On Tue, 20 Mar 2007 00:35:28 -0400, Rick wrote:

By now pretty much everybody knows about ebay and they know they can get
hundreds more than the true worth of something, which of course then only
serves to raise the "true worth of something" if you define "worth" as
"whatever someone will pay for it".

eBay's a pretty true arbiter of popularity and true market value. It doesn't,
for example, inflate the price of pieces of art at all -- in fact, there are
many true bargains to be had. The same is generally true of cars and
motorcycles.

Just because some idiots are willing to pay more than full retail for brand new,
commonly-available items is not an indictment of eBay, but of the ignorance of
those buyers.

The same is true for ham radio items -- there's a comparatively tiny population
of interested parties, and no sophisticated network providing an accurate
compilation of recent equipment sales prices. Vintage items are truly worth
whatever someone is willing to pay.

-- Larry

Also keep in mind that eBay is an international marketplace. With
potentially thousands of eyes looking at your item, there's a bigger chance
that one or two people might decide that they just can't live without it. As
opposed to a hamfest or swap meet, where it may be seen by a few hundred
people at most, and perhaps none of them happens to be interested on that
day.

Phil Nelson