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There are PS3 pre-orders on Ebay going for over $1500

Who's pretending pricing is not an important characteristic of a technology purchase?

And, hypothetically, if the PS3 was $1,500, it would have to do a lot more than it does currently for people (myself included) to rationalize buying it over say, a new computer.

But the PS3 isn't priced that high. $1,500 is three times more than the $500 the base model is going for, your point might be valid at $1,500, but less so at $500.

And, how can one call it a disappointment until one has, you know, played it? I don't see Bushnell saying he's played it anywhere in the article, do you? Everything I've read so far on the PS3 says it's a great machine. Worth its higher price? Can't say til I've tried it. Yes, the price is tied to the machine... but how does that make the title of the original post here on Slashdot less misleading? Bushnell simply says Sony will not succeed with the PS3, he doesn't say the machine is disappointing. "Bushnell disappointed with Sony's price point..." would make for a more precise title of the article.

Oh, incidentally... here is just one example of the PS3 going for .... more than the $1,500 you used as an example. I'll leave it to you to find the ones going for more than $2,000.

Have you seen the cost of a Flux Capacitor? machine once.I worked on a time

Wow. He vacated fast. The place is empty already except for the billiards room. That is one tacky billiards room. No wonder he left the pool table.

SiO2

The necessary conversion parts? Try eBay

Save some money:

Amazon.com $32.99
Overstock.com $31.34
Half.com $28.95

linky

With all the payment methods available, and every PayPal-sucks/blows/eatsballs site pushing their own superior alternative, you'd think that no one would use PayPal. And yet . . .

Back in the old days, PayPal did have strong competition. This ended following the eBay merger.

When browsing eBay auctions you often used to see sellers who would charge a surcharge for accepting payment by PayPal - receiving money by PayPal incurs fees, and many sellers felt it reasonable to pass these to the buyer, should they insist on using PayPal. In fact, almost all sellers charged PayPal fees back then. Why should it cost me money if you're too lazy to write a cheque? (here in the UK, a cheque posted today by first class mail will likely arrive tomorrow, although it'll take a few days to clear, of course)

Until 2001 there were good alternatives to PayPal, companies who didn't charge fees on smaller amounts (less than £50, say) or whose fees where significantly less than PayPal's. NoChex was one of these, and when I first went on eBay and traded DVDs on Usenet, most everyone had both a PayPal & a NoChex account. Back then, everyone stated their surcharges (if applicable) in their adverts or auctions, and everyone understood the reason for it. If you didn't want to pay fees then you just used a different payment method, or if you wanted your purchase delivered in a hurry then you shrugged, paid by PayPal (or one of the alternatives) and in good grace added the appropriate percentage to cover the surcharge. The cost of using PayPal - or other electronic payment method - was fairly transparent even to buyers and frankly, I'm sure the competition did PayPal some good. Realistically, most everyone on eBay has to take electronic payments of at least some type, and now that is PayPal by default.

After eBay bought PayPal in 2001, they ended the practice of passing surcharges on to buyers, requiring sellers to accept all payment types on the same terms, and thus removed the incentive for buyers to use cheaper electronic payment methods. NoChex charges may have been cheaper, but the buyer no longer had any cause to care about that - the seller took the hit on the transaction costs, and no longer had any way of influencing which electronic payment processor the buyer preferred. Subsequently the integration of PayPal into the eBay checkout system was the death of other electronic payment brands.

It seems from their site that NoChex are focussed now on merchant transactions rather than (as they were when I used them) as a user-to-user PayPal-alternative; I'm glad they're still in business, but I feel they (and the consumer) were really stitched-up on that one - if eBay were an operating-systems company we'd describe this behaviour as leveraging their monopoly to extend into other areas, or something.

