I’m starting to think that Ebay has fully turned from being a useful auction tool for ordinary people to sell and buy things, to a wholesale ripoff operation.
I have tried, but do not understand the pricing I have seen for product sales over the last six to twelve months. I routinely see products, over and over again, purchased at prices higher than you can find new by a simple Google or price comparison website search. I see these products (primarily games, board, video, and computer if you are wondering) never selling for below set levels that look suspiciously like price fixing in what is supposed to be an auction market. Bear in mind, I understand the market concept, and that a “FMV” will eventually cause a price floor. But when that price floor is higher for a used product coming from an unknown seller than it is for the same used product from a mainstream retailer (Electronics Boutique in the case I am thinking of) that has an easy to access storefront and is a much lower risk for not having the purchased goods even show up, there is either something wrong with the buyers’ brains, or there is other activity going on.
As another example, I purchased a product recently, at a slightly higher price than I thought was really reasonable, but at least $10 (33%) lower than I had seen the product sell for on Ebay in two weeks of searching. This is a high volume product, so there should not be heavy price fluctuations due to scarcity. I decided later that I wanted a different version of the product, so I listed the one I had purchased for the same price. Bear in mind that when I purchased it a few short days earlier, it was easily 33% less than the price at which the items was being immediately snapped up by Buy It Now auctions. The thing was in great shape, and I have a 100% feedback rating with 50+ sales. Yet no one is bidding on the damn thing, or taking my Buy It Now price, which is again about 33% less than the average.
I have a hard time explaining the market behavior if Ebay is a true auction house, and smell something fishy.
It would seem to be an easy way to launder money - list item for sale on Ebay, bid on it yourself with a fake name. Suddenly you have a paper record of where some cash came from. The thing to watch for would be the same seller either (a) selling a lot of items to the same buyer; or (b) selling a lot of items to new users.
Well, I suppose so, but you don’t launder small amounts of money. It’d be a full time job to try and discreetly launder amonts in the $10,000+ range, which is the only place where it’d be necessary. There’s probably easier ways to do it. Plus the internet is not good for the types who want to launder money since all the transactions can eventually be tracked back to you unless you’re especially computer savvy.
I’m not a very experienced EBayer, but I doubt there’s wholesale collusion. It’s just too big. In isolated instances I’m sure there’s a lot of shady stuff. But big picture, I’d say not. The biggest issue as I see it is that there have gotten to be so many complete businesses that operate through EBay.
No longer can a simple individual expect to make much money selling anything that’s even remotely common. Everything computer related is now dominated by various “companies” that sell refurbished or discontinued products at slightly inflated prices. And they hide their profits in the “shipping and handling”.
Incidentally, I just won a auction for a NIB printer for $17, originally priced at $79. I saw many auctions for the same item over the last week going for anywhere from $10 - $30. So, you can still get a deal.
I’ve noticed what you’re talking about as well. I don’t think it’s an intentional rip-off, though. I suspect what’s happening is that the “FMV price floor” you speak of forms within eBay itself, with little to no reference to the larger market in the outside world. A seller sees what other people are getting for an item in the eBay universe, they price theirs accordingly, and people keep buying without thinking to look outside eBay. I think some of it also has to do with price drops on eBay lagging behind those in the outside world.
I’ve almost fallen into this trap myself on occasion. I just automatically think of going to eBay for certain classes of products, so I go there, look around, get ready to buy something, then check Froogle or Pricewatch on a whim. Lo and behold, the retail price in the “outside world” has dropped! After having almost overspent a couple times, though, I’m much more careful about it now.
eBay can still be a great place to find deals, but you have to be willing to look harder than you used to in order to find them.
It also makes a big difference what type of article you want to buy. I deal in antique porcelain and fine jewelry, where the prices can be 10% or less of retail in better shops. As long as I’m dealing with respected sellers who take stuff back if it’s not what they say, it works very well. Electronics, now, I’m a lot more wary of them. Maybe the deals are there, but without expertise I don’t like to chance it.