How can this system [cgi.ebay.com] be worth over $400!? Even a similiar equipped QS brings at least $100 less than that. I've sold several systems this year on eBay, some for a good amount, some not. I've tried several different selling formats (start low no reserve, start good with a good BIN, start at the price I want to get...) but can't seem to get sales that good. My descriptions are thorough, my feedback great, and I'm a PowerSeller. I'm going to be putting 5-10 systems up here in the next month (some identical to this one) and would love to get that much!

I have seen a similar system go for just over $200 recently so I can't understand it either,unless it was a misunderstanding on the buyers part and they are going to be hacked off when they realize it is the CRT and not an LCD. Otherwise there is no resoning with crazy.

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Birdmanjeff


www.magfundraising.com/faleofamilyadoption
www.cafepress.com/aviary

Depends on what fish is swimming by mostly IMO. I have the same problem.

I think the nostalgia of it paired to the CRT is cool.

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I don't really care to understand them. As long as they keep overpaying for my old systems so that I can buy new ones every year I just love 'em to death.

well, the unlicensed copy of Office X is worth a few bucks as is the uncanny ability of this DA 733 to recognise 160 Gb disks.

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Embarassing myself on the Internet since 1978.

not to mention the shipping cost of almost $100!!!

It is not a bad deal for:

1) Someone who wants a turnkey system.

2) Is not sophisticated about software. They don't know how to download it free and don't want to pay for it. The machine is loaded with software, apparently.

3) $500 shipped is small potatoes to a lot of people. If they paid $300 or $500, but got what they wanted, it's no big deal to them, or they had their employer pay for it.

Most people are not like forum denizens who worry about every dime, and are up to the minute on Mac prices.

PS: To blusubaru, you probably are not getting prices that good because your listings are TOO good.

1) The average eBay buyer does not want to buy from a Powerseller. A Powerseller is perceived as being too knowledgeable and has probably bought the system from someone else to sell at a profit. Maybe not true, but that is the perception. You probably say TOO MUCH when you list your items.

2) Look at that eBay description of the auction you posted. It looks like it comes from a nice, clean home of a sincere dolt who was the original owner and took good care of it. The ad is not too slick. People want to feel touchy-feely about the garbage they buy, that eBay listing gives them the warm fuzzies. It doesn't matter if they took it out of a dumpster, that's how it's PERCEIVED. The average Mac buyer is emotional, they want to feel like part of a happy clan, not a cold business deal. He says "good luck" and "you will be happy". He doesn't list too many technical details.

In contrast, if a professional reseller listed the same system, in mint condition, but the ad looked "cold" , was done with just specs, huge tech description and the photo looked like the Mac was going to be shipped to you off a pallet, that Mac would bring about $125.

Take the powerseller symbol off your eBay descriptions (in prefs). DON'T use html template or make your descriptions too neat or too professional. Make them look amateurish and a little goofy. DON'T take too many photos of details, you just confuse people. DON'T WRITE TOO MUCH ABOUT THE ITEM. Sound homey and friendly, lots of "good lucks", and niceness. Include software, people want that.

You'll get MUCH higher prices.


PS: Your photos stink. Fuzzy, out of focus, and look like they were taken on a garage floor, beat up and used, like you're hiding something. TURN OFF THE FLASH and PUT YOUR CAMERA ON A TRIPOD. The MACRO setting is your friend.

Learn to take better photos IN FOCUS. Take them in a nice room. If you sell an enclosure, GIVE THEM A $1 POWER CABLE. The average person wonders why you don't have it and thinks you found it in a garbage can.

Can't you see the big difference between your listings and better selling listings?


PPS: Geez, your POWERBOOK listing? What a trainwreck. That sounds so bad I wouldn't take it away for free. Talk about making a bad situation worse!



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 08/31/2006 10:23AM by Otto @#$%&.

Hmmm. Thanks Otto, all good points. I used to feel pretty good about my listing ability, but now I see I have several faults. Thanks!

Listen to Otto... he knows ebay.

I agree with Otto, no Power Seller logo. I've been asked to sign up for it on
numerous occasions but I've always been one that shys away from buying from
Power Sellers so I feel I there are others out there with the same feelings I have.
Don't get me wrong I will occasionally buy from them but I look at feedback
percentages and total price including shipping. We have over 2600 unique
positives and 2 negatives, 99.9% positive. I keep my descriptions short and
sweet. On simple items like video games I usually use the one photo upload
provided by eBay, with anything of decent value I upload photos to Photobucket
and place clickable thumbnail images on our items if I want higher resolution
images, otherwise I just link them with something similar to below. Always use
the eBay free image upload because if you don't and you don't pay for a Gallery
picture, when someone searches for an item the camera symbol won't show up
with the item search. I know I usually won't look at an item if I think it doesn't
have a picture. Anytime I upload to Photobucket I greatly downsize the free eBay
image to about the size of the Gallery image, reason is their image hosting
compresses your image and they don't look very good. My uploaded photos always
go between the end of the description and the beginning of the shipping info.

