First off, let me say I have no criticism of the guys that on ebay at inflated prices.
I say more power to them, I'd like some of that too.
Any criticism I would have would be for the buyers.

But back to "Two things I don't get":

Question1: Where do these guys get these things?
I haven't seen ANY HP calcs go on ebay at a reasonable price.
Forget about winning something low enough to mark up and resell.
Ouside of eBay, I can't seem to find any at flea markets or garage sales.

Question2: Where do these buyers come from? Just how many people are out there that are willing to pay $400 for an HP 41? I would think not may, but week after week, they seem to go for $200, $300, $400. Where do they all come from?

Hi Kilroy.

Speaking from a European buyers perspective I suspect that one of the factors helping to push-up HP prices in the USA over the past year is the relatively high value of the British Pound and the Euro compared with the US dollar.

US HP calculators are good value for British buyers (and to an extent European buyers) because one British Pound is worth about 2 US dollars in the currency markets. In other words a $400 calculator only costs us about £200 in the UK, making US calculators relatively good value (here in the UK we used to pay about the same price in £ pounds as what a product would cost in $ dollars in the US).

I'm sure there are probably other economic factors in play as well, but the currency exchange rate is definately helping British buyers. On the other hand the downside is that British goods sold into the US market are now roughly twice the price for US buyers because of the exchange rate.

Best wishes

Ian J
www.JacksonConsult.com

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First off, let me say I have no criticism of the guys that on ebay at inflated prices.

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So you think its OK to rip people off?
Good for you buddy. After all, it's the American way, right?
Profit uber alles.

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I say more power to them, I'd like some of that too.
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Sure you would.
Why not put on a dress and hang around a street corner?
I'm sure you could get some.
Hey - it's worth it, to make a buck or two.

[quote]
Any criticism I would have would be for the buyers.

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Thats BS and you know it.

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But back to "Two things I don't get":

Question1: Where do these guys get these things?
I haven't seen ANY HP calcs go on ebay at a reasonable price.
Forget about winning something low enough to mark up and resell.
Ouside of eBay, I can't seem to find any at flea markets or garage sales.

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OK, consider...
You're at retirement age. Your trusty calc has been a life-long companion. But you're dumb grandkids just want the TI to look cool and play games. They know the vaule of nothing.
So, what do you so with your HP? You know you could get a few hundred for it, maybe, so you sell it on ebay and do whatever with the $$$.
There must be lots of people like that.

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Question2: Where do these buyers come from? Just how many people are out there that are willing to pay $400 for an HP 41? I would think not may, but week after week, they seem to go for $200, $300, $400. Where do they all come from?

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There are lots of people with more money than you or I.
They can buy these things and lock them away in a safety deposit box to sell on for even more $$$ in the future. To them they are just investments. Nothing more than that.
And that *really* makes me sick.
I'd love to use an old HP. And I mean *USE* one. Most modern stuff is just cheap-chinese-cr*p, in terms of build quality (HP49 anyone?). Who cares about speed/functionality improvements if the darn thing is going to fall apart in the field?
Those old plastics are like steel compared to todays bendy toys.

OK thats my two-tons worth of rant over with.
Have a good '07 everyone.
[right-shift->ON]

"I haven't seen ANY HP calcs go on ebay at a reasonable price. Forget about winning something low enough to mark up and resell"

Our well beloved Cobubba friend is always getting bargains and then he resells at skyrocketed prices to newbie buyers

I recently bought an HP-15C for about $120. The unit was like new with no dents and scratches!!

From Wikipedia: "Capitalism generally refers to an economic system in which the means of production are mostly privately or corporately owned and operated for profit and in which distribution, production and pricing of goods and services are determined in a largely free market."

Does it sound familiar? Translation, greed is good. I am sure if it was the other way around and you had the cash you would be stacking up the goods and waiting to make a kill.

Regards, Thor

PS: I just wish I could land some of the great deals Coburlin seems to find.

Bargains on eBay rarely go the distance. When one shows up, it's usually a "Buy it Now" auction with a low price. The trick is finding them before anyone else.

Coburlin goes a step further and offers a lowball price for newly listed items. That's one of the slimier things he does to garner advantage from naive sellers. I have to believe he is also doing automated trolling of listings over and above a normal search. There's an API for that sort of thing, or you can just "screen-scrape" prices off of scripted HTTP transactions. eBay frowns on the latter and pushes the former. I've never used either personally, and I still have come away with pretty good bargains on occasion.

Let me also add that the anonymous coward that slammed Kilroy at the top of this thread ought to sit down, take a stress pill and think things over. In my book, it's OK to dispute assertions by others, but not with personal insults. Such behavior is particularly bad when conducted using anonymity, since the anonymous party bears no personal responsibility for the objectional statements.

Regards,
Howard

Coburlin doesn´t find great deals, he contacts with HP-unaware sellers directly in order to end early the auction at a price suitable for him and then he resells for a price 5 times more what he has paid to the seller

If he finds it cheap (regardless of how, as long as it is legal) and sells it high it is a good deal in my book.

Regards, Thor

FYI: I am not Coburlin, I do not know him, I have not and I will not buy from him but I give him credit (and I swear at him) for his "finds".

Hi!

First of all, a happy and successful new year to all fellow calculator addicts :-)

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I haven't seen ANY HP calcs go on ebay at a reasonable price.
Forget about winning something low enough to mark up and resell.
Ouside of eBay, I can't seem to find any at flea markets or garage sales.

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You need a lot of patience if you want to find good stuff at eBay for reasonable prices. And luck of course! The best opportunities are "Buy it now!"-auctions or auctions comprising lots of several items among which are also calculators (often unspecified, so it is always a gamble and a big surprise, or disappointment, once the box arrives). Of course you can always ask the seller, but then he adds the answer to his auction description and the rest of the world knows your "secret" also.

There are still some calculators to be found at flea markets here in Germany, but they become rarer and rarer. Most of the (semi-)professional sellers are using eBay as well and are aware of the prices. So even if you find calculators, they are expensive.

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Question2: Where do these buyers come from? Just how many people are out there that are willing to pay $400 for an HP 41? I would think not may, but week after week, they seem to go for $200, $300, $400. Where do they all come from?

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Regarding people with seemingly unlimited supply of money, I stopped wondering long ago... Among other things, I fly executive aeroplanes and instruct flying, and compared to the hourly rates of these aircraft and the cost of flying lesssons (around 500 Euros per hour for a flying lesson in a small twine-engined training plane in Europe) even the most expensive vintage pocket calculator is a bargain. And one that lasts longer than 60 minutes :-)

But you are right, 400$/Euros for a Hp-41 is far too much. I payed far less for all my 41 stuff together (everything bought on eBay during 2006, I didn't care for any LCD calculators before (and still dont care much), but thought it would be a good idea to get some before the prices become prohibitive): 2 41Cs, 1 CV, 1CX, 3 printers, 1 card reader, 2 tape drives, 2 hp-il interfaces, chargers, battery boxes, manuals, severlay software modules, magnetic cards, thermal paper. But as I said before, it needed a lot of patience.

Greetings, Max

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Re: Two things I don't get...
Message #3 Posted by Anon on 1 Jan 2007, 5:09 p.m.,
in response to message #1 by Kilroy

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