steveviscious89 Posted February 17, 2014 Posted February 17, 2014 So I have a list of sets that I want to collect over time. I do not want to pay more than the market value according to this site though. Why is it that people are posting NIB sets on ebay for WAY more than the market value? Do they expect to sell them for that, because obviously they don't sell. The best thing to do would be to let people bid and see how high it goes. I don't think anyone is going to pay 1500 bucks for something whose market value new is only 350. I'm sure this has been discussed before, but it just seems so illogical to try to get hundreds more than something is worth. I know it's been going on for years but ...yeah...I don't get it. Quote
Alcarin Posted February 17, 2014 Posted February 17, 2014 People play cards hoping some uneducated fool to say the least will pay simple. I dont let my MISB stuff on bidding wars..... Quote
steveviscious89 Posted February 17, 2014 Author Posted February 17, 2014 People play cards hoping some uneducated fool to say the least will pay simple. I dont let my MISB stuff on bidding wars..... Well I mean, if we're talking twenty bucks over the market value, then I can deal with that just for the fact that I'm collecting and not so much trying to make a profit. But hundreds over? Well...I'm not an uneducated fool either..haha. Do you not let people bid on the new stuff because you're afraid it won't get the proper value? I see the same kind of thing on Amazon too... Quote
Alcarin Posted February 17, 2014 Posted February 17, 2014 Well I mean, if we're talking twenty bucks over the market value, then I can deal with that just for the fact that I'm collecting and not so much trying to make a profit. But hundreds over? Well...I'm not an uneducated fool either..haha. Do you not let people bid on the new stuff because you're afraid it won't get the proper value? I see the same kind of thing on Amazon too... Well i dont let them because it might happen that some guy who would otherwise pay much more is at business trip or whatever you wish to read instead that... generally away.... Its better to list it BIN with accepting best offers than as bids... atleast for me.... But my problem is lower Feedback on Ebay... only around 60 (100% positive though) .... so yea might be that Quote
Guest TabbyBoy Posted February 17, 2014 Posted February 17, 2014 If something's out of stock at retailers and a rich parent wants it, they may just bite. I often list things high with best offers. Quote
cvail8 Posted February 17, 2014 Posted February 17, 2014 1) overseas pricing is generally way off, so what's worth x in the US is worth x+y in other markets 2) ebay gives out so many free listings that it makes some sense to take 5 minutes to make a listing that you can just relist forever until you find some sucker or the set is actually worth that amount 3) an auction is the WORST way to make money on sets. Generally speaking, auction sets go for much LESS than the BP value. Did you ever consider that maybe they don't really want the sets to sell right now? Instead of just having them sit on a shelf collecting dust, they might as well be for sale and collecting dust. Quote
Yellowtot Posted February 17, 2014 Posted February 17, 2014 It's also a good way to generate traffic to your ebay store. I do it often and if it sells hell it's just a bonus. Quote
imirish11 Posted February 17, 2014 Posted February 17, 2014 Listings like that are simply placeholders. It's better to sell a few items, raise the price if you're running low on inventory, then return the price to the proper amount when you restock. This way your listing does NOT end, which is better for your best match search results. Furthermore, if one happens to sell when low on inventory, you can just use another eBay seller to drop ship the item to your customer provided the item is marked up high enough to profit on such a transaction. Quote
Darth_Raichu Posted February 17, 2014 Posted February 17, 2014 I LOVE those listings. They make my stuffs look way cheaper in comparison :) Quote
Anakinisvader Posted February 17, 2014 Posted February 17, 2014 I have a 1000% great service mark up. Quote
njseale Posted February 17, 2014 Posted February 17, 2014 Many many reasons to do this, some of which have been stated here. Most of the time sellers are not expecting the item to sell at that price. Quote
steveviscious89 Posted February 17, 2014 Author Posted February 17, 2014 Many many reasons to do this, some of which have been stated here. Most of the time sellers are not expecting the item to sell at that price. I can understand that. It's just that...from the buyer's perspective, even if there's an option to make an offer(which sometimes there isn't), it's difficult to even consider making a reasonable offer because it would have to be so far below the asking price. And then sometimes they are the only ones selling that particular set, which makes things even more difficult. Quote
njseale Posted February 17, 2014 Posted February 17, 2014 I can understand that. It's just that...from the buyer's perspective, even if there's an option to make an offer(which sometimes there isn't), it's difficult to even consider making a reasonable offer because it would have to be so far below the asking price. And then sometimes they are the only ones selling that particular set, which makes things even more difficult. Yup like I said sometimes sellers are not expecting the product to sell, it's just a placeholder, window item, etc. On the other hand when they are the only seller offering a set and the price is sky high, that is a simple example of supply and demand. I have been known to place absurd prices on hot items when supply was very low, and every now and then they actually sell. Quote
MartinP Posted February 17, 2014 Posted February 17, 2014 Yup like I said sometimes sellers are not expecting the product to sell, it's just a placeholder, window item, etc. On the other hand when they are the only seller offering a set and the price is sky high, that is a simple example of supply and demand. I have been known to place absurd prices on hot items when supply was very low, and every now and then they actually sell. A great example of the supply demand is a MISB 10019 Rebel Blockade Runner. Currently, the set is valued at $1,000+, but there are a few listings that are for more than $1,600. I think that there are about five or six right now so a buyer would not have many choices if they wanted this set right now. Quote
janedoe Posted February 18, 2014 Posted February 18, 2014 While you're waiting for your auction to end, I can have an antsy buyer pay a bit more and buy it straight from me via 'Buy it now', and I'll have the package out tomorrow. Quote
