Is eBay the only way to sell a really hot light?

Let's say you have a light that everyone is looking for; people are posting WTBs left and right.

Simply putting it up on Custom & Modified B/S/T has some injustices associated with it. If a potential buyer isn't online, he or she might miss out on a chance to buy it.

Or, someone could be at work and unable to check the thread.

I really prefer to sell such a light to a fellow CPF'er. I don't have any problem picking a price and putting it up for sale on B/S/T. But I do hate the, "Aw, shucks, I just missed this light," posts by those who had been looking for a long, long time.

So, is eBay the only fair way to sell such a light?

What about putting up a notice on B/S/T that you will be posting the light for sale, say in 24 hours time, or at such and such a specific time the next day.

Is that allowed under CPF rules? Would you consider that fair to all?

If not, why not?

Believe me, the price I sell the light will be high enough as is, I am not looking to put it on eBay just to get more money.

Your thoughts, please.

And, no, do not e-mail me or PM me asking what it is, please. If you do, you won't get it.

I would suggest to just put it up and let the lucky first person that sees it and wants it, buy it. No matter what you do there will be only one satisfied person anyway.

PhotonFanatic said:

What about putting up a notice on B/S/T that you will be posting the light for sale, say in 24 hours time, or at such and such a specific time the next day.

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I doubt the mods would approve. It'd put additional stress on the poor servers.

Ya there's no real way other than ebay to allow lots of people over time to find out you have it for sale. Even then though you must think about this: what if someone that wanted a light for a long time sees it on ebay, but the price has sky rocketed over it's normal value/what he can afford. Then he can't get it anyways...!

I just had another idea. I'm not sure if this one would be acceptable to the mods but here goes:

Start a thread where you say what you are selling and for how much. Allow all those that want to buy it to respond over a 24 hour period. At the end of that period you throw all the names in a hat and pick out one.

If you want everyone to have a fair shot, drizzles idea works.

Put a cutoff time to say, "I want in". Then throw everyones name in a hat and draw.

It's a raffle that's not a raffle, because only one person is going to pay for the light, the price is fixed, meeting CPF's rules on auctions.

Bill

don't sell it, I'm

the problem with going to ebay is, imho, indicate that the seller wants as high a value for the light as he can get. Sure, this is normal. But I dont see the spirit of CPF there. I just then see the seller as "greedy". but that is just for me

As for setting a 24 hr time period idea, this is not considered a good idea. Why? because then when the time comes for you to put it for sale, the surge of user wanting to buy the light might crippled CPF to its knees, just like previous giveaways. Sure, put the price of the light in the expensive side might decrease the surge, but still, I don't think that is a good idea.

then there is raffle. do it like cpf raffle, ask for sasha permission. Everybody gets a chance on the light. bad side? well when you bought 99/100 of raffle tickets and did not win, you can imagine how that feels like. One more bad side, you need to ask trusted person on CPF to act as the raffle picker, otherwise, well, credibility issues

personally i prefer raffle, especially like the one we just had for the limited PD. simply because then we, the small fishes, can get a chance to own the gem

I think eBay goes the other way in many cases. High-end oddball lights, especially mods, cusoms, or "recent-vintage", don't go for very much on eBay compared to here. I see old Surefires go dirt cheap all the time. On CPF a seller just has to pick a price out of the air and sooner or later someone will think it's worth it because it's priced that way to start with. Things like modded Mags also don't eBay too well in my experience.

You're thinking way too much about this. Post the light, name a price, and if someone likes it you've sold your light. No one can buy everything. People will lose out on eBay too, only difference is they won't post about it afterwards.

drizzle said:

I would suggest to just put it up and let the lucky first person that sees it and wants it, buy it. No matter what you do there will be only one satisfied person anyway.

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I like this way, its like a treasure hunt, and fun.

There are a lot of WTB's on the BST forum. I would read it and decide who deserves the light the most. This way an uniformed person does not just stumble on the light by being very very lucky. There a many thousands who perouse this forum. Why not take a part in who gets this light rather than leave it up to some lottery draw? JMO.


Look at it this way. There are a handfull of people looking for sunken treasure. Then there is the lucky SOB who stumbles across it while looking for his beach towel. oo:

You can always send it to me. I'll gladly relieve you of this burden

I think that's true with a lot of collectable and niche market sites. Many of the postings often contain messages like "If it doesn't sell by mm/dd/yy for $$.¢¢, it's going on eBay." though in reality the message should be something like "If one of you suckers don't buy this, I'm going to have to settle for getting less money for it on eBay and end up paying the charges. So please, please, won't one of you gullible suckers bite?"

ABTOMAT said:

I think eBay goes the other way in many cases. High-end oddball lights, especially mods, cusoms, or "recent-vintage", don't go for very much on eBay compared to here.

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I like the raffle-ish idea Seems fair! You can still set yourself a price and then those who are willing to pay up all can put their hand up and at the end of the day someone wins.

A little thing about BST that I've observed is that it's the "fastest on the trigger" that often gets the item, the raffle idea seems a great way to do things!

I have a certain dislike of eBay so lights listed there would go unpurchased by me. Fair or not it's a choice I've made so I go through B/S/T and take my chances.

-LT