John,
While I share your frustrations on eBay selling, I must say that I have exp
erienced the same frustrations offering items to CR list members prior to l
isting on eBay.
For example, I offered a very nice bike to the list recently, received an i
nterest from a a couple list members/lurkers, and after answering quite a f
ew questions, was offered substantially $450 less for the bike!!!! Now s
ome of his questions were legitimate, but others were a bit ridiculous, as
my tons of photos were self explanatory as to the component group on the bi
ke (that is unless you are vision impaired). I even offered to make simp
le gearing ratio and wheel/rim rebuild changes at no additional cost. Am
going to part this bike out, and await the stone throwers bashing me for d
oing so.
I have also had list members tell me they would take an item offered for sa
le, only to never be heard from again. Assume I am not the only one to h
ave experienced this situation. Granted, you can have the same thing hap
pen to you on eBay, but in my personal case, the deadbeat buyer ratio is hi
gher on the list versus eBay.
As for eBay watchers, they have nothing to do with the saleability of your
item,,,,trust me on that. You can have a ton of eBay watchers, who simpl
y are interested in seeing what your item sells or doesn't sell for = I'm
always prepared for the bottom feeders who were watching the item, only to
make a low ball offer outside of the eBay system (as recently experienced
with a pair of AKRONT rims). I also have a NOS Cinelli 1R stem bolt for
sale on eBay currently for a starting price of $8.99 with FREE shipping, an
d eleven (11) people are watching the auction = now why would you watch s
uch a cheap item if you were truly interested in it and not simply place a
bid?!?!?! If an item fails to sell the first time around, that is not an
indicator of it being priced too high, as many times it sells for much mor
e on a relist.
Bottom line, selling things can be very frustrating regardless of the selli
ng venue (e.g., eBay, CR list, retail bike shop, etc......).
For what it's worth, or not worth!
Kevin Kruger = Grantville, PA