Steven,
Oh, I absolutely agree! I've been going to hamfests for decades and I've
clearly seen the decline in the number of participants (both buyers and
sellers) at hamfests and the amount of goods for sale there, and the
quality of the goods. And I've seen the increase in the size of E bay and
number of buyers and items on E-bay at the same time. Now it's rare for
anyone to bring *good* TE, radios or other items to a hamfest! It's all up
for sale on E-bay! Also a majority of buyers at hamfests over the last
more than 15 years have been people thtat were only looking for bargain
priced items that they could buy and then re-sell on E-bay and that weren't
buying something for their own use. The electronics market has also
shifted. There used to be almost *no* demand for OLD TE, OLD computers, OLD
radios and the like but now some of those items are worth, literally, a
small fortune! Have you seen the price being asked for original Apple
1s??? Even old Commodore 64s are worth a few hundred dollars on E-bay.
And I too have seen a large number of sellers at the hamfests that have
been saying "*Well it is selling for $$$$ on Ebay*". I always point out to
them that this is *not* E-bay and that if they want to get an E-bay price
for for their item then they should sell it on E-bay! AND pay E-bay's and
PayPal's fees and deal with idiot buyers and the scammers, and with boxing
and shipping the item, etc etc. Those sellers are also frequently the same
ones that stand around and compalin about how E-bay *always* sides with the
buyer in the case of a disputed sale!
Most of the hamfests in this area have shut down completely and even the
surviving ones are a small fraction of the size that they were 30 years ago.
toggle quoted message
Show quoted text
On Sat, May 1, 2021 at 8:15 PM stevenhorii <sonodocsch@...> wrote:
I am not sure if you will agree, but I think eBay had a major impact on
hamfests. For me, they were always a great place to buy and sell
electronics. I did sell a couple of Tek scopes at the Gaithersburg Hamfest
years ago. One I probably let go for too little - a completely working 556
dual beam with 1A4 and 1A1 plug-ins. I also bought Tek stuff - mostly
plug-ins. A couple of the hamfests had a place where you could plug stuff
in to see if it worked. The reputable sellers would let you do this.
I want to ones mostly on the east coast plus a couple in southern
California when I happened to be there when one of the hamfests was
running. Many of my friends with whom I would go to hamfests also think
that eBay cut into hamfest participation. One thing we noticed was that
many of those both selling and purchasing would cite eBay prices; buyers
would say, ¡°Well, I can get it for less on eBay¡± and sellers, ¡°On eBay
these go for much more.¡± Of course there were comebacks for these - ¡°So,
I¡¯ll go buy it on eBay instead of from you¡± - ¡°So, sell it on eBay then.¡±
Hamfests were another resource for buying and selling electronics. The
large Dayton hamfest (I never got to this one) has gone with virtual
sessions this month, but no fleamarket. Maybe next year - let¡¯s hope.
Steve Horii
On Sat, May 1, 2021 at 11:10 Dennis Tillman W7pF <dennis@...>
wrote:
Auctions have been around since at least 500 B.C. since they promise to
fetch as high a price as possible for the seller while at the same time
offering to the buyer the prospect of buying items at bargain prices or
perhaps buying items that would be difficult to buy in any other way.
Complaining about the latest changes in eBay's fees, or requirements
etc.,
as many members are doing, is a waste of time. The auctioneer, eBay in
this
case, is entitled to collect a fee for providing the auction venue and
for
running it. The shipping companies all charge virtually the same price
(monopolistic competition) so there is nothing you can do about that fee.
A far more useful way to spend your time is learning how to get what you
want at the lowest price (if you are a buyer) or how to sell it at the
highest price (if you are a seller). Almost everything you need to know
to
be more successful can be found in "Snipers, Shills, & Sharks : eBay and
Human Behavior", by Ken Steiglitz, ISBN-13: 978-0-671-12713-2 and
ISBN-10:
0-691-12713-1, 381.177015193-dc28.
Dennis Tillman W7pF
-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of -
Sent: Friday, April 30, 2021 10:30 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [TekScopes] OT! OT! --- E-bay fee change -- OT! OT! Cross
posted with HP group.
Dennis,
I agree with everything that you said. However I think that what
people
truely object to are the *never-ending* price increases from E-bay. PLUS
all of the other charges (PayPal and Global Shipping for example) for
services that they force buyers and sellers to use. Personally, I've
been a
buyer and a seller on Ebay since the first year that they started I've
seen
their fees rise from a FLAT 2% to whatever the combined totals are
today. I
quit sellling on Ebay about 5 years ago after I sold ONE item for $200
and
was charged slightly over $22 for Ebay and PayPal only and shipping not
included. But as you point out Ebay is a private company and isn't
beholden
to it's buyer and sellers so they have decide if they want to use it or
not. However, as far as I'm concerned, E-bay is still the only serious
game in town if you want to sell something for a decent price. And it's
also usually the only place where most individuals can buy the
specialized
test equipment or other items that we desire.
Overall; despite it's constant cost increase, I'm very pleased to have
seen the rise of Ebay. I've made a pile of money selling TE and other
items
that I would never have been able to sell without them and I've also been
able buy books, TE and some other items that I would never been able to
find, or have been able to afford, from the old regular TE suppliers such
as Tucker Electronics.
--
Dennis Tillman W7pF
TekScopes Moderator
