Underworld & Ebay

[big screen satellite]

I know we were recently pointed in the direction of ebay by Mr KH...

thanks from everyone who was lucky, i suppose ;)

I, just wondered if he or rick had bought anything from ebay ever...and what it was?

and I also wondered what they thought of the way things were sold, especially their own product, on ebay??

I love ebay, its been a great help for me and my collection, and although somethings are over priced at first, things level off after a while, although mmm...skyscraper the CD usually still goes for big bucks :(

When i got my hands on the first DVD cased 100 days off CD, it cost me over £70, it was the first one sold, i think, now this goes for no more than £10 every time when it comes up for sale...so, it's worth being patient if you are looking for stuff

and, like Karl does i believe, i still love the feel of vinyl and CD's from old record shops, because you can't beat the feel of hot wax in yer hands!

but ebay has it's uses...and its a phenomenon

[Jan]

what's ebay?


j/k, ebay is great (although it really gets expensive for me :()

[stimpee]

im very patrient.

[big screen satellite]

im very patrient.

mmm....you sure you didn't moderate me?

[negative1]

i don't know if its just me..

but for me....ebay had reached its usability
limit, and usefulness about 3 years ago..

i do look for the odd release every so often..

but most of it isn't really music related..

i see a lot of items up for sale, but not
very many bidders for most of the groups
that i check out.....(even the really popular ones)..

i think that once the collectors pretty much
fill out their collection, there's not a whole
lot of reasons to go back and keep checking..

for people new to a group, or just starting out
their collections its alright....... but as far as
finding the really rare stuff and promos, you
probably wont find them..

once in awhile, someone will sell off their
collection, and then you have a chance...

however, there are some 'super-collectors' (ahem)..
that money is no object, and they will get all the
rare items no matter how high the price goes...

it might be a cyclical thing...but i don't envision
myself using ebay for buying musical items much longer
(unless its selling).....

on an unrelated note, what happens when the
saturation point of itunes, emusic etc, finally
get around to digitizing all the tracks that
we're missing (or they're offered by the
group themself)...and then you really don't
have to search out for all those rare tracks,
and items?

later
-1

[TheBang]

on an unrelated note, what happens when the
saturation point of itunes, emusic etc, finally
get around to digitizing all the tracks that
we're missing (or they're offered by the
group themself)...and then you really don't
have to search out for all those rare tracks,
and items?
Then my life will be complete.

[botkiller]

i'm going to have to agree with -1 on this. ebay is great- and helped me to complete many a collection - but now, with the costs that many a seller charge to cover for paypal fees, egregious shipping costs and an abundance of crap that just is not worth purchasing, ebay has gotten pretty annoying.

like so many things, if its' good, it goes back underground.

[froopy seal]

ebay is great- and helped me to complete many a collection [...]
My Underworld collection is still tiny (only really started building it up this year) but at least eBay helped me to most of their songs on cd. I'm still hunting though and looking for other virtual stores/auctions. Which ones are good alternatives to eBay? Not just for music but for anything collectible. Most sites I found are... well, crap - either they are even more expensive than eBay or they only sell stuff I can get anywhere in the "real world".

[negative1]

i don't really even search online anymore for stuff.

but one of the music aggregate sites i used was:

--
http://www.gemm.com

and of course the really expensive
http://www.eil.com

and i did buy a few things from here before-
hard to find records (UK):
http://www.htfr.com/

later
-1

[holden]

Yeah, ebay was a marvel when i was constructing my UW collection, and i still go there for odd import discs or meorabilia by other bands i like. But the ridiculousness of shipping costs and getting sniped by people that want to pay crazy prices for stuff that is, let's be honest, really not worth it, well, it's disheartening.

But i learned a long time ago collecting and pricing baseball cards that, in reality they're worth the 2 cents it makes to make em. Price and value is determined solely by what someone is willing to pay;)

[Icke]

I recently bought my first vinyl (non-Underworld) via eBay too.

But it is a lto better if you live in the UK or the US, since a lot of sellers are there so shipping prices are much lower.

[GoatSucker]

For any collectors out there, I just noticed a bunch of promo Underworld CD's on eBay:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=4847696664&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT&rd=1

The auction is nothing to do with me, and it's already way above what I would consider paying, but I figured some of you completists out these might be interested :)

[suicidalpenguin]

Its more than my pocket money allowance will cover. :D
Damn, that a few weeks of saving as well (only £50 with 6 days to go)

[big screen satellite]

well on a quick calculation i reckon that that lot is worth about £70, at current prices

i reckon they are worth no more than:

£30 for mmm
£25 for juanita
£5 for KOS
£10 for jed the fish

i know people do pay more, but thats how i'd value them...

