The eBay Quote - a healthy debate

[the.golden.ax]

Recently a chronic issue has been coming up for me. Most recently a local thrift, and a mom n pop comic shop. The scenario: Great video game items for sale, marked high, with employees openly justifying the value because they "looked it up on eBay." In each case the shop in question has marked the price equal to a currently running "buy it now" listing, or as much as double. These are items that have not yet sold on eBay, but asking prices, often with best offer ability (not a closed listing). If you are going to try to match eBay selling price, at least see what it HAS sold for, not just what some pipedream asking price is randomly posted at the moment you looked. Engaging the stores employees, then management in each case has only met with more justifications for the eBay method, often quite rude.

 

My take on this is, hey, you can mark it anything you want, but I'm not going to buy it if it's higher than I can get it elsewhere. I'm not AS insulted by high prices, like I said I can walk away... but it's the justification, and mere mention of eBay, as though a God-source for all knowledge that really irks me to no end.

 

What do you all think?

 

AX

[Austin]

I think by using the completed listing feature as well as some common sense, one can get a pretty good idea what the general "market value" is on an item. Basing prices from those findings isn't such a bad idea. Using high BINs that aren't selling is NOT the way to do it, though.

[MagitekAngel]

My take is that the management has priced the product as such - and informed the customer of as much - not out of a genuine drive to price the item competitively, nor even out of laziness in checking the item's eBay listings more thoroughly, but rather to fool the uninitiated, not-so-eBay-savvy customer into thinking that There Is No Better Deal Elsewhere. Even though there are plenty of highballers on "ePay", if I see any game in a retro games store, I can be fairly certain that I can find it cheaper on eBay if I am committed to searching long and hard. The clever businessman does not need to price-match the internet - he needs only to convince his patron that he has done so.

[GregadetH]

My local Goodwill does this. They'll actually tape a print out of the ebay listing to the item, circle the price in pen and mark it as such. It blows my frickin' mind.

[Defender II]

I would take a few ET's and Combats in to the store with a copy of an ebay listing that says $20 for one and offer to sell them to the store at half price.

[oldjd]

Its not just with video games either.Theres a big flea market here in Tx.Called Canton trade days.Basically a huge garage sale on about what seems 2 sq.miles.

My wife and I try to go a couple times a year.The Ebay pricing has really over run just about all of the vendors there.

She(wife) was looking at some mixing bowls,no price tag on them,so she askedd the seller how much?He hollers back $100.00.They were worth no more then 25,so she starts to move away,and he starts yelling to her that on Ebay thay go for more then that.......

I have been hearing this so much from these people,Im about ready to puke

Video games,like mentioned,seen some of these people wanting 50 to 75 bucks for am atari with broken switches...and of course I always ask"Does it work"?This usually sets off another frenzy of "yep"and of course or some other b.s answer.

All of this type stuff,reminds me of when movie stars use to endorse cigarettes,and the consumers were always told that if John Wayne smoked them,there good

Of course the same rational could be applied to a neighbor who drops 50k for a car,that he could have got for 35 elsewhere,but hey....he can do it....so

[Rev]

just tell them if you wanted to pay ebay prices you would of went to ebay and not their store.

[Rev]

double post

Edited September 4, 2010 by revolutionika

[nofrills100]

just tell them if you wanted to pay ebay prices you would of went to ebay and not their store.

 

 

yeah totally,

 

or if it's worth that much or 'goes for more on ebay' ask them why the f#$% aren't they selling it on ebay, instead of having sitting around in their dusty crummy store, week after week!!!

 

edit: what shits me just as much is when you go to an auction house and they base their reserves on the value according to a BIN price on ebay, or something similar (but no where near as rare or in good condition) on ebay!

Edited September 4, 2010 by nofrills100

[eightbit]

The first time I have had this happen to me was a few years ago at a local game store...which is incidentally closed down now. Good riddance. Using ebay to get a rough idea of what things sell for is ok I suppose, but they were pulling the same crap in which they would sort the buy it nows and marking their prices in accordance with what some dipwad would really want for his common game.

 

I know I have found things that I may not have found otherwise because of ebay, but there is a little part of me that wishes it never existed. It ruined "the hunt" and spiked up prices for everything.

[+save2600]

Probably preaching to the choir - but yep, these are all good points. "God like" ePay references like that are for non-resourceful lazy chumps. I'd maybe try to explain how shill bidding runs rampant and a TON of buyers flake out after they realized they paid too much for whatever. Driving up an already perceived, faux and bloated value on things.

 

ePay buyers remorse is a serious problem that not only manifests as incomplete deals, but all the PayPal scammers forever trying to get something for nothing have a nice climate in which to do "business" with also.

