I'd like to take a moment out to thank the following for their support in this effort to raise funds for our site:

RCA2000 for donating the Receiver
EchoWars for the heat sink
LBPete for the antenna mount
WSJoe for good ears and support.
all the AKers that bid on the unit (although none of them won)....

And most of all, CDFixer for being the one who put all of this together. It's things like this that make this great site possible :)

Three cheers!
Hip hip hooray
Hip hip hooray
Hip hip hooray!!

Has anyone else noticed that nearly the exact same auction went for exactly TWICE as much on the SAME DAY? Sheesh!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=50592&item=5776230670&rd=1

Yes, that was mentioned in the original thread.
Some speculated one of the bidders was a shill.

After looking at the bidder list, the guy who had 0 purchases originally looked like the culprit, but I believe he gave in after a few hundred.
So who knows?

I still think P.T. Barnum is right......

I would much rather spend the bucks ( if I had any ! ) on a known quantity from people I feel I can trust......

I would have to know the seller AND his reputation before swallowing that one.

Good cause...

Well worth it...

And I didn't do much...;)

I would do it again, again and again. I never feel like I do enough for this site. I get so much from this invalueable site.

WSJoe

I was the AKer who got beat by the snipe right at the end and I am still a bit upset this unit did not go to an Aker.
The effort was there and I am also really upset that another simalar unit went for almost twice the price!
Was it an advertisement snafu or was it that the general public does not have the faith in AK that we in the "know" about AK are certain of?
There are enough of us here who know a bit about advertising and we can all get together to make this site self sufficient if we put our heads together!
I HAVE SAID THIS A FEW TIMES AND WILL SAY IT JUST THIS ONE TIME MORE!
SOME OF US ARE TECHNICIANS, SOME OF US ARE BANKERS AND SOME OF US ARE ADVERTISING AGENTS!
IF WE ALL COME TOGETHER, WE CAN MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE AND BLOW EVERY ONE ELSE OUT OF THE WATER!
My thoughts are that we did not promote this auction as well as the other, we did not support this auction as well as the other and we did not end as well as the other auction for almost exactly the same unit.
Don't blame me, I wanted to own this unit but I also wanted to own it at an affordable price.
So who here is the advertising GURU we need to do our promotions?
CD FIXER did his part and the countless others did theirs but the general public went elsewhere and paid almost twice the price!
AK should continue with "CHERITABLE AUCIONS"!
AK members should continue with their support to get the auctions on the block and the units completed.
We need to PROMOTE the offerings by our members a bit better to achieve the results that would best support the Ak site.
I have a bunch of great stuff I would gladly donate but not if it will be sold at half the value! I can do that myself and be a looser!
AK needs to WIN because it is a Great site with Great members and has alot to offer!
Lets talk about this and get some ideas for future offerings.
Look at both auctions!
I am sure CDFIXER feels a bit burnt and this is not COOL for us!
Gary

one thing that i've noticed on ebay is that when certain items are listed, the first one that sells always goes for less. ginovino and i were both after sansui tuners a while back (thats how we met and ended up on audiogon, LOL) but we kept getting sniped and noticed another trend. when there are three items closing in close proximity to each other the last will sell for the highest amount and that it has little to do with the quality of the units. what i believe happens is the first one to go sets the bar, others watch and hope they get it on the cheap. when they get burnt, they bid on the second which can go much higher. if there's a third, all the desperate fools go crazy and bidding can get out of control. what gino and i did was illegal but it worked. we contacted all the people that were bidding on the same units when they came up and we agreed to each bid on a selected item. gino was first and he got the cheapest of the three. i was second and paid 150 more than gino. the poor sucker that had the last straw paid twice what gino did.... so not all is bad, and i dont think the 9090db got intentionally disregarded, it just went first. then the people got serious.

In addition, there was some discussion in a thread, about whether the listing was classified to maximize exposure. I'm no ebay seller, but I understand the theory of marketing your goods to the target demographic. If the listing category had no impact, no harm done, just luck of the draw. If there was merit in the suggestion, then we can chalk it up to the learning curve, and improve performance next time.

Styler, I guess I can't agree with your "TURKISH PRISON' mentality of bid fixing! I can agree that your assessment is correct to a degree. I have been both first ending and last ending on ebay and what you say has some merrit!
LV, I too have found myself in catagories or mis directed groups that I wished I had given some deeper research and thought to. I think propper placment in catagories gives the maximum exposure but knowing where that is should be left to the Ebay PROS.
Looking back, Hind sight is always 20/20 but we need to get it out front and put the items up for auction in the front of as many watchers as possible.
Heck, I have done ebay auctions and been unable to find my own items at auction!
We need some experts at this game to optomize the results!
I really believe a "WORD WIZZARD" with the right placment of the item would have brought a better return for our efforts.
Don't get me wrong, I take no credit at all for this or any other auction that benifits AK but as a member, I sure would like to see OUR STUFF in the stars.
Gary

i may have made it sound more sinister than it was. there was no price fixing, just an agreement that we wouldnt bid on each others desired tuners. other bidders did bid, but there was four of us that kept bidding on 3 units at a time. we just agreed to bid on one item at a time and set no price limit. we simply realized that we were all stupidly bidding on three tuners at the same time. yes, it was a little wrong, but given the prices the TU-9900s were commanding, it seemed a reasonable approach to lay off each other.
:thmbsp:

Maybe I need to clarify what I said!
I recently attempted to sell a complete Yamaha System.
MX 1000 AMP, CX 1000 PRE AMP & TX 950 Tuner.
Was doing fine until near the end.
Another seller had ONLY the AMP & PRE AMP, COPIED AND PASTED MY EXACT description, listed their auction to end after mine and sold their 2 items at $100 below the price for my three items. Boy was I pissed.
My items did not sell.
I am not an ebay expert but I do think timing and proper catagory placment is a big key.
I have "Yamaha MX" and "YAMAHA CX" in my SEARCH fields of MY EBAY.
I was selling a YAMAHA MX & CX unit and when I clicked on my searches, my own auctions did not appear. They were listed under YAMAHA. Buyers looking for my stuff could not find my auctions, neither could I!
Gary