Looking at my PayPal account, I see that PayPal fees cost me 3.8% on a £45 transaction - a sum that quite frankly I find ridiculous for moving a few bits around a database. How come credit card companies can do the same thing for 1% or 2%, or I can transfer money into someone else's bank account at no charge? Meanwhile, PayPal are raking in interest on all the money sitting around in users' accounts AND charging them fees for it - PayPal's free service is just useless as soon as someone makes a payment to you by credit-card, and unless you decline that payment and make separate arrangements for receiving those funds all subsequent payments you receive will have fees applied, whatever their source. You might disagree with me and say that 4% is quite reasonable for PaiPal's services, and it's true that PayPal are more efficient than our old British banking institutions, but they don't provide any customer service at all - If I'm mad at my bank I can phone them up & ask to speak to a supervisor; if I'm dissatisfied with th

At http://www.ebay.com/ 21,491 items found for lego.

Technically, you have $625 worth of cards for a pretty awesome TCG and a free Ogre trinket that you can use or sell on eBay. You really can't argue with eBay - search completed auctions for 'murloc pet' and you'll see they sell for $500-700 like this one.

Personally, I'd get divorced if I spent that much money on a pet. I don't understand antiquing myself - why spend thousands of dollars on old furniture that's uncomfortable and too fragile to use? But I don't get worked up about what people choose to spend their own money on. :)

If that is all you are after, consider checking EBay, where people that play the card game are selling point cards since they don't care about them. You may also try finding people that do play the card game, and offer them the cards that you are not interested in for their point cards which they don't care about.

If you expect to open a pack and get a fun trinket in game, what would stop every wow player to open just one pack and get it? Then it would not be special.

- You get 100 points per pack.
- You can get a nice amount of points in special tournaments (probably more than 100 points and less than 5000).
- You can get omg lucky! and open an special Legendary Loot card. It gives you a code for a special reward in game. Turtle mounts are reaching some high prices...

So this is more a problem of children crying GIEF NAO!

Perhaps that is true with the blue sun shirts. The Serenity shirts were definitely not identical to the image/font used by Fox/Universal. I find it particularly reprehensible that 11th hour was told to take down all shirts with Serenity written on it in English or Chinese, no matter the font, layout, or colouring. It shouldn't be legal to trademark a common word. You can only complain of trademark infringement when it might contribute to trademark dilution. I can make a t-shirt with the word "Bounce" on it in my handwriting, and it doesn't violate the trademark of Proctor&Gamble. That said, I can't sell a laundry product called "Bounce" and not expect to have angry lawyers chase me down.

The summary refers to this as "grey-market", which it doesn't seem to be. Grey market goods are legitimate goods sold outside the authorized distribution channels, it could be imported from outside the US (think Canadian Pharmacies, though many of those are fake), it could be bought on the cheap to be resold. The Key being Grey market goods are by definition the "real thing", obtained legally but resold without the backing of the maker. Its up to company policies then whether they will support grey market goods. On the other hand, Black market goods may not legally obtained, may not be legal for possession, or may not be what they are represented as being, and are certainly not supported by their "makers". Note that "black market" goods might be represented as "grey market", turns out purveyers of black market goods tend to be dishonest in their dealings.

So which is it? A fake Rolex that actually has a $0.25 quartz movement inside? Or the real deal in terms of functionality and hardware, being made somehow without Cisco's approval and without going through their distribution chain?

Either way the part is called "counterfeit". When it breaks, Cisco won't support it. A Fake Rolex w/ a cheap Quartz movement will likely keep time better than a knock off that tried to replicate the delicate and intricate movement of a true "automatic" watch. If it was made w/o Cisco's approval, they likely made it w/ substandard components and w/o the proper QA procedures, so they can actually make money when the sell it at a deep discount. What do they care, they don't have to worry about supporting it.

you can even get the suit for less than 10!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item =200038011808

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item =200038011808

Hello, I'd like to introduce you to a game that generates thousands of dollars in sales daily (if not tens of thousands of dollars in transactions). That game is Magic Online.

Everyone here is commenting about WoW or EQ or AC, but this seems like small potatoes. People spend thousands of dollars to buy Virtual Cards in Magic Online. Of course, a virtual cottage industry has burdgeoned: dealers and independents operate on-line stores, complete with trading bots.

