Weird logic in buy/sell/trade posts?

[Well Fed Games]

I don't get "buy this for this amount or I am going to throw it away" posts. Why not just post it up for the price of shipping? Am I missing something? I see it occasionally here and fairly often at KLOV. I don't understand the logic- I've got some HAPP holsters I just can't sell but there is no way I am going to toss them just because I can't make a few bucks on them. After all, we do have a free items thread here.

Example: SteveD61's (needlessly split into three threads) current "sales":

Gauntlet Legends parts:
All items are sold as is.
Going to the dump on Saturday.

PCB\HDD\Video Card\Harness\Power Supply/Cage and Game Manual. 150.00 shipped.


SteveD61

 

[yotsuya]

I don't get "buy this for this amount or I am going to throw it away" posts. Why not just post it up for the price of shipping? Am I missing something? I see it occasionally here and fairly often at KLOV. I don't understand the logic- I've got some HAPP holsters I just can't sell but there is no way I am going to toss them just because I can't make a few bucks on them. After all, we do have a free items thread here.

Example: SteveD61's (needlessly split into three threads) current "sales":

Gauntlet Legends parts:
All items are sold as is.
Going to the dump on Saturday.

PCB\HDD\Video Card\Harness\Power Supply/Cage and Game Manual. 150.00 shipped.


SteveD61

 

Good point. If you think it's worth $150, why toss it (not a knock against SteveD61, I've seen it from others and at KLOV as well)?

[ChadTower]

I see a lot of "last chance" bumps, too.  That's the one I don't get.  If I didn't want to buy it before why do I want a "last chance" to buy it?

Especially on local groups.  "Last chance to buy this before it goes to the dump."  Erm, why not just offer it up free to someone who wants to take it?  The dump isn't free (plus there pretty much are no dumps in MA).

[yotsuya]

I see a lot of "last chance" bumps, too.  That's the one I don't get.  If I didn't want to buy it before why do I want a "last chance" to buy it?

Especially on local groups.  "Last chance to buy this before it goes to the dump."  Erm, why not just offer it up free to someone who wants to take it?  The dump isn't free (plus there pretty much are no dumps in MA).

Exactly. I'd just put it in a box and leave the ad. I've had stuff listed here that took months to sell, but eventually it did. How many times do we see someone bump a year-old thread with "Is this item still available?"

[Malenko]

well for what he's selling, I dont understand it. I however had a gutted pole position that I couldnt give away for free. I last chance bumped it, no one wanted it, so it got disposed of.

[JDFan]

I don't get "buy this for this amount or I am going to throw it away" posts. Why not just post it up for the price of shipping? Am I missing something? I see it occasionally here and fairly often at KLOV. I don't understand the logic- I've got some HAPP holsters I just can't sell but there is no way I am going to toss them just because I can't make a few bucks on them. After all, we do have a free items thread here.

Example: SteveD61's (needlessly split into three threads) current "sales":

Gauntlet Legends parts:
All items are sold as is.
Going to the dump on Saturday.

PCB\HDD\Video Card\Harness\Power Supply/Cage and Game Manual. 150.00 shipped.


SteveD61

 

Good point. If you think it's worth $150, why toss it (not a knock against SteveD 61, I've seen it from others and at KLOV as well).

Esp. when like he did you got it for free -- Why gut it and MAME a perfectly good Gauntlet machine and then try make $600 off the internals to fund the destruction. And then to throw the parts away if noone is willing to pay top dollar for them rather than pass them on to someone else to use ( Guess he figures if he did give them away for shipping he'd be upset if someone resold them for a profit - even though that is what he was already doing !  )

[Generic Eric]

"They" are playing for impulse buys.  *shrug*


Or, quite possibly, we are witnessing a separation/anxiety part of the grieving process:  "If you don't value it like I do, I'll just throw it away."

[pbj]

For some of us, there's a lot of time and hassle involved with going to the post office, and it's much easier to throw it away. 

Anything I mail these days that can't be picked up from my house involves a literal 2 mile walk on foot and hand carrying the item.  Oh, and that counter refuses to provide any actual service, so you have to have weighed the damn thing and printed postage already.

Yeah, it's a sales tactic but sometimes the trash can is a lot more inviting than back and forth e-mails, multiple phone calls, dealing with "bad seller" nonsense, etc...

[ChadTower]

well for what he's selling, I dont understand it. I however had a gutted pole position that I couldnt give away for free. I last chance bumped it, no one wanted it, so it got disposed of.

That's very different thing than expecting someone to pay for something you are about to throw away.  I think we've all tried to give away empty cabs and ended up having to dispose of them instead. 

[Well Fed Games]

Yeah, there is an "effort to ship/time taken to sell/space taken up by item/item condition" threshold that has to be considered as far as when something should be trashed. For most sellers tossing something is likely an empty threat, but I hope that most folks understand that one of the fun parts of this hobby is connecting the random bits to the people that can use them.

[lilshawn]

100 bucks or this weekend it's going to the dump

would you take 50?

naw i really want 100.

  haruuuuuuuuughhhhhhhhhhhhhh GENIOUS!

