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You know the circuit contacts are golden.. maybe this makes the high price?

Well it was sold for around $3000 when it was new.

At that time you get a new car for 3000$.

So it seems the offer at ebay is good deal, or.

Greetingd Jürgen

Interesting that the only sign that "it's working" is the power LED. There aren't any pictures of anything on the screen.

Stefan

I emailed the seller and asked him to "significantly expand" on his auction text to discuss the state of the different parts of teh computer, any repairs he did, any testing he did. I pointed out that for his asking price he should give a lot of information to the bidders to assure them that they are not getting a dud.

I suggest other folks ask him similar question?

Namir

Check out his other auctions at the bottom of the listing: similarly outrageous prices on other random old hardware.

My prediction: he will go broke from listing fees before he sells one. "Garunteed!"

Regards
Howard

Someone must've told him something. I saw this same model listed a week or so ago for significantly less. I THINK it was under $500, but I'm not positive.

I wonder what caused the huge jump in price?

thanks,
bruce

It's a Buy It Now or Best Offer listing. The massive Buy It Now price just means the seller will take a bunch of offers, and isn't obligated to sell at all. It's like having an auction without the commitment to actually sell.

I take your point. However, people who know the true value of the stuff he is selling might be disinclined to bid. And folks who don't necessarily know the value are likely to be scared off. So I'd say he's either living in a fantasy world and believes the prices he's posting, or else he's going to be disappointed in the results for the reasons I just gave.

Coburlin sells at outrageous prices, but they are usually a multiple of 2 or 3 times above a reasonable price. Assuming a par price for an HP85 of $600.00 (which is high, being the price that guy in So Cal is charging for a refurbished machine with a high density tape drive) this guy is selling at $2700/$600 = 9/2 = 4.5 times the "high bluebook."

Regards,
Howard

I am not a salesman (I studied engineering) but have observed over the years that some people sell at outrageous prices (here and on Amazon) based on (at least) of the following approaches:

1. High price says it's worth something and will appeal to buyers with big egos for whom money means nothing.

2. The seller has nothing to lose (or so he thinks) by asking a high price. Someone, some day, will bite!!

The above lines of thinking are detached from smart marketing that taps into supply and demand strategies. Instead such sellers are looking for the one buyer who clicks the BIN button and pays.

Namir

Howard, I agree that the seller is likely to be disappointed on this listing. BUT - suppose he gets some offers, declines them all, then uses them to figure out a new Buy It Now price for the next Buy It Now or Best Offer listing. One that is still above the "book" value, but not so high as to scare off those in the know, and maybe, just maybe, low enough to snare that one shopper who just has to have it and doesn't want to risk letting it fall to offers.

If you view it as an iterative non-auction auction process, it's labor-intensive but possibly effective.

[edited typo]


Edited: 5 Sept 2007, 11:53 a.m.