Typical HTML:

Two Pics Side by Side Centered
<p>
<pre><center>
<img src="http:// YOUR PICTURE URL "> <img src="http:// YOUR PICTURE URL "></center>
</pre>

or

When I use Thumbnails:

<p><center><i>Click on the thumbnail/s to enlarge the/an image.</i></center>

Notice: No Unconfirmed Addresses when using Paypal!

Description: You are bidding on a Yada Yada Yada game for Nintendo 64.
It has been tested, works and looks great. No stock photos here, what you see is
what you get.

Shipping Info: Buyer pays $4.00 shipping cost to the lower 48 US States
Only! Anywhere else will actual.

Payment Info: We accept Paypal, Money Orders, and Certified Checks.
Notice: We can no longer accept Personal Checks or Credit Card Checks. Also we
can no longer accept Canadian or Foreign Money Orders! We expect payment
within 7 days of the auction end! Please do not bid if you have no intention of
paying for these items!

EMAIL NOTICE:
Please make sure that your current Email address is registered with eBay.
We cannot contact you if it has changed and you have not updated your eBay account.
Thank You.

*************
You'd be surprised at how many people don't buy anything for a year or two and never update their ID.

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Grateful11

I recently sold a used iMac G5 2.0 with maxed-out memory. Prices for iMacs sold about that time ranged from mid $800s to about $1100 with mine selling for just over $1000. While I'm sure I broke some of Otto's rules (e.g., too much info), the most important variables (more important than iSight, MHz and memory) were software followed, distantly, by AppleCare.

People don't want to buy software and will pay a premium if you include lots of unlicensed software. So, if you don't mind breaching your license agreements, don't wipe your hard drive before shipping and mention what you're leaving on the HD in your ad.

Quote
Billybob
People don't want to buy software and will pay a premium if you include lots of unlicensed software. So, if you don't mind breaching your license agreements, don't wipe your hard drive before shipping and mention what you're leaving on the HD in your ad.

If reported, doing that will get listings pulled. It violates this policy: [pages.ebay.com]

Virtually no listings ever get pulled for software unless you're blatantly obvious.

Don't list all the software and don't use the corporate names. i.e.

NO: Microsoft Office with serialz
YES: Office software will be left on hard drive

NO: ADOBE PHOTOSHOP CS SUITE, NO DISKS.
YES: Full professional graphics software and lots more left on hard drive, email for details on huge full packages of included apps included with this mint, well-cared for computer. owned by a long-time Mac enthusiast and user!!

You can take screenshots of your apps folder and post them as images with the
auction. They won't show up in a search. I've seen it done many times and virtually
all used computers, from individuals, come loaded. I once bought a 9600 off eBay
and it had a about 1000 songs on it, he said he left them on there for me to enjoy,
they were cr@p, I formatted and reinstalled. He didn't tell me they were on there
until after he shipped it so it wasn't part of my buying strategy.

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Grateful11

Great pointers Otto!

Glad I clicked on this post. Thanks for the informative thread blusubaru.

I just saw a (non-collectible) fishing reel sell for $38, more than what it sells for new in the box with a warranty. New seller with only a 6+ (100%) rating, but the listing was basically what Otto pointed out.

Quote
eBay
This is a brand New never used ... Abu Garcia Fishing Reel.... I have the same exact rell and there great.... The is No scratches ... NEVER USED!!!!!! There will be No RESERVE!!!!!!! Thx...

1-day listing started at a penny. Only 2 pixs, No model#, no specs, nuttin!

friggin' amazing

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Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/31/2006 08:22PM by Panopticon.

There are a lot of interesting Ebay auctions. While selling my iMac, one seller stated, "I paid over $1700 for this system new, so I'm setting my reserve at $1200, which is reasonable." Setting his reserve at $100 more than the market top, this seller, obviously, hadn't reviewed the recent iMac sales data.

A question for Ebay experts: what is the point of a reserve? If I'm not willing to take less than X, then I'll start my auction off at X. The recent sales data gives me a good idea of what I can expect, so I can confidently start my auction off lower than the minimum I want to get. When I see a (high) reserve, I generally get turned off and move on to the next auction.

