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Ebay prices dropping!!!!


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I'm surprised than nobody mentioned the possibility of a typo yet.  It was probably supposed to be $49.98 (or maybe even $499.89 - which is still unrealistic).  The half off is probably just automatically triggered, so the seller is unaware. I see price typos happen on eBay from time to time. If the seller is contacted, they usually fix them.

 

And again, we can thank the current eBay pricing structure for this. Back in the old days, when eBay charged a percentage of item's starting bid's price, this would have never happened when the seller saw what it would cost him to list that item!  Remember those days when many auctions started at $0.01 or $0.99?  That was why.

Edited by peteski
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3 hours ago, peteski said:

And again, we can thank the current eBay pricing structure for this. Back in the old days, when eBay charged a percentage of item's starting bid's price, this would have never happened when the seller saw what it would cost him to list that item!  Remember those days when many auctions started at $0.01 or $0.99?  That was why.

I sure remember that.  When eBay was still fairly new, I used to list kits for friends.  In exchange for a percentage of their gross sales (before eBay fees etc.), I did all the work. Back then, you had to provide your own photo-hosting and it was generally a lot harder to sell than it is now. 

One day I went in a small toy/hobby store.  The owner had heard I sold on eBay and asked me to sell some kits for him.  Naturally, these were all the loser kits that had been gathering dust forever on his shelves.  He insisted that the Starting Bid for each one had to be his full retail price.

I tried explaining that would never work.  For one thing, the Starting Fees alone would eat him alive.  For another, the buyer had to pay shipping, which made his kits even more expensive.  And since most of the kits he wanted to list were already on eBay at low starting prices, buyers had plenty of choices that worked against him.

He didn't want to hear any of that, and in the end I didn't even try selling his kits.  But I see that his pricing strategy of Wishful Thinking is still alive and well on eBay to this very day. 

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9 hours ago, peteski said:

I'm surprised than nobody mentioned the possibility of a typo yet.  It was probably supposed to be $49.98 (or maybe even $499.89 - which is still unrealistic).  The half off is probably just automatically triggered, so the seller is unaware. I see price typos happen on eBay from time to time. If the seller is contacted, they usually fix them.

 

And again, we can thank the current eBay pricing structure for this. Back in the old days, when eBay charged a percentage of item's starting bid's price, this would have never happened when the seller saw what it would cost him to list that item!  Remember those days when many auctions started at $0.01 or $0.99?  That was why.

Well the pricing on the other kits this seller has is on the high side too...so I don't know.
A newly reissued AMT 65 Ford Galaxie for $79.19 and a Tamiya 1:20 McLaren F1 car for $59.99...sounds a bit on the steep side to me. 
An item is not worth more than a buyer is prepaired to pay for it and just because the item is rare doesn't automatically mean it's worth much...the seller can ask for what he/she wants but it's the market who decides the price.
I can't see this seller getting any bids until he/she comes down to more reasonable prices.

Edited by Force
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Don't care about Ebay at all, I've gotten every obscure vintage and rare kit i wanted by simply checking online shops, why waste time of a freakin' auction, dealing with PayPal etc.

ALL for reasonable prices. Ebay sellers list everything as RARE, HARD TO FIND, ETC. Baloney.

Fine with me if others do bid, just makes it easier for me!

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Wow, that is some strong aversion to eBay. TO me it has its place and it is a world-wide marketplace with items I guarantee that you will not find elsewhere.  But yes, there is lots of garbage there too.

With all this hoopla, and since nobody else wants to, I think I'll ask the seller if it is a typo.

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There are sellers on there parting out kits, and charging $13 plus shipping for the tires and wheels. You can almost buy an entire kit for that. 

Ebay is alright ONLY if you are in search of that hard to find item, and you can get it at a reasonable price. 

IMO, EBay should be bidding only, and not “buy it now”. It’s not really an auction site anymore,  but more of a scam. 

Even selling on EBay isn’t worth it anymore, because they figure their commission on the sale price, AND shipping. Totally unfair they take money for the boxing , packaging, and tape, and my gas from driving to the post office. I paid for all of that stuff, and to figure that into your final fee is a rip off. 

