Overpaying on eBay

[Gary Carter]

Why do so many people pay so much for items on eBay. I have been watching for a Galco Miami Classic holster for my 1911. I can buy one new over-the-counter for $136.27. But, the used ones on eBay constantly go for $130 to $160 with shipping. Does not make sense to me. Kind of like trying to but a used oxy-excetaline torch at a farm auction with an Amish man bidding on it.

[jhrosier]

Why do so many people pay so much for items on eBay. ...

1. Auction Fever ... "I'll have it, no matter what it takes."

2. Poor Google-Foo ... Some folks just don't know how to shop.

3. Boredom + too much money.


Jack

[462]

4. More money than brains.

[btroj]

Idiocy knows no bounds.

People just don't take the time to think about shopping around or knowing what they are looking at. And it bothers me not to see idiots grossly overpay for items on flea bay. They get what they deserve.

[NoZombies]

A lot of people assume that because something is used and sold at auction, that they're getting a deal.

Ever been to an art auction? Those things are amazing.

[Gary Carter]

I made it a rule a long time ago I never pay over 50% of retail value at auction. If I see an item on a sale I am interested in I always research it before I go.

[RP]

From what other members have said some are not in the states and cant get those items where they are at so they pay more.

[Mk42gunner]

Also remember that it takes two people that are willing, if not eager, to pay more that an item is worth to run the price up.

These guys are easy to spot at farm auctions; they are the ones that jump on the first bid offered by the auctioneer, before he lowers the price to a realistic level.


Robert

[BackWoods Billy]

Tell me about it.Been looking for a deals on molds for a long time on there and there is alway some guy that will pay more for a used mold then I can buy it new.I stoped looking at molds on there .

[August]

If you sell and buy on ebay, you probably have a PayPal account. Like chips at a Casino, the money in a PayPal account doesn't always feel the same as real money. And, most importantly, a lot of guy's wives don't know what's in their PayPal account.

It's a "grey" economy, if you will.

[cajun shooter]

Many sellers have auction buddies that will keep raising the price. They are easy to spot as they will only have joined and all their bids have been with one seller or two at most. I just back away when I encounter this. You also have to lose that I will not be beat attitude and let them have it. I have had sellers contact me and say the other bidder was a no pay and I could have it for the last bid. How can they declare a non payer in just 3 hours after a auction? I no longer buy from E Bay.

[Rocky Raab]

My only question is where are those idjits when I sell something? Huh?

[John 242]

I’ve often wondered why some people will pay more than retail, plus shipping, for items on E-bay. Overseas buyers would explain a few cases, however auction fever probably accounts for most of the over spending. Others shoppers are probably ignorant and simply spend money without knowing what they’re buying. I think we are all guilty of that to some extent at one time or another (I’ve gotten ripped off when buying a car).
I’ve bought a few items on E-bay and I feel that I saved some money. I also research the retail price of items I’m interested in and keep track of auctions on E-bay in my ‘watch list’. I get a feel for what the average auction price is for what I’m looking for and decide what I’m willing to spend. If the auction goes over my limit, I bow out.
I’m sure that there is some crookedness going on with fake buyers driving up prices, but that’s the nature of the beast. People will always find ways to play the system.

[Thecyberguy]

Shhhhhhh! I have a new 22 bator I plan on selling soon don't scare them away before I sell mine.....ha ha ha and I want to get all I can for it....LOL

TCG

[MtGun44]

This topic keeps coming up. I'm sure many are just knuckleheads, but you need to
keep in mind that here are foreigners bidding too. In many countries a mold that
is $25 retail in the US is more than double that AND out of stock all the time.

Bill

[evan price]

There's a lot of shill accounts on eBay. Now that they made it impossible to track what other bidders are doing you can't do the research to see if you are being shilled. Before they started concealing bidder identities I personally accounted for four shill rings and got them banned. It was pretty easy- just time consuming- to search various bidders' activity and discover that for example, a circle of four ID's are only bidding on each others' stuff. Or the auction closes and the seller immediately PMs you that the high bidder bailed out and you can have it for your highest bid. That's pretty much a dead giveaway.

