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Why the bleep is eBay so expensive??

If you have some sort of commercial account first class can be up to 16 oz. or some crud. But for normal plebes, it's 13oz. Unless they're lying to me.

I think they are lying to you as I have been using the 16oz threshold for years. Read the bottom most line in this photo. 1stclass.jpg
 
Lol, you assume too much. The mark up always covers the cost of you percieved discount. Sellers are making good coin knowing that buyers believe they are getting a deal.

Ymmv

That is a given, but as opposed to just buying the "Buy it Now" price, you are saving some money which you would be stupid to pass on. Of course the sellers have a lower price that they are willing to accept. Not all items have the ability to make an offer though, which is how sellers protect themselves from that impulse to just get rid of something. Nothing is "free" unless you go collect scrap. I believe the Ebay world is best when both parties win. I'm not trying to screw any seller over.

There is what an item is worth, what an item will sell for, and what an item is valued by the shoppers. Notice I don't mention what it is valued by the seller; that factor is really moot. Sellers can put any price they want on an item (based on reality or not, as many of you have pointed out above). Sellers can put a bunch of keywords and catchy phrases on an item and slap a big old price on it.... however it means nothing if it doesn't align with the three factors above. Most items sell for below their "worth". That discount is what the market will actually pay. The value to a shopper is a variable factor that depends on individual need. An IBM 5150 in perfect condition has a worth, and an average price it sells for. That same computer will be worth far less to me since I have several already and am not really looking for one now. BUT... if the price is too good to pass on, I might bite. A person wanting a 5150 though will have a much higher value assigned than me. And this is why the auction prices can get out of hand because the stars align with several bidders all present and having set a higher value.

Sometimes there is no market at all for items. I "accidentally" bought a like new Dell laptop the other day for just over $10. It was a $0.99 opening start that someone threw a $10 bid on. I assumed it would be selling for far more and tossed a tracking bid on so I could follow the auction. I bid $15. Figured it would sell for over $100. Instead, there was no interest in it at all and even the first bidder was clearly doing what I was and just tracking it. I won it. So I got a beautiful Core2Duo XP era lappy with all the bells and whistles which will make a lovely retro gaming portable. Pure accident. Clearly all the factors ended up aligning with my shopper value, which was far below the other values and averages... so lucky me.

I don't feel sellers take advantage of me too often, but YMMV. Ultimately, the buyer is in control. Sellers cannot force the money out of you. Remember that and bid accordingly. And if you can never seem to win anything, you probably are needing a calibration of how you value things.
 
I think the point is moot if people who only use eBay to buy things try arguing both sides.. Cant have your cake and eat it to.
Yes there are bad sellers, but eBay is RICH beyond wealth because of the money they collect from SELLER FEES... Sellers make eBay function... not the other way around.
 
Someone may have already made this observation, but I'm not going to scan 140 replies to find out.

A major factor is what's "in," especially with the vintage gaming crowd. They're after 386 systems, but most of them go for a 486, preferably a 486dx2-66. I was looking for that, but only because that's the 486 I had many years ago; it's a sentimental thing. Another way gamers drive prices up is shopping for popular items, like Voodoo cards. I still have a Voodoo 3 3000 agp, and I could probably sell it for a good price on eBay, but I like it. Voodoo GL cards are in high demand.

I notice that Tandy 1000s shot up in price after they featured one on Young Sheldon.

I don't have much money these days, so I have to be strategic. As several others have advised, I checked my watch lists for something I can afford. Since I have most of what I was looking for already, from eBay sales 10 or 15 years ago with much lower prices, I'm in no hurry. If I wrote Santa, I would ask for a PCjr, PC portable, and Deskpro 386 (the original Darth Vader box). Oh, and a Model F AT keyboard. I saw a decently priced Deskpro 386 about a year ago, but I didn't have enough in my budget to buy that one. Ah, well. The Portables are also ridiculously expensive, running around $800+. I've even seen a couple advertised at $1200 starting bid/buy it now. Hard pass. And a working Model F, XT or AT? Fuggetaboutit.

