[CR]RE: eBay searches for vintage bicycles

(Example: Humor:John Pergolizzi)

Date: Thu, 6 Apr 2006 12:22:42 -0400
From: "Ken Bensinger" <kenbensinger@gmail.com>
To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
Subject: [CR]RE: eBay searches for vintage bicycles

In re the post about proper ways to list on eBay, just a very brief commentary: if you know what you're doing with eBay, it's hard to see why you'd sell an item using one of those eBay store services. That's like throwing away money. EBay already charges listing fees and healthy commissions on items sold be individuals. Why would you want to tack on the commission charged by a store that probably just snaps a picture you could take, packs it in a box you could get, overcharges for shipping (just like you could!) and, in a big departure from what you could do, has no clue how to correctly describe/price the item.

Seriously, look at the bikes and parts up for sale from sellers using those I Sold it On EBay type services. Horrible mispellings. Incorrect descriptions. Photos of only one side of the bike. Misclassification (oops, I didn't know track bikes weren't vintage motorcycles), etc. Remember that those businesses sell everything from exotic Keirin frames to broken haloge n floor lamps. They have a pretty low discrimination bar and they make money by moving product fast, not by putting up links to sites that explain exactly why the 1974 lugs are a brand apart from the 1975 lugs on a frame.

It strikes me that those services are great for people with things to sell about which they know nothing except that they don't have the time nor interest to worry about what it is or how much it's really worth. But if yo u like bikes and know bikes, do yourself, and everyone else, a favor, and sel l yourself.

Ken Bensinger
Brooklyn, NY