I'm Confused

[radiotvnut]

And, this was his reply. I think I pissed him off. Stay tuned, next time it will be listed for $100,000, just to teach people like me a lesson.

"Thanks for you time in worrying about something that is not yours. You also call me childish and sure I dont appreciate that very much. Why would I start something at a Dollar when that may be too low? What if nobody looks at the auction that week but one person and they buy it for a dollar? Whats worse is someone the next week may offer 50 dollars or 1000 who knows? I can not follow your ill advice even if you were the most respected collector in the united state and had the market cornered all to yourself. My good man thats what makes America...America. My freedom to start a price wherever I want to. Why again I ask you Why should i start it at a simple single dollar bill??? My friend not only are your comments uncalled for but you also want to advise me to sell something for nothing. Wow... I will definately not follow your advice.
What was your question again about my item???? I didnt see it in any of your comment. I also Want you to know that I receive just as many positive comments as I do negative. Seems that there is two sides of the selling fence."

[Reece]

"Hello, Earth to Seller, Earth to Seller, come in Seller....(ssssssssssssh)....Earth to Seller....."

[Sandy G]

All Your Base Belong To Us....

[David Roper]

The 12 pin variety anyway.

[bandersen]

Some more amusing Q&A from this listing. WTF is a "Real Buyer" ? A sucker ?

Seems that's what these sellers are bitching about - no suckers to overpay for their crap ! "I hate them all" great way to improve your PR.

What infomercials could he possibly be referring to that "tell you to sell everything you have for a dollar and you will be rich" ?!?

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Q: I Love your attitude. There is nothing on ebay but a bunch of bottomfeeders. I hate them all. You have an auction listing for 7 days and Nobody bids until the last few seconds if they bid at all. They want everything for nothing. Anyway I hope that you sell it and then you can tell all those nosy suckers that e-mailed you, giving you selling advice, to kiss your WV Butt. Iv'e been on ebay since 1997 and it didn't used to be that way. I try to sell on Craigs List also and there are a bunch of Idiots that also have to make stupid comments on how you should word your ads etc. instead of leaving a person alone that is just trying to weed out the tirekickers and get to the Real Buyers. Trouble is there are No Real buyers anymore. Just people with NO Lives. Jim.

A: I agree maybe all those late night TV commercials that tell you to sell everything you have for a dollar and you will be rich has brainwashed everyone. Is this a giant yard sale or is it a place for peopole to list items for the whole world to see and decide the value?


Q: Thanks for the humor! Although I wouldn't want to pay the listing fees, I've always wanted to do something like this just to rile folks up. I'm sure you've gotten some entertaining responses over this

A: Yes it has been a laugh for me hope you guys enjoy it it as much as me.

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[PredictaNoob]

Ebay is rapidly becoming (if not already there) one big rednecky Internet flea market, populated by virtual carnie-folk from the digital trailer park.

This doof is proof-positive of the dismal failure that is the West Virginia public education system. When raising your price for an item with zero demand sounds like a sound economic strategy to you, it’s time to go and beat the crap out of your grandfather, since he obviously got busy behind the wood shed with his sister.

Note to Mr $15.5K Crapola: This marketing scheme doesn't work for the airlines and it won't work for you either. Perhaps unskilled manual labor might be a better fit for you, no?

[pugs5061]

First off I do not want to make any enemies here this place is great and
I agree this b*tthole selling for $15.5K is crazy, but in principle I understand. I have been selling on Ebay for close to 8 years and I do somewhat agree with the previous post about a bunch of rednecks etc. but as said previously ebay has created a place where the entire country/world can test the free market and come up with values for just about everything. I know for a fact that the last couple months have been very bad for both ebay and the sellers on ebay. Whether it is the inability of ebay to handle the volume on their new severs, the mass exodus of sellers due to crazy policies or the economy, ebays volume has gone down 20-30% just since Christmas. Sellers are more than nervous and many are bailing big time. I'd love to, I hate the company! The seller in this case is looking at an item that by all common sense should be worth more than $15.
If Pioneer, Sansui, Marantz or any decent tube audio gear can go for real $$$, while in the world can't a television. The reason is shipping. Most of you know that but it is just a matter of time before desire and supply outstrips demand. You will see it. If not tommorrow then 1,5 or maybe even 10 years from now but it is coming and you(we) are the ones to gain. Ther are only so many TV's of this vintage. You will know first. When you go to buy that POS for $10 or $100 and the seller doesn't take it!
Back to this particuler auction this guy should of put a "BIN" if he wanted a certain amount. I believe he just wanted something fair. The fair price was probably somewhere in the neighborhood of $100 in the buyers hands. What I mean by this is that by the time the item was in the buyers possesion it shouldn't have cost more than $100. This includes Delivery, Shipping, Pick Up by the buyer including a truck or SUV and gas money, whatever, all told $100. So where am I going with this mess of a paragraph I have created. In a nutshell Ebay sales are in the toilet. The idea that you can find that supply=demand market price right now is wrong! Big time wrong! I am selling items for 1/3 of what I have been getting for years! Something is wrong and I hope it is not economy wide but possible a lull or problem with ebay.

