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Ridiculous pricing on the bay


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It's not a deadbeat bidder, it's a shill bidder running up the final bid price. When a legitimate bidder doesn't outbid the shill the seller ( aka the shiller) sends you a second chance offer at your last / highest bid price. 

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I don't accept any second chance offers for the reasons "Habu2" mentions above. I don't need anything that bad and they (second chance offers) always cause warning bells to go off to me. Besides, when it comes to EBay the general rule of thumb is there will be another one of whatever you're looking for along soon. Patience pays off.

 

Regards,

Don

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Some times i find myself backtracking my own ebay feedback and have a closer look at what sellers i`ve bought from in the past are listing. Chances are someone you already shopped with will meet your requirements as a buyer and not just buy from unknown sellers. Nothing like a repeat customer ;-)

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On 9/13/2017 at 7:18 AM, Don said:

Besides, when it comes to EBay the general rule of thumb is there will be another one of whatever you're looking for along soon. Patience pays off.

 

 

Amen to this! Everybody write this down, internalize it, and bid accordingly.

 

Steven Brown

Scale Model Soup

 

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  • 3 months later...
On 2017-09-12 at 8:06 PM, habu2 said:

It's not a deadbeat bidder, it's a shill bidder running up the final bid price. When a legitimate bidder doesn't outbid the shill the seller ( aka the shiller) sends you a second chance offer at your last / highest bid price. 

 

Since that feature was added I have sent three second chance offers, twice when the high bidder didn’t pay and the second time when I had a duplicate item. All three sold and I don’t shill bid.

 

I always get a kick out of these threads, if someone is willing to bid up an item it isn’t the sellers fault. And shipping amounts are automated if the seller has everything set-up correctly.

 

There are bad sellers and bad buyers, although there are more honest people than we often give credit for.

 

I haven’t sold on eBay for about a year. I grew tired of buyers reneging on payment or expecting shipments in seconds.

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I find all kinds of good deals on eBay. If you're a smart eBay-er and know what you want and the price you value the item at, then you should have no problems. Ebay is an open market, sellers can ask whatever they want for an item, that doesn't mean they will get what they want. The foolish buyer is the problem with eBay. After all, an item needs to sell at a given price to give any validity to the price point. If somebody is selling a Revell P-40B @ 35.00 and calling it a rare kit, will it sell? Odds are, NO, but if they did start moving at the price point the problem solely rest with the buyers allowing the market to move in a bloated direction.

 

Be a smart buyer and do not worry about the inflated seller. Many times I drop a seller a note asking about the price point if I find the price to be ridiculous. Some seller are good people and listen to what you have to say while other ignore you or respond with a message that is nothing short of ad hominem because they would rather attack you than deal with the actual problem. These sellers I mark and save in a folder.

 

Ebay can be a great place to get some good deals. Be patient and hunt until it hurts.

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Kind of related to the topic, but we often read how its hard for local hobby stores and "mom and pop" type stores to compete with EBay, Amazon, and online hobby stores etc. While here's a case where my Son and I have a local store that can compete and compete very well! It's a comic/toy/sci-fi model store (if you have been in a comic store lately odds are they carry similar products and you know what I am talking about). I am a repeat customer because I collect comics and the owner pulls aside certain issues on my wish list as they come in. Anyway, my Son and I are also huge Star Wars fans and collectors. He really likes the Clone Wars 3.75" figures and vehicles from Hasbro. He's only 9 and was only 4 when the Clone Wars Series was winding down. So he missed out on the toys when they were easily found in stores. So we pick items up when a realistic deal comes along (most SW collectors tend to inflate the value on their items). On EBay a new in box sealed ARC-170 Tiger Shark version like this...

 

51VUlEmXCZL.jpg

 

...is going to cost you a minimum of $80USD plus shipping (and that's a steal for EBay!). Our local comic store has started  branching out to stock vintage toys. We recently found one of the above ARC's for $50 in the store! He also had NIB Cad Banes Xanadu Star Fighter, Anakin's Enhanced/Modified Star Fighter, Droid Hyena Bomber, and Vulture Droid all for $19.99 plus he gave me a great deal off for buying all of them (essentially I got one ship free as well as 4 loose figures thrown in). So we essentially got all of the ships and figures for about what one ARC-170 Tiger Shark generally goes for on EBay. And he (the owner) now knows my Son collects the Clone Wars 3.75" toys and he will be keeping his eye out for more (now that my Son has the ARC-170 Tiger Shark this matching Gunship...

 

51pcKS6ePfL.jpg

 

...is on the top of his list. Yikes!!!).

 

TLDR: My long winded point is that sometimes you can find great/good deals close to home. They may be harder to find, it may be a bit of luck, but you never know.

 

Happy hunting everyone!

