Spectrum prices on eBay etc...!
After a browse on eBay for some Spectrum hardware/software it seems to me some people are in this for all the wrong reasons.
As an example... ?70 buy it now plus ?10 shipping for an 'untested' (broken) 48k with no leads, box or... anything. ?80? Seriously? A working boxed one isn't worth that, they sold millions of them!
I don't know if people just assume because it's old it must be worth a lot of money but it's sad people are so greedy when trading in this stuff. I've been watching a lot of a working grey +2 and untested + with some games, starting bid ?10. Thought I'd keep an eye on it and have a bid but the seller's increased it to ?40 because they're scared they won't make enough money off it - no chance I'll be bidding now and this sums up the whole situation at the moment for me...
Everyone's out for a quick buck, and some people I'm sure do pay well over the odds so prices end up artificially inflated for a common piece of hardware and the only people selling them on eBay end up being the ones trying to make as much money as they can, not the real fans of the machine.
Rant over, it's just getting on my nerves all this :-(
As an example... ?70 buy it now plus ?10 shipping for an 'untested' (broken) 48k with no leads, box or... anything. ?80? Seriously? A working boxed one isn't worth that, they sold millions of them!
I don't know if people just assume because it's old it must be worth a lot of money but it's sad people are so greedy when trading in this stuff. I've been watching a lot of a working grey +2 and untested + with some games, starting bid ?10. Thought I'd keep an eye on it and have a bid but the seller's increased it to ?40 because they're scared they won't make enough money off it - no chance I'll be bidding now and this sums up the whole situation at the moment for me...
Everyone's out for a quick buck, and some people I'm sure do pay well over the odds so prices end up artificially inflated for a common piece of hardware and the only people selling them on eBay end up being the ones trying to make as much money as they can, not the real fans of the machine.
Rant over, it's just getting on my nerves all this :-(
Post edited by britain4 on
Comments
Is Alan Sugar at it again?
Yes I agree Ebay is getting quite expensive but you will find a lot and I mean a VERY LOT of crap is not selling. so I think higher than normal prices will start to drop soon. (patience :) )
My favorite is the 0.99p start 'Grab a bargain' no collection....?5 P&P (this is for a game that will fit in a jiffy bag and post 2nd class for ?1.50 :(
I find Amazon or Game.co.uk cheaper than Ebay for console software :)
I have been after an Oric 1 and a Colecovision for years but they go for silly monies so still don't have one...but I can wait and still play them on emulation...:)
That way the buyer is confident he or she will get something that just works, right out the box.
Postage I do try to put the dimensions in the listing, that way the buyer can check themselves if Im overcharging (which I dont), I like to offer a 24hr courier in the UK, usually ?5.99 (UK Mail) or overseas I do like to use UPS (UK to Australia in under a week!!)
Just my tuppence worth!
That's of exactly what I'm talking about, anyone could tell you it's not going to cost ?5 to post nor is it going to cost ?20 to post a 48k, I've posted one myself for ?4 (that's another example)
I'm not on about all sellers here Macc and of course an honest seller like yourself is where I bought mine, for a refurbished tested one in a box that's fair enough. For a random 'untested' one found in a skip (usually with a shagged faceplate and screwdriver marks all over it from 'repairing' the membrane) - people are just taking the piss.
I'm only using that item as an example but if nobody wants to bid ?10 for it then why would anyone bid ?40... Obviously he was expecting people to go mad for it looking at the 12 year old camera phone picture
Hopefully one day some of the ridiculous prices will start to fall again once people realise they can't get top money for old junk just because it's old, and that people were not born yesterday (re postage prices)...
Another novel, sorry!
Best ones are the untested but you can see from the pics that they have everything there to do just that!
Several years ago I was keen to buy a Vectrex console in good working order. Prices ranged from ?50 to ?250 depending on condition and accompanying games. It seemed every time I was close to getting one at a reasonable price my bid would be high jacked with seconds to spare.
In the end I attempted a direct approach and contacted a seller directly. I offer a fixed price, said I would pick it up personally and he would not have any hassle with time wasters or postage etc.
I managed to find a buyer who was willing (after some persuasion) to sell it to me off eBay for ?50.
As you can image I was chuffed.
i learned my lesson and karma looked after me
I've done that before on eBay sj_howlett, haven't had much luck finding people who are willing to do it though... Perhaps I should persevere with that approach a bit more? (I'd love a Vectrex)
I'd love to know where everyone finds these Spectrums for ?5 from because I'm buying 10 as soon as I know! :P Good finds though and you certainly ended up with a bargain!
