HELP DESK Q: Reader Mike J. Murphy of Anchorage, Alaska, asks: My father has accumulated printing equipment and used it as a hobby over the past 30 years. He has been retired for 12 years, and his interests have changed. I think it would be nice to offer this equipment to someone who is just entering this hobby. Can you suggest a Web site where he could list his equipment? A: The Internet offers two good ways for individuals to sell goods, particularly specialized gear that may not find a market with a newspaper classified ad. First, most Internet news groups (available on the Web through www.dejanews.com) welcome for-sale ads from individuals with items relevant to the discussion group's topic. For example, sales notices for Macintosh equipment appear frequently in the postings to comp.sys.mac.hardware. Unfortunately, among the thousands of active news groups, there does not appear to be one dedicated to typesetting and printing for hobbyists. The alternative is online auctions. The best-established of them seems to be eBay (www.ebay.com). Sellers post a description of their goods on eBay's Web sites, and would-be buyers offer bids. Until a bid is accepted, sellers pay only a nominal insertion fee of 25 cents to $2, depending on the minimum bid specified for the offering. Once a sale takes place, the seller pays 5% of the first $25 of the price, 2.5% on proceeds up to $1,000, and 1.25% on the rest. DO YOU HAVE A QUESTION FOR HELP DESK? E-mail asksteve@businessweek.com

Updated Sept. 10, 1998 by bwwebmaster
Copyright 1998, Bloomberg L.P.
Terms of Use