[mark3]

I believe Jed the Fish is the most difficult to obtain. I also think the seller could make more money if he sold the disks separately

[big screen satellite]

I believe Jed the Fish is the most difficult to obtain. I also think the seller could make more money if he sold the disks separately

thats as maybe, it being most rare, but mmm always fetches more, because its more sought after...

afterall the jed the fish edit is just a radio edit...and not that special...

but yeah selling separately would reap more reward...

[negative1]

For any collectors out there, I just noticed a bunch of promo Underworld CD's on eBay:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=4847696664&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT&rd=1

The auction is nothing to do with me, and it's already way above what I would consider paying, but I figured some of you completists out these might be interested :)

this was mentioned earlier here in the collectors thread:
http://www.dirty.org/forums/showthread.php?t=25&page=30

the moderator might want to merge these together?

later
-1

[Tendinha]

well on a quick calculation i reckon that that lot is worth about £70, at current prices

i reckon they are worth no more than:

£30 for mmm
£25 for juanita
£5 for KOS
£10 for jed the fish

i know people do pay more, but thats how i'd value them...

Hello Matt!
I introduced myself here a few days ago!
http://www.dirty.org/forums/showpost.php?p=35451&postcount=331

I will kneel before zod!! because you are one of my most relying sources of knowledge concerning Underworld!

However, just like little David with Golias, i will try to toss you a stone ( not to harm you ;))

Well, im the winer of the auction at ebay and i know the prices on big screen satelite site are not updated, but these cds were worth a litlle more...
You have MMM for £30;Juanita for £35; KOS for £12 and Jed the fish for £12. That equals £89 ... a little more than what i've paid.

I understand that some prices are diferent now (MMM 12" is less expensive thant the cds) you said, however ,its worth £45.:p

I dont have a problem with that, what i dont understand is why KOS is only worth £5. I think this cd is the only way we can get the Rick bungalows remix on a cd, and this mix is actually an underworld track not mixed by anyone else. So, should'nt this be worth a lot more????:confused:

Please correct me if i'm wrong and sorry for my bad english:rolleyes:

[dubman]

I dont have a problem with that, what i dont understand is why KOS is only worth £5. I think this cd is the only way we can get the Rick bungalows remix on a cd, and this mix is actually an underworld track not mixed by anyone else. So, should'nt this be worth a lot more????:confused:


thats what i'm thinking. that KOS promo sorta made my eyes bug out because that's something i would pay good money for. that whole packet was the most i've been enticed by underworld completist rarities in awhile.

ps: why do people apologize for bad english? i see it everywhere and i dont understand it.

[negative1]

i think its hard to evaluate what the prices would be
for a price guide, especially concerning some items..

i saw a really good site for 'depeche mode' that
has links to ebay auctions, and average prices,
but it is very complicated...
[link]
www.depmod.com (http://www.dirty.org/forums/www.depmod.com)

right now, we don't have that many prices for
rare items to go by.....i agree that some items
should be a lot higher, but there are some that
should be less..

i think matts guide is just a good guideline
to get an idea of what something is worth..
rather than be an absolute measure of the
item..

it would be good to update some of the items.

i know that i haven't checked ebay in about 2 years,
and i see a lot of items that used to be rare, but now
they don't even sell, even when they're cheap..

the 'kos' single came out ages ago, so its not really
looked for, even though it has exclusive mixes, however
i think the italian cds is even rarer, and probably worth
more?

i'm sure matt has more to say about this..

later
-1

[big screen satellite]

Well indeedy, i do have something to say...

The problem with pricing things up is that its very hard to do...

Now, when i started my pricing guide it was a good couple of years ago, and UW prices have changed, mainly for the worse...

When i started out collecting myself, ebay was all but a small place to buy and sell stuff and whatever appeared on there went for pretty high prices...because there were not as many people selling stuff....so whatever came up was rare....

Nowdays everybody is selling stuff on ebay and almost everything that was worth something has depreciated in value because people look at ebay see that someone is making a killing and want a piece of that action...and the market gets flooded with 'like' products.

'rare' born slippy CD singles are now ten a penny....for example....

When i first put up the price for the 2 track KOS promo, i had acquired mine for just £3, and i had since managed to get hold of several copies for less that £5, and as such didn't think at the time of pricing that the price had changed...(also bear in mind that in the UK the price is likely to be much less because it is far easier for us to get hold of rare items, like promos, whereas i'd have paid a lot for the BF singles box set when it came out because it wasn't available here).

