You're assuming of course that the item being sold is actually worth putting some effort into. I'm currently selling a couple items I've described exactly that way on Ebay. 2 of them are stems, a kalloy and an SR. The SR is new with loads of shopwear, the Kalloy is used, only very lightly marked to show the use, but a worn surface just like the SR. I COULD spend an hour or so shining them up, but after that, they would still be only (hopefully) $10 stems. The same goes for the NR rear derailler I have on Ebay. It need lots of work, but the difference between fixed up and as-is just isn't worth it. If it doesn't sell, I'll fix it up, but I've got lots of projects I'm working on and I'd rather spend my time on those. If they were parts I thought would sell for a significant amount more I would put the effort into getting them more presentable.
Oh, the ebay #s are NR derailleur 350168180708 Kalloy stem 350167850049 SR stem 350167850038
There's a few other on topic items, and more on the way as well.
Steve Birmingham Lowell, Massachusetts USA
From: classicrendezvous-bounces@bikelist.org [mailto:classicrendezvous-bounces@bikelist.org] On Behalf Of Greg Thies Sent: Wednesday, February 18, 2009 2:06 PM To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org Subject: Re: [CR] Selling Woes... eBay vs. CR List...it's all the same
Regarding item 2 in Dale's list of musts, I am amazed at the number of sellers who say things like "needs to be cleaned" or "should polish up nicely" It's worth the extra effort to present an item in its best light, even if that means applying lots of elbow grease, unless you're selling the dirty underwear off your bathroom floor (didn't check ebay for this but it's probably been listed). There's nothing quite like a set of polished Campy high flange hubs sitting on a royal blue velvet background to increase the eye candy factor!
Greg Thies
Vienna, Virginia