cf-banner.jpg
Previous Thread
Next Thread
Print Thread
ebay ebiz #75866 07/14/99 12:41 AM
Joined: Dec 1969
Posts: 13,047
Webmaster Offline OP
Saint
OP Offline
Saint
Joined: Dec 1969
Posts: 13,047
I know several of you follow Harbour Lights on ebay -- and perhaps some of the other auction sites on the internet.

Is there anyone following it so closely that they could provide a regular input on how things are moving or not moving on the auction sites and keep a new Forum here going on the subject?

We need to quantify what we see - pieces that got no bids, opening prices, reserve prices, sold prices, number of bids, etc.

I see this not so much as a 'gee-whiz, see what sold on ebay' as a commentary on the developing trend (if there is one). "10 Rose Island Reunion pieces have been offered on ebay since January 1. Those with opening bids over $XXX did not sell while the six that sold did so for $YYY, $ZZZ, $AAA and $BBB. Rather than overwhelming us with figures, focus a thread on a particular piece and track the offerings over some period of time.

If you like the idea, say so. If you don't think it's worth much, say that too. And if you've already got some figures you've been keeping track of and would like to tackle the job let's give it a try here in the "By The Numbers" Forum. Success could lead to Cruise Director status.

Thanks.

Re: ebay ebiz #75867 07/14/99 12:09 PM
Joined: Feb 1999
Posts: 280
O
orv Offline
Member
Offline
Member
O
Joined: Feb 1999
Posts: 280
John, I keep a pretty close track of certain pieces, but only the bottom line of did it sell and for how much, I have a pretty fair "average" of what certain pieces have sold for the the last 4 to 5 months, although I don't have exact figures of how many pieces the average represents. Of course it would be a daunting challenge to track everything as in "pieces that got no bids, opening prices, reserve prices, sold prices, number of bids, etc" on every piece that is listed. Average daily listing is 125 to 200 pieces. I would certainly be willing to help with this as I check ebay 2 to 3 times a day. I would be willing to keep exact track on say 15 to 25 pieces. If someone worked up a form where all reporting would be uniform and 4 or 5 of us worked at it, taking different pieces I think this would give us some excellent figures. Sounds like fun to me. I'd be glad to help


ORV
Re: ebay ebiz #75868 07/14/99 01:41 PM
Joined: Dec 1969
Posts: 12,331
Bob M Offline
Saint
Offline
Saint
Joined: Dec 1969
Posts: 12,331
Hi John, ... I check eBay several times a day to check out what the HLs are selling for. Sometimes I'm amazed at how little a piece might sell for and how much another brings. Sometimes the same two HLs will bring drastically different bids. Most of that is caused by the basic minimum bid pricing and reserve price.

The pieces that get the most bids and usually the highest bids are those that have a minimum bid well below the retail price and no reserve price. They often surpass the bids on an item that has a high minimum bid with a reserve.

I'm not that familiar with other online auctions other than eBay. Perhaps a thread covering "Online HL Auctions" might provide insight for many of our forum members who are not familiar with this method of buying and selling HLs.

Add it to the forum!

Bob

Re: ebay ebiz #75869 07/14/99 02:19 PM
Joined: Dec 1969
Posts: 6,801
rscroope Offline
Saint
Offline
Saint
Joined: Dec 1969
Posts: 6,801
Looking at finished auctions has provided a great insight to a true current value of HL pieces.
I've always researched past performance of these auctions before 'taking the leap.'
A few months ago I was monitoring the Southern Belles which I expected to be unobtainable. I found some of them to be reasonable (by my standards), and others like Oracoke and Hilton Head to be almost ridiculous.
Another heavy in demand piece is Big Bay which always seems to have at least 10 bidders.
I'd be interested in knowing about other auctions.


LONG ISLAND BOB
Re: ebay ebiz #75870 07/14/99 03:13 PM
Joined: Dec 1969
Posts: 8,949
WackoPaul Offline
Saint
Offline
Saint
Joined: Dec 1969
Posts: 8,949
Thumbnails!!

