A4000T on Ebay for $$$? Crazy?

[quarkx]

Jon, I only wish I was on your level. I have my small one-bedroom Apartment filled with Amiga/Commodore gear. My "living room" looks like a Commodore warehouse, that I cant even walk in there anymore. I really need a shop..

Hehe my dear seller buddy...if I throw you in my storage, lock the door, and don't let you out for 2 days you'll scream "LET ME OOOUUUUT!"

Really, a lot of people definitely underestimate how much work and stress it is. Only the passion for the Amiga makes it possible to do that kind of job. I have currently less than 5% of my stock listed...no time. I'm completely alone in doing this. So trust me...it's maybe better that way like you are dong it...at least for your health

oh, believe me, I know what kind of stress you must face and the fact of feeling alone. The fact that I am here in Canada, where the Amiga was less known, and even less popular, really has me questioning my self sometimes. The question "am I just a crazy old horder" goes through my head all the time.
but I wouldn't do it if I didn't love it.'

 

[MZ3540]

I do the Buy it now/best bid as a rule of thumb i will occasionaly "bid" but i dont do what others do and just sit there wating for the last few mins to bid.. Il just stick in my maximum im willing to pay and leave it. No point in me sitting there wating for the last second lol. My maximum is my maximum, and it seems to me if you sit there wating till the last few mins to start bidding all that is going to do is coax you in to going over your maximum to win the item because you have been sat there all day watching a stupid timer.

Use a sniping program... I use jbidwatcher. I simply input the auction number and my max bid then get on with my life... when I come back after the auction has ended I discover if I have bought the item or not.
If you bid your maximum early on in the auction you will probably find that other people will reassess what their max bid will be.

Anyway, back to the topic at hand. I looked the auction up as I was interested to find out if it was a Commodore or Amiga Tech. (it was an AT)
This is a good example of a bidding war, 3 people were obviously interested in the computer offered. It looks like a very good (and somewhat maxed out) computer and the seller was fairly honest in the description (but could have included more/better photos).

Not going to comment on price because I don't really care (and the house rules). Also, the computer may re-appear next week with "relisted due to non paying scumbag" appended to the description.

But I will comment on auction houses that sell classic cars as that's something I have mixed feelings about.
I was always interested in muscle cars (an intangible prize is offered to anyone who knows what my avatar is a photo of ) and in recent years have noticed in that community people claim "I just simply can't afford not to sell this car" and then the vehicle leaves the owner and is purchased by a "collector", someone who will never drive, has no emotional connection and knows very little about their cars except that someone else told him it's "cool".

On the other hand, the insane prices achieved at auction has brought out some of the really rare cars that otherwise would never be offered for sale and the increased sale price has also increased the usual restoration budget saving a lot of rare and historically important vehicles from the crusher. And it is very important for the community to know that these machines still exist - the polar opposite is the crushing blow when yet another classic is destroyed in the action of some worthless hollywood movie.

 

[Justin]

tough to tell from the Tiny picture (looks like a straight 6 with side draughts running some cheery red hot manifolds) some as your in Oz and like muscle cars i'd have to guess at some Holden V8.


back on topic, an item is worth what someone is willing to pay.

if someone knocks on my door tonight and says "i must buy your BMW2002 turbo, for 8 million pounds" i'm not going to turn it down because he's willing to pay too much am i?

 

[ShambleS1980]

Use a sniping program... I use jbidwatcher. I simply input the auction number and my max bid then get on with my life... when I come back after the auction has ended I discover if I have bought the item or not.
If you bid your maximum early on in the auction you will probably find that other people will reassess what their max bid will be.

if my max bid is the same as yours mine counts because (superseeds yours as it was 1st) mine will start off at 0.99 then as people bid they get told they have been out bid and it goes up.
But like i said if your program bids your max bid at the last second, given mine was posted 1st mine is the 1 counted..
so aslong as your not willing to pay more than me i will win. and if you are willing to pay more than me then it is yours lol.. "hence auction"
this wating for last second thing is pretty futile unless your sitting there and can change your max bid if your 1st maximum was not enough.
But doing that only encourages peopl topay more than they wanted too. so again it defeats the purpous If your purpous was to get it for the least ammount possible lol. which again seems to say that bidding the max biod as soon as you can is the better option as you can then win the item for your max bid or less, provided some 1 was not willing to pay more than you.

if someone knocks on my door tonight and says "i must buy your BMW2002 turbo, for 8 million pounds" i'm not going to turn it down because he's willing to pay too much am i?

I may be crazy. but i would tell them actually i will accept "slightly more than the lowest value i would accept for the car"

Im strange like that lol. and i have done similar in the past. some thing to do with treating others as i would like to be treated i think. (only started thinking like that in my early to mid 20's out of no where lol)

 

[AndyLandy]

I do the Buy it now/best bid as a rule of thumb i will occasionaly "bid" but i dont do what others do and just sit there wating for the last few mins to bid.. Il just stick in my maximum im willing to pay and leave it. No point in me sitting there wating for the last second lol. My maximum is my maximum, and it seems to me if you sit there wating till the last few mins to start bidding all that is going to do is coax you in to going over your maximum to win the item because you have been sat there all day watching a stupid timer.

