I always look at completed listings, whether buying or selling, to see what the market is doing - how cheaply can I buy, how high can I sell? DUH.
But I am continuously stumped by crazy prices people pay.
Today’s “WTF?” is 2g iphones - when 3g and 3gs can be purchased in good working and cosmetic condition for $200-$250 with ease, and even as low as $160 - why would anyone pay $150, $200, $250 for a 2g?
I saw completed auctions that had people paying hundreds for a 2g, but a lot of those were bogus in some way, zero feedback buyers and so forth, but after weed ing those out there were still some that were just nuts.
So who goes to Ebay to pay the highest possible price? What’s going on? Any ideas?
I’ve always assumed that some people are just too lazy to go to the stores, and therefore don’t mind paying more. That’s why I think we see things readily available in stores being bought on ebay for 30% more than one would pay if they simply drove to the nearest Walmart or Target.
A woman I work with sells lots of stuff on Ebay. The one that surprises me is books. She buys them at a discount and then sells them when she has read them, often for more than she paid for them new.
The thing is, eBay is a fairly easy way to shop for things that sometimes aren’t readily available in stores. Especially if someone wants an older version of technology…I don’t WANT a PS3, for instance, especially the newer ones that aren’t as backward compatible as the first ones that came out.
I have no idea what proportion, but some auctions for items like mobile phones (even worthless models, or broken ones) are targeted by scammers - not because they want the phone - often just as an opener to an overpayment scam or some such.
Also, some people get very attached to their old phones and when they break, want to replace them with the identical model - so even old handsets sometimes have a resale value.
That is hilarious, as it’s really easy now that it’s been declared legal. If I didn’t think people were going to catch on soon, it would be a great business opportunity.
inscrutable human action – try convincing a real, live human that somebody should pay a grand or more for a 1971 Wurlitzer electric piano, which needs fifteen new reeds,and a new sustain pedal, and you might find a buyer on e-bay. It happens all the time in used instrument trade, and there’s not much explanation for what motivates a buyer (besides desire and enough cash) or a seller (besides gear and a need or desire for cash).
Nobody, probably - until the other sources go out of stock and someone desperate for a copy of the book comes along. Amazon stores are easy to maintain and the items stay there for ages - so it’s easy for sellers to play the long game.
That actually VERY clever. If I owe you a large amount of money for an illegal transaction, no need for cash, I can just “buy” an item from you on Ebay and pay with Paypal. You never have to actually send me an item, I just say that you did. Then the money is washed, cleaned, and pressed.
This is just a variation on pretty basic money laundering, and why small businesses are prone to get audited. It is all very simple until someone actually wants to look at your books, and then it’s hard to conceal the fact that no actual merchandise is involved. This is assuming that you are talking about 10s of thousands of dollars or more. If you are talking about smaller sums, it works well, but it’s also kind of pointless: yes, it gets all laundered, but probably no one would have noticed if it wasn’t, anyway. Someone spending a couple thousand more a year than they are making isn’t going to send up any red flags anywhere.
I’m going to be blunt. Some people are stupid. They don’t do their research I guess and think they are getting a good deal.
There are many, many products that are fake on ebay. There are many fake MAC cosmetics for example and I alwasy laugh when I see people bidding on this fake stuff.
ebay tinpot petit-bourgeois “merchants” subsist on the exploitation of others by utilizing information asymmetries.
one of those things that grinds my gears is when there is a retailer who (either online or in a store) offers a relative deal on an item (say a watch on sale for 15 bucks that normally they sell for 45), and these assholes (who, incidentally, probably have all day to find these deals as they undoubtedly mooch off uncle sam by collecting on dubious social security disability claims) go and pick up 15 of them - cleaning out the sales stock and depriving normal consumers the opportunity to get one for themselves - and then turn around and sell them on ebay for 19.99 (plus $19.99 shipping and handling).
i’ve always thought that if people knew that they were getting jobbed like this, many of them would forgo the purchase.