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Topic: Pedal steel guitars on EBay |
Dale Kath
From:
Michigan, USA
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Posted 14 Jul 2012 4:41 am |
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For the past 2 months I have been "watching" over a 100 Ebay auctions for psg's. 90 percent go unsold, with 0 bids. The guitars are often relished with the same starting price. They still go unsold. Do ya think these kind folks would be better off starting with a 0 bid offer instead of like 1600 for their used guitars? I see a lot of nice ones, but most often the auction begins too high. Wouldn't these gentlemen be better off seeking the fair market value of their instrument? Just asking...
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Carter SD10
Steel Guitar Black Box
Heritage h535
Epiphone viola bass |
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Jim Saunders
From:
Houston, Texas, U.S.A.
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Posted 14 Jul 2012 6:01 am Auction
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| Dale, I've sold a few things on Ebay and the initial listing price is always a challange. You can visualize a $1500.00 guitar selling for $300.00, assumming that's above the reserve, or if there is no reserve. At the same time, you don't want to put it so high that it sits with no bids at all. Basically, the starting bid and the reserve are about the same thing, only one is visable. |
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Douglas Schuch
From:
Valencia, Philippines
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Posted 14 Jul 2012 7:21 am
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You mean like the Stage One currently listed on Ebay, buy it now for $1250? You can buy a new one for $949.... Sheeze! There may a sucker born every minute, but I guess not enough want a steel guitar, if they aren't selling.
Cheers,
Doug
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Bringing steel guitar to the bukid of Negros Oriental! |
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Bill Hatcher
From:
Atlanta Ga. USA
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Posted 14 Jul 2012 7:59 am
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ebay is its own universe with its own laws! lol
i have bought and sold over a thousand items on there. you can never figure out prices. also most of the people are not "suckers". some people live in areas of the country where certain items are hard to find and they will pay premium prices. some people are looking for specific items and they will pay a premium etc. you just never know what an item is going to bring sometimes. also its how you photo/describe the item.
case in point. i had a bunch of camping/surplus stuff. put it on for $29 bucks. no bids. i took two of the items that were in the bunch..an army helmet and an army belt and took a nice pic of them together...they sold for $51. go figure....ebay is a hoot. it sure has helped me downsize a LOT of stuff for a whole lot more than i could have gotten for it at a yardsale!!! |
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Joe Rogers
From:
Lake Charles, LA USA
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Posted 14 Jul 2012 10:20 am
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Dang Bill, ya mean I could have bought the whole lot for $29 instead of the $51 you charged me...??? 
Joe Rogers |
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John Shadid
From:
Oklahoma City, OK
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Posted 14 Jul 2012 3:26 pm
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For items that expensive or for people who have a selling history, there is no fee for them to list an item. After they post it once, it only takes one click of the mouse to relist the item if it doesn't sell. In other words, it's not hurting anything for a seller to continually relist an item for years if that's what it takes for that one person who wants the guitar to come along. At one time, I sold a fender student psg that ended up going for around $680 at maybe a 25$ loss from what I paid. With what I know about psg, would I have spent that much on the guitar?.... Hell No! But I noticed the guy I sold it to ended up selling it a couple years later, and guess what! It sold at the same price. These sellers aren't wanting to hope that the bidding goes high enough, they're just waiting for that 1 guy...
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Johnny Up PSG Lessons @
http://www.youtube.com/user/johnnyupok |
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Dale Kath
From:
Michigan, USA
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Posted 14 Jul 2012 5:38 pm eBay auction
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Yep, all they need is that one guy. I was that one guy about a month ago when I bought my fender student psg for 650. Update: the last 7 psg's on my watch list did not get one bid. Time to relist!
