I am constantly seeing people sell computers and related things for outrageous prices, which either make me ROFL or cry. This leads me to my question, how do you price your sales? I mean I thought the sane way was to base it off the cheapest price you can find it for new or refurb'd, and take in the account that its used and the length of use.

Again I'm going to use this guy on CL as an example:

http://raleigh.craigslist.org/sys/862610865.html

me: What would you want for each individually?

"case $150, mobo $50, cpu $50 Cpu and mobo are unopened and new."

me: $150 for JUST the case?

"yes, its aluminum, w/ plastic covers."

10/2/2008 2:31:50 PM

i look for suckers.


i hear there's one born every second.

10/2/2008 2:33:20 PM

lolz....well yeah i can see that. a lady back home needed windows reinstalled, and she gave me $20 and 2 hard drives. one of them ended up being a 160gb diamondstar.

but lets say, for not the "suckers"

10/2/2008 2:37:51 PM

Quote :

"she gave me $20 and 2 hard drives. one of them ended up being a 160gb diamondstar."

wait are you trying to say she was a sucker?

10/2/2008 2:39:29 PM

wait, are you implying i'm a sucker?

or a bad person.

10/2/2008 2:42:54 PM

well if somebody gives them that much then they are not being dumb

also leave some negotiation room too

10/2/2008 3:04:52 PM

wait whos not dumb? ahhhhh im dumb

10/2/2008 3:30:46 PM

You need to try to determine market value. For a market like craigslist, this means that you just have to wait on the sucker who will think he's at least getting a better bargain that what he'll get from the best buy. For the market of TWW... well... think pocket change. An item is worth only what people will pay. What people will pay is strictly a function of your available audience. Thus, set your prices according to the market, not do your own perceived value.

BTW, that was a fair price for the case. The fact that it's an Alienware case gives it a rarity that justifies the value. I wouldn't pay $150 for it, but I'm also not the kind of person who would shell out stupid amounts of cash for designer clothes and anything else who's only selling point is a brand name.

10/2/2008 3:32:16 PM

i sold a 2.5" 80gb IDE hard drive to a woman once

at the time, i was asking $75 and that wasn't a bad deal...not spectacular, but it was new and she said she needed it immediately

she asked if i would drop it off (she was about 10 minutes away from where i lived) and i told her no...she asked if i'd do it for an extra $25...i said yes

when i got there, she gave me $140 in 20's...i told her she had given me too much, and tried to give her the $40 back, but she said she didn't care, she just really need the hard drive and she appreciated me driving to her

she then tells me about how she's on welfare and her no-good husband left and her laptop's broken and her kids are "little shits"...i was all like

then i left...definitely one of the weirdest craigslist i've had, but i don't suppose it's super crazy or anything...but $140 for an 80gb hard drive (she could have gotten it new for about $100 after taxes) was pretty awesome

10/2/2008 3:37:29 PM

she wanted to give you more than the $140 bucks, b.

10/2/2008 4:24:19 PM

^ aha...she was this middle aged woman who was going through cigarettes like she knew she was going to die in the next 10 minutes...she looked ROUGH

10/2/2008 4:28:33 PM

search ebay completed listings, it's about as fair as it gets.

10/2/2008 4:30:37 PM

ebay and a place like tigerdirect or newegg for new stuff seem to be the norm for getting a feel for prices(for me to judge at least)

tdub if you just want to sell stuff to be gone in a hurry for no money

if you can wait to get $ put it on craigslist

10/2/2008 6:24:48 PM

what would you sell some old thinkpads for, like 390x, 390e, 600x, 600e?

10/3/2008 9:22:18 AM

how do you price the pc's what?

10/3/2008 10:09:14 AM

^???

10/3/2008 11:07:09 AM

hint: check out your use of the apostrophe in the thread title

10/3/2008 11:12:44 AM

ok ok...I should have just said "computers". I'm sure this hasn't been the worst of grammar mistakes that I've seen murdered on here.

10/3/2008 11:22:35 AM

Actually in his case since he did not capitalize "pc" an 's is acceptable to clarify the meaning, pcs could mean something totally different. If it were "PC" then "PCs" would be the accurate pluralization.

And as for the alienware case they are rare and harder to find in good condition hence the markup in price. Coming from someone who owns one... they are not worth it at any price you can realistically find. Buying them empty means you done get the wire management system or lighting system and all you're left with is a badly designed case. The hard drive bays require you to remove your vid card if you want to get them out (unless you have an older card that isn't as long as the current cards) and there is no removable mobo tray. Not to mention they are extremely heavy so don't plan on taking it anywhere. For the price you'd pay you could get a vastly superior case.

10/3/2008 11:29:08 AM

^

1. That is what I thought about correct use of PCs/pc's. (but anyways...)

2. Didn't really think about factoring the "rarity" of the Aurora case. I know I wanted one in 2002/2003 when I was buying a new rig for my Freshman year at NCSU.

3. And yes my point exactly, for $150, I'll probably go and buy a brand new full tower gaming case with full LED lighting, and a roomy interior for easy upgrading. I hate having my hands looking like I got into a knife fight because I'm trying to fit my big hands in a little ass SFF/Mid-tower case...or a case that is constructed poorly of any size for that matter.

10/3/2008 11:44:20 AM

I sell shit for a fair price that will get it gone fast.

The hell with my phone ringing from tire kickers for days on end. Usually when I put something on craigslist it sells in >24 hours.

10/3/2008 2:15:27 PM

how much more than 24 hours?

10/3/2008 4:06:38 PM