When I started casting I first went to eBay to look at moulds figuring they would be cheap there. Well, shows what I know. There's guys selling new Lee moulds for more than the MidwayUSA price, or the Lee direct price. Obviously they must sell them because all they need is a sucker now and then- then they have it drop-shipped from Lee, no overhead, no inventory, free money.

Pretty much I research anything I want to buy and know what it will cost going in- then I just set an alarm on my cell phone's appointment reminder calendar, and go snipe the auction.

Know what you want to pay including shipping, and bid exactly that amount 3 seconds before the auction ends. That way if you get out bid you can't go back and bid more. Saves the remorse. Somebody just wanted it more! My best record was a 1-second snipe on an International Harvester forestry truck. I got not one but TWO p*ssed-off messages from other bidders that I was "unfair" and they should have won. Cry me a river. I got the truck for $3000 less than what it would have cost locally even after paying $600 to ship it.

If an item has no bids it's not as appealing to bid on, but if an item is going inexpensively and has a bidder, people think "That guy's gonna get a steal!" and then they try to overbid. Plus if you bid your max, somebody might get caught in auction fever and overbid. Sniping prevents that.

Works on Gunbroker, too, but you can't snipe there past 15 minutes.

[Gary Carter]

My youngest son has a motorcycles that was only sold in the United States in 1983. There is always someone on eBay that has oil filters, electrical relays, and other OEM parts for two to three times what you can go into the dealership and pay. A lot of people must not realize that even though the bike was only sold in the United States for one year, it was sold overseas for 4 and made with common parts the were used for years in other models.

[10x]

"there is a sucker born every minute" P.T. Barnum
And a very large number of them have discovered Ebay...

[sliphammer]

Ebay is one of the few places you can still find H&G molds. Once in awhile there might be one on Auction Arms or Gunbroker but they seem to appear on ebay more often. Right now a 6 cavity, H&G version of the 358156 is on as well as a H&G, Keith 503, 44 cal. in 4 cavity. I'm sure they will go for big bucks but they are quality molds you simply don't run across often. I'll be bidding.

[PatMarlin]

I find great deals on ebay. Just got to know your market and check back often. Selling too. One time there will be no buyers for your item, relist it and shazaam.. top dollar sale.

[rhead]

They do it in live auctions also. Just be happy for the seller because they got a good price. If they are using shills they are only hurting themselves unless someone outbids the shill.

Maybe I am missing something but I cannot understand the attitude that if I want something and someone else wants it more and is willing to pay more how do I have some right to resent that I got outbid? Maybe their bid was ill advised. Maybe it is not available locally. It is not my business. I know what it is worth to me and how much I will pay. I will not pay more.

Are some people wanting a rule to be enacted at eBay and other auctions that they personally cannot be outbid on an article that they really want bad?
How would you go about getting on that list? What if two list members wanted the same article?

My advice is grow up and get over it.

[NSP64]

Gary, you missed an opportunity. You should buy two holsters, sell one on ebay for more then it cost. That way yours will be cheaper. Lol

[Three-Fifty-Seven]

I was selling a old garden tractor on ebay a few years ago . . . the guy who won got tractor fever, and caught up in the bidding against another guy . . . about an hour after the auction closed for $565 he sent me an email say his wife was mad as he had just bought another tractor last week, and he only had $200, but he had some woodworking tools to trade!

I was moving from VT to AZ in ten days, I did not want to pack more stuff, that is why I was selling the tractor!

I tried to contact the next lower bidder, but they never got back to me . . . I relisted it, and ended up selling it in the next auction to the second bidder (from the 1st auction!) for $270!

I was moving . . . what could I do?

So some times it is not a shill, but just an idiot who doesn't understand taking responsibility for their actions!

[Tazman1602]

4. More money than brains.

+1

I buy and sell on ebay and I always watch out for bullet molds that come up for sale.

The dumbest things I've ever seen sold there are Lee molds, most of which you can buy from Midway or Midsouth for $20 plus shipping. People pay $3-4 more on ebay than what you can buy them for NEW. It just kills me.

The ONLY way you will EVER get a deal on ebay is to look at an item, figure out what you will pay for it, make your bid, and WALK AWAY.