That's ok, the apartment is getting a touch crowded anyway.
 
I think most of us here are guilty of that.. We just didnt know in the 90's.

I once got a Zenith 286 desktop, with keyboard & monitor & software for $5. It was a local sale on eBay and the seller started at $5, and no one else even bid. The monitor was a matching Zenith EGA monitor too.

Great days...
 
I think the point is moot if people who only use eBay to buy things try arguing both sides.. Cant have your cake and eat it to.
Yes there are bad sellers, but eBay is RICH beyond wealth because of the money they collect from SELLER FEES... Sellers make eBay function... not the other way around.

That's the business model they've chosen. Anything else wouldn't make sense. They have to collect from someone. It sure as hell isn't going to be the buyer. It's the fact that people a) are willing to spend a certain amount of money on something, based on market value, when applicable (vintage collectibles don't have a fair market value, their value is completely arbitrary) or b) they can get a better price on ebay. Convenience has something to do with it also, and perceived protections. If no one is spending money on ebay, ebay ain't selling. Where or how they collect the fees is irrelevant. One could make the argument that it IS actually the buyer who's supplying the fees. The fees ebay collects doesn't come from the stratosphere.

Ebay, at least a significant percentage of the time (I have heard of exceptions) takes pains to protect the BUYERS. The seller be damned. That's their model
 
I once got a Zenith 286 desktop, with keyboard & monitor & software for $5. It was a local sale on eBay and the seller started at $5, and no one else even bid. The monitor was a matching Zenith EGA monitor too.

Great days...

I once won a Zenith puter, no keyboard or monitor, for 1$. I was so ecstatic I promised the seller my first kid (still hasn't been born). Man was I happy. I eventually wound up throwing it out LOL LOL LOL.
 
Enjoy that while programs still being developed continue to work on old releases.
Current releases of browsers are the worst for abandoning old machines, and of course the web keeps churning requiring the latest shiny.

Yeah, Chrome doesn't support WinXP any more. Some modern flavors of Linux won't run on a cpu that can't handle SSE (???) instructions.

... On the other hand you have sites like Winworldpc.com where you can get old versions of MS-DOS, CP/M, and even OS/2. One of these days I'm gonna pull out my DesqView/386 diskette and try it out.
 
If you go to ups.com and enter a package of size 20" x 20" x 20", 13oz., first class rate is offered. If you change it to 13.5oz., it's not. That's all I know.

Might be the dimensions, see again in the photo it says max is 22" x 18" x 15" not 20" x 20" x 20".
 
I once won a Zenith puter, no keyboard or monitor, for 1$. I was so ecstatic I promised the seller my first kid (still hasn't been born). Man was I happy. I eventually wound up throwing it out LOL LOL LOL.

This doesn't bode well for your first kid.
 
My best eBay experience was putting a bid on a Gravis Ultrasound Ace in box with all the manuals, floppies and CD. I put max 100 euros, but won with 5 euros initial bid. Still don't quite understand why no one else wanted it. Works great.
 
I once won a Zenith puter, no keyboard or monitor, for 1$. I was so ecstatic I promised the seller my first kid (still hasn't been born). Man was I happy. I eventually wound up throwing it out LOL LOL LOL.

Why? Didn't it at least have some salvageable parts?
 
I did that trick once; bought an XT clone cheap. The motherboard is meh (only 4.77Mz) but I scored a working ST238, Adaptec 2070a rll controller, herc clone, and two 360k floppies! Not to mention the case & power supply.

The seller would have made a lot more money by parting it out.
 
Thought this was interesting...fully in the spirit of splitting things up, this seller appears to have had a complete IBM 5160 system and not content splitting off the 5151 and model F (the keyboard is listed at £300 which is certainly a gutsy price even if it is refurbished), he has also gutted the system unit into separate components that are all listed separately, with the empty case for sale at £130...certainly an interesting approach to try and maximise value, I'll give it that.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/IBM-5160-Case-Only-Retro-Vintage-XT-Good-Condition-See-other-listings-for-more/203297849414?hash=item2f557f0046:g:DpQAAOSwqHNgQ8-B
 
A while back I noted one seller saying he/she was no longer selling complete systems because shipping was a hassle.

Different strokes......
 
Wow, I have a lot of thoughts on this thread.......I've been an E-bay Seller since 2005, and a buyer since 2003, and 90% of what I do has been related to vintage x86 IBM Compatibles.

Well, I think we all know how it got here. Vintage x86 Hardware is now hot stuff, there's ton of YouTubers doing videos on it now, not just myself (creepingnet) once every 2 years. I've noticed VOGONS has gone from a "let's get this game running on my new i7" forum to a "let's get this vintage 80486 running" forum. Not to mention all those clickbait articles on the internet that are like "15 things you might find in your attic that will make you rich!" and of course #blah is "old computer" and has a picture of like, a 1990's Mac or a 1980's IBM. It's hot stuff ATM. So funny to me because I remember there was a time when I could buy a whole thrift shop out for $20, got chastised by people for having a "PC Jurassic Park", and could treat this stuff like throwaways at times (which with my current skills I wish I had not in a lot of those cases).

Personally, as a buyer, I had to adapt to the new ecosystem. So when I went to look for a DOS laptop, I picked a model that had a "fatal flaw" (cracking plastic) that nobody would want but a willing researcher like myself, and I started kicking those laptops up left and right for $20-75 all day long. Now they are going up because I post too much about them probably. I go for AS/IS, untested stuff I have to fix. My photo galleries really show a lot of that kit-bashing of NEC Versa to get 4 good working examples - which I finished last night BTW with the help of two resistors and a N.O.S. $20 800x600 LCD Panel.

I was told, I think by someone on VOGONS, that BIN stands for "make an offer" - well, I hate to tell that person that's incorrect. I've offered as liittle of a discount of $10 on a $75 item, and either got no answer or "Sorry, I can't do that" or "Lowball". They told me this was specifically true of ridiculously high prices, like an IBM XT for $10,000, or that XT clone that was on there for $500 that looks like someone dragged it out of a swamp with a winch.....yeah right, they think they are selling Carol Shelby's personal Ford Mustang when they have a Fox Body LX with the 4-cylinder and automatic. "Nice Car" but it's not worth that much. If it's $10K then there better be something significant about it, like Bill Gates wrote Donkey on it, or it was Steve Ballmer's personal Deskpro 386 from 1986 that was used for marketing Windows/386 - and there better be proof other than a Microsoft Asset tag! C'mon, I know it's a ThinkPad with the butterfly keyboard, but is it really worth having it posted up for $10,599.99 for 7 years straight with no buyers? It was not even that expensive in 1994 when it came out!

Now, as a seller, I can say it's not as cheap as it used to be to sell a PC. I miss the days like 2005 when couriers were still cheap. I sold an IBM EduQuest back then for $75, and spent only $25 in shipping, and this was an AIO PC with a CRT built into it! Now just to sell two modern laptops I had to spend almost $50 in shipping, and got ****ed tender by PayPal and E-bay when I had to pull the sale because I could not afford shipping due to then unexpected, unrelated financial hardships! I've come to a point I might start using VC Marketplace or AmiBay to sell because I can use Venmo or someone other than PayFiend (PayPal) - whom I've been trying to get my account repaired for five+ months now, with little to no help. Seriously, **** PayPal!. Irritating because I was initally gong to use E-bay this year to sell some lesser used stuff in my collection - looks like that's not happening through evil-bay. I should not need to spend a total of 200 minutes on the phone (I counted them up) plus 10 e-mails just to get my account reset!
 
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