I was checking out at those 2 Ebay auctions mentioned in this thread and what stood out to me is how well "the other guy's" was presented. The pictures were excellent with good natural lighting (no flashes) the flash is the absolute enemy of trying to present an item in as flattering a way as possible. The light is too "white" or hot and the reflections overwhelm all natural tones. The "other guy's" photo of the top showing the wood grain was beautiful and the picture of the old caps was a nice touch too. On Ebay presentation is everything- it's that intangible "warm and fuzzy" factor that ensnares peoples souls and obviously whoever bid $760.00 for that other 9090DB had it real bad - he or she WANTED it! To the person who took the photos of the AK 9090BB, please don’t take offense, that’s not my intention whatsoever. Just sharing an observation.

Styler, Please don't get me wrong! I was just bustin on your location listed in the profile. Heck, if we can't have some fun then it's NO FUN.
I do understand what you were attempting and succeding at doing however, as an AK member, I would disagree with us bidding against each other in this fashion.
In the past I have PM'd other AKers and UP FRONT, asked what they were willing to pay or if they were willing to go SO high. If not, bail out because you are jacking the bid up against only me.
Hey, all is fair and the big key to Ebay is to bid only what you are willing to pay for what you want to have. If you get beat, TOO BAD!
The key here is auctions that benifit AK and I would like to see members like CDFIXER get some respect as well as AK get some charitable donations equal to or greater then others who are not members.
My bid on the 9090DB did not win but it did force the snipe to pay $64 more then he might have had I not bid. I consider it a $64 gain for AK and I would have been proud to own it had I won it.
Gary

Elroy, I could not agree more with your observations. My photos SUCK!
What sucks worse is when I consider buying the exact thing I am selling because it looks so good in their photos.
Presentation and proper placment of catagory is a big KEY to this.
Also, saying what needs to be said-SHORT & SWEET, helps alot!
Gary

Guys, this thread is going seriously off topic. If you want to talk Ebay strategy, start a new thread.

Kam was trying to recognize the people that directly or indirectly supported this auction. I was happy to donate a little plastic part to complete the restoration. It was a very tiny piece of the overall effort. It is CDfixer and RCA2000 that made it possible. These are the guys that deserve the credit. Especially CDfixer who was the driving force, donated his time and expertise, and most of the missing pieces to make a wreck of a receiver whole again. My hat is off to him.

- Pete

Hey Pete, No one missed the point about praise for CDFixer or any of the others who made contributions to the effort.
Whats wrong with discussing ways to get more for the EFFORT?

Some of us are carpenters, some are Techs and yet others are salesmen.
Lets get together and explore OUR strengths and get the most bucks for OUR efforts.
I don't feel the thread is off topic at all.
I would be more then happy to discuss this in another thread but what is wrong with discussing it in the thread it concerns?
I contributed Nothing but my heart & pocketbook was in the effort and still is!
Gary

There is nothing wrong with discussing ways to get more bang for the buck. I’m not disagreeing with the discussion, just the thread it’s in. As courtesy to the thread starter, it’s not polite to divert or “hijack” the focus of a thread into an unrelated topic. Its not a hard and fast rule, I'm just pointing out the discussion was getting off topic. This thread started as an acknowledgment of the people that contributed to this project. We all appreciate your participation in the auction.

I don’t think the original intent of the tread was to provide a forum for Ebay strategy. Taking it in that direction detracts from the original intent.

- Pete

Pete, I hope we can agree to disagree! I am not attempting to hijack or steer this thread in any direction other then to make our efforts more fruitful for the absolute benifit of AK and it's members.
I agree that Kam started the thread as a tribute to CDFIXER and all those who contributed to make it happen.
Some of us will view it and then it is gone to the Archives.
Why not discuss ways, Right here, while it is fresh to make these efforts better in the future. We all did our parts and we all did our best but evidence proves we could have done twice as good with some additional talent that may well be reading this thread.
If there are others who may not be technicians or financially capeable of supporting our efforts but have other views of value then this is the time to speak up.
I am sure CDF would have been much happier with $720 for his efforts and he did his part. I would have been thrilled to have that unit in my collection as an avid AKer but I still can't understand why one fetched $720 while another equal or better unit that was a benifit to us only brought $380.01.
I think somewhere we may have missed a boat! The same boat I miss all the time! Be it photos or wording or catagory or what ever, I really believe any unit that is a conglomerate effort from us should command the top dollar!

If this thread is started elsewhere, I will gladly subscribe to it, as I have here.
Gary

I believe the auction went well. The reserve was met. The other receiver was always mint and original plus had high dollar upgrades so it was worth more.

I would like to thank all of you for the Kudo's on this project.

RCAs Donation of the got this thing started, I saw his thread and that he was ready to part it out. I was able to convice him that was a sad way for a unit to go when it wasn't really dead, just on serious life support.

Echo, If you didn't have that HeatSink, this job would have been much harder as modifing an 8080 heat sink would have been much work.

Pete, them little antenna mounts are a great addition to any receiver.

Guys, yes it would have been great if we had made more for AK, but we did make over 300 bucks lets focus on that and see if us "SANSUI GUYS" can challange the Pioneer, Marantz, and Kenwood guys to do the same.

Hey just wanted to let you know i have 15 years experience in sales and marketing and would be willing to help any way I could. I am no expert but I also do a little on eBay myself and learn more and more everytime.

Flyman