[bandersen]

I don't know about eBay overall, but from what I've seen the average selling price on vintage TV sets has risen quite a bit over the last few years. Many that had been selling in the $100 range have been going in the $300-$500 range.

Check out this thread for examples: http://www.videokarma.org/showthread.php?t=247500

I think the point others were making is that not all sets are created equal. For example, check this out: http://www.tvhistory.tv/1947-53-USA-...Production.JPG

About 170,000 sets in 1947, almost 7,500,000 in 1950. Also the earlier sets had more unique designs, features etc. That's why generally post 1950 sets are worth far less with the exception of early color sets and the Philco Predictas. Will that change in the future ? Dunno, but for now they just don't sell for much.

Personally, I don't pay much attention to the price. If I like it and can afford it, I'll pick it up

[Eric H]

Significant sets are still selling for good money, we've recently seen record prices for the 621TS and the CT-100.

75% of the TV's listed aren't worth the opening bid anymore, $350 for a 60's portable? $200-$300 for mid 50's consoles with missing parts and bad finishes? Usually with the idea that they would make a great Fish Tank, Bar, Bookshelf blah, blah, blah..


eBay in general isn't what it used to be, far fewer sellers and less variety than in the past, they screwed themselves with their own greed.

[bandersen]

Wasn't there a rare, early color Motorola that sold for over $10K last summer

[pugs5061]

These later posts are kinda making my point for me in that the actual price is going up and will continue too, for both pre-50 or post-50 TV's. The problem is in the last few months on ebay whether its new policies, fewer seller, whatever, I don't know, you aren't getting the $$ you used to out of most items. You will always get $$ for rare and quality, that is a given. As a seller my viewpoint is things are just too unpredictable to think you have gotten the most you could out of any specific item. Maybe the Sentinel and Admiral would have gone for even more. Look on Ebay now, if someone wants a true Vintage TV before 1960 how many do they have to choose from? There are 350 million people in the country and another 6 Billion in the world that potentially could want it. Prices will keep going up regardless of almost any outside factor because of this basic comparison and that there will always be fewer of them to choose from.

[pugs5061]

By the way I sell Coffee Makers on Ebay, nothing related to this site. I'm not a flipper!!!

[bandersen]

The point I was trying to make is that there have been some sets very recently that have sold for far more than normal. There was even an empty (!!!) Motorola VT71 that sold for over $300 IIRC not too long ago. The knobs were glued to the cabinet and it was covered in polyurethane.

I think that the death of analog broadcasts plus all the posts and pictures at this site and others plus youtube have driven the prices up in a very erratic manner. I bet that some bidders only care about the "look" of the set or maybe it's for some movie stidio production set. No interest in restoring the set. My concern is that there will be little distinction between properly restored sets, historically significant sets and "cool" looking sets.

It can take quite a bit of money, skill and effort to get on of these sets working properly. When a set that's clearly non-functional sell for premium $$, I have to wonder what's going on.

[PredictaNoob]

I don't necessarily agree that the supply vs demand model doesn't work for eBay. I think it does. Demand is down (economy, ebay sucks, whatever) so supply is fairly fat, and the prices (for the most part) are declining. That being said, eBay is difficult to forecast using economic models, primarily due to the fact that one nitwit with more money than sense can significantly skew the analysis. And this same fact is why I argue with sellers I deal with who try to use the "Well, this widget goes for $300 on eBay". I usually counter with, "Then perhaps you should sell it on eBay; me and my 50 bucks will look elsewhere."
Just because one desperate person paid an unreasonable amount for some item does not mean that all of the remaining like-items are now worth the same amount (unless that same desperate person needs many more of the same item and has money to burn).

[radiotvnut]

I, too, have noticed that the amount of stuff for sale on ebay in the radio, phonograph, and TV categories seems to be going down. I think much of that has to do with sellers bailing out because of ebay's new policies. I've also noticed that much of what is listed is offered at an insane price. I think part of that is due to a bad economy and clueless sellers are desperate and are hoping that some moneybags sucker will come along and make them rich.

For me, I no longer sell on ebay due to their crazy policies that have been put into place over the last year or two. In fact, I closed my original ebay accoung when they made the "paypal only" rule and I let them know why I was closing my account. And, the fact that I could no longer leave negative feedback for a buyer didn't make me happy, either.

About 8 months ago, I opened a new ebay account for the purpose of buying and I only deal with buyers who will accept my check or MO. The ones who will not accept such payments don't need my business, anyway. I try, as much as possible, to find things locally or from other collectors, etc; but, there are still some items of interest that only seem to show up on ebay.