Crazy people paying crazy prices!

**Rafael Garcia** · 9-Sep-2006, 19:43

He he, my first time on eBay, several years ago, I did not bother reading the rules and put bids on several of the same thing (a "vintage"Apple printer for my souped-up [33 Mhz!] Color Classic). I thought that was the way it was done, and ended winning three of the darned things! They are dot-matrix and heavy as can be - the shipping/handling killed me!

...but we digress from LF photography...

**JeffBishop** · 11-Sep-2006, 08:06

I think that there is a "Bid Mentality." People want to win the bid and lose sight of how much they are paying. I've sold old TLR's that I expected to get maybe $30. each out of going for over $60. each. (One was my Ciroflex, also up for bid at the same time selling for $5.00.

**Michael Daily** · 11-Sep-2006, 16:22

P. T. Barnum: "There is a sucker born every minute, and that is enough to make a pretty good living on".

Michael

**Rafael Garcia** · 11-Sep-2006, 19:42

Originally Posted by JeffBishop

I think that there is a "Bid Mentality." People want to win the bid and lose sight of how much they are paying. I've sold old TLR's that I expected to get maybe $30. each out of going for over $60. each. (One was my Ciroflex, also up for bid at the same time selling for $5.00.

I've probably bought a few $30.00 TLRs! Maybe some from you... Mostly Rolleicords (the last one was an Art Deco, with case, in excellent shape from a fellow in Australia- paid more than $30 for that one, but less than $100.00), and a few others, like a Mamiya C220 system, a Yashica 635, Meopta Flexaret (the grey one), Graphlex TLR, Ciro-Flex and five or six Voigtlander Brillant. The best deals are the Rolleis - no matter how old, and I have everything from the Art Deco to the Vb, the lenses are so darned sharp they put all the others to shame! The little metal Brillants aren't half bad for what is essentially a twin lens box camera. My policy on those was not to pay more than $15.00...

**walter23** · 17-Oct-2006, 10:17

Ebay is a great tool for the seller. It can sometimes pay off for the buyer if you want something nobody else does, or if you can exercise restraint during that heart pounding last 30 seconds when bid snipers jump out of the bushes. It's all too easy to say "Ahh, what's $90 more" during that last period of time, because you've got your head set on the thing you're bidding on.

I usually just decide what my maximum bid is and enter it right away, or "snipe" with my maximum bid (to try to avoid artificially inflating prices by bidding early). The sniping strategy only works if you've got someone who has a maximum in mind (or doesn't!) but bids lower at first, hoping to snag a better deal. Otherwise sniping is totally pointless and a good way for you to pay more than you intended.

In either case, I've already decided what my max is and if some fool wants to pay twice that he's welcome to - there'll be other auctions

**walter23** · 17-Oct-2006, 10:33

Yeah, and you could sell at least 20 or 30 of them at $350 a piece before demand was totally satiated

Originally Posted by alec4444

If I owned Fidelity, I'd *HIGHLY* consider getting back into the 11x14 market. Their filmholders come off an assembly line, right? I mean, nobody is hand building plastic holders, are they? How much could it cost them to make one?

--A