For Sale: Mint Condition FRC cRIO controller

[Foster]

I'm confused, ebay just said the auction ended. It was marked as a 10 day auction starting on the 4th, it should have run until the 14.

Did you pull the item?

[Randy Forgaard]

Originally Posted by Foster

I'm confused, ebay just said the auction ended. It was marked as a 10 day auction starting on the 4th, it should have run until the 14.

Did you pull the item?

Hello, Foster. Thanks so much for your note. I was just about to post a message here about that. A few minutes ago, I ended the eBay auction early for our extra cRIO because the bidding had reached $780, and all FRC teams can purchase a new cRIO and modules once per year at the discounted price of $750. We didn't want to be unfair to any teams who didn't realize they could purchase a new one cheaper.

By the way, for any teams that would like to purchase a new cRIO and modules at the FRC discounted price of $750 once per year, go to the National Instruments FIRST page and see the note in the middle of the page that says, "Once per competition season, your team is eligible for an entire additional cRIO-FRC kit (part number 780405-01) at the discount price of $750. Call 1-866-511-6285 to check eligibility!".

As I mentioned a couple of times earlier in this thread, we will make sure to only sell this cRIO to another FRC team, because all of us get special pricing on parts as FRC teams, and we want to be supportive of the generous FRC sponsors that provide parts at discounted or even donated pricing to FIRST. (And also, Bill Miller, Director of FRC, has previously reminded all of us on Bill's Blog that if we sell specially priced FRC parts, we should only sell them to other FRC teams, for this same reason.)

So, we have sent a message to the winning bidder of our cRIO on eBay to find out who they are and what FRC team they are on, so we can carefully check them out to make sure they are really an FRC team. If they aren't, no harm done, we will point out that the eBay description says we can only sell to other FRC teams, in which case we will walk down the eBay bidding list and offer it to the next lower bidders until we find a bidder that: (1) is definitely an FRC team, and (2) would still like to buy the cRIO. In any case, we won't charge the FRC team more than $740, since they can buy a new one (per above) for $750.

Thanks so much for the interest in our extra cRIO. This will really help us, as we need to raise some more money this year. I apologize for the faux paus of listing on eBay (with a big note in both the eBay listing and the Q&A at the end of the listing saying this is only for FRC teams ) rather than listing on the CD-Swap section right here on Chief Delphi (I didn't know about CD-Swap -- my apologies!). I will definitely use CD-Swap if we have more items to sell, to easily ensure that such parts only go to other FRC teams. Thanks so much for everyone's understanding. Have a great 2011 season!

[Alex Cormier]

What was the point of putting this up on ebay if you wanted only FRC teams to bid on it? You will have to pay a pretty penny for fees associated with ebay for a price that high and such.

why not just try to sell it through here and skip the fees?

I know it's to help fund raise, but you lost some money from putting it up on ebay.

I used to do a lot of selling and buying on ebay, I got tired of all the fees and such with it.

[Randy Forgaard]

Originally Posted by Alex Cormier

What was the point of putting this up on ebay if you wanted only FRC teams to bid on it? You will have to pay a pretty penny for fees associated with ebay for a price that high and such.

why not just try to sell it through here and skip the fees?

I know it's to help fund raise, but you lost some money from putting it up on ebay.

I used to do a lot of selling and buying on ebay, I got tired of all the fees and such with it.

Wow, this thread has gotten a lot of replies! As I mentioned a few times earlier in this thread, I goofed when I listed our cRIO for sale on eBay for FRC teams only. I didn't realize that Chief Delphi had a CD-Swap area specifically for this purpose. I will definitely use CD-Swap in the future, if we have other things to sell. My sincere apologies for any confusion, and for inadvertently taking up so much off this board's "mindspace" with this issue.

I think I'll leave the issue here, so I don't keep cluttering the Chief Delphi board with this. Thanks so much to everyone for your replies and understanding, and hope to see you at the competitions in 2011!

[Joe Ross]

Originally Posted by Randy Forgaard

Hello, Foster. Thanks so much for your note. I was just about to post a message here about that. A few minutes ago, I ended the eBay auction early for our extra cRIO because the bidding had reached $780, and all FRC teams can purchase a new cRIO and modules once per year at the discounted price of $750. We didn't want to be unfair to any teams who didn't realize they could purchase a new one cheaper.

A team may have already used their cRIO purchase credit this year and wanted another one cheaper then the $1500 academic price.

[DonRotolo]

Originally Posted by Randy Forgaard

the bidding had reached $780

Ending the auction early was a generous thing to do, but unnecessary in my opinion. If an FRC team decided to pay more than $750, who are we to say they cannot? Anyone familiar with eBay knows that the eBay final value fee on $780 is $50. Add the PayPal fees, and you're slightly underwater.

