In article ,
Hans van Dongen wrote:

Mike Rivers wrote:
In article
writes:


Using the reserve price costs according to the price of the unit. If
you have a reserve of $3000, that is $30 to list it with that reserve.
If it sells, the reserve cost is refunded and you do not pay the $30.
But, if it doesn't sell at that reserve
Ebay takes the $30.


I didn't know that was how it worked, but I guess eBay needs every way
to make money that they can dream up.

So you decide that you'll take $3,000 for it, post it for sale at that
price on rec.audio.pro and perhaps other forums where it's
appropriate, and see if anyone nibbles (or buys). Reserves are mostly
for people who don't know what something is worth but wants to be sure
not to give a buyer too good of a bargain. If you know what you want
for it, there's no reason to list it on eBay other than for the
exposure (which I'll admit is valuable, and probably worth the
commission).


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

Hans


I usually post starting from $1 with no reserve. Seems people bid
better. If it?s something obscure, better stick a reserve on or a
starting pric which is your minimum.
I'?ve won stuff for peanuts because it?s too obscure or badly described.

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.

try "motu -heman"

or

from the ebay home page, click on the "musical instruments" link under
categories. subsequent searches search only in musical instruments
(unless you uncheck the box . . .)

cd /..


A search for "MOTU" comes up with pages and pages of HeMan ****.

In article writes:

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.

I've never understood this, and I've seen some perfectly outrageous
fixed shipping charges. I think the seller probably doesn't care what
he gets for the item as long as he gets someone paying his shipping
charges.


--
I'm really Mike Rivers - )

(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

To use eBay search effectively, you have to use the "-" operator.
That way you can remove items from unrelated areas. For instance,
to find Neve equipment, search on: neve -campbell

Scott


Kurt Albershardt wrote:
: Thomas Bishop wrote:

: "transducr" wrote in message
:
: Of course, the worst thing is trying to do a search for a brand of
: audio gear that shares a common name with other items...
: for example, do a search for "Neve" and see how many 8"x10"s of Neve
: Campbell come up!
:
:
: A search for "MOTU" comes up with pages and pages of HeMan ****.


: And one of many Papua New Guinea languages ;

(David Satz) wrote in
om:

--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.

That picture is THE most important part of the ad. There is a danger,
however, that a picture could be stolen from a different ad.

I'm selling a golf bag right now. The picture was taken with my Nikon on
slide film, then I developed and scanned it here and built the page. It's
a nice bag, but the picture makes it look even nicer.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tem=3615944970

If I want to get rid of an item at any price, I'll start at $1. I wanted
to skip the BS bids on this one, so I started at $50.