On Mar 20, 10:41 am, John wrote:
On 20 Mar 2007 07:58:25 -0700, "Martin"
wrote:

I've gotten an education on this. The guys (from this newsgroup, I
think) that commited to the stuff on Craigslist did so in good faith,
so I wouldn't dream of backing out on their deals. But I will, as
you
suggested, try an Ebay listing for the other two bases that have the
X-
Y tables attached. I've never sold anything on Ebay myself, just
listed some machine parts and miscellaneous stuff through a friend's
account. I guess I'll have to get a Paypal account and a throwaway
checking account to link it with.

best regards,

Marty

These suggestions are a little late, since your items are already
listed on Ebay, but maybe someone else will find them useful.

My experience selling on Ebay (some from selling old equipment for a
consulting company I worked for, some from selling my own stuff as
hobbies change):

1. Do an "advanced search" for similar items, looking for "completed
listings" to get a ballpark price. If the items *always* sell within
10% of that price, you can start the bidding at $0.99 to encourage
more bidders (I always listed the company's used laptop computers at
$0.99). If the prices are all over the place, then set the starting
price (or a reserve price) at a level you're comfortable with.

2. If an item is worth listing, it's worth at least two good pictures
($0.15 for each pic after the first one). If there is a display,
controls, etc, include a picture of each.

3. If an item will sell for more than $20 or $30, include pictures of
any defects (scratches, cracks, missing knobs, etc).

4. If an item may have application in more than one field, include
both in the title or pay for the subtitle to have room to include the
proper wording. If the item will sell for $50 or more, pay to have it
listed in both categories.

It worked for me - some old ham and photography gear went out, some
new woodworking tools came in.

John

Sounds like good advice, John. I just didn't have much time in this
case because the 20-cent listing special came up so quickly (about 8
hours notice for me before it expired). I really wanted to try this
out, so I had to gather up a few things and submit them to her for
listing "right now".

The reason I didn't start the bidding at 99 cents is that I couldn't
find much identical material in the linear motion category. It seems
they only let you see back about a month. The special didn't cover
reserve prices, but there was no additional charge to up the starting
bid, so that's what I did to make sure I didn't have to give away my
stuff. She normally starts most of her auctions on the cheap side
because the fees increase with starting price, but that doesn't apply
to the 20-cent specials.

If nothing sells, I'm only out a dollar

If everything sells, I'm going to go crazy over the next few months.
Maybe downsize from a 10x15 plus a 10x20 storage unit to just one or
the other

Martin