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Why the bleep is eBay so expensive??

One of things that bugs me on Ebay is the "seller refurbished" baloney. How do you refurb a CPU? Did the seller gently tap it with a rubber mallet while it was still mounted in the ZIP socket? And so on.
 
One of things that bugs me on Ebay is the "seller refurbished" baloney. How do you refurb a CPU? Did the seller gently tap it with a rubber mallet while it was still mounted in the ZIP socket? And so on.

Clean off the heatsink compound and straighten and pins that need it?
 
Dont talk smack about limozeen! Or trogdor...

Comsomate v's!!!

I'm not at all; I even played one of the videos that came up (the song "Bad Girl"). Good stuff. :rocknroll::rockband::rockon::flamethrower:

Not to mention my Strong Sad quote in my signature. "You can get [a computer] like yours at a garage sale for, like, fifteen dollars," --Strong Sad, sbemail #33 (And thus part of my ire about eBay.)
 
Personally I prefer eBay to Facebook Marketplace / Bonanza / Craigslist because there is less hassle. The downside are the fees. Plus the search capabilities on eBay are unrivaled. Google has cut bursts of use of complex queries. Plus it appears Google cuts short the list of displayed results. I can understand why: the compute / RAM used is not offset by ads because deep searches are hard to correlate with ads to sell something. But I miss that from 5 to 8 years ago: Google was far more permissive.
 
My2Cents on FleaBay...

I hate "RARE" , "SUPER RARE", "Collectable", "Hard to Find" and there are 20 of that same item in the listing. "Collectable" to me is you want me to buy your junk.

I quit looking at all "Buy it Now" listings. I select auctions ending soon and scan for last second bargains. I buy very little these days as I'm trying to find homes for extra parts I acquired over the years. I need to sell some stuff but it take a lot of work to sell stuff for a few dollars.

framer
 
Personally I prefer eBay to Facebook Marketplace / Bonanza / Craigslist because there is less hassle. The downside are the fees. Plus the search capabilities on eBay are unrivaled. Google has cut bursts of use of complex queries. Plus it appears Google cuts short the list of displayed results. I can understand why: the compute / RAM used is not offset by ads because deep searches are hard to correlate with ads to sell something. But I miss that from 5 to 8 years ago: Google was far more permissive.

I didn't even know that. I call major foul on Google for that. In doing so, they betrayed their own original purpose, and thus the users.
 
You must be new here.

My last shred of believing Google wasn't evil died when they changed Google Groups' interface such that it was now nearly impossible to do useful searches against the giant archives of Usenet they acquired from DejaNews.
 
I hate "RARE" , "SUPER RARE", "Collectable", "Hard to Find" and there are 20 of that same item in the listing. "Collectable" to me is you want me to buy your junk.
Those kinds of descriptions usually indicate a seller has no idea how to sell something or even what they are selling.

For example, this one just came up:
"Vintage Miscellaneous Computer Parts Lot Rare Hard To Find Rare"
https://www.ebay.com/itm/174673935007?nordt=true

That description doesn't even tell you what they are selling. They might as well just have left the description blank.

eBay is ineed mostly driven by search terms. How would anyone ever find this item? Does anyone really search just for the term "rare"? "Vintage" is 100% redundant since it is already filed in vintage computing. How many items come up for "part"? or "computer part"?
 
Google has clearly showed "prioritization" in their search results for years now.. Its become an ad run browser.. Its garbage now. it would behoove eBay to have unnecessary words removed from listings to help with search displays. " collectible, rare, etc" do not tell you what the item is. I also think there should be search caveats. I dont want an APPLE Shirt to show up when searching for vintage hardware, nor a mug, nor stickers. I also would like an option to chick on so not a single damned PHONE related listing or accessory EVER shows up on any of my searches (and not watches). Sorry, going to go back to soldering, I haven't breathed in my morning lead fumes yet....
 
You can use the minus sign to exclude a word when searching. I do this all the time to only see what I'm really looking for.
 
Oh I know, But I end up with super elaborately long strings..... I was getting at there should be a better way.

Am I the only person who feels that all their eBay searches are flooded with Cell phone accessories and other irrelevant garbage? I dont need screen, shields, chargers, or phone cases... Not ever...
 
Those kinds of descriptions usually indicate a seller has no idea how to sell something or even what they are selling.

For example, this one just came up:
"Vintage Miscellaneous Computer Parts Lot Rare Hard To Find Rare"
https://www.ebay.com/itm/174673935007?nordt=true

That description doesn't even tell you what they are selling. They might as well just have left the description blank.

eBay is ineed mostly driven by search terms. How would anyone ever find this item? Does anyone really search just for the term "rare"? "Vintage" is 100% redundant since it is already filed in vintage computing. How many items come up for "part"? or "computer part"?



So True...LOL

framer
 
Speaking of expensive eBay listings, has anyone noticed a general trend of vintage parts and components listings sharing these features?

  • Really high buy-it-now price.
  • Price more than cost of computer it came from.
  • Sometimes a picture of the actual item; sometimes not.
  • Multiple listings for the same item all about the same price.
  • Shipping from Hong Kong or nearby.
  • High seller ratings.
  • No indication the item ever sold for that price.
Does anyone know what's going on there?
 
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