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[runequester]

This is one of those things thats hard to prove, but it seems there's at least a minority out there who will buy up amiga hardware for cheap, then sell it on directly, at a higher price. (sometimes unrealistically so, I've seen single issues of amiga magazines on ebay for "buy it now" at 20 dollars. Seriously guys?)
It always amazes me that amiga gear will fetch extremely high prices, compared to a lot of retro computer stuff, and I wonder if price speculation is part of that.


Is this something that bothers you?

Does it make a difference to you if you are selling or giving stuff to someone, whether they are a user, a collector or a reseller?

How do you go about buying amiga stuff?

[persia]

It happens in all collectables, it doesn't bother me.

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

What bothers me is the people who have like 20 Amiga's, thus leaving none left for the rest of us, LOL. ;-p

[runequester]

Originally Posted by Oldsmobile_Mike

What bothers me is the people who have like 20 Amiga's, thus leaving none left for the rest of us, LOL. ;-p

LOL

Thats why I split it into users, collectors and resellers

[fitzsteve]

Yep sadly its one of those things that happens in all areas, where there are people prepared to pay silly prices for things then there will be people who take advantage of that.

It happens in all the retro gaming genres, for example I seen PS1/PS2 games on ebay for £silly BIN's but you look at these sellers feedback and people are buying these games!

It frustrates me only becuase I have to sift through all these auctions to find what I am looking for, and the 7000 single floppy disks for 99p each that get relisted week on week lol!

Then you've got the likes of Airey36 on ebay, yes its a pain in the ass that he outbids me on some items that I want to buy but he also sells a lot of useful items at very fair prices so it can be give and take.

There are a few other sellers that go a little too far IMHO and strip the Amiga's right down to component parts and sell them for £silly BIN's right down to the empty box, but again you look at the feedback and still people are buying.

So I guess where there is money to be made you'll get people exploting it.

Steve.

[runequester]

yeah, I had some sticker shock trying to get a copy of a few PS games (Disgaea 1 and 2) as well. Though it seems for less popular titles, its not so bad.

[commodorejohn]

Ugh, yes. I don't have a problem with actual Amiga fans selling off equipment they've obtained and don't need (and hopefully have refurbished,) and I don't mind non-Amiga fans trying to find a home for something they found in their attic, but these bastards who buy stuff that other people might actually enjoy and then try to flip it for 5x the price can go straight to Hell.

[Darrin]

No, it doesn't bother me.

In a lot of cases, these "resellers" save equipment being thrown into the trash. If they have to buy it for $x then someone else always has a chance to buy it for $x+1. If later they want to sell it for $x+2 then that is their choice because they're the ones who were willing to purchase it in the first place.

That said, someone who talks another Amiga user into selling something cheap because it is for "personal use" and then throws it straight on eBay with a huge mark up is a size 10 tosser.

I also don't get the hostility against large "buy it now" numbers. You either pay them or ignore them. It is very simple.

At the end of the day an item is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it. A greedy seller will get nowhere without willing customers.

[T3000]

What bothers me is caving in and dropping the xtra $ for over priced equipment/software or any other item I happen to be searching for, because it's there and available and is quite hard to find and I think I really need it, only to come across the same item a few weeks later for way less...

[CSixx]

Doesn't bother me at all.
I buy things at prices that are reasonable to me. That may or may not mean they are reasonable to others.

If I find a price unreasonable, I don't buy. And I certainly don't complain about the seller.

I don't have a problem pointing out similar items for sale at lower prices so that potential buyers are aware of better deals.

[barney]

Yeah, those type of people really piss me off. There's a guy on ebay trying to get over $150 for a PC emulation card. I mean really....who in the hell would use one of those????

One ebay, I also saw another guy asking over $175 for a GVP Scsi card!!! Unbelievable!!!!

[B00tDisk]

Yes and no.

On the one hand, telling a man how to do his business...that's stupid and insulting.

On the other, though, it got so bad with some stuff that I think Individual Computers had a problem with people buying up their gear as quickly as it was produced and then flipped it for painfully unfair prices.

(Note on that last one I could be very wrong, so if someone associated with Jens wants to put the smackdown on it, I won't take umbrage.)

I mean, ultimately, the market will pay what the market can bear. Amigas and parts for it were never, even when in full swing C= production, ever cheap. ****, I remember flipping through the (few remaining) stateside magazines looking for commodity PC parts to use in my A1200 (a stick of RAM and a laptop HD) and seeing prices that were 20% higher than Computer Shopper! :P

One guy, buys something, figures out he doesn't need it, turns around and sells it and makes a tidy profit...hey, that's fine. The spaz out that those people at Amigabay or whatever have because of lone incidents like that are just silly.

[Digiman]

The only thing particularly expensive is accelerator cards and 3000/4000 models. Most of the other stuff you practically have to give away.

[dannyp1]

I guess one thing that irratates me a little is when the seller states that he doesn't know if the item works, knows nothing about it, states there will be no returns or refunds, and then has a sky high starting bid amount. If the seller truly doesn't know if the item is functional then he should start the bidding at 99 cents and let the bidders take the actual risk.

Amibay's policys are a joke. Everything in life is a version of buying low and selling high. How many people have bought houses or cars or boats to flip them for a profit? If you go to an antique show/sale everything there is being bought and sold for a large profit. Your grocery stores buy produce low and sell high. It's a good thing they didn't get their lettuce form Amibay.

[Boudicca]

Only if they are marketing cheap PC hardware as expensive Amiga hardware.

There are quite a few who paint Amiga on it and flog it as added value. (That to me is conn'ing the customer, if its pc hardware that just happens to work as amiga hardware, then market it as pc hardware that works with the amiga, at its pc market value, not at their inflated price.)

Things recently that have annoyed me on that score are :-

Flash card ide drives.
PC's running AROS or emulators.

All I ask is they play fair and don't lie or exaggerate the truth.