Please help me understand.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/31/2006 09:41PM by Billybob.

I agree with OTTO. I used to snipe at the occasional used Mac and then resell it after a lot of polishing, testing to clients. I've gotten a few totally marred and scratched up machines with port covers etc missing from those "powersellers"; I've got a few tricks to fix them but sometimes it's just too much damage.
Now, I stay away from sellers that have hundreds or thousands of items sold because I feel that they can't or won't take the time to care for my potential Macs.

Do some people intentionally use bad grammar in there (their) ads to show that they are amateurs?

[cgi.ebay.com]

personally, I've perferred buying parts (such as for pismo's) and CDs from powersellers. I have noticed that powersellers get more $$ for their items as well.

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bradsdad
---no signature required



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/31/2006 10:51PM by bradsdad.

Quote
Billybob
what is the point of a reserve? If I'm not willing to take less than X, then I'll start my auction off at X. The recent sales data gives me a good idea of what I can expect, so I can confidently start my auction off lower than the minimum I want to get. When I see a (high) reserve, I generally get turned off and move on to the next auction.

When you do a search you don't see there's a reserve until you open the listing. Having a low start price gets more eyeballs on the listing, and in theory attracts more bidders.

Some people also use reserves to gauge the market value; i.e., set a high reserve and see where bidding ends up. This can work if it's a widget that is not commonly on the market so there's not much past sales data available.

A question for Ebay experts: what is the point of a reserve? If I'm not willing to take less than X, then I'll start my auction off at X. The recent sales data gives me a good idea of what I can expect, so I can confidently start my auction off lower than the minimum I want to get. When I see a (high) reserve, I generally get turned off and move on to the next auction.

Please help me understand.


A: A lot of buyers resent reserves. They feel they are being manipulated somehow and that their bids don't "count". I feel it puts buyers off.

B: NEVER start an auction too high. Start them at a penny, or $9.95 for an expensive item, which is the highest you can list without incurring higher fees.

It's human nature to want to compete against other buyers and you get much higher final prices if there's a "feeding frenzy".

Also, you benefit from the low feedback bidders who think they always have to be "on top" to win. The final price is ALWAYS higher if you start low. You also get the casual buyer who will make an initial low bid rather than "watching", you don't scare those away.

Carefully watch your bidders always.

1) Mercilessly cancel and BLOCK the bids of anyone with questionable feedback or a history of not paying. Check the "feedback about others", even for people with good feedback, for troublemakers.

Use this: [www.toolhaus.org]

2) If you're in doubt about a bidder, ask them a simple question via email. If they don't answer, or answer in a hostile fashion, cancel and block them. I query every zero feedback bidder. My terms ask for zeros to email me first before bidding, but 99% of them ignore them or don't read the auction text. Make sure low-feedback bidders understand about confirmed address, shipping, auctions terms, etc.

It's getting harder to avoid problems on eBay as a seller, but you can head off trouble about 80% of the time by being careful.

PS: If someone asks you an insane or hostile-sounding question, don't reply and block them right away.

personally, I've perferred buying parts (such as for pismo's) and CDs from powersellers. I have noticed that powersellers get more $$ for their items as well.

Well, I agree that as a BUYER it's good to buy from Powersellers with good feedback for small things....cables, parts, adapters, batteries and what not.

But you have to realize that for the AVERAGE buyer, not the sophisticated ones, people place a HUGE emotional attachment to things they buy, especially non-commodity items. Cars, computers, clothing..these things come with a giant set of emotional baggage.

You can see by the posts here how emotionally attached people are to their Mac computers and iPods and how they link it to their lifestyles, sense of worth, well-being and morality.

They want a buying "experience" that makes them feel like a better, smarter person, not just like they "grabbed" something.

Look at how upset people become when FedEx is late, when Applecare is rude, when their Apple Mac disappoints them.

You want to pretend it's like a science experiment....how best to present your auction to what you feel is your target audience.

I've been in the business of publishing, professional copy-writing, ad production and mass sales for years. eBay is like a mini sales lab to me, very interesting and entertaining.

I buy almost ALL my high end purchases and most of my hobby stuff there, sell my stuff there too.

Thank OB for the insight. My 15 yr old son wants to eBay his CD collection and we are trying to figure out whether to sell them (20) in batches or each one separately. We buy most of our music on ebay now: little risk, small Paypal transactions, and easy positive feedback. I also got some extra Pismo parts (superdisk and zip drives, and small hard drives) that I need to sell as well.

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bradsdad
---no signature required