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Zenith Z-140 8088 PC - With All Accessories - Fully Working

As a long-time eBay buyer and watcher, I'd like to give a couple of friendly suggestions.

First: pictures, pictures, pictures. Pictures with good lighting, focus, and detail are critical to show the item's condition. In some cases it can be done with a single picture, in other cases not.
Second: to attract potential buyers, start the bidding very low.
Third: when setting the min bidding and Buy It Now prices, use the Completed Items Search feature to learn what similar items have sold for recently.

Good Luck! I'll be watching your auctions.
 
I couldn't find where to set a reserve, so I started the bidding at the minimum I am willing to part with the system for. If it doesn't sell I'll try another approach.

I'll add more pictures to the listing asap.

Edit: Put up a gallery of better-lit pictures on the auction page in the description.
 
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eBay may charge extra for more pictures. Sometimes it's worth it, sometimes it's not. For high-dollar collectibles is often is; the extra expense of more photos will pay off as more particular buyers will be drawn to the item. For simple and low-dollar items, it really won't bring extra money most of the time, so it's important to make the one photo worthwhile.

Something you may have not considered, using a scanner to create the image. Epson scanners, especially, usually have a decent depth of focus. And a scanner allows for extreme closeups and crops of minute details, without expensive specialized photography equipment. This method obviously won't work with an entire desktop computer, but keep it in mind for small items like books, CDs, and parts. Also, you can use some simple photo editing to enlarge details while keeping the posting to a single photo. As an example, this was done on a flatbed scanner, shows a critical detail in closeup, and would count as one picture:
194OTerror.jpg


I hope this is helpful information.

Best Wishes,
-Bob
 
The idea of overlaying them is quite helpful, but I happen to have "photography equipment" and can take quite high-detail shots with my camera when it is in macro mode. :)

When something is flat, however, a scanner may prove helpful, so I will keep that in mind.
 
Yes, they do. Does it cost $26.37 to ship the machine, keyboard, manuals, and monitor to Ohio?
 
If you're logged in, then it's autocalculating shipping to you, so yes. I have a nice postal scale and charts, etc., so shipping on my auctions should be exact. Interested in buying? I'd be happy if the machine ended up with someone from the forum. :)
 
Yes, I was logged in. Just seems cheap unless you are using one box for everything and the monitor and computer are not too heavy.
 
Unknown_K said:
Yes, I was logged in. Just seems cheap unless you are using one box for everything and the monitor and computer are not too heavy.
Click to expand...

Yep, one box, and everything is light for such an old machine - the case isn't made of metal on the outside, which usually an old box would be, it's made of hard (still solid feeling, don't worry) plastic.

It's a great box, I just don't use it, and I figured I could use the money and it could use an owner who would use it and treasure it more than I.
 
Actually maybe I just accepted the market but the last two auctions I looked at if their shipping was correct didn't seem that bad. (under $100 seems good to be now). I'm just tired of the shipping that costs more than the computer. I passed up an IBM 5120 auction just because but it went fairly low but even that I think the dude quoted me $100 to ship which I think that system weighs in at 110lbs so pretty good if it's not a $300 freight job.

Back on topic, the system looks very nice and all the pictures are great! I also like knowing that a forum member ends up with a system.
 
Thanks to the tool Turbo Lister, I was able to change my auctions to include a reserve price and lower the starting bid to a standard $.99.
 
Nobody has even bid on this item, and the auction ended. This disappoints me, and prior to relisting I want to ask if you guys have any idea why, or anything I could do to make it better?

Do any of you want to buy it? :/
 
Crap. I totally forgot to bid lol though I guess for some reason it wouldn't have mattered? Honestly I didn't think you were going to have any problems selling that one. I guess it's not a historically significant or hugely commercialized model so some folks didn't notice it? Sometimes a reserve scares folks off as some folks have a hugely high reserve and aren't serious about selling or want too much. I too think about that when I see the $200 below the initial bid offer. Zenith was the first computer I ever played on, fortunately I actually have it still (first family computer) but I've been toying with the idea of getting a few others.
 
Some possible explanations for the auction results:

1) potential buyers chased away by Reserve games

2) not much demand for obsolete computers

3) unrealistic value expectations.

4) shipping cost exceeds value of computer

5) abundance of similar computers that are available locally and for free

6) vintage computer buyers are notoriously cheap (true or not?)

7) everyone who wants a DOS computer already has one

8 ) Luck. The one guy on the planet who 'needs' this computer was on vacation this week.

FYI, should you re-list the auction: The only Zenith desktop that's sold within the last 90 days on eBay went for $0.99 and had only one bidder. And that computer was still packed in the original boxes!
Zenith portables and early laptops seem to be much more desirable, selling in the $10-$20 range.

Better luck next time.
 
Bobthearch said:
Some possible explanations for the auction results:

1) potential buyers chased away by Reserve games

2) not much demand for obsolete computers

3) unrealistic value expectations.

4) shipping cost exceeds value of computer

5) abundance of similar computers that are available locally and for free

6) vintage computer buyers are notoriously cheap (true or not?)

7) everyone who wants a DOS computer already has one

8 ) Luck. The one guy on the planet who 'needs' this computer was on vacation this week.

FYI, should you re-list the auction: The only Zenith desktop that's sold within the last 90 days on eBay went for $0.99 and had only one bidder. And that computer was still packed in the original boxes!
Zenith portables and early laptops seem to be much more desirable, selling in the $10-$20 range.

Better luck next time.
Click to expand...

I agree with your list except for #4. The shipping cost i believe were OK.
#6 plays a big part. I've said it before in these forums; we really are a cheap lot.
A " Buy It Now" price of $200 is what you would expect for a model Z-100 or Z-120. The Z-148 was a budget model with almost no expandability. Still a nice little pooter.
The Reserve probably discouraged some potential buyers also. If I am looking through auctions and I see "Reserve not Met", I immediately click away. Don't even put it on my watch list.
I think the bad economy is taking it's toll on sellers. Don't know if other members have noticed, but I see a lot of computers lately on eBay that get no bids at all and the sellers are asking very little for them.
 
Chuckster_in_Jax said:
I agree with your list except for #4. The shipping cost i believe were OK.
Click to expand...

I didn't mean to suggest the shipping cost was too high; it was quite reasonable considering the item was an entire computer including monitor and boxed documents. My point, as an example, that a large and bulky $10 item could end up costing $50+ after shipping. The buyer would have to really want the item.
 
A couple of experiences have really put me off of "reserve" auctions.

First, I once bid on an item that had a hidden reserve. Don't recall the exact prices, but lets say min bid was $0.99 and reserve was $25. I bid $30 thinking that there'd soon be other bidders and I'd let the automatic increments do the rest. Well, my bid that should have been 99 cents was automatically increased by eBay to the reserve of $25 even though there were no other bidders. I still got the item for less than my max bid, but dang I was irritated. Not sure if eBay still works that way or not.

Second, I've participated in Reserve auctions that were very active with multiple bidders that went like this: We duked it out for several days and I finally got in the highest bid right at closing. But the seller refused (as is allowed) to sell the item because it failed to meet their secret (and undoubtedly sky-high) Reserve price. All that effort for nothing, a waste of time and huge disappointment.

I'm not saying I would have bid on your computer if not for the Reserve, I wouldn't have. But just trying to clarify and give examples of why Reserve auctions can scare off bidders.
 
Well then I'm going back to my original (and lighter on fees) method of setting a starting bid that's at my minimum acceptable level and letting people bid up from there. Screw the reserve prices.
 
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