All of these bots effectively operate at a profit, which can net lots of "tix" (one online USD) for the seller. Of course, these tix need to be converted into actual dollars which is where e-bay comes in again.. Tix sell for an average of 90 cents on the dollar (to accomodate ebay and pay-pal fees). Many others offer tix for sale via Paypal directly from within the game, which cuts back on fees, but drastically increases fraud.

Add to this Wizards' "real-life to virtual life" stop-gap. Anyone who collects a complete set of on-line cards can cash in that set of cards for a real set of cards. This was done with good intentions, but dealers can profit from these intentions by converting their virtual card collections into real cards. Collecting a set can be difficult, but dealers can benefit from having a larger scale.

This means that sets sold in cash can go from virtual to pocket completely un-noticed, heck they were never even on the balance sheets.

Add to this that players play tournaments on-line. All of the prize is given out in product. But when winning a big 90-man tourney gets you two boxes of virtual cards (3.69 * 36 * 2 ~ $265), this is not an insignificant amount.

Given the above info that this stuff has cash value, I think that Wizards of the Coast (owned by Hasbro) has done quite well not only dodging the IRS, but also dodging all of the on-line attention. Collecting $600 for a WoW character is nothing compared to some bot-run Magic stores that profit in the hundreds per month.

Hello, I'd like to introduce you to a game that generates thousands of dollars in sales daily (if not tens of thousands of dollars in transactions). That game is Magic Online.

Everyone here is commenting about WoW or EQ or AC, but this seems like small potatoes. People spend thousands of dollars to buy Virtual Cards in Magic Online. Of course, a virtual cottage industry has burdgeoned: dealers and independents operate on-line stores, complete with trading bots.

All of these bots effectively operate at a profit, which can net lots of "tix" (one online USD) for the seller. Of course, these tix need to be converted into actual dollars which is where e-bay comes in again.. Tix sell for an average of 90 cents on the dollar (to accomodate ebay and pay-pal fees). Many others offer tix for sale via Paypal directly from within the game, which cuts back on fees, but drastically increases fraud.

Add to this Wizards' "real-life to virtual life" stop-gap. Anyone who collects a complete set of on-line cards can cash in that set of cards for a real set of cards. This was done with good intentions, but dealers can profit from these intentions by converting their virtual card collections into real cards. Collecting a set can be difficult, but dealers can benefit from having a larger scale.

This means that sets sold in cash can go from virtual to pocket completely un-noticed, heck they were never even on the balance sheets.

Add to this that players play tournaments on-line. All of the prize is given out in product. But when winning a big 90-man tourney gets you two boxes of virtual cards (3.69 * 36 * 2 ~ $265), this is not an insignificant amount.

Given the above info that this stuff has cash value, I think that Wizards of the Coast (owned by Hasbro) has done quite well not only dodging the IRS, but also dodging all of the on-line attention. Collecting $600 for a WoW character is nothing compared to some bot-run Magic stores that profit in the hundreds per month.

A lot of people have different opinions on this subject, but this player is the best one
that has come out in the last 3 years. (Seriously):
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1 &item=280036927578&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=018

Try to get a refurbed ihp series. H320/H340 is also decent.

Driving factors are:
* USB Mass storage support
* Excellent battery life
* Best sound quality of any portable reviewed, ihp series also have an optical line out
* Install rockbox, get even more features (play gameboy games and listen to music at the same time, FLAC support, etc.)

One of these days I'm going to buy up a couple for spare parts in case mine dies. There has not been a better portable since (except maybe the Cowan/JetAudios, but they have reliability issues or so I've heard)

Their site is fine now. Their equipment, though...

