A time feared by all collectors has finally come to haunt me:  I'm broke.  Not
bankruptcy broke, but "in serious trouble" broke, and one of the things my
wife and I agreed to do is try to scale back the software and hardware
collection for cash.

What I plan to do is offload a lot of stuff via ebay, but I have no idea how
to get started.  When I got my ebay id in 1997, it was a hell of a lot simpler
then -- fees, etc. were very simple and upfront.  But now the help file for
sellers alone is many, many pages of nonsense (at least, to a cursory glance).

So, I have questions that I hope you guys can give opinions on.  Before I ask
them, I'm geared mostly toward getting the best price for what I auction,
which *can* include newbies bidding on the software and reserve prices, but
does *not* include shilling and other despicable practices.  (In other words,
I want to be as moral and ethical as possible without getting screwed silly.) 
I am open to the idea of offering things for auction on places other than
ebay.  I am not too concerned about auction listing or payment service prices
as long as they don't exceed ludicrous limits.

With that in mind:

- Is ebay pretty much the only place I should consider listing, or are other
auction houses viable for software collectors?  Some of the stuff I'll be
listing is esoteric (even for collectors) so I don't necessarily want to list
it somewhere that won't be seen.

- Are reserve prices universally hated by bidders, or can they safely be used
in their original context (to protect the seller)?

- Are "Ebay for Dummies", et al worth reading?  Or is the online documentation
perfectly capable of a newbie seller to grok?

- I have many items that will probably have a starting bid of $2 and most
likly not make much more than that.  Is it worth it to list these items at
all, or will the listing fee alone remove all profit from the sale?

- Is there any other sage advice you can give to a seasoned software collector
but an ebay newbie (almost an oxymoron, but believe me I exist)
-- 
http://www.MobyGames.com/
The world's most comprehensive gaming database project.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to
the swcollect mailing list.  To unsubscribe, send mail to 
[EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect'
Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/

Reply via email to