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Ebay vs Craigslist - A8 Acquisition


YSG2020

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Any thoughts, strategy or advice on buying used A8 equipment? What do you prefer? It’s obviously getting rare and harder to find. I personally shy away from EBay  as it’s hard to get a good deal there unless you can convince a seller to sell direct without an auction driving the price up.  I find Ebayers purposely capitalistic. Craigslist, Estate sales, and garage sales on the other hand have always been gold for me as you can find the uneducated  and uninterested sellers who just want to part with their ‘junk’ for a few bucks to clean up their house. I personally have found anything on EBay can be bought elsewhere for 1/5th the price if you know where to look and are persistent. 

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You’d be surprised.  I live in a rural area and there are A8s stashed in attics and crawl spaces everywhere just waiting to be sold by someone’s relatives. 
Another source is Brad at Best Electronics who has warehouses of cheap brand new oem nib A8 parts. The only problem being he’s like crossing The Bridge of Death in Monty Python and the Holy Grail... Wrong Answer! Zap! Banished. Lol.  
I’ve heard from the source that B&C is liquidating and downsizing. Wish I lived in California.. I’d go visit Bruce and help him clear out some of his stock and lighten his load. ;)

Edited by YSG2020
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2 minutes ago, jamm said:

And Best Electronics has been good for some parts, but he doesn't sell whole computers.  And don't tell him many of the things he sells new are routinely selling for twice as much on eBay...

The problem being (and he knows it) that actual items he sold for a fair price are then turned around and listed on eBay for profit the next day. 

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55 minutes ago, Voxel said:

I've got to agree about the high prices on ebay, however if you are patient bargains can be had but they seem to get fewer as time goes along.

They do seem to be collected and hoarded now for sure as they age and the original owners are no longer in possession.  I suspect in the near future the way to get A8 stuff will be in huge lot hoarded collector estate sales where their relatives just don’t want or know what to do with these collections. :( Frankly, unless our kids understand and take an interest in this stuff, there’s an awful lot destined for landfills. It would be like us collecting old typewriters or tube radios. Pretty rare. An unopened and unmolested A8 of any model is like gold though now... Buy it on the spot if the price is reasonable. 

Edited by YSG2020
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6 hours ago, YSG2020 said:

I find Ebayers purposely capitalistic

Well, yes. We're not providing a charity there. I occasionally sell on eBay and while I don't gouge people, I do expect to get the current fair market price for any item I have for sale.

 

36 minutes ago, gilsaluki said:

When I pass to the big beyond; the very day after there will be a huge sale of ALL my "junk" as she calls it.  XLs for $3.00.  Carts, just taken 'em!  She hate all my stuff.

My girlfriend partakes in my hobby to an extent. And she has instructions to contact another member of AA who lives near me, in the event of my untimely demise, to hopefully help with ensuring my collection doesn't end up in a landfill.

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6 hours ago, YSG2020 said:

The problem being (and he knows it) that actual items he sold for a fair price are then turned around and listed on eBay for profit the next day. 

Depending on the item, the profit may not be all the big once eBay and PayPal take their cuts.

 

Thankfully the sources for parts are still out there despite that this does happen to them.  One day they could up and jack their prices, which would suck for the rest of us.

 

 

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6 hours ago, YSG2020 said:

Any thoughts, strategy or advice on buying used A8 equipment? What do you prefer? It’s obviously getting rare and harder to find. I personally shy away from EBay  as it’s hard to get a good deal there unless you can convince a seller to sell direct without an auction driving the price up.  I find Ebayers purposely capitalistic. Craigslist, Estate sales, and garage sales on the other hand have always been gold for me as you can find the uneducated  and uninterested sellers who just want to part with their ‘junk’ for a few bucks to clean up their house. I personally have found anything on EBay can be bought elsewhere for 1/5th the price if you know where to look and are persistent. 

Beyond craigslist and other local sourcing, eBay has the most available 'inventory'. 

 

Most of the time systems there are beyond what I would pay.  But I have gotten a few from there.... sometimes things aren't listed well, or they are known not working, etc.... 

 

I did get my 600XL, 1200XL and an couple of 800s from eBay (though the 800s I purchased several years ago).  I got a pretty good deal on both.... I probably bought them for some of the lowest prices for those off of eBay.  The 600XL turned out to have a bad ROM and bad RAM, the 1200XL had a bad keyboard (what 1200XL doesn't these days).  I also purchased a XEGS pretty cheap, that needed a CPU.

 

You can still find decent deals for Atari stuff on Ebay, but you have to be patient and get lucky.  Wish I had bought more stuff from the 8 bit generation on eBay years ago when it was cheap.... instead I was purchasing silly PC parts :-).

 

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