They're a surplus machinery dealer, and much of their equipment has seen hard use followed by neglect. The neglect is worse than the hard use. This lathe is a good example. That's a good Monarch precision lathe, but the picture, taken in 2000, shows considerable rust. Most of their gear is like that; it looks like it came out of an abandoned factory. It's repairable; you can send the lathe back to Monarch for an overhaul. But it's not good for much in its current condition. If there's any rust in the bearings, the precision is lost.

For comparison, see this Monarch Lathe on eBay. Made in 1950, and still in good shape. Those things will last a century if cared for.

If you have machinery like that around that's not in use, you have to oil it, then wrap it in plastic with some dessicant inside.

Where's my flying car?

Theres one on ebay that has a photo of the reservation slip http://cgi.ebay.com/Playstaion-3-PS3-PRO-In-hand-g uranteed-with-bonus_W0QQitemZ170038045215QQihZ007Q QcategoryZ62054QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem#ebayphotohosti ng/ They guy paid the full $500 in advance and the shop still charged him a $5 reservation fee for the privalage of giving them his money 2 months in advance. WTF?

eBay has a fairly clear policy regarding pre-sale auctions...I'd imagine any PS3 listing that get pulled probably don't satisfy their requirements.

From the eBay rules site:
Pre-sale listings are those that describe items for sale that are not in the control or possession of the seller at the time of the listing. These listings generally consist of items that are sold in advance of a delivery date to the public.

eBay permits Pre-sale listings only on a limited basis. The seller must guarantee that the item will be available for shipping within 30 days from the date of purchase (i.e., the day the listing ends or the date the item is purchased from a store front listing). The seller must also clearly indicate within the listing the fact that the item is a pre-sale item with a delivery date that indicates the item will be shipped by the 30th day from the end date of the listing. Additionally, this text must be no less than the default font size of the eBay Sell-Your-Item form. Currently, the default font size is HTML font size 3.

Violations of this policy may result in a range of actions, including:

* Listing cancellation
* Limits on account privileges
* Account suspension
* Forfeit of eBay fees on cancelled listings
* Loss of PowerSeller status

Mine is available to you all.

Here's a good one...

I would guess some of them edge over the fine lines between what ebay allows and doesn't. Possible candidate violations include:

Contracts (Pre-orders may be non-transferable and thus restricted, but the service of purchasing a PS3 on the day of launch with a "guarentee" through the seller's indicated pre-order, might not.)

Misleading titles (PS3!!1!11 versus PS3 order)

pre-sale item (This is probably the big one, must indicate item will be obtained and shipped no more than 30 days after the listing's end and clearly indicate so.)

Electronic Surveillance Equipment *insert Sony rootkit joke*

I would guess some of them edge over the fine lines between what ebay allows and doesn't. Possible candidate violations include:

Contracts (Pre-orders may be non-transferable and thus restricted, but the service of purchasing a PS3 on the day of launch with a "guarentee" through the seller's indicated pre-order, might not.)

Misleading titles (PS3!!1!11 versus PS3 order)

pre-sale item (This is probably the big one, must indicate item will be obtained and shipped no more than 30 days after the listing's end and clearly indicate so.)

Electronic Surveillance Equipment *insert Sony rootkit joke*

I would guess some of them edge over the fine lines between what ebay allows and doesn't. Possible candidate violations include:

Contracts (Pre-orders may be non-transferable and thus restricted, but the service of purchasing a PS3 on the day of launch with a "guarentee" through the seller's indicated pre-order, might not.)

Misleading titles (PS3!!1!11 versus PS3 order)

pre-sale item (This is probably the big one, must indicate item will be obtained and shipped no more than 30 days after the listing's end and clearly indicate so.)

Electronic Surveillance Equipment *insert Sony rootkit joke*

I would guess some of them edge over the fine lines between what ebay allows and doesn't. Possible candidate violations include:

Contracts (Pre-orders may be non-transferable and thus restricted, but the service of purchasing a PS3 on the day of launch with a "guarentee" through the seller's indicated pre-order, might not.)

Misleading titles (PS3!!1!11 versus PS3 order)

pre-sale item (This is probably the big one, must indicate item will be obtained and shipped no more than 30 days after the listing's end and clearly indicate so.)

