(David Satz) wrote in message . com...
Hans van Dongen wrote:

There's a seller on Ebay called atoyboy who sells pro audio
gear and some hifi. He always starts at $ 0.01 and no
reserve. He includes lots of Hi-res pictures and a very
detailed description. And he gets good prices, too; The '54
strat that looked like it was in a time capsule got over
twelve grand iirc.

I think that's as close to perfect as it gets

"atoyboy" is the account of The Audio Toyshop in England--a storefront
used-equipment company in Bath which has since closed its doors and now
exists only on the Web, at http://www.audio-toyshop.co.uk . I bought
a couple of used TLM 170s from them a few years back. They seemed to
be good, honest people. I mean, the microphones were microphones, but
the people seemed like good, honest people.

--Agreed (as one who has had a somewhat hard time selling good stuff on
eBay without a digital camera): Many people don't seem to trust any ad
that doesn't have a photo of the item being sold, unless you can say flat
out that the equipment is perfectly new or perfectly "mint" or the like.

Judging by the mail I get, most folks don't read ads very closely; the
questions people ask are usually answered in my ads, but people write and
ask the same questions again and again anyway, as if that was less work--
or as if I might simply forget to mention a $300 shock mount, which they
of course will be awarded for free merely because they thought of asking
for it.

One mistake I won't make again: To simplify payment, I've always paid for
shipping myself, and my ads always say this. But it seems that when people
compare auctions, they never to do the mental work of compensating for that
money saved. So from now on I will list a fixed shipping price and let the
bidder pay for it, since in people's minds, a dollar spent on shipping
evidently isn't equivalent to a dollar spent on the item itself.

Shipping....

I've been having pretty good success by stating that the buyer pays
shipping, but offering to cover any amount over a certain amount. This
works on small rack stuff, etc. but not so well of course on large
items.

I think this has worked pretty well because people think they might
wind up paying less than the stated amount (usually around $15), but
they know I won't come back and zap them for another $10 over the $15.
the most I have been out of pocket for this was $4, obviously you need
to figure up front about what it would cost to send it somewhere. Of
course watch me get burned by somebody from Alaska or Hawaii winning
something I post on Ebay.

You are right though, I think people don't really pay attention to the
seller offering to pay shipping, unless it's part of a "Buy it Now"
deal.

Analogeezer