In article , Mike Coslo writes:

I've had good luck at hamfests by:

- Marking "asking" price on items so people have an idea what I think it's
worth.
- Marking "firm" if the price is not negotiable
- Offering stuff I just want to move as "name your price" or "make offer"

That's the way to do it! Somehow I suspect you don't hate the customer
either, eh?

Exactly. I'll even carry stuff to people's cars.

Of course eBay and the 'net have had a big effect on 'fests. We've
essentially
got a worldwide 24/7 hamfest going on, either as an auction or outright
sale.
Plus you can toss out "wanted to buy" posts. Only downside is you're
dealing at
a distance and the whole packing/shipping/payment/insurance headache.

And getting robbed one way or the other.

I don't know what you mean, Mike. In seven years of online buying and selling
I've *never* had a real problem. Not on eBay, not on the reflectors or
newsgroups.

Why folks expect to get eBay prices at a hamfest is beyond me, though. If
you want eBay prices, go to eBay.

The bloom is fading from that rose anyway. I did a quick perusal of ham
related equipment, and the prices seemed quite similar to what I would
expect to pay at a flea. There will always be the occasional outrageous
selling price, either on the high or low end, but it looks as if sanity
may be coming home in Ebay.

Some forces are at work the

- eBay hit big back when the economy was booming and people had lots of
confidence in their financial futures. It wasn't that long ago that "retire at
55" was a catchphrase - and if the markets had kept climbing, it would have
been reality for a lot of folks. But since boom-dot-bust hit, there are a lot
more sellers and fewer price-no-object buyers

- eBay was a new phenomenon back then, too. Equivalent to a 24/7 hamfest. I saw
things for sale on eBay that I'd never seen in 37 years of hamming, like the
famous-but-overrated-in-my-opinion SX-88. Such a new environment is a perfect
setting to make things appear rarer than they really are, and prices followed.
Now, people have learned that if something was on eBay once, it's a very good
bet that sooner or later another one will show up.

- The inital impact of eBay was to raise a lot of expectations about price. The
first SX-88 I ever saw on ebay went for over $6,000, and the bidding was
furious. I'm sure a lot of folks saw that auction and went away with the
thought "an SX-88 is worth $6000" But less than two weeks later, a second SX-88
showed up and went for less than $4000. People remember the high price but
forget the low ones.

73 de Jim, N2EY