...........or you can use an Auction Sniper program for your bid which will keep the compulsive bidders from pushing the price up because you have a standing bid on said item.

..........and if a seller is raping me on shipping I will not even bid, period!

Art

[BruceB]

Gents:

We have to realize that at least *some* of the high-bidders are folks who KNOW what they're doing, and have made a conscious decision that they need or want the item badly enough to pay the higher price.

In the case of bullet moulds, I have done exactly this on a few occasions...paying more than a ROUGHLY-equivalent new/modern mould would cost. The reason was simply that a particular older or rarer mould may have offered something (design? diameter? number of cavities?) that the new mould might not. Maybe that makes me an "idiot", but I don't think so....and I HAVE WHAT I WANTED AT A PRICE I WAS PREPARED TO PAY.

Having said all that, there are certainly a whole lot of people who do pay waaaay too much for garden-variety stuff !

[3006guns]

I've gotten to that point in life that if someone wants to pay more than retail for something, whether out of enthusiasm or just stupidity.......fine. Let 'em. Another item will turn up eventually.

What bugs me is a seller offering a tiny item.....say, a trigger pin.....and the shipping cost is listed as something like $19.00! They're going to get value out of that item somehow!! I've called out more than one seller on that after an auction and had several suddenly "discover" a more reasonable shipping method.

[Gary Carter]

They do it in live auctions also. Just be happy for the seller because they got a good price. If they are using shills they are only hurting themselves unless someone outbids the shill.

Maybe I am missing something but I cannot understand the attitude that if I want something and someone else wants it more and is willing to pay more how do I have some right to resent that I got outbid? Maybe their bid was ill advised. Maybe it is not available locally. It is not my business. I know what it is worth to me and how much I will pay. I will not pay more.

Are some people wanting a rule to be enacted at eBay and other auctions that they personally cannot be outbid on an article that they really want bad?
How would you go about getting on that list? What if two list members wanted the same article?

My advice is grow up and get over it.

I am not complaining about being outbid, just amaized at the number of people willing to pay new+ price for an item that is commonly available, not rare or even hard to find.

[Shooter6br]

Sometimes it is foreign bidders. i had a guy from Brazil pay more than the value on a camera. Their money was worth more than the U>S money

[shotman]

snipeing too -- great --- takes a while to get it- but will stop the helper bidders

[Thecyberguy]

I have bought and sold on Ebay for a long time. You never know. I have seen stuff go for way more than new.....and then I have bought things at 10 cents on the dollar.

I also research what the retail would be and never plan on paying more than a certain percentage of that based on what it is. I figure what I will pay tops and pop in a bid in the last minute or two. If I get it, fine if not well it went for more than i was willing to pay.

It does suck to get sniped with only 5 seconds to go...LOL...I have had some choice words.....as I am sure some were aimed at me... Like I said....you never know.

have a good 'un, TCG

[Ohio Rusty]

It's got to be a sickness. Like an addicted gambler maybe. When you get something you wanted at a good price you feel good about your purchase. There are people I swear get a 'high' from winning ..... and that is winning at any cost. Just to give an example ...I am watching 3 pair of blacksmith tongs. Nothing special about them, just forged flat jawed tongs. They normally sell for 10 bucks a piece .... that would be 30 bucks for all three. The bidding is up to $97.00 and the have a day left. !!! That is stupid !!!! I'm definitely letting them pass ....

The other thing I dislike is when someone charges 10 buck to ship something, and the shipping is actually $1.50. People make big extra profits on shipping on top of the money they get for their goods. If the shipping is out of control, I usually wrote them to see if they will come down on shipping if I win. Usually not, so I don't bid.

Ohio Rusty ><>

[jcwit]

Just "won" (don't like that word, I consider it a purchase) my first E-Bay auction. Got an old one at a time Lee Priming tool for $20.00 which think is very reasonable. Shipping is $2.80 which I also think is very good. So for my first experience, I'm happy.

[winelover]

A Lyman 33889 I was watching on E-bay just sold for $152.50 plus shipping.:holysheep Needless to say I passed on it. I can have a duplicate made for less and have it throw a boolet to whatever diameter I want with whatever alloy I choose.

Winelover