Say Hello to my Lisas

[Schafeman]

I don't know what i'd do if I had an Alto, but somehow i'd make room in my basement for it 

 

[belgaonkar]

Seeing as the twiggy drives sold for $32k, I can see the sellers (not me) mentality behind the asking price.

At some point the market will self adjust and come back down to 'reasonable' figures.

 

[BadGoldEagle]

Seriously?

Yeah I knew that wasn't the proper price but what I really meant was "Seriously? No Best offer available?".

No one is going to buy this thing unless price goes down a bit. 

 

[Juror22]

I'd make room in the living room for the Alto, or give it its own room.

 

[Johnnya101]

Or house.

 

[CelGen]

No one is going to buy this thing unless price goes down a bit. 

It's no longer available. It likely sold.

The idea is you take a few pics, throw it on ebay with a ridiculous price and see what private offers you get in your PM's. Basically a silent auction.

I would like to point out that selling in this manner is against ebay's rules.

 

[Schafeman]

^ Apparently eBay can and will read any comments that come to you via that form.  If there is any indication of an outside sale, they will immediately ban you.  

 

[belgaonkar]

They won't allow you to send personal information like an email or website via there messenger system. 

 

[jsarchibald]

They won't allow you to send personal information like an email or website via there messenger system. 

That's why you put a space where the @ symbol normally goes

That said, I got the email last month because some guy just had to get that Snow Leopard disk I had on eBay at 830pm on a Tuesday night, and paid cash...

 

[Mikemike690]

That 100k Lisa did sell, sold for 85k USD.

 

[belgaonkar]

How do you know? There is another complete Lisa 1 for sale in MA, bidding is at 28k...

 

[Timbo]

How do you know? There is another complete Lisa 1 for sale in MA, bidding is at 28k...

Does this Lisa look like its had the Lisa 1 faceplate added with some Twiggy drives?  

Just that the colour looks different.

Maybe the high price for those drives a little while ago was worth it for someone?

 

[belgaonkar]

Ill post it here so others can see what we are talking about: http://www.ebay.com/itm/WORKING-APPLE-LISA-1-COMPUTER-WITH-TWIGGY-DRIVES-AND-PROFILE-HDD-/222495883594?hash=item33cdc9c14a:g:eLsAAOSwjqVZB-Hj

Now that you mention it, I see that the face plate is a light shade. When the seller sold the twiggys, he also sold the face plate a long with it. It is a possibility that this guy bought both downgraded his Lisa.

This seller could have also seen the astronomically high price of the lisa 1 and decided it was time to sell his.

Either way the bidding is at 39.5k and the reserve has not been met....

 

[Carboy7]

"Reserve not met" I $%#!ing hate that. Why put a reserve on a thing that is LITERALLY thousands of dollars?? So you can get more money?!

:-/

 

[Themk]

I think the idea of having a reserve is so that way they don't have to sell it for less than they feel its worth. Personally, I wish they would just set the starting bid price at what they would "accept" for the item. At the same time though, in a bidding situation like this, the market gets to decide the price. Certainly a nice working Lisa 1 system is worth $$$$$, but there is a better way to set a "minimum price".

I'm not exactly opposed to reserves, as I do think that you shouldn't be forced to sell something for lower than you (reasonably) want to get for it. You can cancel the transaction later as the seller, but that is just poor form. If you know what an item is worth, and the market is in a place where there are people who will buy it at the price, don't set a reserve, set a minimum bid instead.

I do wonder how many people put out 'feeler' auctions- where they list everything as if it were a real auction, but since reserve price is private, they set it ridiculously high (to the point where no one in their right mind would be able to buy it), and see what the maximum bid was, or "this is what someone was willing to pay for it".

eBay is certainly a weird place sometimes.

 

[EvieSigma]

What always amuses me is when people get into bidding wars and pay more on an auction than they should.

I almost got into one myself but I backed out...and then got the same machine from another auction for less money.