My First Attempt At An Ebay Purchase

[Michael Dennis]

Apologies if this is in the wrong thread. Being incrediblly compooter stupid, and even more ignorant at ebay bidding, I used my brother's ebay account to see just what I could do, walking into it almost blind, without any help. Up for bid was the tuner section of a circa 1949 Magnavox BCB/SW radio, very similar to one I had way back when. With what I calculated to be 16 seconds remaining, I won the item, apparently with 2 seconds to spare. I beat the other bidder(s) out by $3.50. I really didn't know if my bid would be accepted, but I was more than ready to gladly accept winning the item for what I was willing to pay. I guess, what with the dearth of olde collectibles I was feeling a bit lonely and morose. It isn't often I succeed at something 1st. time out the gate. I guess I'm just a sucker for a pretty face. I hope I won't be excommunicated because it isn't a Philco.

Mike

[Texasrocker]

Hello Mike! Congrats on your 1st eBay win! Im sure no one here will take offense to the "brand" of your item! I remember my 1st eBay win also! I couldnt believe it! I WON!! Whoa pardner, eBay can be addicting indeed! Just as eBays new advertising-slogan says:, "it just feels better when you won it"!! (hee hee)
What really gets me PO'ed, is when I try to "sync" with the countdown clock, and my copmuters DSL speed is "off" because of high-computer traffic! I have missed several good deals by "1 second" before!
Guess thats why eBay has their new ad slogan? Congrats indeed!! Randal

[Michael Dennis]

Thanks, Randal!

A few days before I just missed out on ebay, and it was a Philco I was bidding on. Shucks. But, I'm geeked up all kid-like. I can't believe I won , I would've been happy if my bid had just gone thru. I guess it's just luck. Lately I've been eating, sleeping, breathing old radios. I almost feel like I'm on a par with everyone else. But I am wheeling and dealing, trying to anyhow, for a Philco console, so I hope I can worm my way back into the good graces of the rest of the fellas. Way I figure, I could be doing worse, getting into trouble. This way I feel like I have a halo above me. (Ding!). How can a guy trying to bring an olde friend back to life be any harm, hah? Thanks for the congrats, freind!

[Uffda]

Sounds like you've got the bug now Mike. Pretty soon you will have 79 auctions you are watching. You will set the alarm to wake up at 3 am to bid
on items in England. You will scoff at those eSnipers. You will cuss yourself for not bidding higher when you lose and for bidding so high when you win.

The action is just like going to Vegas, except you actually end up with something. My first of over 700 wins is apart on my bench right now - a
cheap but clean S-40B that warms my innards as much as my Philco 90.
Go figure.

-Phil

[exray]

Uffda Wrote:You will set the alarm to wake up at 3 am to bid
on items in England. You will scoff at those eSnipers. You will cuss yourself for not bidding higher when you lose and for bidding so high when you win.

Coupla tips, Mik. You don't win an auction by "3.50". All it takes is an incremental bid of 50 cents or a dollar to win. You can BID $100 more than the next guy but when it comes down to winning you will have only beaten him by 50 cents or a dollar at the end of the auction. If you bid $1 million you will win every time the but actual sale amount will only be 50 cents/one dollar more than any other bidder. I'm saying 50c/$1.00 because the increments vary according to the price of the item. Thats the 'proxy bidding' thing.

Of course there's a risk involved with setting a million dollar bid for a 'must have' item. If TWO people do that then somebody just bought a grommet for a million bucks

Esnipe is great. I don't get excited by setting a stopwatch and going tit-for tat in the last seconds. Set it, forget it and go to bed. Plus there's the advantage of cancelling a bid up to within 5 minutes of the closing time when the enthusiasm lags or if you find something else better.

Ebay is full of land-mines. Or is it land-fill. Or is it a mine-field? All of the above. Be cautious.

Good luck

[Michael Dennis]

Oh, I have cussed myself, Phil! Yes, I got the bug alright and it's become an obsession. Wow, 700 wins, huh? Congrats on the S-40B! Exray, I guess I'm still very new to all this, and I got lucky this time. The Philco I lost out on, my brother was bidding for me. This item, with the Magnavox I thought to myself, just for the heck of it, I'll see what I can do all on my own, without any help. My bro didn't know anything about it 'til I told him I'd won. There's a console I'm watching on ebay that's a local pickup, as are all the consoles I've seen thus far. For my own good, I'm assuming, brother has cautioned me against accumulating too many floor models. At least he's in agreenment with me about trying to accquire one our father used to have.

Thanks for the help, fellas. All this wouldn't be as much fun without others to share the joy with.

Mike

[Uffda]

It's rare that I really get too excited by the last second bidding anymore,
but when it's that absolutely, gotta-have, I feel like the guy at the roulette
wheel who put it all on red. You do risk losing if your computer is slow to
react for whatever reason, so eSnipe is definitely more dependable.

Watch out for passing enthusiasms. That's how I ended up with a couple thousand tobacco cards when a couple hundred would be enough. And don't
even ask about the Transoceanics.

-Phil

[Michael Dennis]

Uffda Wrote:And don't
even ask about the Transoceanics.

-Phil

Sliderule dial or...oops, sorry, I'm under something of a restraint from my brother as to just how many radios I should try to accquire, at least as far as consoles are concerned or I'd fall for every pretty face that came along. Space is kind of at a premium here. Maybe in a while the enthusiasm will wear off.

[DeckApe]

eBay enthusiasm wears off?

Member since 2001 and not quite yet...

Of course, since I've just landed myself my first radio for restoration I'll be looking for a lot more STUFF on eBay...

(Oh, sorry. I should be more specific. Philco 40-190 with the brown buttons, and the speaker--which is still down at the in-laws--apparently has a badly damaged cone. But I'll start another thread for that somewhere else when I get it all in one place.)

[Michael Dennis]

Hello, DeckApe,

No, the enthuisiasm hasn't waned yet, I'm sure my family wishes it had.
Congrats on your 40-190! It's a nice looking rig!

Mike

[DeckApe]

It's a beaut, though I have to say I'm not completely happy with the finish on the cabinet that the M.I.L. did. Big ol' thumbprint in it, on the console front, but I'll leave it because it's hers.

I've also made a fairly difficult decision on it, which is for now to make it 'operationally restored.' I'll probably have to round up a different speaker, unless the paper is repairable or the speaker can be re-coned. When I learn how to repack a capacitor etc., I can move onto a more complicated job. In fact I may have just discovered a new hobby!

[BDM]

DeckApe Wrote:I can move onto a more complicated job. In fact I may have just discovered a new hobby!

I don't believe it's that important, unless you're referring to the Philco cap blocks? Easy

[DeckApe]

BDM Wrote:I don't believe it's that important, unless you're referring to the Philco cap blocks? Easy

Heh. Nothing is easy--or obvious--to the uninformed, my friend. I have a few months to figure out what I'm up against before I actually get brave and remove the chassis. And the escutcheon, which some heathen painted gloss black.

But the cabinet work is pretty well done, and there's enough 'shadow' or fading of the wood that I can see the outline of the PHILCO decal and thusly know what size to apply. Not that you fine folk wouldn't be helpful in that regard.

[BDM]

40-190 I believe uses one bakelite block. Now, there's no need to re-stuff the wax/paper caps if that's your plan?

[DeckApe]

Like I say, I haven't lifted out the chassis to see what I'm up against. I'm a little rusty at my electronic jiggery-pokery to boot--haven't messed with it since college, when I amused my Electronics prof by hooking up an RF generator to a speaker and playing the theremin riff from 'Good Vibrations.' I think he got the impression that I wasn't taking the class seriously.