Electronic Surveillance Equipment *insert Sony rootkit joke*

This one went for $1600...

Well, this auction ended before your post, for $1250.

I guess you didn't check the completed listings checkbox.

For some reason, eBay seems to be cancelling auctions for the PS3...

eBay started cancelling the auctions, no idea why.

At least one of the units was over $1300. There are now more that are at $1000 and going up...

Someone has bid on the $1,000 one now, although the bidder might be a deadbeat (based on his feedback). There's also this preorder that sold for a $1599 Buy It Now.

It seems that a fool and his money are soon parted. :)

Here is at least one completed and seems sucessful acution for a PS3 for $1,250.

PS: Here's a link to the sliding adjustable wrench on eBay that is like the one I have: http://search.ebay.com/200033640390

yeah, you can make a little bit o' cash of off that. here is what ebay is selling them for (hope link works, sorted by highest price first): http://search.ebay.com/earthbound_W0QQfrppZ50QQfso oZ2QQfsopZ3QQmaxrecordsreturnedZ300QQsbrsrtZl

Ah, but the summary says that they're worth searching for because of their, "their quality and their rarity". I honestly can't think of how most of these could be considered "quality". Most of the collectors items for old game systems are the crap that no one wanted to play the first time around. Stuff like Tooth Protectors, Chase the Chuckwagon, boxed "Action Packs" containing Combat and Dodge 'Em, Channel F consoles, Emerson Aracadias, etc. It's all rare, but it's also all junk.

The truly GREAT stuff are the rarities that are both hard to find and treasures to own. Avalon Hill, for example, made some great games. But their timing was off (video game crash and all that), so no one knew about them. That makes Shuttle Orbiter and Wall Ball a) collectable, b) extremely rare, and c) very expensive. I have a copy of the former, and I treasure it far more than I would an NES competition cartridge.

When it comes to video games, one does have to realize that they're made to be played. As a result, there are only a few affluent collectors willing to pay high prices for ultra-rare garbage. After all, these pieces are not much to look at. (Save for, perhaps, the tourney cart.)

If you want a real collectors item, go grab this unit. It's good looking, functional, pricey, and rare. Now THAT is a collectors item. ;-)

See if you can find a copy of the 1942 book "Popular Mathematics" by Denning Miller. It goes from arithmetic to calculus, taking generally a more geometrical, physical, and historical approach than most math classes do these days.

I was pretty good in math, up until I hit differential equations; I bought this book just for curiosity, so I can't really say if it will help you. But it looks like copies can be found on eBay for just a few bucks, so I'd say it's worth the gamble.

I could have donated this auction to him.

He's probably the reason I had the plate to begin with.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=0 20&item=300035037535&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMESE%3 AIT&rd=1

How is parent flamebait? This is the only funny post Slashdot has today. Someone send this guy some coupons, all will be well.

This is a message for all the kids living in any Theocracy, whether it happens to be in Iran or the USA:
Do you think your parents are spying on you and taking Draconian measures to mold you into a little puritan? Want to be free to learn about the real world and maybe even use your own body as you desire? Do you want to learn about evolution, but have fundie nut parents trying to censor your entire environment? Don't want to loose your legal home (which includes perhaps your only access to food, shelter, and healthcare?), and risk getting jailed for leaving it? If you are reading this, you probably have some place where you can access the Internet with minimal restrictions. Maybe you are lucky enough to be online at a friend's house or library. Maybe you hacked the filter at your public school or church. If you want to expand your access and keep your freedom, you will need to take some precautions. To get around any logging or filtering software running on a local machine, I suggest getting your own computer. Try ebay. If you can't afford a full computer, and just want to chat, I recommend the zipit, it runs Linux, so you can modify it and add features like encryption. If these are not viable options, you should use a Linux (or BSD, or OpenSolaris) bootable CD. If you suspect that there is network based monitoring, you should use gaim-otr or gaim-encryption for your chatting and gpg for your email. Learn to tunnel your network traffic through http, ssh, and other protocols. If you are using someone else's PC, you should also check for a hardware keylogger. Use the presumption of your ignorance to your advantage. Play the naïve little kid. If you get caught trying to circumvent censorship and spying, act like you have no idea what you are doing and just got lost. Act like the computer is broken and you are confused and frustrated.

