing in my life.

Cuttoon wrote on 2022-03-27, 20:56:

Shreddoc wrote on 2022-03-27, 20:48:

As someone from a country without ebay. It seems obvious there are cliques of - well I hesitate to say addicts, but ongoing compulsion sure - people who basically have an ebay habit. Ebay, that great commercial business, are very pleased! Top business success on their part!

I wonder when most of it ever gets properly used. There is not enough time in life, for most of them.

You really think so?

Sure, without getting semantic about terminology. ebay is an extremely successful business - yes. Some vogoners are very regular customers of theirs, and (going by post content and frequency) very little else - yes. This can lead a subset of people to frame their views and posts about ebay as though they're talking about the entire world + industry, when actually it's just One Site, One Business. Sure, a gargantuan one. But for a lot of the world's population, it doesn't even exist, we (successfully, and without the bullshit prices + politics + other dramas that take up so many discussions) build our entire retro lives with barely a touch upon ebay Inc.

In that sense, the whole ebay thing is an insular bubble of sorts. One which, one can only calculate based upon the sheer frequency and ubiquity of posts about it, is quite a significant part of some people's retro lives. Good for them. And very good for ebay Inc, successful giant corporation which so many now apparently "need", to give them their best retro life.

I am not talking about you personally, no. But all I can say is the old: you sleep in the bed you make.

Cuttoon wrote on 2022-03-27, 20:56:

You really think so? Some people are weird. […]
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Shreddoc wrote on 2022-03-27, 20:48:

As someone from a country without ebay. It seems obvious there are cliques of - well I hesitate to say addicts, but ongoing compulsion sure - people who basically have an ebay habit. Ebay, that great commercial business, are very pleased! Top business success on their part!

I wonder when most of it ever gets properly used. There is not enough time in life, for most of them.

You really think so? Some people are weird.

On an unrelated notice, I went ahead and got that fancy brand COAST module. Only thing still missing in my life.
100_0515.JPG100_0516.JPG

Youll be posting how it performs ?

Its such an odd module I wonder how it stacks up against other ones.

It is matter of learning to avoid certain sellers like I described and locate your items and bid on them and usually they are honest.

Cheers,

Shreddoc wrote on 2022-03-27, 21:30:

quite a significant part of some people's retro lives.

certainly part of mine, pretty much all I get is from ebay, as that's really the only place I have easy access to anything, the local market for retro hardware is really barren and if something comes up the prices are usually far away from good... same goes for my local ebay too though so I mostly buy from other countries and have to pay more for shipping unfortunately.

so, yeah, I'm glad ebay exists, I barely buy anything for going "market rate" though and try to go for good deals only, I stick with auctions mostly.

speaking of, I got this in an unsuspecting bundle of boards, couldn't find anything about it apart from that it seems to have been used in a MSI OEM system, seems to be the mATX version of this one I assume: https://www.ultimateretro.net/en/motherboards/9381

Shponglefan wrote on 2022-03-27, 20:43:

Am I the only one who just uses "buy it now"? Sure I probably pay more, but if the trade off is less eBay stress it seems worth it. 😜

BIN is only available if a seller chooses to use it. In my particular auction this afternoon, the seller wanted as much as they could get, whatever they could get, so BIN was not used.

Shreddoc wrote on 2022-03-27, 21:30:

In that sense, the whole ebay thing is an insular bubble of sorts. One which, one can only calculate based upon the sheer frequency and ubiquity of posts about it, is quite a significant part of some people's retro lives. Good for them. And very good for ebay Inc, successful giant corporation which so many now apparently "need", to give them their best retro life.

I buy most of my retro kit on ebay. We don't have thrift stores here, and being housebound means I can't get out anyway. I sometimes buy on Amibay as well, but some regular sellers there charge even more than on ebay, so I've learned to be selective. For example, I have a board I need to get working, that sells on ebay for up to £100-150, but someone on Amibay tried asking double that for a damaged board. Good luck if it sells, but that does put me off. My price when I get the board tested will be the low end of ebay prices. Not saying what board or who that seller is, just that it happens. At least on ebay there are some great bargains if you're patient 😀

imi wrote on 2022-03-27, 21:56:

speaking of, I got this in an unsuspecting bundle of boards, couldn't find anything about it apart from that it seems to have been used in a MSI OEM system, seems to be the mATX version of this one I assume: https://www.ultimateretro.net/en/motherboards/9381

The weird combination of Socket 478 + 1.5V AGP 8X + 168-pin SDR SDRAM + ISA slot. Not something easily found. 😆

I have a similar OEM board but it's AGP 4x. I would be surprised if this board is 8x. Do you know what the chipset is?

i845
from what I could find it is AGP 4x

imi wrote on 2022-03-28, 00:06:

i845
from what I could find it is AGP 4x

Manual - https://web.archive.org/web/20030509142956/ht … 6530L2_v1.0.exe

BIOS - https://web.archive.org/web/20030707114655/ht … 98&NAME=MS-6530