[ale] OT: Cheap part hight shipping

[Jeff Hubbs]

I think there is a place for reserve auctions; with well over 100 sales
to date, I have only done one.

That was because the item in question - a 1936 *player* (i.e., took
piano rolls) Hammond organ was highly arcane but still valuable in its
own right.  There are so few of them remaining that they change hands
very infrequently and therefore a solid market value was impossible to
establish.  I put the organ, a remote tubular bell kit, a bench, a roll
cabinet, and a pair of Hammond tone cabinets up on eBay with a reserve
of the very least the owner (I was selling the stuff on behalf of
someone else) was willing to accept (I don't recall, but suppose it was
$2000) and started the auction at, say, $1000.  This means that if there
were bids but none reached $2000, the sale would not complete but the
owner and I would at least have *some* idea of what the rig was worth. 
If this were something like a Hammond B3, C3, or L100 (which are still
highly-regarded instruments in rock and Jazz), there wouldn't be a need
to put a toe in the water with a reserve.  Also, this player Hammond was
SO old and SO neglected that it would need a HUGE amount of work to get
it functioning, so it would have been useless to even try to ballpark
its market value.  

Again, this is the ONLY time I have used a reserve price on an auction
and the only time I thought one was justified for anything I've sold.

- Jeff

On Thu, 2004-01-08 at 17:17, Pete Hardie wrote:
> Christopher Fowler wrote:
> > There are two things I hate on ebay.
> > 
> > 1.  Reserve auctions
> 
> I hate these with a passion - I mean, if you aren't going to sell it for less 
> that $100, why isn't the minimum bid $100?  Starting at $1 just feeds the 
> auction junkies and makes anyone really interested in the object fight through 
> idiots.
-- 
Jeff Hubbs <hbbs at comcast.net>