employment

[The Old Crow]

On Sat, 23 Sep 2000, John E Blacet wrote:

> I'm always interested in the unusual ways people make a living....and
> getting more scared of e-bay everyday. (Although can't say I've gotten a
> bad deal yet..).

  eBay has a curious rationale concerning items one puts up for auction.
If the item is something that you would otherwise throw away, it sells for
several thousand percent more than intrinsic value.  If, however, the item
is worth something in the eyes of the seller, it ends up selling for a
tenth of the expected price.

  I sold some coffee cans I paid 100 yen (about $1) each in a Tokyo
convenience store for between $50 and $75 each.  I sold a 'digitalker'
speech board circa 1981 for about $250, the original purchase price.  I
was expecting maybe ten bucks for it.

  The most expensive item I bought on eBay is the Yamaha DX1, which
(unfortunately, perhaps, for the seller) was mis-titled 'Yahama [sic] DX1
vintage analog keyboard', ended up selling for the reserve price
of $1K.  I wonder how many folks never saw that auction due to the poor
titling, heh heh.  (Of course, there are probably those who think a DX1
isn't worth $1K, but I think it is simply due to the quality of its
construction).

  Anyway, the lessons learned are: 1) junk sells for a fortune 2) the
auction title is *critical* to your sale!

Crow, who is also kind of scared of eBay...

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