Then there are the ones asking ?6 for a re-issue game and describe it as 'RARE' for the Spectrum 'console'!
@britain4 I think I know the seller you are talking about. If it is the one, I enquired to the seller about the collection (it is collection only and I am in the area), the next moment it's up to ?40! To be honest I won't touch him with a bargepole - one review of him recently said he didn't want to sell to a buyer who won an auction. Obviously a scrote lucky enough to get a box of goodies from a car boot..
The ones that make me laugh the most and ive seen a few lately are the ones that go something like this
"Selling my beloved Spectrum128k toastrack very well looked after in excellent condition. Untested as I dont know how to set it up."
I meen come on if its YOUR old spectrum how the hell did you get it up and running when you DID use it if you really dont know how to set it up?
What they meant to say is:
"I got this from a car boot for ?2. I'm too young to remember these but I know I can make a few quid out of it on Ebay"
That sums up exactly what I meant by this thread.
Yes I think you might have been looking at the same one there - I asked if the spectrums were working and it was a vague yes for the +2 and one of those 'probably but I haven't tested it' sort of answers for the + (going back to the quote). Now we know why he didn't want to sell whatever item's in his feedback, he forgot to increase the price when nobody bid on it...
The worst part is someone did bid ?40 (not me :lol:)just before the auction finished so he'll be off down the pub now bragging about how he just sold some old stuff on eBay for 20 times what he paid for it - then everyone wants a go.
Seen the hard drive one too which made me chuckle! They obviously don't have a clue, they just know it looks valuable...and someone always buys them :(
you can tell when folk are swinging the lead as such with regard to machines , or even tapes that don't work... people think I am gonna sit there for 5 minutes waiting on a tape worth 80p to ?3 to load ? "right" ;) . I have a few ways to deal with folk that try to continually blag refunds on tapes.. that annoys me a fair bit. I found a very straight forward way to call their bluff , as such. Of course they can get a refund, but to me I'm selling the "item" and think it's a bit much of an ask to test tapes that can be re-dubbed etc.
I got fed up of folk questioning my prices, that are obviously wrong.. solely to remind me to re-edit when it suits *ME* and not ebay. If ebay allowed turbo lister on promotion weekends, then I wouldn't resort to such things. I just re-edit in turbo lister later if I get the time.
with ebay it's the whole "effort vs sales" things, and as much as a few think I should waste hours listing things for a whole ?2 profit.. it ain't happening.
I have plenty of hardware that I might sell from bundles etc.. but do I need the hassle.. tapes are one thing, but people being unrealistic about 30 year old computers hhmm. sure you can do certain things to help (re-cap etc), but then if you do them , pass on that cost.
my fav is when someone has listed something and "assumed" that manic miner was the tape with value, when it was a far rarer grotty tape in the corner of a picture that I sussed out what it was.. thats how I got pentagram locally at a decent price, but the seller was happy it was going to a collector.
if people don't like the price, they don't buy.. and yep "untested" etc. in some cases is just that without any agenda or testing on the sly.
I do much prefer buying things privately and still do, well unless it gets to stupid haggling.. I wasted an hour dealing with someone like that in tooting and well as much as padding out the collection with make-a-chip, it wasn't worth that much.
Take the Spectrum ULAs - there are a handful if you search hard enough, but prices are up to $150 each - the sellers are never going to sell at that price, but they would rather hang onto the chips than sell them for what users are willing to pay $5-$10 !
My ebay prices are always more expensive than what I list on SellMyRetro - mainly because of the pain with dealing with lots of numpties, and the 10% that ebay take from me on both the item price and the postage, only to have the buyer later complain that the postage was over-priced because they think if the stamp shows ?3, that is all that should be charged (ie nothing for the 5 mile journey to my local post office, the packaging materials, instruction sheets, or the 10% ebay and 3.5% paypal fee).
Those in the know buy stuff off me on sellmyretro - and they tend to be 95% returning customers so there is a lot less hassle.
It's just not worth getting worked up over prices - if you are willing to pay the high prices, then more fool you. If not, then wait until until the prices drop or you find another seller!
www.rwapsoftware.co.uk
www.sellmyretro.com
I don't think anyone did bid on it. I think he did a shill. If you look at the 'bidder' they are only registered within a month, have no review score and have only ever bought from 'Seller 1'. Total shill in my view.
I bet if you went round to collect the items he would up the price on the door (as he doesn't do Paypal - no it's pay on the door for this honourable gentleman!
Now you're reminding me of that nutter who was here a while back who wanted people to pay extra if they collected and sign some contract he'd written in crayon :lol:
funnily enough I just reported a shriller yesterday.. who needed make it a bit less obvious.. I bid high, then 1 bid turns up just before item ends , just under what my highest bid was.. I could get it if it was 3-4 bids building up to the end amount, but 1.. and obviously I don't use round numbers e.g. ?5,6 ,8 when bidding to catch them out if they are.
you have to accept paypal,as a seller... end of.. I do wish they'd ban paypal cheques for stupid amounts , as you have to wait for em to clear. I prefer to pay with paypal anyway , so you get nectar points and that is the only way the thing is covered by ebay.
the seller who came on here from a few months back, didn't make many friends due to his actions regarding charging for doorbell wear and such like :)
How can you see that as shill bidding? I'd say that's just the luck of the draw with other bidders coming in at the end. After all, sellers don't know the maximum you've bid.
Lots of people bid at the end, with fairly high bids. It's what I do myself. I don't place bids early as that just tends to see lots of little nibble bids eating into my proxy bid.
Hardware, Software, Magazines and more for the SAM Coupé
Website: www.samcoupe.com
Twitter: QuazarSamCoupe
I know it goes both ways with buyers as well as sellers... Obviously if you are selling a lot of tapes you're hardly going to go through every single one and test them (although it does bug the hell out of me when sellers don't rewind them :lol:) but if you're a private seller selling one item which would be worth maybe double if you could sell it as working... it'd be worth the effort 'finding' a cable for it.
It's not so much the individuals as the way they're influencing the market - people see an item with an astronomical buy it now price and think 'hmm, I've got one of those, I'll ask what he's asking' and it becomes harder and harder to find anything at a realistic price any more... Don't worry, I certainly won't be buying any of them!
Yes I do that as well, as a seller I don't believe you can view someone's maximum bid on your item, only the current price the item is at - otherwise this would be very easy indeed.
Only time I bid early is if I suspect they might put the price up lke that muppet or f I don't want someone hitting buy t now f t's an opton
Exactly. Proxy bids are never disclosed to the seller - during bidding or at the end of the auction.
Only the bidder knows what their own maximum bid is. If sellers could see it would be open to constant shill bidding abuse.
Hardware, Software, Magazines and more for the SAM Coupé
Website: www.samcoupe.com
Twitter: QuazarSamCoupe
With the cassettes because of there age there are that many out there that no longer load and no one will go through them all to test them that is a given and for me even if you have a few that wont load you still own an actual original copy and if like me most load from mp3 or something similar now any way. is there a nack to it insider secrets so to speak because i never find any at car boots etc or anywere other than ebay?
You can tell a lot through looking at the bidders info. For example if they have only ever bought stuff from the seller is a giveaway.
I went for a +3 disk tonight (not in UK). I put in a few bids which were overturned by an automatic maximum bid. I checked the bidder out and guess what..he had only ever bought from 'Seller 1'.
At that stage I stopped bidding.
Someone correct me if I have got this wrong but I think that is highly suspicious.
I think I'll report him too, I don't want him to sucker somebody.
True, I've not been using Ebay for that long but I would definitely buy more from a seller that tests the games. Though it must also annoy the good sellers when they get hassle from unreasonable buyers.
Yep, it's frustrated me a lot. It might be bringing in people who are not into retro stuff, they see it as a money spinner.
They can still shill using another account or friend. They just take the risk of the mark not continuing and them ending up with nothing, like the seller who we have been talking about in this thread - he has just re-listed the items which is proof it was a shill (a failed shill).
quazar, I might be contacting you very soon as I just bought a sam :)
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Retro-games-console-bundle-bulk-games-commodore-c16-32x-sega-rare-opportunity/131237919055?_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851&_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIC.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D24198%26meid%3D8662156988062600575%26pid%3D100005%26prg%3D10286%26rk%3D2%26rkt%3D6%26sd%3D261540396749&rt=nc
"cash on collection or buyer pays paypal fees" err obviously hasn't read ebays rules.
"The listing charges an additional fee for using standard forms of payment.".. lets see how funny they find that ;)
I love the 'SquareTrade 2 yr warranty ?174.99' on retro stuff. Am I missing something there?