Observation

Inflation. :)

Pam Niedermayer - Austin, TX

>

Re: Observation

Hank Knight

>Hi Ray,

I pretty much quit buying on on e-Bay for that very reason. If I really need it and can't find it elsewhere, I might spend the bucks. But browsing e-Bay to pick up an interesting item is no longer just a fun passtime. It's more like window shopping these days.

Hank

Indoor Season

David Miller from Iowa

>I stopped selling woodworking tools on eBay in the summer as prices seem to tank in the warm weather (I'm in Iowa). When the weather is nice, I shop less on eBay and spend a lot less time on this board.

Right about now though, I'm starting to spend maybe 10x more time on eBay than in August and I am more focussed on filling up the shop with those missing tools. Also, it seems easier to spend money right now with the holidays ramping up.

I generally don't sell much on eBay in the summer either - because I'm outside and the prices are low. Been saving tools all year to post to eBay over Thanksgiving week - I will have the time to post and ship, more people will be off work and playing on the internet, and the extra money is useful right now.

Interesting

Bill Houghton, sunny Sebastopol, CA

>That may explain why I haven't posted the few tools I've been thinking about moving along; I sensed the time wasn't right.

No, it's probably that I'm disorganized and lazy.

Re: Interesting

Kevin French, Antrim, NH

>Oh come on Bill don't be so hard on yourself. How about easily distracted and preoccupied. That always works for me.

There's also "middle-aged"

Bill Houghton, sunny Sebastopol, CA

>I've been milking that one for more years than I want to admit.

Re: Inflation. :)

Marv

>And now we think $2.45-9/10 for a gallon of gas would be a great bargain. But back when gas rose to that price we thought it was an outrageous. Relating other things to that, are higher prices merely a matter of comparing what is to what was? In time we may look back on today's prices and consider them low.

As long as people keep paying the higher prices, inflation will continue.

I can remember when a postage stamp was only 3 cents and a post card was a penny. That was 63 years ago. How old am I?

Marv

Huh? *LINK*

Todd Hughes

>I just did a quick look at completed auctions for Stanley no.4 planes and i saw alot that didn't sell for much. here is one that was about mint and still in the original box and it sold for $36

...Yes i guess some went higher but lots went for less.I know i wouldn't sell many no. 4s on the ebay because i don't think they go for enough, much better to break them up for parts.

What you have to remember is the price somthing sells for on the ebay is the price that people will pay for it...or in other words what it is worth

...Personaly i think that antique and vintage tools are way under priced for what they are, probably the most undervauled of any antique. Name another 150 year old antique that you can buy easly for under $20 like you can like do a mid 1800s molding plane all day long......Todd


Stanley No. 4 in box

Prices seem low to me...

Scott Burr in Ben Lomond, CA

>I watch the bay a lot but havn't bought any thing in a long time. Prices seem low to me right now.

Maybe it's the flaying dollar, if your in Euorpe it like buying tools and other things for anmost 1/2 off.

How old am I

Wayne Carson "TX"

>Gas was .18/gal and it was highway robery, air mail was .07 milk well I don't know I only drank it, I think from a bottle.

Re: Shipping charges

Wayne Carson "TX"

>I thought about just giving some of my things away and just charge for shipping say 20-25 bucks. Doesn't matter how small just charge shipping one could make 15-20 bucks for a $3 item.

I used to go to farm auctions, I noticed that some of the items were going for 2x and more for an item that you could have gone down the street and pick up. I think that people just get caught up in the bidding process. That is why I set a limit and usually don't go above that. But I too have been caught up on bidding on Buffalo Nickels that I collect, just the nature of the process, but sometimes we make a killing sometimes we get killed. Unless it is something very rare another one will be posted again.

Re: Shipping charges

Todd O. Cronkhite Maine Native, Presently Away

>Unless it is something very rare another one will be posted again.

That's pretty much my sentiment these days. I figure that the chances are pretty good that whatever it is that I'm bidding on it's not the last one on earth, so when it gets up into crazy money I let it go.

Was at a flea market a few weeks ago and came across a #5 sized transitional that was complete, but the metal was separated from the sole. I asked the seller how much and he said $50!! I told him I'd give him $5. He replied that he had seen 'em sell on e-bay for $100, so I told him to sell it on e-bay and simply walked away. I would of liked to have had that transitional for no other reason that to make a new sole for it since all the pieces where there.

T.O.

Re: There's also "middle-aged"

Ernie Miller

>What is middle aged? and am I there or beyond?

