Fleabay - What Am I Missing?
Discussion
If a Fleabay seller [b]clearly has a number of items all the same[/b] (presumably some job lot) and, for example advertises them every other day, two or three at a time, at:
Starting Price £9.99
Buy It Now Price £12.99
Why would someone come along and outbid to [b]more than £12.99?[/b]
Just seems moronic to me. :scratchchin:
Starting Price £9.99
Buy It Now Price £12.99
Why would someone come along and outbid to [b]more than £12.99?[/b]
Just seems moronic to me. :scratchchin:
Yeah, ebay used to be kinda good until:
1. Everyone got hold of it and started trying to sell turds for a tenner (or something).
2. I bought an old Metal CD (Helloween!!!) which had an "extra" track in the middle of it when it was from a different album. Bloke said it wasn't a copy, oh no.
3. People put obscene postage costs on (as ebay tells you to, in a way).
The charges also now make it not really worth it, unless it's rare.
1. Everyone got hold of it and started trying to sell turds for a tenner (or something).
2. I bought an old Metal CD (Helloween!!!) which had an "extra" track in the middle of it when it was from a different album. Bloke said it wasn't a copy, oh no.
3. People put obscene postage costs on (as ebay tells you to, in a way).
The charges also now make it not really worth it, unless it's rare.
beano500 said:
If a Fleabay seller clearly has a number of items all the same (presumably some job lot) and, for example advertises them every other day, two or three at a time, at:
Starting Price £9.99
Buy It Now Price £12.99
Why would someone come along and outbid to more than £12.99?
Just seems moronic to me.
Someone may bid between 9.99 and 12.99 though....i.e. £11.17 or £12.81
Dickster said:
People put obscene postage costs on (as ebay tells you to, in a way). [quote]
Yes, they say you can't add on PayPal fees (why the heck not?) so marking up postage is away to claw it back. Still, you shoudl find out postage before you bid.
[quote=Dickster]The charges also now make it not really worth it, unless it's rare.
It does add up. After Listing Fee, Final Value Fee and PayPal fee, expect to lose 15%.
You have uncovered the weakness of Ebay as a trading mechanism. It is designed for one off sales. So if you have a container load of something it is a bugger to use. Google also has manifold weaknesses, try Googling for TVR Power and see how easily it gets you that company. Just because these are the tools we now use we assume that they are the tools for the job, they aren't. There is a lot more that can be done to make the WWW work better for the average user.
Ebay can be fantastic - but the company really needs to sort out the idiots and scammers by massivley tightening up it's registration mechanisms.
Quite unbelievably, you can register as a seller or bidder with no proof of ID. You only need CC ID if you register from a web based email account.
A totally ridiculous system.
Quite unbelievably, you can register as a seller or bidder with no proof of ID. You only need CC ID if you register from a web based email account.
A totally ridiculous system.
beano500 said:
Why would someone come along and outbid to more than £12.99?
Just seems moronic to me.
I could say the obvious, but people seem to have covered the numpty factor pretty well!
It's an auction, if two people really want said piece of crap they may fight and end up paying a lot more than makes sense to any reasnoble human being! I have seen so much home cinema / digital camera rubbish that you could get cheaper new than what people end up paying... go figure that one!
beano500 said:In this particular scenario, if you decided you wanted the item but you don't feel like paying 12.99 or you feel nobody else is going to bid on it for whatever reason, you place a big of 9.99 to save you a few quid.
If a Fleabay seller clearly has a number of items all the same (presumably some job lot) and, for example advertises them every other day, two or three at a time, at:
Starting Price £9.99
Buy It Now Price £12.99
Why would someone come along and outbid to more than £12.99?
Just seems moronic to me.
The moment a bid is placed, the "Buy It Now" option is removed completely, so much so that you can't even see how much it actually was and how much the seller was willing to let it go for. So anyone else who comes along sees it as a regular auction with a single bid for 9.99.
Enter Joe Bloggs, who decides he too wants the item and starts a bidding war with you. You then decide that in spite of the fact that it was on sale for 12.99 earlier on, for whatever reason (which could include a sudden need for the item or the fact that it is the only one of its kind available on eBay) you fight with Joe Bloggs for the product and the eventual winning bid may well exceed 12.99.
This is a very real scenario - you took a risk, and you lost the gamble. Plain and simple.
I find eBay is an absolutely brilliant trading avenue, and the system is absolutely flawless. There are ways around EVERYTHING, even those Nigerian scammers (i.e. set up an approved list where people can only bid for your item once you approve them to do so).
And oh, if you have shed loads to sell, there is free software you can download from eBay to automate the process.
D
and they were selling. Dickster said:
Yeah, ebay used to be kinda good until:
3. People put obscene postage costs on (as ebay tells you to, in a way).
Jeez that hacks me off.
I thought the post office and parcel force charged, but oh no... ebayers have their own postage charge... called profit 
so they don't have to pay the comission. Still never ceases to amaze me that people will pay MORE than the retail price for stuff...
Gassing Station | The Pie & Piston Archive | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff