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Alternative to eBay for Vintage Computers

D

Drken

Experienced Member
Joined
Jan 13, 2009
Messages
306
Location
Charlotte NC
Some of you know I do quite a bit of business on eBay, mostly refurbished Canon portable printers, but starting this year, Apple II hardware as well. I got pretty fed up with eBay's ever-increasing fees & the way eBay is being run (in particular, their ad hoc way of enforcing their rules), so I went looking for an alternative avenue and found one I think is fantastic. It's blujay.com and it has NO FEES for listing or selling... as in, it's absolutely $FR.EE to use. I and a few others have started selling vintage Apple hardware & software, and I mention it here because if you have any hardware you're looking to sell, you might want to try blujay.com instead of eBay.

If you're interested, here's a good link to get an idea as to alternatives to eBay and the volume of traffic they serve:

http://www.powersellersunite.com/auctionsitewatch.php

There is also an eBay fee chart at:

http://www.powersellersunite.com/ebayfeechart.php

which shows quite clearly how expensive it is to buy/sell on eBay with their current fee structure, so blujay.com and others might be a good way to go.
 
I tried Boanzale which is now rated as one of the best ebay alternatives, but I never saw more than a few hundred vintage computer items and most were mine. I closed it down without a single sale.

On a side note, I see the original owners of Skype are suing ebay for giving away protected technology. I don't see how ebay will get out of this one, so to make up for it, I expect ebay will jack up their fees again.

As it is, I have all I can do to keep up with all the changes and new requirements. Yet my sales are way down.
 
Sorry to hear you weren't successful with Boanzale. I went with Blujay.com since it is totally free, whereas Boanzale charges the seller a final value fee ala eBay. I've had my webstore there for 3-4 weeks now, and have already sold several items. I'm also doing a lot of promoting of my webstore via package inserts for each item I sell via eBay, trying to direct my customers away from eBay to my webstore and so far, it seems to be working. I also have links on my free Canon Portable Printers website to direct customers there as well. Bottom line is, blujay.com is free, so its costing me nothing to run the store.

For a lot of the vintage Apple items, the price is low & the eBay fees wind up adding quite a large percentage to the cost.
 
Get up of the couch and hit local recyclers, try freecycle, local collectors, etc. No matter where you live somebody has a bunch of old gear they want gone and all you have to do is find them.
 
If it has anything to do with gaming, even computer parts and Apples especially, I have been selling on the Chuckwagon. I've managed to move ISA sound cards, various parts and pieces of computers (even if not a whole computer though I haven't tried yet). URL in my signature.

Nathan
 
Vintage Items from Recyclers

Vintage Items from Recyclers

Since a couple of years ago it is not possible to get any vintage hardware from recyclers in my area. They are not allowed to sell any to the public...or give it away either. The old sources like thrift stores and Goodwill no longer accept computers or such. So that source is, for me , not an option. Whether I sit on my couch or not has no effect.
 
Positron said:
Since a couple of years ago it is not possible to get any vintage hardware from recyclers in my area. They are not allowed to sell any to the public...or give it away either. The old sources like thrift stores and Goodwill no longer accept computers or such. So that source is, for me , not an option. Whether I sit on my couch or not has no effect.
Click to expand...

There are probably collectors that have to move for work and need to dump their stuff, or just don't want it anymore.

Each city has a few sources for old computers if you look around. If recyclers charge to dispose of machines then check out freecycle and the local one man used computer resellers since they seem to get stuff dropped off as "trade".
 
Unknown_K said:
There are probably collectors that have to move for work and need to dump their stuff, or just don't want it anymore.

Each city has a few sources for old computers if you look around. If recyclers charge to dispose of machines then check out freecycle and the local one man used computer resellers since they seem to get stuff dropped off as "trade".
Click to expand...
Seems I qualify for "one man used computer reseller," I'll take a trade any day :)
 
NathanAllan said:
Seems I qualify for "one man used computer reseller," I'll take a trade any day :)
Click to expand...

I have snagged a long list of free old machines and parts from a local P4/Athlon resellerwho makes most of his cash loading XP onto Vista machines and removing spyware.

People just dump old equipment on him they just want gone and then HE wants it gone if he cannot use anything from it.

I snagged a B&W G3, Mac SE FDHD, 2 beige g3 desktops, Powemac 6200 ,6400, IIgs, Tandy 1000, 2 dauphin DTR-1's plus parts. Also a stack of old IDE drives 300mb-20gb plus cards AT power supplies and a bunch of old PC systems/cases I use to stick video editing gear in.

Basically I just soldered a few parts once in a great while and maybe give him some troubleshooting advice here and there for all the above.
 
Just an update for those interested. I've sold several items through my Blujay webstore - not quite as many as through eBay for the same time period, but surprisingly more than I initially thought I would. I've been promoting it heavily, trying to drive my traffic through Blujay, and it seems to be paying off.

I have several promotional items - a brochure, business cards, wallet calendars and magnetic calendars - made up for both my Blujay webstore as well as my Canon Portable Printers website, and I include that literature in each eBay order I ship. So some of that business is follow-up sales from eBay customers, but a few have been new customers.

It's wonderful not having to pay eBay's 8-10% fees!

For anyone interested, the store is at http://drkenb.blujay.com
 
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