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Carter SD10
Steel Guitar Black Box
Heritage h535
Epiphone viola bass |
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Bill Alexander
From:
Gowen, Michigan, and Homosassa Florida
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Posted 15 Jul 2012 6:10 am ebay
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ebays charges are out of control! than again, remember the guy selling apples for $1000 each. he only needs to sell one 
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It's all about the music |
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Dave Mudgett
From:
Central Pennsylvania and Gallatin, Tennessee
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Posted 15 Jul 2012 8:15 am
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This thread belongs in a different section like Pedal Steel. The "For Sale" section is for ads by forum members selling steel guitars, not discussions about selling steel guitars.
My opinion: sellers on ebay or elsewhere can and should set prices any way they want. The fact that they don't sell an item quickly does not mean it is overpriced. If you want to have a good probability of selling an item quickly, price it significantly below-market. If you want to sell something for the going 'equilibrium' market price, you should expect to need to advertise it long enough so that the statistical to-and-fro of lots of potential buyers looking at and evaluating it can establish that actual market value. Of course, presentation can make a huge difference, as Bill H.'s example above amply demonstrates.
I'd even go so far as to argue the converse - that if you sell something very quickly, there's a high probability that the item was priced significantly below-market - or perhaps the buyer is either ignorant of or, as Bill alludes to above, insensitive to the actual value for lots of possible reasons. This all gets down to the concept of economic utility, and there are a lot of apparent paradoxes when you start to really dig into utility theory. My opinion - there is no way to easily explain human behavior, and this goes as much to human economic behavior as anything else.
People around here argue so much about what the price of this or that should be. There's no 'should', just what 'is'. You pays your money, you takes your choice. But remember - knowledge is power, knowledge does not come free. It costs something to acquire knowledge. |
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Bill Alexander
From:
Gowen, Michigan, and Homosassa Florida
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Posted 15 Jul 2012 8:23 am ebay
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thanks for continuing the thread 
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It's all about the music |
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Dave Mudgett
From:
Central Pennsylvania and Gallatin, Tennessee
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Posted 15 Jul 2012 9:43 am
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| I figure that if commenting on how people oughta' price stuff is legitimate fodder for forum discussion, then dissenting discussion is also legitimate. I also presume that a moderator will move this thread to a proper section when he or she sees it. |
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Carl Mesrobian
From:
Salem, Massachusetts, USA
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Posted 15 Jul 2012 10:03 am
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Since it's still open, here's my take on eBay. With eBay and PayPal fees the seller is looking at around 13% markup - and that doesn't include time to compose the ad, finding proper packing materials, etc.,etc., BTW handling charges get hit for 9%, too. So your packing material costs just went up 9%!
In "The Old Days" the seller had the option of receiving payment by other means. I believe now the seller is forced to accpt PayPal. It's too bad that sellers on The Forum say they're going to post on eBay - they're giving their commissions to the wrong cause, and at a much higher rate
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--carl
"The better it gets, the fewer of us know it." Ray Brown |
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Dave Mudgett
From:
Central Pennsylvania and Gallatin, Tennessee
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Posted 15 Jul 2012 11:01 am
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Maybe I should just let b0b say it, but if you use a forum For Sale ad to drive traffic to an ebay auction, you are responsible for the forum finder's fee (2.5%) if a forum member buys the item. That is true regardless of whether or not it's your auction. One would think that would curb people linking For Sale ads to other peoples' ebay auctions, but not always.
Of course, it is considered proper form around here to tip the forum on successful For Sale ads. But if you use an ad to drive traffic to ebay, that courtesy is mandatory. Read the rules - http://steelguitarforum.com/agree.html - it's there, and b0b has reminded many about this on such ads. So - by all means, if you wanna' use this forum for this purpose, by all means - but realize you now have yet an additional expense.
FWIW - I think the worldwide market for steel guitars, and especially pedal steel guitars, is primarily this forum, and not ebay. I would personally beware any ebay ad for a pedal steel - many, many I read make it clear that they have no clue about pedal steels, so caveat emptor. This does not necessarily imply that everyone here is perfect, but I think, personally, that the odds are far better. OK, caveat emptor no matter what or where, but just sayin'. |
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b0b
From:
Cloverdale, CA, USA
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