 

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Certainly in the UK prices aren't falling at all on ebay. It was once a place to go to get good deals on models but no more. Even 'already started' that I go for being retired and having limited funds for hobbies.

Some prices are as you have shown here, for example there is a Pocher 1930's Mercedes Benz cabrio, in a finished condition but at nearly £1,000!

Some have what they call 'RARE' kits, of American made kits that are normally £30 here are asking £100 in as new condition or already started.

No ebay is longer a place to go for a bargain, but here most of the model shops are gone from the High Street or Malls so the internet is the only way to buy. 

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One other thing I’ve noticed that makes no sense to me.... is, an item will have a couple bids on it,  and the same item will be available by another seller with “buy it now” for less than the item being bidded on. Both sellers will have 100% feedback, so I wonder why wouldn’t someone compare and go for the better deal? 

I bought a kit for $20 plus the $6 shipping,  and the same exact item, with another seller,  had 5 bids on it, and was already more than the $26 I spent. Makes me wonder if a friend of the seller is bidding to raise the price? 

 

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11 hours ago, Brutalform said:

There are sellers on there parting out kits, and charging $13 plus shipping for the tires and wheels. You can almost buy an entire kit for that. 

Ebay is alright ONLY if you are in search of that hard to find item, and you can get it at a reasonable price. 

IMO, EBay should be bidding only, and not “buy it now”. It’s not really an auction site anymore,  but more of a scam. 

Even selling on EBay isn’t worth it anymore, because they figure their commission on the sale price, AND shipping. Totally unfair they take money for the boxing , packaging, and tape, and my gas from driving to the post office. I paid for all of that stuff, and to figure that into your final fee is a rip off. 

 

I do ebay from time to time and have had some luck finding rareish stuff for reasonable prices.
But the worst scam they have now is the Global Shipping Program where you have to pay for something you don't get, all shipping through this program is priority mail wich is more expensive and includes delivery at your door...but I haven't had anything delivered at my door for a long time, I allways have to go to the post office to get my parcels.
The worst is that you get an email where it reads they have done an attempt to deliver your parcel...I have sometimes been home the whole day and no one has ringed my doorbell so no attempt has been done as they never have been at my home, and I have to go the post office to get my parcel...that's a scam if you ask me.
Another thing is if you're looking at cheap stuff as individual parts the shipping cost is way more expensive than the part itself, if you throw the parts in an envelope and put a stamp on it it's not that much.

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19 hours ago, Brutalform said:

...Makes me wonder if a friend of the seller is bidding to raise the price? 

That's shill bidding, which is strictly forbidden. According to eBay policy: "If you think that another member is shill bidding, you don't need to report it to us. eBay has a number of systems in place to detect and monitor bidding patterns and practices. If we identify any malicious behavior, we'll take steps to prevent it."

I've often wondered about Shill Feedback.  Sometimes I see an eBay seller who's fairly new, but already has lots of 100% positive feedback. Since every feedback is tied to an actual item sold & delivered, I'm not exactly sure how a seller would pull that off. Not without hundreds of relatives or friends...or sock accounts...to buy stuff and give feedback.  So I'm probably just being paranoid.

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13 hours ago, PatW said:

most of the model shops are gone from the High Street or Malls so the internet is the only way to buy. 

And we only have ourselves to blame for this one. Back when online shopping was the "new" thing, everyone bought from there because it was cheaper - driving the hobby shops OOB.

Now it's the ONLY way to find anything, and the prices aren't so cheap anymore. 

We reap what we have sown.

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1 hour ago, Mike999 said:

I've often wondered about Shill Feedback.  Sometimes I see an eBay seller who's fairly new, but already has lots of 100% positive feedback. Since every feedback is tied to an actual item sold & delivered, I'm not exactly sure how a seller would pull that off. Not without hundreds of relatives or friends...or sock accounts...to buy stuff and give feedback.  So I'm probably just being paranoid.

It's based on the percentage of his sales. If he sold 1 item and got a perfect rating, then he would have a 100% positive. 

Edited by Oldcarfan27
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