Saint WackoPaul '
Keep the Flame


Onward to The Land of the Midnight Sun!
Re: ebay ebiz #75871 07/14/99 04:12 PM
Joined: Dec 1969
Posts: 1,155
R
Rod Watson Offline
Saint
Offline
Saint
R
Joined: Dec 1969
Posts: 1,155
Buttons are getting hot too. The original Admiralty Head '91 button just went for around $103 last week.

Like Paul stated, thumbnails are hot!

Canadian pieces with lightning rods are also very hot items when they show up, especially with original white or brown boxes.

I'd be curious to see what the recent Pt. Fermin tour button would go for.
Rod Watson
Re: ebay ebiz #75872 07/14/99 05:03 PM
Joined: Dec 1969
Posts: 140
A
AlanBeckman Offline
Member
Offline
Member
A
Joined: Dec 1969
Posts: 140
I try to keep track of current prices of pieces I don't have yet on the secondary exchanges and the secondary dealers. Some of the dealers are getting out of the market though. I do this to determine if an offering is a good deal or not. If it is, I might bid on it. I think it would be useful to track these sources also since I have found that sometimes a piece can be bought from a dealer or an exchange for less than or near what the Ebay price is. I have bought several pieces through Ebay and have never had any trouble, but if the price was the same, I think I would buy from a dealer or through an exchange.

I would be glad to keep track of some of the pieces and contribute my findings. Sign me up.

AB in Ala-Bam

Re: ebay ebiz #75873 07/14/99 09:41 PM
Joined: Mar 1999
Posts: 1,179
J
Joanne Offline
Member
Offline
Member
J
Joined: Mar 1999
Posts: 1,179
I usually spend at least an hour a day on ebay, half of which is on HL's. I've gotten about 15 HL's through ebay and there's a lot I take into consideration when bidding.

First, the shipping amount. Some sellers want $12.00 to ship a piece. If it's a current piece, I can buy it on the internet with no shipping or tax charges. The auction amount has to be at least $15.00 lower than the store price to make it worthwhile.

Second, if I can use a credit card, I am more apt to pay a higher price.

Third, I've learned the names of the sellers who use a high reserve price. I've learned to ignore those auctions because the price will be too high.

Re: ebay ebiz #75874 07/15/99 12:40 AM
Joined: Dec 1969
Posts: 340
F
FredKuhl Offline
Saint
Offline
Saint
F
Joined: Dec 1969
Posts: 340
Have been tracking about 30 pieces since last Christmas or thereabouts.

Those that consistantly sell for $200 and up.

Also track some of the event pieces, thumbnails, buttons, etc.

Plus whatever else struck my fancy. Went with Alcatraz and Pt. Areana for awhile then dropped it.

If we could arrive at some kind of a standard i might be able to help. KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid). No offense but for us not computer current we need all the help we cab get.

The Ancient Mariner

------------------
Here's what cut and paste got me, John.


[This message has been edited by FredKuhl (edited 07-14-99).]

Re: ebay ebiz #75875 07/15/99 01:43 AM
Joined: May 1999
Posts: 56
S
sCalBG Offline
Member
Offline
Member
S
Joined: May 1999
Posts: 56
I began entering as much of this info as I could manage into spreadsheet a week or two ago. This could be a full-time job for someone.

I'd be happy to report some sub-set of the data that I collect from time to time as I am able. My main purpose for collecting the data was to try to limit future bids and steer clear of the auction frenzy.

Bill


Bill
@ @
.<.
_U_
Re: ebay ebiz #75876 07/15/99 05:09 PM
Joined: Dec 1969
Posts: 72
K
Kevin Offline
Member
Offline
Member
K
Joined: Dec 1969
Posts: 72
Just throwing out some ideas here. A forum on secondary market prices, including eBay, would seem to require a moderator who could rely upon quite a few people to track the prices of, say, 5-10 pieces each. Ideally the group of price trackers would be checking the same sources. Maybe they would be expected to report monthly, or more often if something unusual was happening in the secondary market. Asking prices (for exchanges, marketplaces, dealers) and selling prices (for auctions) would seem to be the two critical pieces of information. The report could be for the low, average, and high asking and selling price on a piece in the last month. Each price tracker could report in at a different time of the month so the thread would be constantly "refreshed" with useful information. The posting could be for individual retired pieces or sets.

