ebay is weird

[stephenjubb]

dawes super galaxy 2008 600 pound not sold, no bids, yet people were happily over the last 2 weeks bidding 270 for a galaxy 20 years old and 370 for a 92 galaxy.

this seemed a good deal

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... NA:GB:1123

anybody think has to why it has not been sold?

is it because you can buy one new at 1014?

at

http://www.freeflowbikes.com/dawes-supe ... 4641-p.asp

[MikeMarsUK]

Well the £50 charge for collecting it in person, with no postage option offered, rings alarm bells for buyers. It's not really the right time of year to be selling a bike, either.

[stephenjubb]

ah you mistaken? it says

>>Collection is preferred but I could arrange to send it for £50

is there something I missed?

[MikeMarsUK]

If you look at the P&P + payments tab you see the following:

Postage and packaging To Service Estimated delivery*
£50.00 United Kingdom Collect in person Collect in person
You can contact your seller to arrange to pay for and pick up your item.


So from the viewpoint of eBay's database the 'collect in person' cost is £50 with no option to courier it. The effect of this is to add a 'Pickup only: £50' onto the browse page if you're looking at a list of search results. If you actually browse the bikes for sale page, you'll see that the vast majority of them are either free to collect, free to post (i.e., they're subsidising the postage from the bid), or between £15-25 to post. £50 for collection stands out like a sore thumb.

Even if it had been set up with £50 as the courier price I think that is grossly excessive, and (as a buyer) I steer clear of people manipulating the listing fees in that way (it's against the rules of eBay since it allows them to pad the price without being charged for it). Note that about 2/3 of the way down the 'fee circumvention' rules you'll see 'Charge excessive postage and packaging'.


The odds are that this was actually due to someone not knowing how to set up the postage options correctly, rather than actual intent, but to someone who uses eBay a lot that sort of thing 'smells bad'.

[hubgearfreak]

i'm guessing that the earlier ones are lugged, made in england and have low-tech, but reliable friction shifters.
the newer one doesn't have any of these points, so for me is worth certainly no more than the other two, maybe even less. in any event, certainly not double.

[Gearoidmuar]

The rear dropouts.

Often in a perfect old frame these can crack. It often costs more than the frame is worth to replace them.

I recently had one go in y 13 yrs old Galaxy. I've had one go on at least 3 previous bikes as well.

[s1965c]

It's also missing it's mudguards front and rear.

[resus1uk]

The last trike I bought was described on Ebay as a "three wheeled bicycle"

[pq]

Putting a high starting price on puts bidders off. Put it up for a penny and you instigate a bidding frenzy which usually gets competitive, resulting in a much higher price.

[reohn2]

Putting a high starting price on puts bidders off. Put it up for a penny and you instigate a bidding frenzy which usually gets competitive, resulting in a much higher price.

I'm with pq,the start price is too high,its a bit someone giving you whole cow to eat (if you like cow that is,personally I don't but you get the drift)rather than one steak at a time

[glueman]

I agree. Putting the maximum price you are likely to achieve as an opening bid is pretty dumb. If you want 'buy now' kind of value eBay is not the place to sell a secondhand bike.

[Gearoidmuar]

You should have no buy it now price and start with a lowish price. You will get a higher price in the end as you'll start a bidding war. I recently sold a camera and lens on Ebay for which I expected to get maybe 300 euro. I started with 100 Euro. I got 455. I've always used this principle. Ebay is full of idiots who post huge Buy it Now prices. They never sell.

[eileithyia]

I had one of the first Super Galaxies from 1979, I much preferred it's looks and set up over the newer ones, which looked heavy and lumpy. Quite apart from that it was home built. I would think an older one would have collector value.

Sadly it's rear wheel met the front bumper of a car on a roundabout in Coventry....!

Phil has just been selling a fair amount of stuff on ebay and it is amazing what people will pay for, hubs that have gone for far more than a complete set of wheels, he would have been better to have taken the hubs out of the wheels and sold just them. Spokes that have gone for a small fortune.
It is very easy to get caught up in a bidding frenzy if you not careful.

[iandriver]

I don't think it helps when the top description box says Frame Material: Carbon fibre

Things like this and mudguards missing always ring alarm bells. Be very careful how you describe something. It makes it look like the seller was born up a tree.

[MikeMarsUK]

Here's an example of a super galaxy which has been listed with a lot more care - starting bid lower, much clearer photographs, mudguards are still there, and no dumb mistakes in the listing. It'll be interesting to see how high the bidding goes compared to the first example in this thread.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Dawes-Super-Galax ... 2eaa82cdf9