Randy, as I've mentioned privately, you approached this in a transparent and above-board way. You never meant to deceive, and I will speculate that even NI would approve of how you handled this. Sure, there might have been a 'better' way, but ain't that the case always?

[Randy Forgaard]

Originally Posted by Don Rotolo

Randy, as I've mentioned privately, you approached this in a transparent and above-board way. You never meant to deceive, and I will speculate that even NI would approve of how you handled this.

Don: Thanks so much for the kind words!

Some notes to summarize and close up this thread, including a few things I learned along the way:

1. Each FRC team can buy a new FRC cRIO for $750 in every calendar year, where the calendar year boundary is January 1. I called National Instruments today and confirmed this. The nice woman at NI explicitly told me that if your team has not purchased a $750 cRIO since January 1, 2010, you can buy a $750 cRIO this month (December) AND buy ANOTHER $750 cRIO next month (January), because next month is 2011. Or, if you already bought a cRIO in 2010, and you need another one, you can wait just 3 weeks from now and buy it for $750 starting January 1. (If you have already purchased a $750 cRIO during a given calendar year, and you would like to buy another one in the same calendar year, you pay the academic pricing of $1500 for the second one.)

There was a little confusion on this point, because some folks (like me) weren't certain when the year boundary occurs for the $750 annual cRIO deal, so I wanted to let you know what I found out.

To order an FRC cRIO at the special pricing, and to verify your eligibility, call the National Instruments FRC hotline at 866-511-6285. This information is documented on the National Instruments FRC page, in the middle of the page under "Resources for FIRST Competitors," and you can also get more details by giving them a call.

2. If you have spare FRC parts for sale, the best place to sell them is right here on Chief Delphi in the CD-Swap area. It's not so good to sell your FRC parts on eBay, as I have discovered. Bill Miller, Director of FRC, reminded all of us in Bill's Blog a while back that we should only sell FRC parts to other FRC teams, not to the general public, because FRC vendors very generously give deep discounts (and donations) of their products to FIRST, and we don't want to undercut their normal business. By selling FRC parts here in the CD-Swap area, you know that you are selling to another FRC team. If you sell them on eBay, it is harder to verify that the buyer is really in FRC. Plus, of course, Chief Delphi is seen daily by more FRC teams than any other place on the planet, so this is a great place to sell your spare FRC parts.

3. The final round-up on the FRC cRIO our team was selling on eBay: The bidding went up to $780, at which point I closed the auction to further bidding because (as I mentioned earlier on this thread) I didn't want to take advantage of teams who didn't realize they could buy a new cRIO every calendar year from NI for $750 (see above). It turned out that there were two teams interested in our cRIO that had already used their $750 cRIO purchase opportunity in 2010, and they were hoping to do so again in 2011. So, both teams were willing to go above the $750 price point on eBay (rather than pay the $1500 academic pricing for a second cRIO in one calendar year), so there was some disappointment when I cut off the bidding when it crossed the $750 boundary. With 20-20 hindsight, I could have handled the situation differently, but I had already announced on this forum that I wouldn't let the pricing get above $750. The integrity of our team's reputation, and not taking advantage of other teams, is very important to me. So, I cut off the bidding, as promised.

The winning bidder at the time we closed the bidding on our cRIO on eBay was Team 2614 MARS from Morgantown, WV. When they found out that the second-highest bidding team was very interested in the cRIO, Team 2614 very nicely bowed out and will instead buy a $750 from NI in a few weeks (after January 1). Thus, we sold our cRIO to the second-highest bidder who was Bob Steele, head coach of Team 1983 Skunkworks Robotics in Des Moines, WA. (Bob is a member here at Chief Delphi and left a note earlier on this thread.) Per my note earlier on this thread, I offered to sell the cRIO to Bob for $740, since it is used, even though Bob had bid $770. However, Bob's team has already used their $750 cRIO opportunity for this year, and they want to buy yet another one for $750 next year, so Bob offered to pay the full $770 he had bid. We compromised and agreed to lower Bob's payment to $750, and I picked up the shipping cost. Team 1983 is planning to use the cRIO to build a special FRC electronics board in a commercial suitcase that they can lend to many of the 25 (!) rookie teams in Washington State this year to help them get started, which is an awesome thing to do. So the cRIO went to another FRC team at a fair price and a good cause.

Sorry for the long post. Thanks so much to everyone for their comments and assistance along the way. I learned some things, and hopefully our experience will help other teams that have spare FRC parts to sell.

Take care, and have an awesome 2011 FRC season!

[Madison]

Closing this per the OP's request.