Use a sniping program... I use jbidwatcher. I simply input the auction number and my max bid then get on with my life... when I come back after the auction has ended I discover if I have bought the item or not.
If you bid your maximum early on in the auction you will probably find that other people will reassess what their max bid will be.

Yes, this is a fundamental problem with eBay. If you've decided what the item is worth to you and you bid early on, you'll likely get lowballers progressively bidding a bit higher. You've tipped your hand and some folks will use that as a judgement of value for the item. This is where the problem comes in. You've decided the item is worth, say £200 and you've bid that much with 5 days left to go. Someone else who wants one but doesn't really know the value of the item might bid up in £10 increments until he beats you at £210. Add another couple of people using this 'strategy' and the price will escalate.

The only way to play eBay is to bid your fair valuation at the very last moment. Sometimes the auction might already be higher than that, so just walk away. Maybe someone else will outbid you in those last seconds, just walk away, or, if you're lucky, you might win.

And as a final weird habit of mine, I never bid a round number. I'll bid something arbitrary like £213.46 for something that I've valued at a little over £200. Not sure why or if it's a good idea, but I do it anyway.

 

[MZ3540]

if my max bid is the same as yours mine count because mine will start off at 0.99 then aspeople bid it goes up. But given mine was posted 1st mine is the 1 counted..

Rarely an issue. Most ebayers seem to ignore the fact that as the price increases the bid increments change and instead of bidding $10 they bid $10.21... the chance of what you describe actually happening is surprisingly small. (edit, while i was typing this andy also posted something similar)

@Juv,
why would you say v8 when you obviously noticed its a straight 6? and no, it's not a holden.

 

[Justin]

if my max bid is the same as yours mine count because mine will start off at 0.99 then aspeople bid it goes up. But given mine was posted 1st mine is the 1 counted..

Rarely an issue. Most ebayers seem to ignore the fact that as the price increases the bid increments change and instead of bidding $10 they bid $10.21... the chance of what you describe actually happening is surprisingly small. (edit, while i was typing this andy also posted something similar)

@Juv,
why would you say v8 when you obviously noticed its a straight 6? and no, it's not a holden.

as i said the picture is too small, fuzzy and dark to see clearly, i thought it looked like a 6cyl but couldn't be sure, ummm maybe a nissan motor?

 

[Merlin]

(an intangible prize is offered to anyone who knows what my avatar is a photo of )

I asked Captain Obvious about this and he told me "It's a photo of an engine, dummy!", so I am going with his hunch.

 

[MZ3540]

as i said the picture is too small, fuzzy and dark to see clearly, i thought it looked like a 6cyl but couldn't be sure, ummm maybe a nissan motor?

Alright, bigger picture... still grainy (it's a marketing promo shot from many years ago)

Oh yeah, I don't really expect anyone to guess what it is, it's Australian manufactured and not really known elsewhere (except New Zealand and maybe South Africa).

 

[Jon Hare]

That's what I call OT evolution

 

[Justin]

That's what I call OT evolution

yeah sorry about that, couldn't resist the question

Chrysler hemi 6?

 

[MZ3540]

Chrysler hemi 6?

Very good work! your intangible prize is my respect and admiration

(unless you simply checked the metadata in which case I take it all back :ROTFLOL2

 

[Justin]

Chrysler hemi 6?

Very good work! your intangible prize is my respect and admiration

(unless you simply checked the metadata in which case I take it all back :ROTFLOL2

honestly i didn't check, so i'll take that most worthy prize

 

[MZ3540]

Ok then, non-existing prize awarded.

And while I'm at it I'll give myself a congratulatory pat on the back for dragging another thread into off topic hell.

 

[martona]

Wow what a flurry of discussion on account of a somewhat benign post...

First of all sorry for breaking forum rules and posting the exact price and the ebay item number.

Second, I can probably reveal now that I was the guy who ended up winning the auction and I just wanted to get a sense if I overpaid or not. Yes, it was one of those last-minute bidding wars that almost doubled my original budget. But I have been scouring the Earth for a genuine 4000T in good condition and I could not really turn up anything worthwhile. And since they aren't making them anymore, I figure they will get more valuable as time passes.

Those of you who figured out which auction it was (or saw the details before they were edited out) feel free to PM me just exactly how much of an idiot I am.

 

[LjL]

Is that the one where it's not even guaranteed that the machine is working?

 

[martona]

Nope It's the one that used to say "ultimate a4000t loaded" - but since the auction is over a search won't reveal it anymore.

 

[HyperD]

Have fun with this
And care it well!