 

Regards,

Don

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On August 31, 2017 at 4:39 PM, 82Whitey51 said:

Cutting Edge stuff is always good for a chuckle...is this stuff going to sell?? I suppose if the right person sees it, or a museum commissioned me to build it and they're picking up the tab. But an average Joe modeler??? I'd love to have the A3J-1/A-5A set...but I have my limits.

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1-48-Cutting-Edge-48469-Tu-4-Kong-Jiang-1-Chinese-AWACS-New-Complete-Un-started-/142472838928?hash=item212c0aff10:g:8KYAAOSwwVRZjU69

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1-48-Cutting-Edge-48493-A3J-1-Vigilante-Conversion-New-Complete-Un-started-/142472837419?hash=item212c0af92b:g:J-4AAOSwBwBZjU3m

 

...oh, and you WILL pay for shipping! LOL...

 

I was watching that Tu-4 Kit.  Just watching.   Still kicking my butt for not buying it years ago when it was in production.   I've got an original Zacto A-7 correction kit that I've been offered in excess of $300 for.  Crazy what these things bring now.  But no way I'm selling it.  Already built the A-7E and now I want the D on the shelf next to it.  

 

Just look what the 1/32 Tamiya Thunderbird kit brings now.  It's crazy.  Still cannot figure out why Tamiya discontinued that one. 

 

I have seen seen kits listed over in China or Korea with crazy prices.  1/200 Arizona advertised at $799, etc.. I sometimes wonder if it is some kind of money laundering scheme.  

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14 hours ago, dnl42 said:

Here's an amazing price on Amazon!

F-104G Starfighter Aircraft 1/144 Revell Germany for $1,999! Hey, but at leas the shipping is only $4.99

 

Looking at the seller’s other items and ask prices I’d say that’s probably a typo.  

 

However even $19.99 would be a pretty outragous price for that kit...

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I've seen everything you guys have mentioned. An average kit for $8.00 but shipping is gonna set you back $27. 

 

I think some problems are people see a GWH TBD-1 Devastator going for $50, so they figure their Monogram TBD should be worth the same price. 

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14 hours ago, JEFlint said:

An average kit for $8.00 but shipping is gonna set you back $27. 

I have experienced a similar case in the past and when I asked the seller, he told me that Ebay had automatically changed the shipping cost he had placed.

 

As someone said earlier, Ebay is also getting fees now from the shipping cost of a kit.

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11 hours ago, SERNAK said:

I have experienced a similar case in the past and when I asked the seller, he told me that Ebay had automatically changed the shipping cost he had placed.

 

As someone said earlier, Ebay is also getting fees now from the shipping cost of a kit.

 

That isn’t how the shipping calculator works. Sellers can’t see shipping costs to specific buyers until the end of the auction, They enter the shipping method, dimensions, weight. If that is all correctly done the calculator determines the shipping total based on the shipping companies rules and the destination.

 

If I look at my own auctions and I am logged in I see shipping amounts defaulted to my home address. As I do if I looked at any other auction.

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The shipping costs some EBay sellers are charging is flat out laughable! When I come across a seller charging ridiculous shipping fees  I just move right along after a quick "WTH are you thinking" mumble to myself.

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5 minutes ago, Don said:

The shipping costs some EBay sellers are charging is flat out laughable! When I come across a seller charging ridiculous shipping fees  I just move right along after a quick "WTH are you thinking" mumble to myself.

 

I’m not saying it isn’t, I can’t buy from 99% of sellers in the US due to high shipping costs. I can ship for cheaper from Canada to the US.

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8 hours ago, Scooby said:

 

That isn’t how the shipping calculator works. 

Next time I find something that interests me on Ebay and has a ridiculously high shipping cost, I'll give you the web page to see it.

 

What I wrote earlier is exactly what the seller has told me. He had set a specific shipping cost and Ebay changed it, almost tripling it.

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14 hours ago, SERNAK said:

Next time I find something that interests me on Ebay and has a ridiculously high shipping cost, I'll give you the web page to see it.

 

What I wrote earlier is exactly what the seller has told me. He had set a specific shipping cost and Ebay changed it, almost tripling it.

 

My apologies, I should have written that in a different way. I’m sure that is what the seller told you and I am sure you see crazy shipping amounts. That isn’t the way the shipping calculator works if it is properly set-up though.

 

I know when I go to the Post Office my shopping is usually exact what I charge. I’m actually impressed how well it works. Occasionally my packaging increases the outside dimensions and I end up eating the difference if I can’t find a way to reduce the size. This only occurs when I am on the edge of a price change.

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6 hours ago, Raceaddict said:

I've never quite figured out how I can order an item from Russia and the shipping is a fraction of what it costs for the exact same item from the USA... sometimes just one or two states south of the border from me. :dontknow:

 

Same-same, I get packages from all over the world. U S shipping is the most expensive in the world, or the shipping amounts are being schewered.

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