Originally Posted by nick burns
Haha, if you want to judge an item's worth by how much it sells for on ebay, knock yourself out. I've seen a lot of junk sell there for waaay too much money.
Don't get me wrong, I've advised people to check out ebay to see how much an item might sell for there. But you'd be best doing that over a duration of time to get an average.
Thats exactly right. I totally agree with you. I also want to add that often when you see an item sell for some seemingly inflated price it usually IS inflated. Artifically inflated because of shill bidding. Its pretty easy to see when that is going on when you compare the hit counter on an item to the number of bids and price recieved. I'd say that 2 - 3% of eBAY auctions see shill bidding. I once set up a eBAY sale for a customer who he himself, unbenonst to me, bid on his own item to drive up the price. I found out about it with an hour to go in the auction during a phone conversation with the customer and cancelled the auction. Really ticked me off.
When it comes to items I know little about, but am learning, such as the aforementioned Sugino cranks... when I see a used set sell for, say, $85... do you think that is an accurate value or is it "ebAY inflation"? I'm asking seriously, not mocking here. I assume that at bicycle swap meet they may be had cheaper but the time, effort and cost of attending the swap meet probably counters any $ saved.
Eric