[pbj]

Have to disagree with you lilshawn.  People that don't have $100 to waste on this hobby don't have $50, either.  Unfortunately, that trend doesn't stop in the 4 figure deals either.

[steved61]

The logic is I'm retired, 20 years with the the Dept of Corrections, and I have a limited amount of room and health is not great. Taking the items to the dump costs me may be $10.00. While I'm out I have a nice lunch with my wife. I never expected to get a fortune for the items. I would guess some of you know how large and heavy a 27" monitor is. I would never use these parts so I'm glad someone is. I got about a 1/3 of what I was asking for and I happy about that. I have no place to store the parts long term. So the money I get for the parts goes towards a lighter LCD. I'm sorry if I upset some people it wasn't my intention.
Steved1961

[yotsuya]

The logic is I'm retired, 20 years with the the Dept of Corrections, and I have a limited amount of room and health is not great. Taking the items to the dump costs me may be $10.00. While I'm out I have a nice lunch with my wife. I never expected to get a fortune for the items. I would guess some of you know how large and heavy a 27" monitor is. I would never use these parts so I'm glad someone is. I got about a 1/3 of what I was asking for and I happy about that. I have no place to store the parts long term. So the money I get for the parts goes towards a lighter LCD. I'm sorry if I upset some people it wasn't my intention.
Steved1961

No worries, my friend. I get the lack of space. Are you a KLOV member? You might be able to get a taker for those items there.

[DaOld Man]

I have six empty beer bottles. Cheap: 10 bucks and you pay postage. (air in the bottles is included, free of charge!!!)
If nobody wants them they are going in the trash. last chance!

[steved61]

Why don't you ask the guys on any survival show how much they would pay for your bottles.
Steved1961

[Malenko]

Why don't you ask the guys on any survival show how much they would pay for your bottles.
Steved1961

The disconnect here is that while others use it as some sort of marketing ploy, steved61 doesnt want the clutter. In addition to that he didnt pay anything for the cab, so disposing of the unwanted parts isnt any loss for him. I completely lowballed him just to rescue the parts, and he graciously accepted. He's even going to drop it off at the branch office for my company in Knoxville and they are going to ship everything up to me. So yeah, while others may feint "throwing it out" I'm 100% sure this stuff would have been scrapped if I didnt buy it.

[pbj]

Classic Malenko.  Stop buying everything.   

[steved61]

LowBall Huh?

[Well Fed Games]

The logic is I'm retired, 20 years with the the Dept of Corrections, and I have a limited amount of room and health is not great. Taking the items to the dump costs me may be $10.00. While I'm out I have a nice lunch with my wife. I never expected to get a fortune for the items. I would guess some of you know how large and heavy a 27" monitor is. I would never use these parts so I'm glad someone is. I got about a 1/3 of what I was asking for and I happy about that. I have no place to store the parts long term. So the money I get for the parts goes towards a lighter LCD. I'm sorry if I upset some people it wasn't my intention.
Steved1961

Ya no worries, just something I had seen in a lot of B/S/T posts and yours was the most recent. Glad Malenko was able to get the parts at a good deal. And yeah, those big uncased monitors are heavy unwieldy things.

[Howard_Casto]

I'm getting the feeling that Malenko lives at the dump with Fat Albert and the gang.  There's no way he could possibly store all the crap he gets around here otherwise. 

[Malenko]

I'm getting the feeling that Malenko lives at the dump with Fat Albert and the gang.  There's no way he could possibly store all the crap he gets around here otherwise.

HA!

3 bedroom house with a basement and a garage. Just my fiancee and our 2 dogs; plenty of room for junk. 

[ChadTower]

Hell, if Malenko lived at the dump, he would be getting all of those parts as they're thrown away.  Win, win, win.

[pbj]

One of these days... I'll have Gauntlet Legends....

[horizon]

I'm getting the feeling that Malenko lives at the dump with Fat Albert and the gang.  There's no way he could possibly store all the crap he gets around here otherwise.

Every time I see a post by Malenko, I am going to hear the Sanford and Son theme in my head. 

 

[Malenko]

Horizon, ya big dummy!

[JDFan]

I'm getting the feeling that Malenko lives at the dump with Fat Albert and the gang.  There's no way he could possibly store all the crap he gets around here otherwise.

Every time I see a post by Malenko, I am going to hear the Sanford and Son theme in my head. 

 

http://www.chewymusic.com/mp3/sanfordandson.mp3

[Sarver Systems]

One of my clients is like this.

Buy this $100 cab for $400 or I will burn it.

His tactic is that you will pay the $400 to save it from destruction.

Side note: He has never burned a cabinet, its all talk.

[dkersten]

I understand the tactic and the logic behind it for a variety of reasons.  I will try to explain my thoughts on it.

First, of course it is a tactic to get people to "pull the trigger" who might still be on the fence.  When someone has posted something for a while and it isn't moving and you might be interested, there is no hurry because maybe you don't need it or maybe you want to wait until the last moment to drive the price down, or whatever.  So the seller says "this I the last chance, and if nobody buys it, it goes in the trash".  At that point if anyone IS interested, they will at least make an offer.

