On 2009-02-03, DoN. Nichols wrote:
On 2009-02-03, Greg O wrote:
"Ignoramus13011" wrote in message

Agree? Disagree?


Prices on EBay have never made any sense. I bought a Play station game for
my daughter a while back. There were two sellers, offering the same game,
new, unopened, very similar description. The one auction went for close to
$100, but the other game, that bidding ended maybe 1/2 hour after the first,
I bought for $35.

Well ... a few years ago, I was collecting tri-mikes (precision
three-point contact internal diameter micrometers), and there were two
auctions running at the same time for the same set (three or four mics,
two setting rings, the extension tubes, and the wrenches, all in a
nicely-fitted wooden box). Actually -- the poorly described set was a
little more complete, though I forget what was missing from the other.

One had lots of wonderful photos and detailed descriptions, the
other had a much less detailed description, and only a couple of photos
-- enough to tell me that it was the same, and that it was what I
wanted.

The poorly described one closed a couple of hours before the one
with the wonderful description, and I opted to bid on that
poorly-described one as the bids were *already* significantly higher on
the wonderful one. IIRC, I got the poorly-described set for about three
hundred less than the wonderfully-described one, and was thankful that
the later one was drawing most of the attention of those who were
interested. I don't know at this point, but the wonderfully-described
one had the feel of a "Reliable Tools" auction of the period.

I really would have expected more competition for the
poorly-described set since there were two hours or so between them to
give people a second chance at the well-described set, but apparently
most were too dazzled by the description on the second set -- so I got
the first set for a very reasonable price. :-)

Some things sell for a lot less than identical things that are better
described or pictured. You told us a good story, I bought a well
working TIG welder for $10, etc.

But that is not what I wanted to point out.

The point that I was making, was that the steam gauge that sold for
$31 was NOT poorly described, it was well photographed and properly
titled and so on. And still it sold for 8 TIMES less than a very
similar gauge, sold by me last summer. So I was comparing apples to
apples.

Here they a

My gauge from last summer closed for $240:

http://yabe.algebra.com/~ichudov/mis.../ebayhist.html

The gauge that I bought this month for $31:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=250361252136

When I was selling my gauge last summer, I did quite a bit of
research. There is (was) a market for these gauges, mostly among
collectors or well off people who want to have a gauge like that on
the wall of their shop showing air pressure, etc. Some retired people
buy these gauges in poor condition, polish and resell, etc. It was a
real market.

These gauges are not unusual or rare items, but they were well sought
after. Apparently, not any more. The market for them disappeared.

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