Re: FA: GO8 XY monitor bench tested...

On Tue, 15 Oct 2002 18:28:29 -0700, you wrote:

>http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=722376520
>
>Sigh, $147.50US...I'll never sell another XY monitor that's for sure. The
>parts are worth far more than that.

        Actually, all you need to do is take into account the peculiarities of
eBay's bidding system next time you list something like this.

        Remember: unlike voice auctions, where whatever dollar figure you call
out becomes the current bid price, eBay only ups your bid to the minimum
amount necessary to beat the other guy. (Basically, it's acting as a proxy
on your behalf, authorized to bid up to X amount.) So, the winning bidder
in your auction may well have typed in $300 as his bid, but since the guys
bidding against him dropped out at $145, eBay's computers only upped the
bid by $2.50 -- the minimum necessary to win the auction -- and call that
the highest bid. Hence, you (as the seller) end up getting lowballed.

        Next time, either set your minimum starting bid to whatever you think
your acceptable minimum is, or set a reserve price so you're not obligated
to sell it if the bid doesn't get as high as you want. (If you go the
latter route, though, be sure to say what your reserve is somewhere in your
listing; a lot of bidders get frustrated when they can't figure out what
the seller's "real" minimum is.)

        It's also entirely likely that the people bidding on this item were
factoring shipping costs into their calculations when deciding how much
they were willing to pay for it, since a 60lb package from Canada to the
U.S. isn't exactly cheap no matter how you slice it. :)
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"For the children" - the phrase politicians use to justify a course of action
so irrational it cannot be justified in any other way.
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solarfox@DON'TMESSWITHtexas.net (Gary Akins jr.)
http://lonestar.texas.net/~solarfox
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Received on Tue Oct 15 19:06:49 2002