Yeah, I know I’m mad late to the eBay party, but the design of the site just always turned me off. I’ve bought things via online auctions before, but only from uBid. My first eBay buying experience was just a month ago when I snagged that ridiculously cheap magazine subscription deal. And while that was a great bargain I still wasn’t a huge eBay fan.
That all changed after I got my new 802.11g WiFi gear. As I mentioned, I bought the new gear for a great price (after rebates) from CompUSA. The card and access point were only $50 before taxes and after the rebates. I figured I’d try selling my 2 year old 802.11b equipment on eBay. After a quick look at the bids on the same equipment I figured I could probably get about $50 for my old stuff.
Despite my mistakes in listing my merchandise (My auctions ended after 1 AM EST on a weekday instead of a weekend and/or evening), I made $57 on the sales! The router/access point sold for $38.50 and the PC Card sold for $18.50. So I ended up getting a free upgrade to 802.11g. (OK, after taxes it cost me $2)
It was great to turn what normally would have ended up collecting dust in my closet into cold, hard cash. And PayPal is like the greatest thing since sliced bread. So I’ve finally seen the light and have become an eBay fanatic. This weekend I went digging through my closets and attic to find other stuff to sell. As a shopper I love a good bargain, but selling is even more fun. It’s on now. First to go, my old Series 1 TiVo, my ancient Palm III, and various dusty computer parts.
you have a TiVo to sell? I’m currently shopping for one, though I won’t buy until a month from now.
The TiVo is a project… it has a dead hard drive and a dead modem. I’m hoping it has some value b/c the Series 1 machines are much more hackable than the Series 2 boxes.
We sold some of our stuff to eBay just so we could be prepared for the summer. Of course, we’ve bought more than our share from eBay too, but that’s another story. (At last count I know there were at least 2 computers up in that mix.)