Click the pic to enlarge. I just picked up this Weiand tunnel ram for a 302 with a pair of center squirters (see my post below). It is supposedly NOS, but has sat. Should I bead blast the manifold for eBay? I won't touch the carbs.
I personally would like it better in it's present state. I'd prefer to clean it up myself. I've seen lots of good stuff ruined by careless blasting... and if I were to polish it, the blasting makes it more difficult.
You could also try some Eagle-One cleaner for aluminum wheels. Spray it on, wash it off. I've cleaned up some pretty grungy stuff with it.
It's more important to have a working shipping calculator on a big item. I see lots of big and or heavy parts not sell because people don't set up the shipping in their listings correctly. As a buyer, I avoid those too. So spend your time figuring out how you're going to package it and use the shipping widget in the eBay listing (and save it as a draft).
my opinion, Epay may be a great place/way to find parts, but the selling price is usually driven up by auto-bidding, which might be ok for the SELLER, but as a buyer we end up paying more. I think flipping parts on Epay is just a lousy way of trying to make a quick buck.....just my 2 cents.
There are better 'mediums' to use than sand.........glass beads, walnut shells ...there are a few others. less damaging to the surface texture.
How do you figure 'auto bidding' drives up prices? The potential buyer enters what he is willing to pay, at the most, and other bidders drive up the price like any other auction, and auto bid keeps him in the loop. Unless you think without auto bid, many bidders would be unable to access eBay in a timely manner and lose the opportunity to bid more as the auction progresses and, thereby, act as a damper on the selling price. It's a free market and most of us use technology to our advantage whenever possible for everything else, why not eBay?
yeah, there are many people who get confused by how ebay works. prices are driven up by the buyers. so it is a great place for finding parts, but you don't think people should be selling car parts there. that makes a bunch of sense. there is nothing "quick" about selling vintage car parts on ebay, you earn every dollar you make
I have seen many auctions where the auto bid is taking 4 or 5 bidders on a AUTOMATIC bidding to max the selling price out at the highest price. That way Epay makes more money. THAT is not an auction. Just my opinion. Sorry to change the subject. Oh, and BLAST AWAY, clean it up and it will sell.
You could give it a few coats of that cast blast rattle can paint and save time and the possibility of screwing somthing up, sold a transmission that I painted with cast blast , a week later the guy calls and says Thunder Bay Ray said it was no good because it was sand blasted without unassembly therfore it was full of sand .I told the guy that it was never blasted just painted and boy was he mad he had allready paid for a trans rebuild witch probably never happened ...... Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
I use ebay as a seller and a buyer and like it for a lot of items, for others not so much. Not sure you really understand how it works. Don't think there is some grand conspiracy at play here. Have to realize that this is not just your hometown auction, this is world wide. There can be a large number of bidders on an item and a lot wait until the last second to bid. As a seller I rarely see one of my items sell for more that I think it should sell for and often way less. That's just the way it goes. If I really have to have something I place the price on the auto bid so high that I know it will not be out bid. That is most likely what you are seeing is few auto bids set very high competing at the last few seconds of a bid.
If I had a blaster I'd blast it. I don't think white oxidation on an aluminum manifold is the kind of patina that people consider valuable. I think a good blasting will add value. As far as online auctions, the only practice that I've found shady is when you see that your competing bidders' history shows they do almost all their business with this particular seller. In other words, there are "shills" out there, just like real life auctions, that drive the same seller's bids up. Think of it this way, if you're a seller and create multiple accounts or get your friends to bid on your stuff to drive prices up.
Decide what it's worth to you and go that high. Just like any auction, if someone bids more than it's worth to you, drop out.
I score a lot of deals on ebay some of it relatively rare/cool stuff.. For one thing, most ebayers are scared off of parts that need relatively minor repairs/work. I have scored some pretty desirable stuff without anyone else even bidding on it.
Recently bought 6 +030 forged 327 pistons on ebay for under $60!! 5 of them are mint, no score marks on the skirts, lands are nice, not a mark on 'em, look like they just came out of the box. Going in a large journal 327 for my O/T shop truck, saved me about $150 over buying 8 "new" ones from Summit, machined by Bhinder Singh in sunny downtown Calcutta. I just wish I could get 3 more 30 yr old used ones, I'd rather have them than the new ones...
That's what I do when I'm bidding online....just put in what I'm willing to pay. Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. And sometimes you get it for less that you bid. You should try bidding on Gunbroker.com...they have a 15 min. rule...if you're the high bidder when it's over...anyone else has 15 mins. to out bid you. That gets a little harry sometimes. Sorry i went off the subject of the thread. Imo. if I blasted it I would use glass beads. I did read an article a while back that talked about ...I believe it was water blasting...they said it would leave aluminum clean and smooth maybe even shinny... I think I got it off the antique motorcycle sight. Good luck
Clean stuff sells, but I like the idea of just trying some wheel cleaner or simple green with a scrub brush before you go sandblasting it. To me, freshly sandblasted is like freshly primered, could be an attempt to cover something up, or it could have been done wrong and damaged the part. I'm sure that's not the case here, but your buyer doesn't know that, they have to trust you. Personally I think you're better off just to clean it as best you can and sell it as-is, the buyer can blast it if they want it blasted.
I have numerous friends who write code for both the front and back-end for them. What you are alleging does not exist in the code. You are right. This is your opinion, and it is wrong.
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