Ridiculous ebay post...Powerbook 5300 for $1000

I'm going to go ignorant on this one. Unless the midi interface adapter is scarce and expensive to begine with - I don't get why it's so expensive. Then again, there are folks still using Atari ST's for MIDI.

I know that with some of the machines I work with - the scientific gear is so absurdly expensive even at 10-15 years of age and will only work with certain older machines - that they prove to be this insanely expensive. (most recent was $2k for a beige g3 driving some kind of scsi based phosphor imager - and this was a bargain used).

I'm not sure what's so special about that interface... but midi hardware is inexpensive, though it is still overpriced... I think a 1in1out usb midi interface is ~$30-50 today. I once had a Altech MIDI interface for ADB, 2in2out (4 port) that I got for ~$30.

The reason the seller priced so high is because EVERYONE is paying too much for used/old Apple hardware. Its our fault, too... we are the ones driving up the prices on old, obsolete hardware... oh... it hurts.

I'll second that. I should be able to get a cheap G4 tower with far better specs from eBay than one is able to, but they're going to charge us what people will pay for them, in the end.

After all, as sad as it is, we know PowerPC is a dying architecture for us Macaholics. Cool little boxes or not, that reality should have far more of an effect than it does.

-- Macinjosh

You guys gotta look at his strategy. It's pretty smart. It's $995 buy-it-now or best offer. He probably knows that the buy-it-now price is way over the value, but what does he have to lose by pricing it that high besides the listing fee (what is the listing fee for that?). There's always the chance of some poor naive grabbing it at that price. But look how it's setup. There's no reserve price that declares minimum value, so the only way someone gets it is through buy-it-now or by making an offer he accepts. While people are making offers, that $995 is creating the image of a value, and people placing offers may fall into making too high an offer because of that image. It's the carrot before the horse. He ends up way better with an offer if someone goes high enough than he would with a simple auction. If he doesn't get the offer, he just puts it up again--no extra charge unless he sells it. Lots of time for someone to fall into the trap. If someone doesn't bite during those two durations, he puts it up again with a somewhat lower buy-it-now price, but still very high, maintaining an overpriced value illusion--that oasis mirage in the desert. It's a strategy of his own patience and working on the emotions and patience of potential buyers. It's the same thing as having a reserve price, but not being contractually bound to having to sell it at that reserve price. He is in complete control of the selling price throughout.

40mb of RAM, and a 500mb hard drive--that is pretty funny, though. He does have a couple of offers already, or is that you guys playing with him?

Not saying that I dont understand it from a sales tactic point of view, I would sure hope someone bought one of mine that way too!

But you have to realise youre losing credibility, and turning off those with genuine interest when you go that route. Then again, he's obviously targeting people other than those who know the values and the capabilities of the hardware in question.

-- MJ

I suppose... just makes me wonder, then, about Dell's strategy...

...that know what it's really worth -- the guy who owns it and wants to sell it and the guy with the money willing to buy it. It's worth whatever you're willing to pay, and he's willing to accept.

It might as well be priced at a million bucks...

...because many of us probably don't think it's worth anything to us.

tony b.