I still really wouldn't say that that promo is worth paying any more than £10 for....but then thats the market...you pay what you feel is right, and if you get it for less, then more's the better.

Record Collector Price Guide lists Beatles records for say £1,500, but thats not to say that someone won't pay £3,000 for them, if they really want it so badly...guides can be misleading, but they tend to do what they say...guide on prices...

Take the Mmm Skyscraper CD & Vinyl, for example, there is no reason why this CD should be fetching over £50 a time, but it does, but i have seen it go for £30, and more than £80 on occasions, i only paid £15 for mine last year...

so what's it worth....well its worth £3.99 - because thats what it cost when released....but if you want to add it to your collection its worth what you're willing to pay out for it....i didn't have this CD in my collection until last year because i didn't want to fork out and spend more than £40 for it, because that's what i think its worth to me, luckily i got it cheaper, so feel i got a bargain...

as for the 12" - the last one I personally sold last year went for not much more than £20 in mint condition - on ebay....my current estimated value of these two items is: 12" - £25, CD - £45 - and outside of ebay, i think that you could get these a bit cheaper...(ie. collector record stores)

another anomoly is the Black Sky 12" remix...which, when first discovered was fectching upwards of £25 a copy...but since a whole box of promo's were found in a warehouse these are very easily found for less than £5 now, why i even picked up 10 at the time for £1 each, some of which i made £20 on the others I sold for £7 & £8's....the rarity value soon dropped when 100's started appearing for sale....

The thing is people look on ebay or in record stores and see what's for sale at certain prices and think that's what things are worth, what's on sale in a record shop means it hasn't sold, what's to say they shop owner hasn't had the record at the inflated price for 6 months and no buyers?

Also there is a saturation point at which things sell for a certain price then stop selling altogether, if 10 mmm skyscraper cd's turned up on ebay in one go, all at £30 - 9 might go straight away, then the last one may never sell, because the market has been satisfied....

So, whats the Tokyo 3 x CD worth...well current price says £15, but if no more surface at that price, and then you put one on ebay and the 80+ people who currently don't have one might be willing to pay 8-10 times that for it...

I appreciate that price guides need consant updating, as does my entire site (time is an issue with that), but i really don't think things have changed that much except that prices may have dropped a bit on a lot of things, promo's are worth a lot more at the time of release because everyone wants the new item, but when its mass produced, the promos end up almost worth less than the commercial releases, unless they contain (in the case of the KOS promo) a unique mix

Its a big old minefield collecting and pricing....and really my guide was out there not to say that what you own is worth X amount, but to guide you into the market to highlight what you should expect to pay....collecting should never be about 'worth' it should be about the 'item' and owning it, if you pay £100 for the mmm skyscraper CD you have paid to much, but if you are happy because you own it, then the price becomes irrelevant, its not worth £100 because you paid £100 for it, its worth nothing other than being in your collection, if you sell it on again, its unlikley you'd get £100 back, so its not worth £100, its only worth what the next buyer is willing to pay....

The last Record Collector Proce guide i have, dated 2002, lists the following UW items only

ME / The Hump - £70
Skyscraper CD - £30
Skyscraper 12" - £30
Rez/Cowgirl 12" - JBO Sleeve - £10
Rez/Cowgirl 12" - Pink - £60 (this is rez why why why - they have it listed wrong)
Spikee / Dogman 12" - £10

thats it....everything else they consider worth less than putting in the guide....i don't actually think that they have changed their guide prices on any of these items that much in the past 4 years either....

[negative1]

thanks matt for the clarification...

i guess, its nice to know if you have
something that is rare, and didn't overpay
for it..

but like you said, its better having the item
for your collection, and having the satisfaction
of owning it..

i think if a person wants to sell/buy a supposedly
rare item, check around first, see how much
completed items sold for, or ask questions here..

i know i've probably spent way to much on items,
and got real bargains on others..... the problem
comes when you try to sell things, and realize
you probably wont make back what you spent
on them..

thats the problem i'm facing...i keep saying i want
to sell my items off, but i haven't been able to
organize the 150+ items yet into any sort of
reasonable grouping, or to do it even singly
would be incredibly time consuming...so they'll
just have to wait..(same with the rest of
my other collections)..

later
-1

[Tendinha]

Yes ! Thanks Matt!

That was really a long post!

Thanks for the time you took to write that, we can always learn something!

However the real prices are not a concern for me now because i'm not thinking in selling these cds ( just repeats i mean).

Still waiting for the mailman to deliver them!