 

Further, with ePay being a "global" economy... can't tell you how many people from across the pond are driving up the value of a lot of vintage electronics. As an example, what many of us Stateside wouldn't consider paying $10 for, you've got others across the planet sometimes willing to pay 2x-10x more!

 

So, I'd ask any local yokels if they enjoy dealing with all these dynamics before setting their prices on an eBay model. Dealing with eBay customers today is very risky. Sure, you may accidentally end up getting more for your goods than you thought they were worth, but any extra money I'd consider liability "insurance" as you deal with all of the uncertainties that go along with trading there. Take that extra cash, put it in a jar and wait for the next scammer to pull a PayPal "item not as described" stunt on 'ya. Just like getting busted for drinking and driving, will happen sooner or later the more you use

 

Oh and lastly, one should easily be able to talk them down some when you say they're not paying the eBay & PayPal commissions selling to *you*, right here, right now, not to mention the time it takes to set up an ad with them. What are the fees up to these days? On a $50 item, between ePay and ScamPal, seems like you can kiss $7-$10 goodbye pretty quick.

Edited September 4, 2010 by save2600

[Carey85]

This happens to me on a regular basis now. Whether it is an ebay quote or prices pulled from a 10 year old Digital Press guide, I'm often told that it sells for X amount on Y site. It is frustrating, but you really accomplish nothing by taking it out on the seller. I did have to stop doing business with a flea market vendor that I'd been buying from for the better part of a decade because he started treating a beat up Digital Press guide as God when it came to pricing as well as developing a knack for no longer wanting to haggle. As a result, he no longer gets my money.

[toiletunes]

Sad but true. I grit my teeth, count to ten, and offer cash at a fair price. They can turn it down and I can walk away.

[Crazy Climber]

Mis-informed employees/owners who don't know how to use Ebay sales records properly. It's just another reason Ebay will eventually kill all the specialty shops. I will miss the local (non-gamestop) used game stores but honestly they have pretty much turned to total shit in the last few years anyways, and yes, that is largely due to Ebay.

[amiman99]

I have one example of this, I wanted to purchase USB PS3 to PS2 joy-pad adapter in local MOM/POPS game store. It had no price, so I asked. She went on Amazon and Ebay to search for prices, for like 10 minutes. She came up with $7.50 because the prices were between $5 and $10. But, The Amazon incorrectly marked other product with this part number making it cheaper then it's worth. The real price on EBAY was $30 and people were paying that, because this model had PS Button, and the ones on Amazon did not. At this time I was lucky, but I did not like the fact that they did that. So beat them in their own game.

[Zwackery]

The sad and weepy part of the tale, oh my brothers, is that the very same (computer) technology that enables them to do the search in the first place - i.e., going to eBay - is not being fully utilized to see what recent auctions have sold for, what various rarity guides might indicate, and then use said computer to run a spreadsheet (or even just the virtual calculator) and come up with a reasonable selling point. Yes, eBay exposes your item to more traffic than you would ever get from just foot traffic, but realistic expectations on the part of the seller seem not to be the end result of any research. People are lazy, everything is worth gazillions, and to hell with you for even suggesting otherwise. I don't want to see any business go under, and maybe if they did take a more reasonable approach they might actually make a living - not at the Midas level, but enough to survive.

[Slayer Alexa]

hah i think its dumb. im sure the laws of supply and demand will set them straight soon enough. But if not...then i guess it wasnt so dumb afterall.

[Omegamatrix]

The scenario: Great video game items for sale, marked high, with employees openly justifying the value because they "looked it up on eBay." In each case the shop in question has marked the price equal to a currently running "buy it now" listing, or as much as double. These are items that have not yet sold on eBay, but asking prices, often with best offer ability (not a closed listing).

 

I don't know about the rest of you, but if I see an item listed for 3 or 4 times what it's worth with a "best offer" option, I NEVER make a best offer. And yeah, it pisses me when people do it. It's just how I feel. You end up situations like these employees using the prices all the time. It's not the employees fault. They are just looking up a price. They don't know that it has sat in someones store for the last year and a half clogging up all of our eBay searches.

[amiman99]

The scenario: Great video game items for sale, marked high, with employees openly justifying the value because they "looked it up on eBay." In each case the shop in question has marked the price equal to a currently running "buy it now" listing, or as much as double. These are items that have not yet sold on eBay, but asking prices, often with best offer ability (not a closed listing).

 

I don't know about the rest of you, but if I see an item listed for 3 or 4 times what it's worth with a "best offer" option, I NEVER make a best offer. And yeah, it pisses me when people do it. It's just how I feel. You end up situations like these employees using the prices all the time. It's not the employees fault. They are just looking up a price. They don't know that it has sat in someones store for the last year and a half clogging up all of our eBay searches.