Re: ebay ebiz #75877 07/16/99 04:54 PM
Joined: Feb 1999
Posts: 280
O
orv Offline
Member
Offline
Member
O
Joined: Feb 1999
Posts: 280
Looks like we got at least 4 or 5 commitments to track, Some of you didn't say one way or the other if you would keep track and I know there are probably others that are keeping tabs on ebay prices. I think maybe a show of hands?,postings? or whatever would be good to see just how many people would definitely do this and how many would just like to see the results. I think (just my opinion) that we need to decide what we want the data to show and start working up a tracking form. Sound like we need Tim's input on this before we begin. There are some pieces on ebay that seem to never get a bid no matter how ridiculously cheap they are. There are others that always tend to go through the roof. I'd like to see this topic get going and have thought it would make a good topic for some time. I definitely volunteer to do my part.

[This message has been edited by orv (edited 07-16-99).]


ORV
Re: ebay ebiz #75878 07/18/99 11:45 PM
Joined: Dec 1969
Posts: 12,331
Bob M Offline
Saint
Offline
Saint
Joined: Dec 1969
Posts: 12,331
I just tried to check what HLs were being auctioned on eBay tonight, and eBay advised there were no matches to my inquiry. Could it be there are no HLs on eBay at this time? Something isn't right.

Bob

Re: ebay ebiz #75879 07/19/99 11:47 AM
Joined: Feb 1999
Posts: 280
O
orv Offline
Member
Offline
Member
O
Joined: Feb 1999
Posts: 280
It happens occasionally Bob, their search engine doesn't work right. It's amazing it doesn't blow up more often, one of the busiest sites on the web.


ORV
Re: ebay ebiz #75880 07/19/99 12:46 PM
Joined: Dec 1969
Posts: 12,331
Bob M Offline
Saint
Offline
Saint
Joined: Dec 1969
Posts: 12,331
I guess you're right. I was able to get into the HL section of eBay later last night. I thought it was odd that there would be no HLs listed.

Bob

Re: ebay ebiz #75881 07/19/99 06:28 PM
Joined: Dec 1969
Posts: 1,042
LamarB Offline
Member
Offline
Member
Joined: Dec 1969
Posts: 1,042
Since I first saw this post I've been experimenting with the query function on eBay looking for a way to at lease semi-automate St. John's suggestion. This is what I came up with:

Only the prior two weeks' data on completed auctions is available online. Therefore, data must be captured at least every two weeks. I can query eBay and capture the results as to item description, the highest bid, the number of bids and the auction closing date. At this time I cannot tell if an auction was successful or not (reserve price met or not) other than if no bids were made. I'm still working on that aspect.

I can 'filter' the item description to try to come up with a common format for sorting purposes.

I can save these data as an Excel spreadsheet, a text file, a CSV (comma separated variable) file or a dBase IV file. Maybe other formats, too if necessary.

Would anyone be interested in this file for analysis purposes?

------------------
Keepin' the flame


[This message has been edited by LamarB (edited 07-19-99).]

Re: ebay ebiz #75882 07/20/99 02:30 PM
Joined: Dec 1969
Posts: 13,047
Webmaster Offline OP
Saint
OP Offline
Saint
Joined: Dec 1969
Posts: 13,047
Looks like a good response so I added the Forum on "The Secondary Market". This broadens the content from just e-bay -- as I saw several suggestions to that effect.

It's open now so feel free to make some contributions.

The "Cruise Director" status on this forum is open. If you are a WACKO and if you'd like to handle the job of moderating this forum, please make a contribution or two to the new Forum and then let me know. After the Forum has been open for a couple of weeks, I'll select someone.

I've locked this thread and encourage additional posts in "The Secondary Market" thread.

John



[This message has been edited by JChidester (edited 07-20-99).]


Forum Statistics
Forums39
Topics16,978
Posts184,640
Members2,579
Most Online10,155
Jan 14th, 2020
Who's Online Now
0 registered members (), 1,040 guests, and 4 spiders.
Key: Admin, Global Mod, Mod
Newest Members
SafeHarbor, Toots, Bluffhill, phtate, TexLight2022
2579 Registered Users
Powered by UBB.threads™ PHP Forum Software 7.7.2