A brief message to the parents: Kids like sex. Kids are curious. Remember back when you were a teenager? Wouldn't you have really liked a (select gender based on sexual preference) about ten years older than you (someone in their 20s), to fuck? As illegal and "wrong" as that is, it's what we've evolved to desire. You become sexually mature as a teen, and you want the most fit sexual partner. People older than you are probably the most fit. As you get older, people younger than you are probably the most fit. All the technology in the wold will not change this. It's human nature. Your irrational fear of pleasure is no excuse to stunt your offspring's intellectual growth. Do you really want to keep them from accessing the biggest store of human knowledge ever amassed, just because you don't like the idea that they might actually want to enjoy sex? Or...is it worse than that? Are you a religious asshole that wants to keep your kid from learning about science? If so, you are the reason why your nation is going to plunge deep into a second dark age of technological decay and theocratic war. Thanks a lot!

As Yoda would say, "If on ebay you can buy it, on slashdot it does not belong".

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item =300031914752

Save the environment, recycle your old slashdot news here!

Since discontinued, but more likely than not better quality than anything you're going to need.

Get thee to Ebay!

(No, that is not my auction.)

How bout $4.56 canadian? http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item =220029837198&ssPageName=ADME:L:DBS:US:11

not to be rude or anything but most CONSUMER grade digital cameras dont have a hotshoe however many high end/professional ones do (search eBay for "professional digital camera")

here are some examples:
a Canon one
or
a Nikon one

not to be rude or anything but most CONSUMER grade digital cameras dont have a hotshoe however many high end/professional ones do (search eBay for "professional digital camera")

here are some examples:
a Canon one
or
a Nikon one

One of you is vehemently arguing oranges...ORANGES! The other is scolding you for not using apples.

Just give up fighting and let the LaTex nerds have their due. You've got to understand that they firmly believe that their software is ideal for every single possible application out there, instead of just good for a few specific things (i.e. Tex with math formulas is amazing).

Me? It kind of creeps me out to embed symbols in text that's going to be put to a page, because it takes me back to the dark days of using Perfect Writer. WYSIWYG writing is an absolute godsend for me, but I certainly don't use it for everything. I'm a published fiction writer myself, and these days I use FreeMind for fiction writing. I find that it really helps to take me from the brainstorming phases to the first key pages pretty easily. It's an invaluable tool for any kind of writer, and it can be whatever you want it to be--an outlining tool, a planning aid, etc. You might want to check it out. :)

And are you willing to go unpaid for several years and the money instead spent on building brick walls and putting doors in?

Unpaid for several years is a bit of an exaggeration. You know a 4'x3' Steelcase electrified panel is a few hundred dollars? It's not cheap in any case. It allows the company not to plan ahead, and to have a work enviro where they can monitor people more easily, and people feel less free.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item =220022751314&category=61679

MSRP $16000, plus installation. In contrast, hire some Mexicans, pull some permits, and build all the rooms you need at once. Right? I don't think anyone's saying that it would be necessarily cheaper, but that productivity would go up if you stopped treating people like rats. And don't try to tell me that corporate policy is sane or wise or anything.

It's a pretty big issue if you play a lot of import games. It's now illegal over here in the UK to sell mod chips (not sure if it's illegal to buy them from overseas and fit them yourself, but that's probably beyond most users' technical ability anyway). Importing is probably a bigger issue in Europe than the US, since the releases usually go Japan > US > Europe, we're often left waiting a hell of a long time for our gaming fixes (along with the knowledge that we're only waiting so they can charge us 50% more than the rest of the world pays).