 

Last year I wanted C64c, and I saw one but it was "Buy It Now" for like $100, but it have "Best Offer", so I submitted my offer at $15 + $35 shipping and the seller agreed, so sometimes you just need to try. If you look at it my total cost was $50.

[King_Salamon]

It doesn't bother me.... it's all part of a free society and market economy. You're right Ax... walk away.

 

In the end, does it really matter? These are just games and trinkets anyway... some people call them treasure while others call them junk.

 

If someone wants to price an item at an outrageous price, so be it. I'm sure you can snap up some of them on Ebay for a much cheaper price anyway. I suppose this does dry up some sources for you to get stuff to resell but in all fairness, it's only a matter of time for this to happen. Video games are a huge market so this will only continue to get worse until the bubble pops.

[Toraborakid]

It doesn't bother me.... it's all part of a free society and market economy. You're right Ax... walk away.

 

In the end, does it really matter? These are just games and trinkets anyway... some people call them treasure while others call them junk.

 

If someone wants to price an item at an outrageous price, so be it. I'm sure you can snap up some of them on Ebay for a much cheaper price anyway. I suppose this does dry up some sources for you to get stuff to resell but in all fairness, it's only a matter of time for this to happen. Video games are a huge market so this will only continue to get worse until the bubble pops.

 

 

I see a partial solution to the flea market vendors,

When u sell ANYTHING GAME RELATED! please put it as a buy it now w/ the best offer, and for go sakes please keep mark it as the right price , that way when they look it up they see lower prices and will price accordingly and when they confront u about ebay pricing u can simply say look it up.

 

 

Play there game and u cant loose..

 

or if we all flood the market with our dupes at the same time we can make the price drop like a rock.

 

 

And a note to those who sell on ebay, and inflate there prices that will come back and bite u in the ass when u are trying to replenish inventory.

Keep imn mind when ppl sell u there old systems they also look at ebay to see what its worth.

[Typhoon_Timmy]

Seriously.... is this an actual topic for debate?

 

It's easy to jump on the "I don't like spending money" bandwagon, but unfortunately this is all your fault.

Most collectors want games because they have value, not because they care to play them... everyone who has sold stuff in the marketplace forum has at least once bought a game at dirt cheap to make profit on this very website.

 

So your local shops and goodwills discovered ebay because you have drooled in their stores over their cheap game, probably told them "betcha didn't know this was rare" and raised suspicion.

 

By now you must realize that as long as people keep spending money on pointless nonsense to fill the void in their lives, that things with no value will have value. This topic could be about cars, guns, 80s toys, or anything. If you see a game, and it cost ebay price and you don't want to pay it, then you probably really don't want it anyways. You might be hollow inside and just want a deal.

 

Collectors, like most reading this, created these prices. Now you have to live with them.

 

Stores have a right to sell things at any price, especially if they are just trying to stay open and give know-it-all collectors a place to slum around and act pompous. BEGIN SARCASM So go to the local person NEAR YOU, who supplies YOU with games and be OUTRAGED in the biggest windbag way possible at their prices. END SARCASM

Edited September 4, 2010 by Typhoon_Timmy

[nofrills100]

shop owner right there! ^

[BDW]

I've started laughing at sellers whenever they give me an obnoxiously high price. The louder the laughter, the better.

[GregadetH]

Seriously.... is this an actual topic for debate?

 

It's easy to jump on the "I don't like spending money" bandwagon, but unfortunately this is all your fault.

Most collectors want games because they have value, not because they care to play them... everyone who has sold stuff in the marketplace forum has at least once bought a game at dirt cheap to make profit on this very website.

 

So your local shops and goodwills discovered ebay because you have drooled in their stores over their cheap game, probably told them "betcha didn't know this was rare" and raised suspicion.

 

By now you must realize that as long as people keep spending money on pointless nonsense to fill the void in their lives, that things with no value will have value. This topic could be about cars, guns, 80s toys, or anything. If you see a game, and it cost ebay price and you don't want to pay it, then you probably really don't want it anyways. You might be hollow inside and just want a deal.

 

Collectors, like most reading this, created these prices. Now you have to live with them.

 

Stores have a right to sell things at any price, especially if they are just trying to stay open and give know-it-all collectors a place to slum around and act pompous. BEGIN SARCASM So go to the local person NEAR YOU, who supplies YOU with games and be OUTRAGED in the biggest windbag way possible at their prices. END SARCASM

 

 

Wow. Cancel my subscription please. I don't need your issues.