Second, it is not worth the time to sell something and ship it if I am not making something for my time.  If I can't make a certain amount of money, I would sooner trash it and have the free time for other things.  Perhaps I don't have the space, perhaps I don't have the free time to deal with shipping, or perhaps I am just so sick of seeing it sitting around that I just want to wash my hands of it.  Whatever the reason, I have thrown out stuff that I couldn't sell because I didn't want to waste my time trying to give it away. 

I had a Diablosport tuner for my Mustang that I bought used for $250.  These are tied to the VIN of the car and to use it on another car you have to restore the car to the previous program before you "unlock" the device.  Long story short, I got a second programmer with my supercharger and didn't restore and unlock this first one before loading the new program.  Then I had the second programmer reset with a  new program and lost the original, so I couldn't unlock the Diablosport.   The manufacturer charges $150 to reset it, and I tried to argue that I had the original ECU and VIN but I had lost the original program, but they only cared about their $150.  The used value of these was a pretty solid $225-250 at the time, and I didn't want the hassle of putting up my own money to reset it and sit on it until it sold for full price, so I simply advertised it at $75 and explained that it would have to go back to the manufacturer for a reset and it would cost $150.  I guess nobody else wanted the hassle of sending it in either, so it never sold.  Since I couldn't sell it for what it was worth to ME, I took it out to the range and blew it up and then posted the video.  I took great satisfaction in doing so.  Sure, I could have given it away, but the hassle of taking it to a shipping outfit, packaging it up, getting money transferred, etc just wasn't worth it for no money.  That time, to me, was worth at least $40, and any less was not worth my time.  BUT, I would have taken $40 or $50 for it.  Nobody offered though so I disposed of it in dramatic fashion and got SOMETHING out of it. 

I am the same way with garage sales.  While the garage sale is on I am there to make a few dollars for my time, and after the garage sale is over I am not going to waste a single second trying to give it away.  Now, if I were just packing up a garage sale and someone dropped by and wasn't interested enough to pay for something and was walking away and I was ready to haul it out to the dumpster, I might stop them and ask if they want anything for free.  But I spend X amount of time selling, and then I am done with it and don't want it any more.  If I gave it away to one guy, then another might show up two minutes later who would have bought it.  So that is literally a "buy it or it goes in the trash" scenario.  Once I decided to garage sale it, I no longer wanted it in my house.  I am not a hoarder so it is not going to sit until it sells or whatever.. I am going to throw it away and feel good about it.  I will always give clothes to charity, but there are plenty of things you can't give to Goodwill (including CRT TV's)..

So yeah, I completely understand why someone would say "$100 or I dump it today".  Frankly if you are that interested in the product being dumped, you should make an offer that is worth the person's time to deal with. 

[Well Fed Games]

Yeah, I get the tactic, it creates a sense of scarcity. My hope is that in this hobby where many parts are no longer being manufactured (and thus really are scarce), people will usually look at a piece they don't need and say "what is this worth to another person" rather than "what do I need for my time." I understand this takes a sense of generosity... and thankfully most folks I have interacted with on forums have had that sense. So I guess I'm saying there is a fourth "cost" category to a part:

1. Monetary value
2. Storage space
3. Effort to ship
4. Value to another person's project

Trashing something may still the wisest move in some cases, but I personally have benefitted from hobbyists considering that fourth cost.

 it is not worth the time to sell something and ship it if I am not making something for my time.  If I can't make a certain amount of money, I would sooner trash it and have the free time for other things.  Perhaps I don't have the space, perhaps I don't have the free time to deal with shipping, or perhaps I am just so sick of seeing it sitting around that I just want to wash my hands of it.  Whatever the reason, I have thrown out stuff that I couldn't sell because I didn't want to waste my time trying to give it away. 

[yotsuya]

Yeah, I get the tactic, it creates a sense of scarcity. My hope is that in this hobby where many parts are no longer being manufactured (and thus really are scarce), people will usually look at a piece they don't need and say "what is this worth to another person" rather than "what do I need for my time."

This is the key. If someone says "If these headphones don't sell, I'm tossing them", it's not as big a deal as "If this working rotary joystick from an Ikari Warriors doesn't sell, I'm tossing them," One is still being made and easily bought. The other isn't.

[ChadTower]

Yep.  It becomes more of an issue with stuff like an Atari Basketball boardset.  I have a bunch of shelves full of this stuff that I have no use for but sure as hell am not throwing into the trash.  I just need to find someone who needs them.  Don't want money... just save the item.

[Howard_Casto]

Well the key is to just give it to Malenko. 

He'll add it to his collection of "fine antiquities"

Bah ba bur nah! Ba da bur da bur da nuh!

[ark_ader]

I have thrown a perfectly working LDV 100 in the trash, the cost of postage was ridiculous, so in the skip it went.  I can see the logic of buy it now or chuck it.  Seems that most of the free cabs we see on these boards goes this way. 

[eds1275]

Seems that most of the free cabs we see on these boards goes this way. 

And then everyone is like "How dare you destroy a piece of history!" even though it was up on the boards and craigslist for 3 months prior.