Odd machinery pricing

[julianf]

Im after a specific tool - a wadkin table saw (AGS 10).

There are a stack on ebay, buy it now prices, over £1k. I could buy three tomorrow.


...but nooone ever buys them.

Occasionally one is posted for bidding, and it sells for between 2 and 400. £500 tops.

You look at completed listings, and none of the >£1k ones ever sell / have ever sold.


Its just odd. Price is only perception anyway, but this is the first time ive really noticed this anomaly. Normally buy-it-nows are a little higher than completed auction prices, and they sell to those who are impatient, but these ones just never sell.


Anyone else ever seen this with a specific tool before?

 

[armalites]

I think in this day and age transport/travel makes a big diffference. I've been guilty of finding something cheap then driving 3hrs each way with a trailer when looking at whole costs of time/money i would have been better to spend £150 more and buy one more local.

I also think with a lot of these bigger machine/woodworking tools they are being sold buy someone who made paid £5K when they were new.

I'm often browsing for big cast iron table saws and they often vary with what accessories they have or little bits of castings are broken and we all know even if you could get replacement parts they would be a fortune.

Ebay is a bizarre place, if you selling sometime you will get way more money than you expected but as a buyer sometime you get excited that there are no bids and it will all of a sudden sell for hundreds. The other thing I find is I'll keep looking at items and they make more than expected then I won't look for 3 days and find one completed for way less just down the road.

The prices on tyre changers are all over the place, you see scabby old machines making £5-600 then you'll see something tidy make £300. The other weird thing is often these old school manual units which are basically a bead breaker and then everything else is hard work make almost as much as a proper machine, makes no sense at all, I understand the space contraint thing but the manual ones need to bolted to the floor and they still need an air supply.

 

[gaz_moose]

I agree on the tyre machines, so many clapped out old knackers sell for strong money, when you can get a new china cheapy for not much over £500.
least you know it hasn't changed 1 million tyres. my mate sold his old china special changer for not much more than he paid for it new as the price of the new items had gone up over the years.

maybe its worth contacting the sellers of the relisted machines to see if they would take a realistic offer. but then ebay is full of dreamers. So maybe they are just waiting for their idiot to arrive.

I also agree that bidders get carried away, I needed to buy a book that was £15 new on amazon, I saw a used copy with some writing inside listed on ebay with a 99p no reserve so thought I would watch it, it sold for something like £28 + postage. I just bought the brand new copy instead.

 

[rtcosic]

When clearing a friend's workshop and listing all the items at the same time with the same end day, I have listed an item at a deliberately inflated price as a placeholder whilst I investigated its true value. Then go back and edit the price.

 

[angellonewolf]

most of what i every look at goes silly what ever i sell goes for squat

 

[slim_boy_fat]

most of what i every look at goes silly what ever i sell goes for squat

Simply the Law of Sod in operation.

 

[ukracer]

most of what i every look at goes silly what ever i sell goes for squat

Snap...lol

 

[robwizard]

See it all the time. I think perhaps when people are selling something and they are unsure of its potential value they consult ebay and see the buy-it-now item prices and assume that's the going rate and so place a similar price on it? It's odd when you see the same item getting listed over and over at the same (or often an inflated..) price and it never sells..

 

[GW8IZR]

most of what i every look at goes silly what ever i sell goes for squat

yes I agree, I never bother selling anything for exactly that reason.. can't be bothered listing something to be offered a pittance.