General Ebay advice on listing an item

[Maskot]

I'm not asking anyone to buy it, or look at it or anything, I just want an experienced opinion.  I have a late 2009 27" iMac, unfortunately, (intel Core 2 Duo @3.06GHz with 16GB of memory) replaced hard drive so no chance of a failure as such with this model, all the papers and hardware in the condition you'd expect from a 4 year old computer, nothing major.  I wanted to ask $750-$1000 or there about, but I don't know if I should just put a single price, if I should do an auction, what the starting price should be, or what I should expect.

[Kirihuna]

Do bidding, start at maybe $1000? Macs don't have a sharp depreciation value. What was the original price you paid for it?

[Titanicium]

I would say that you should start at 800 USD and then have an auction

[Tomtom565]

I would start up around $800, but offer a 'buy it now' option and allow people to place offers too

[Maskot]

Do bidding, start at maybe $1000? Macs don't have a sharp depreciation value. What was the original price you paid for it?

$1900 including the ram and replaced hard drive.

[JTP]

Keep in mind that with an item that big, heavy and fragile, shipping is going to cost a significant amount, and buyers will take that into account when deciding how much to bid/spend. Figure out your shipping options and costs before you list it. You could also try your local Craigslist/Kijiji and sell it locally, and resort to eBay if that doesn't generate any interest (or reasonable offers).

[ShadyHost]

Well it's a core 2 duo and the base imac with the fancy edge screen starts at $1300. 

 

If it is in flawless condition I would say up to $900 easily. Start at maybe $650-700 to get people interested?

[Stephie_Girl]

Does no one here know how to use eBay.

3 biggest turn offs on an auction are:

 

High starting price

Reserves

High shipping

 

Start it around 200-300, you have a better chance at getting 800-1000 as about 75% of the viewers will scroll past a mac that expensive starting bid with no bids.  I wrote an indepth eBay/Craigslist guide somewhere here awhile ago, look around for it.

[ultimatemythbuster]

Do bidding, start at maybe $1000? Macs don't have a sharp depreciation value. What was the original price you paid for it?

I'd set a reserve of about 700 and start it a a penny.

[ttam]

Start at 500 MIN to guarantee to be closer to the amount you want. Right now iMacs are selling for $7-800 on eBay if you're lucky so don't expect to much. You might have better luck doing it on a local classified site as eBay tends to go on the cheap side. I sell on average 15-25 systems including macs on eBay a week and they go very cheap, very little profit.

[Stephie_Girl]

I'd set a reserve of about 700 and start it a a penny.

Reserves turn away 7 out of 10 potential buyers from even clicking the ad, bad idea

Start at 500 MIN to guarantee to be closer to the amount you want. Right now iMacs are selling for $7-800 on eBay if you're lucky so don't expect to much. You might have better luck doing it on a local classified site as eBay tends to go on the cheap side. I sell on average 15-25 systems including macs on eBay a week and they go very cheap, very little profit.

Lower starting bids gets more traffic and generally nets higher totals in the end.  Just make sure you end it during prime time, 9pm EST Sunday.  I'd say start it max 300.

[DirkaFat]

Being a seller with no ratings also is a disadvantage when selling, right?

[helping]

I'm not asking anyone to buy it, or look at it or anything, I just want an experienced opinion.  I have a late 2009 27" iMac, unfortunately, (intel Core 2 Duo @3.06GHz with 16GB of memory) replaced hard drive so no chance of a failure as such with this model, all the papers and hardware in the condition you'd expect from a 4 year old computer, nothing major.  I wanted to ask $750-$1000 or there about, but I don't know if I should just put a single price, if I should do an auction, what the starting price should be, or what I should expect.

Is eBay your only option? Because eBay is open and people are more tech savy, you can usually estimate a price based on previous eBay sales. In addition shipping is a risk, costly, as is insurance and the new and crafty ways both eBay and people try to scam you and brutally shaft the seller.

 

Is local not an option at all? Often on CL you can find people that are too dull to care about specs and oblivious of what it's actually worth but will buy it because its a nice looking iMac.

Being a seller with no ratings also is a disadvantage when selling, right?

Personally I wouldn't buy anything that expensive from someone without enough positive history, but eBay might cover purchases like these under that clusterhump of a policy named BuyerProtect or whatever the f it's called.

[DirkaFat]

Is eBay your only option? Because eBay is open and people are more tech savy, you can usually estimate a price based on previous eBay sales. In addition shipping is a risk, costly, as is insurance and the new and crafty ways both eBay and people try to scam you and brutally shaft the seller.

 

Is local not an option at all? Often on CL you can find people that are too dull to care about specs and oblivious of what it's actually worth but will buy it because its a nice looking iMac.

Personally I wouldn't buy anything that expensive from someone without enough positive history, but eBay might cover purchases like these under that clusterhump of a policy named BuyerProtect or whatever the f it's called.

CL looks... shady.

[helping]

CL looks... shady.

Depends a lot on where you live I guess. I sell all my useless crap and things I know are about to die on there.

 

Price gouging outdated hardware on CL seems easy enough.