Are your used items selling?

Tobias, it didn't make sense to me either. I never look at items marked sale pending unless I'm very interested. Then I just tell the seller to let me know if the buyer backs out. This was very strange, I actually had more offers after the sale pending sign was put in place. Not only that, one gentleman went so far as to tell me he could get me the money quicker than the potential buyer I'm holding the item for, even after I explained the situation to him. He tried to tell me that old 'bird in the hand...' line. I still refused, as I have a sale pending. Which obviously means different things to different people.

Agree with the 'Sale Pending'-thing dissent; in fact, if your ad becomes stale after a couple of viewing weeks, you might want to add something along the lines of 'Still Available' to your title copy, so people won't assume that it's already gone or something.

I think a lot of what moves and what doesn't, particularly when it comes to digital and also cables, has to do with what has 'buzz' - what's perceived as being hot or not at the moment. I don't think price, except for something way out of the ballpark, will have too much to do with response, since people will still inquire with lower offers if you've only set it a little too high. Probably the worst thing for a quick sale is if your piece was the hottest thing going in its catagory and price range just a couple of years ago, and the resale market is now substantially saturated and depreciated. The other killer can be if the 'next big advancement' has just come along to render your gear now 'out of date', at least until the latest craze blows over.

Recently, a currently-manufactured, well-known and reviewed DAC I was selling took the whole 30 days of the ad to move, while just half a year ago when I bought it myself on the 'Gon, the unit at the same price had multiple quick responses with offers to buy arriving after mine, according to the first seller (whom I trust). Just persevere and you will probably be rewarded, but keep in mind that it is common for people generally to slow down a bit on making discretionary purchases for themselves as the gift-giving holidays approach. Also, I think it can be important as to when your gear is listed on the 'New Today' page before getting shuttled off to the catagorized listings; I began that ad I refered to on the Friday of a 3-day holiday weekend, not a smart idea in retrospect. I suspect that the best initial response is generated by ads posted at the beginning of the work week.

The "Sale Pending" stuff reminds me of the auto auction shenaninigans I run into a couple of times a week. Live auctioneers are so accustomed to shilling and pulling bids out of the air or convenient standers-by that they now have to yell "he's there" or "I got money" to a guy who stops bidding to hopefully bring the price up another round. Several times I've stopped bidding, thinking there was NO competitor, only to find the car sold to a sly real bidder! Other times I've bid the Subie up several hundred all by myself, bidding against the auctioneer's clever gestures.
The automobile industry is apparently the ONLY one in the US where these auction tactics are still legal. It's getting tiresome....
Lugman, you're not a good ole' boy, are ya?

Subaruguru,

Label me if you like, but rest assured that idealogues on both sides are uncomfortable with the truth. The fact is that since Iran took our embassy hostage in the 70's, the bombing of our Marine Corps barracks in Lebanon in the mid 80's, the original attack on the World Trade Center, the attack on the U.S.S. Cole, and other acts of agression against U.S. interests, not to mention 9-11, war has been delcared against us publicly and clandestinely. How many cheeks do we have left to turn? Would you volunteer to be the next victim?

So, you don't like George Bush. Okay, I've got no problem with that. When you insinuate that potential actions taken against Iraq are a cover for illegal business dealings you present a simpleton, idealogue point of view that, if left unsaid, wouldn't have resulted in this post. I bristle when facts become irrelevant and are replaced by vague and cute accusations.

Bad ole boy is closer to the truth.

Seems to me that some of the "bad ole boy" reasoning is pretty simplistic too. It's funny that the rest of world (outside of the U.S.) would disagree with your interpretation of the "facts". Some would even go so as to argue that the attacks against the United States are to a large extent a reaction to U.S. policy initiatives. When the U.S. supports a corrupt and authoritarian monarch, should we really be surprise that after he's overthrown the populace hates us and seeks reprisals. (Somewhat ironically one of the student leaders of the Iran embassy takeover has spent time in Iranian prison because he now supports curbing the power of the mullahs and greater interaction with the United States.) Should Americans really be surprise that when we send troops to foreign shores that various local groups might react, even violently so. Think about it, what would you do if China sent troop into Canada, say to protect the rights and economic interests of ethnic Chinese ex-pats. What would you do? Take China at its word and bake a cake for their troops. I don't think so. Yet your average American sees no problem with the permanent stationing of U.S. soldiers in Saudi Arabia, nor the U.S. arming and financing the military capabilites of Isreal. Despite American desires for simplicity, a clear cut right and wrong, or George Jr. would have it, good vs. evil, the world ends up being a complex place where the facts and the truth are not universally perceived.

One last point, with the elections over and "victory" secured the rheteric about Iraq will subside to normal levels.