Small Ads: The 'as new' Palm Pilot.

[eponymousarchon]

Discussion about my previous small ads post reminded me of this:

Previously, the local small ads paper had a regular customer who was trying to sell an unwanted Palm IIIc (the first colour Palmpilot) for around 300-400 quid if I recall correctly. They obviously felt the need to justify that price as they explained that this was the sale price of this ithem hich was an unwanted prize and had been stored for years - and hadn't been used since bought. I beleive that the Small Ads gave you extra weeks if you couldn't sell the item, so the seller wasn't spending too much on this - as believe me, it really wasn't selling.

What the seller wasn't getting was that the Palm IIIc did cost the figure they quoted, but that was (mumble mumble) years ago!

Since then, you could get a current spec Palm that had

• 4 times the pixel, count
• an orders of magnitude or two worth of extra colour depth
• 32-64 times the internalmemory
• a 10x (or more) faster processor
• An external card slot included
• Bluetooth included as well as IRDA.
• a Lithium Ion battery (and associated battery life instead of AA or AAA batteries

...for about half of the price that they wanted - brand new - and that was from Argos!

The ad was there for months and month and months. The inability of these sellers to work out what was wrong with their money making scheme was the cause of many exasperated conversations between myself and Kit.

Although it took months and months for them to work out that it wouldn't sell, but eventually one week the ad was conspicuous by its absence -- and the Friday Ads were never quite as annoying again.

I do hope they didn't manage to to sell it to some unfortunate person.

Comments

Noble delusions

[http://claimid.com/dteg (from livejournal.com)]

See plenty of similar delusion in the local paper classifieds. "Half price" on a set of children's encyclopaedias, advertised for an eternity and obviously never shifting. Frankly, if you're going to ask more than £10 for anything there, there had better be a damned good reason for it.

Re: Noble delusions

[eponymousarchon.livejournal.com]

This was the worst - and most persistant - case I've seen, but you're quite correct. Car boot sales are the same, I find.

"We're asking 50 quid - It's list price is £75 - here's a print-out of the price at Amazon..."

"YES - But you're trying to sell it at a CAR BOOT SALE."

Grumble.

Re: Noble delusions

[deerfold.livejournal.com]

I'm being pleasantly surprised by prices at car boots at the moment. Chap managed to talk himself out of 50p on a £2 item yesterday before I'd said a word.

Re: Noble delusions

[eponymousarchon.livejournal.com]

Nice!

It wouldn't be the first time I've given more than was asked for when someone's been drastically underselling something that I know works.

Helps with my share of 'good stuff' as Amber DRPG players might say.

[erming.livejournal.com]

I think part of the trouble is non technical people don't realise just how quickly obsolete gadgets get, and how much they come down in price.

After all if you purchase a dining room table and chairs for £400 in a few years time if it is in good condition you could expect to get more like £300-400 for it. In a few years time about the only people interested in something like that tend to be the retro geeks and spods.