Heard or read somewhere

Bill Houghton, sunny again in Sebastopol, CA

>that you're middle aged when you grunt on getting up from a chair, and old when you grunt whether sitting down or getting up.

Currently holding my breath when I sit down, so I won't grunt...

Re: Huh?

ThomD

>-What you have to remember is the price somthing sells for on the ebay is the price that people will pay for it...or in other words what it is worth-

So true. Though there is more to it as you know. There is the concept of an efficient market, and there have been times when ebay was far from efficient. Ebay would be really something if there was a lot more price discovery. Like it would be possible to include all prices on the internet, or other searcheable places. I can remember a few segments a while back where the prices paid were regularly more than local retail, which is a bit dazzling for seriously second hand and sometimes broken stuff.

Re: Huh?

ThomD

>-...Personaly i think that antique and vintage tools are way under priced for what they are, probably the most undervauled of any antique. Name another 150 year old antique that you can buy easly for under $20 like you can like do a mid 1800s molding plane all day long......Todd_

That is so true. If I were a billionaire (and this kind of thinking is why that could never happen), I would buy up as much old machinery and hand tools as I possibly could. Like the Hunt brothers with silver. I bought a few weeks back a South Bend Shaper, 500 dollars, and it is nearly mint condition. The quality of construction, the elegance, not to mention the Heath Robinson nature of the tool are marked. I cant imagine how much such a thing would cost today, but with router jigs with a few patterns going for 2-3 grand the sky is the limit.

I also craig listed out a broadaxe, and sharpened it for the buyer, The steel was superb, and we know what they cost a 13 incher is probably 300 or more in new construction.

That is without any consideration for the history.

a friend of mine is seriously into old machines...

John in NM

>He's even got a few that were free for the hauling off (how bout a Hardinge lathe?). He recently bought a lathe "accurate" to 50 millionths of an inch - or some such crazy small figure - for the equally crazy small figure of $1200. Yet that's about what I'm selling my old Atlas/Craftsman for. Just what the market will (hopefully!) bear, crazy though it is.

Re: a friend of mine is seriously into old machine

ThomD

>You are right. The bigger the cheaper, the main competition is increasingly going to be the scrapyard, at these prices. Im looking for a 42 inch South Bend lathe, or the 32 or 36. I have no idea what would be next if I found it.

Try this:

http://www.coolweldstudios.com/page4.htm

The shaper is so much fun. It is a combination between the usual rotary stuff and three axis controls, with a linear motion right out of the railroad. It could saw dovetails, What a riot submiting that article would be. I have a lot to do first, but I will be seeing how it is at cutting saws, and floats, before too long. Nice to havea tool that can do really complicated or simple stuff all with tool bits that cost a buck.

Re: An efficient market?

Glenn Madsen near San Francisco

>Yet eBay and other Internet auctions are, for the most part, so far ahead of where things were 20 or 30 years ago. The information is virtually free on pricies for many things, and sellers can reach out, cheaply, to interested parties, and offer stuff that just may not be otherwise easily available.

Dealers can still run their stores or warehouses, but have other markets. While eBay is by no means perfect, it's better than almost anything else I've seen, for so many things.

And yet, I don't play. Strange, that, I guess.

Now back to your regular programming...

Re: An efficient market?

ThomD

>Better doesnt make it efficient. And you are certainly right about how good it is compared to what we previously had. A market efficeint or otherwise should be a bringing together of prices, ebay often functions just to bring local buyers together. One can see what everyone is doing on a particular product, but if its in any way difficult to ship, one is just seeing local transaction concluded between a few people which is a whole lot better than nothing, but not like a stock market.

If one thinks of Amazon, the stupid thing there was that it was an internet business, but not an internet product. It worked great for the buyers who got the subsidy, but the seller got stuck with a lot of bricks and mortar.

Ebay was a real internet business for ebay, since their basic business is a form of comunication, though it probably gets ugly the moment a human wants to talk to a human about something like a rip-off, that isnt a mechanical process at all. However, the market ebay serves is in most cases stuff that cant just be wired. Ive found ebay enormously useful when it came to finding machine tools, but its a heavily localized market (that Craigslist is in some ways better set up to serve, though it doesnt have the same volume). One knows that someone somewhere has a product, but its really difficult to know the condition, and most people will sit on the sideline if it isnt their area. I�ve largely found ebay is great for selling, but not so much for buying, though right at the moment I am on a mini binge of product.