Date   : Sat, 01 Apr 2006 17:55:54 +0100
From   : Jules Richardson <julesrichardsonuk@...>
Subject: Re: Unicorn Sighted!

W.Scholten wrote:
> Why do people complain about prices on ebay but not for similar kit sold
> by say Robert Sprowson, JGH, Chris Richardson. 

Hmm, well I complain about EBay prices because I can just as easily get the 
same items elsewhere for free / almost-free. Sure, it's often untested - but 
my experience of hardware has been that 95% of the time untested stuff works, 
and when it doesn't it's nearly always due to something simple (corroded 
socketed chips, dead caps in the PSU etc.)

The only thing that's 'beaten' me in the last few years has been a Sun 4/330 
system where one of the custom chips had died; not much I can do about that. I 
do have several bits of hardware though where I know what the fault is but I'm 
just waiting for the necessary parts to fall into my lap (I have a rule to try 
as hard as possible not to spend money on the hobby :)

> Well, Chris stopped
> selling a while back, his prices were in fact a lot higher than anywhere
> else including ebay, and you know what? considering the time one has to
> spend to check hardware, that was entirely reasonable for fully
> tested/supported stuff. 

With people like JGH, Sprow etc. though they have a presence within the 
community, such as on this list - so there's more for them to lose if they go 
selling stuff that doesn't do what they claim. With EBay there's no such 
committment and it seems like an easy market to get ripped off to me!

> In other words: Don't check into a 5 star hotel, then start complaining
> about the prices because the 1 star hotel you know is so much cheaper.

But again with the 5 star hotel you can do something if things don't perform 
as expected. With Ebay, all I ever hear is tales of people being screwed over 
by sellers on there and there's nothing they can do about it (except it seems, 
leave bad feedback about the seller - at which point the seller just counters 
by leaving bad feedback about the person who complained). Coupled with the 
whole sniping "person with the fastest connection wins" approach, it seems 
like a nasty place to do business.

I wouldn't have any such problem buying things from our well-known mailing 
list inhabitants if they had what I needed - there's none of the EBay 
bickering or uncertainty about the price!

> Alternatives: Any other websites but ebay don't work for me to sell BBC
> stuff I no longer need/want, no matter what price.

Come up with a sensible price and offer it here or on c.s.a.h - what's wrong 
with that?

> little more success elsewhere in NL, but it meant having to buy whole
> collections and you will not find uncommon software or hardware there,
> (maybe if you put up the same wanted ad for a decade you'll get lucky
> ;-) 

I suppose I maintain a long list of 'wants' - so that I'm never particularly 
looking desperately for any one thing. I just find rare stuff through 
maintaining good contacts and asking around (although granted location does 
help there). But I can't see the justification in spending a fortune on old 
hardware; sure it's fun but then there are a lot of other fun things I can be 
spending my money on!

 > Usenet: Also useless unless you want to sell your stuff for near
> nothing or give it away.

That works both ways though - also a valuable resource for finding stuff 
that's being sold for next to nothing or given away! :-)

Over half of my Acorn stuff has come via usenet - that includes a lot of rarer 
Acorn items. I suppose one day I should cost up all the money I've spent on 
fuel though to go pick things up, as sometimes I've been halfway across the UK 
to get things... :-)

cheers

Jules