steveviscious89 Posted February 18, 2014 Author Posted February 18, 2014 A great example of the supply demand is a MISB 10019 Rebel Blockade Runner. Currently, the set is valued at $1,000+, but there are a few listings that are for more than $1,600. I think that there are about five or six right now so a buyer would not have many choices if they wanted this set right now. However, another aspect of supply and demand is a situation where the product is prohibitively expensive and the buyer looks for a more affordable product. I know there may be no evidence of this, but I'm willing to bet that growth would be quicker if sellers were actually trying to sell these things at more reasonable prices. I would think that hoping someone gets impatient and pays hundreds more is not the best strategy. It's kind of like the housing market. If you list your house for way more than it's worth, barely anyone even looks at it or considers it because they know making an offer that's reasonable will likely get rejected. On the flip side, listing it at or just above market value will likely have a lot more potential to sell, and you make a few dollars in the process. Meanwhile, the overpriced homes just sit there forever most of the time because the seller really isn't interested in selling unless it goes for way more than it's worth. I guess my point is that I do not agree with listing something that you don't really intend to sell. Quote
Spartikis Posted February 18, 2014 Posted February 18, 2014 I do this with a lot of my sets. not quite to the extend of listing a $300 set for $1500, but i have an imperial flagship which are selling for $400 right now ive got it listed for $500, its a free listing and lasts for ever, eventually the price will rise to near $500 and someone will buy and i dont have to bother following the market prices. Some people do it to get lucky, hoping that some fool will over pay, maybe a kid asks for the set, the uneducated parent just clicks BIN on the first set they see. Another reason is they dont want to sell it, on bricklink i have several sets i have no intention of selling but list them to improve the appearance of my store. I would never sell my used cafe corner but if someone wants to pay me $1000 for it ill gladly sell it to them and buy a new used one for $600-700 from someone else. Quote
kenchu2000 Posted February 18, 2014 Posted February 18, 2014 Well, depends on how you look at it. When I see a seller listed an item for an super high price, I would think he's a very dishonest seller (I know this is just a business). That gives me a pretty bad first impression about this seller and I have no desire to buy anything off him. Maybe it's just me. Quote
stoltzjl77 Posted February 18, 2014 Posted February 18, 2014 I will do this on Amazon as a placeholder. I'll put in my price point even though it's nowhere near to the current value, betting that it will eventually appreciate to that level. It is surprising how fast an item's value can change sometime (especially in Nov-Dec). Probably not as much for the sets that have been EOL for a while, but it does happen. As a buyer, it doesn't bother me. I know what I'm willing to pay so the high-priced ones are easy to skip over. Quote
Mos_Eisley Posted February 18, 2014 Posted February 18, 2014 How many more back and forths does this need? Lol. If you don't like the price, don't buy it. Obviously the seller has their reasons, so they don't care what your opinion is of their pricing strategy, nor do they need to be told that you'd buy it if it was half the price or how they could have sold it already if the price was lower. For most sets there are several options available for buying the same exact thing. If you don't like the price, move along, you'll find another soon enough. Quote
steveviscious89 Posted February 18, 2014 Author Posted February 18, 2014 I do this with a lot of my sets. not quite to the extend of listing a $300 set for $1500, but i have an imperial flagship which are selling for $400 right now ive got it listed for $500, its a free listing and lasts for ever, eventually the price will rise to near $500 and someone will buy and i dont have to bother following the market prices. Some people do it to get lucky, hoping that some fool will over pay, maybe a kid asks for the set, the uneducated parent just clicks BIN on the first set they see. Another reason is they dont want to sell it, on bricklink i have several sets i have no intention of selling but list them to improve the appearance of my store. I would never sell my used cafe corner but if someone wants to pay me $1000 for it ill gladly sell it to them and buy a new used one for $600-700 from someone else. If you're talking about the big imperial flagship, I would probably pay 500 if I had it right now...haha. That kind of thing is perfectly fine by me. Trying to get a hundred bucks more than market value is pretty much what I would expect. And if there's no other competitive listings, I'd probably just pick that one. Quote
steveviscious89 Posted February 18, 2014 Author Posted February 18, 2014 How many more back and forths does this need? Lol. If you don't like the price, don't buy it. Obviously the seller has their reasons, so they don't care what your opinion is of their pricing strategy, nor do they need to be told that you'd buy it if it was half the price or how they could have sold it already if the price was lower. For most sets there are several options available for buying the same exact thing. If you don't like the price, move along, you'll find another soon enough. That's my concern with the subject. Some of the sets on my list I have a hard time finding...except for those outrageously expensive listings. One I'm bidding on right now, at one point I could not find a seller that had it 100% complete anywhere. I guess I just find it slightly annoying that some of these sellers(probably no one here) think they can hold the market hostage by trying to get that much for those certain sets. It's like having to pay for freakin gasoline.....except you actually need that. I knew this topic might stir up some controversy, so it can be closed now. I guess I have my answers. Quote
greenwindow Posted February 18, 2014 Posted February 18, 2014 Another reason could be that the seller went on vacation and isn't paying for an ebay store that lets them put an "out of office" reply on their auctions. Of course, that would only apply if all of the seller's items are priced much higher than everyone else. Quote
wholovesboo Posted February 18, 2014 Posted February 18, 2014 While we all have our gripes as buyers (I for one skip over the often puzzling, ridiculously overpriced items when shopping on eBay), I do appreciate the OP's questions and subsequent responses from experienced sellers. Gives me insight on different selling strategies--ways to manage your inventory and your time, etc. Quote
Darth_Raichu Posted February 18, 2014 Posted February 18, 2014 ONE more possible reason: the seller sold his 10 copies for the price he was comfortable with and decided to use his remaining 1 copy to test how much time is needed for a set to reach the magical 5x RRP (True story !!!!) Quote
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