[NJARC] Club selling High Value items on Ebay

Wed Feb 25 10:22:56 EST 2009

Ya know, I'm getting tired of this whole thread. It seems the club is getting greedy, that they "Must" squeeze every last cent out of any donation. As to me- I really do not care if we do or not. If we sell stuff at auction to members, what they do with it is their business. If it is felt they abuse the concept by overselling stuff on e-bay, then perhaps the ones who buy the most but retain the least for themselves should then be limited to what they may bid on, or how much they can buy to resell. 

The whole idea of the members auctions is to get our members deals on stuff we might want. There is enough stuff at our auctions, and more comes in from estates, or is in storage, that it really is a dumb point to be crying "Foul!" over e-bay auctions. At every auction stuff drops from bidding because nobody bid it, or it gets into the realm of nobody opens till it is down to one dollar. That is just fine with me- I don't have lots to spend, and sometimes what I want is in that group of unwanted items, so I can bid it. And If I win, I get what I wanted affordably, and have a bunch of excess stuff nobody wanted in the first place. What do I do with that excess stuff I didn't want in the first place? I only wanted one item out of the pile- do I cherish like rare jewels the other stuff which is useless to me? Do I abandon it after mining out what I want, leaving it for the club to dispense with? No I take it all home, and make space for it, and am then
 stuck with excess. I take some stuff to the occasional swap meet- and usually bring it all home. E-bay gives me the venue,  when I need funding revitalization, or want to clear out the crap, to do so, with an almost guaranteed sale, for something almost making it worth my effort in the first place. I don't e-bay as often as I once did, several years ago. It is tedious, time consuming, and a pain in the neck, and I really do not care to remember what I made, spent, etc, for figuring what taxes I may owe on it. Also the packing, shipping, etc is annoying, and costs in supplies, time, etc. So I usually keep my sales below $1K annually(And that includes stuff I may have had for years, or militaria I no longer need, or pretty much anything up to old car or airplane parts!). But if I need the money or the space, I will do so. And I usually sell at a loss, as I usually do not get back what I have in it anyway, but I don't generally care, as long as something
 comes in. Something of value only has the value which you can get for it in the venue in which it is sold. Any value which you may assume it to have DOES NOT EXIST if no one is willing to buy it for that price!(i.e.- if you outprice items at our auctions cause you think you might get more on e-bay, you may find you are mistaken!)

If the club wishes to sell everything, or anything on e-bay, fine. I won't be bidding there, as I can't even beat our members on a bid most of the time in person, so I'd really be screwed out of the deal trying to fight other e-bayers who might be interested. If this is the plan, then you may as well scrap ALL member auctions, and just make NJARC an e-bay store. And I would not be enticed even with the 20% member discount. Sounds great, until you think what it would have cost at a regular meeting auction before the club got greedy, and us cheap/not that wealthy members had a shot at the stuff. 

If you're planning to put the club auctions on e-bay, I suggest you bring it to a vote of the membership first. I know which way I would vote. I could better use my money to save up for flight time, rather than wasting it for stuff I don't really need- but I figured buying at our little auctions actually supported the club, and that any support was better than none. Guess if you want to be greedy you can just make do with my $20 a year dues, and be happy.

Get real- and quit worrying about what the others do who buy and then e-bay. Place limits on resalable items or something, but stop all this greediness!

Scott

--- On Wed, 2/25/09, John Dilks K2TQN <oldradio at worldnet.att.net> wrote:

> From: John Dilks K2TQN <oldradio at worldnet.att.net>
> Subject: [NJARC] Club selling High Value items on Ebay
> To: "Thomas Lee" <thomas_v_lee at hotmail.com>, "John R" <jr6v6gt at yahoo.com>, "Al K" <al at ar88.net>
> Cc: "NJARC" <njarc at mailman.qth.net>
> Date: Wednesday, February 25, 2009, 4:28 AM
> Just remember 
> Reply = Poster
> Reply All = Everyone
> 
> _________________________________________________________
> 
> There is a way for the club to sell high value items on
> ebay and 
> still accommodate members, here's the idea which can be
> adjusted to 
> suit by the board....
> 
> Put up the item on Ebay as normally, then if a club member
> wins, they 
> notify the club contact.  Instead of paying full price with
> PayPal 
> they arrange to pay at the next meeting and receive a %
> discount, say 
> 20%, and then pick up the item at the same meeting saving 
> shipping.  This way the club maximize$ the item and if a
> club member 
> wins it, they get it cheaper.
> 
> Members without computers could use a surrogate to bid for 
> them.  (But today almost everybody has a computer,
> don't they?)
> 
> 20% cheaper sounds fair to me, and should keep Ebay
> flippers at bay.
> 
> 73, John Dilks
> 
> 
> At 12:40 AM 2/25/2009, Thomas Lee wrote:
> 
> >Hi John, All,
> >
> >perhaps a fair compromise would be to offer the
> "choice" items to 
> >members first at a fair market value or a sight below
> member 
> >discount?  If it doesn't go, then ebay?
> >Tom
> 
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