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Post by WishItWas1984 on May 16, 2015 23:23:44 GMT -6
I will say that price is at the way high end based on condition. But they have gotten a little more expensive as the years go by and that makes no sense. If a collectible is available nearly EVERY DAY for sale the prices should be going DOWN but that doesn't happen because the market price has been set by the sellers. I don't really think this is true. Sellers can ask whatever they want, but it doesn't mean they will sell anything. If people are actually buying the items at those prices, than the buyers are setting the prices. Even if through ignorance or inexperience. And I still snipe plenty of eBay auctions, so that hasn't gone anywhere. As a buyer, I do like BIN because it makes things simple, but the only great scores I've gotten this way were mislisted. I wasn't clear. It was a "What If". If they are truly available all day every day, the prices really should go down. There's not THAT many of us out here. The influx of all these should hit less demand and see the price drop. They don't though, the prices tick up...because of the reasons I've mentioned earlier. To your comment, yeah sellers can charge whatever but we're not talking about lunatics charging $500 a figure because it's "old" and says Star Wars on it. The sellers are taking half or more of the available supply and pricing it as they see fit. That's the definition of sellers setting price, not the buyers. The buyers are forced to accept this. A buyer's purchase isn't confirmation the price is set correctly, it's confirmation the buyer had the money and needed the product and couldn't easily go anywhere else. A buyer truly sets the price when you give them the power to do so, which isn't the case anymore. Just look at Dark Tower. The vintage board game. In that realm it's pretty popular. I'm not a board game collector but I have some as part of the pop culture side of my collection. I'd love to have that. I always wanted one as a kid. 16 listings for working models in the box via my search right now. 14 BIN - One is $195 - 13 for $300-450! 2 Auctions - $70 (3 bids) current and $200 current (0 bids) If that's not sellers setting the market price of everything, I don't know what is. Oh and recently sold listings at $300 or over for that game? None. Zip. 2 for $299 that went unsold. I can snip that auction and others too, but that doesn't change the fact that I'll pay significantly more because of the effect BIN listings have on the market. |
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Post by waywardmonk on May 17, 2015 6:55:50 GMT -6
I don't really think this is true. Sellers can ask whatever they want, but it doesn't mean they will sell anything. If people are actually buying the items at those prices, than the buyers are setting the prices. Even if through ignorance or inexperience. And I still snipe plenty of eBay auctions, so that hasn't gone anywhere. As a buyer, I do like BIN because it makes things simple, but the only great scores I've gotten this way were mislisted. I wasn't clear. It was a "What If". If they are truly available all day every day, the prices really should go down. There's not THAT many of us out here. The influx of all these should hit less demand and see the price drop. They don't though, the prices tick up...because of the reasons I've mentioned earlier. To your comment, yeah sellers can charge whatever but we're not talking about lunatics charging $500 a figure because it's "old" and says Star Wars on it. The sellers are taking half or more of the available supply and pricing it as they see fit. That's the definition of sellers setting price, not the buyers. The buyers are forced to accept this. A buyer's purchase isn't confirmation the price is set correctly, it's confirmation the buyer had the money and needed the product and couldn't easily go anywhere else. A buyer truly sets the price when you give them the power to do so, which isn't the case anymore. Just look at Dark Tower. The vintage board game. In that realm it's pretty popular. I'm not a board game collector but I have some as part of the pop culture side of my collection. I'd love to have that. I always wanted one as a kid. 16 listings for working models in the box via my search right now. 14 BIN - One is $195 - 13 for $300-450! 2 Auctions - $70 (3 bids) current and $200 current (0 bids) If that's not sellers setting the market price of everything, I don't know what is. Oh and recently sold listings at $300 or over for that game? None. Zip. 2 for $299 that went unsold. I can snip that auction and others too, but that doesn't change the fact that I'll pay significantly more because of the effect BIN listings have on the market. I think we're just looking at it differently. How many collectors out there depends on the specific item you're talking about. The Dark Tower game is a great example because I just happened to find one at a flea market 1-2 years ago. The tower light came on, but did not function. I looked up what games in that condition sold for and I priced it with a BIN slightly lower than average ($60 maybe? It's been awhile). It sold quick. This game was is nearly impossible to find in perfect working condition and its one of the most sought after board games. I had a buddy in the 90's that would've paid over $100 for one at that time when it was only 10-15 years old.. Looking at the sold prices on eBay right now I don't see anything crazy except the sealed box prices. Even those are probably reasonable to a high end collector. There are extremely few sealed copies floating around. For me I would open it anyway so paying a few hundred extra for it sealed one is crazy to me. It seems like you are focusing on asking prices. You can look up any item on eBay and see a big difference between asking prices and average selling prices. To me this proves that buyers are setting the prices. I guess you are saying that selling prices are being affected by asking prices. I think this is really only true in individual cases where an inexperienced buyer sees the high asking price of a seller and thinks a lower (but still high) BIN price is a good deal. A perusal of selling prices will show a few instances of this happening, but this has little effect on the overall average selling price of an item unless its so uncommon there are not enough sales to judge value clearly. This happens with niche items and what I see personally with those rare ko's that turn up now and again. Like those Spanish 4" He-Man ko's that showed up last year. In that case, they were sold at auction and buyers clearly set the price they were willing to pay (at least the top two bidders anyway) which ended up being something like $100-200 per figure! There were no recent sales to gauge value with, few if any had seen them before, and those bidders really wanted those figures. The next time they came up they didn't sell for nearly that much and they are at much more reasonable prices now. Collectors bidding each other up like this with niche items trying to be the first or only person to own something uncommon is worse for collecting than eBay is IMO. |
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Post by Thor Laserpunch on May 17, 2015 8:21:05 GMT -6
It seems like you are focusing on asking prices. You can look up any item on eBay and see a big difference between asking prices and average selling prices. To me this proves that buyers are setting the prices. I guess you are saying that selling prices are being affected by asking prices. I think this is really only true in individual cases where an inexperienced buyer sees the high asking price of a seller and thinks a lower (but still high) BIN price is a good deal. A perusal of selling prices will show a few instances of this happening, but this has little effect on the overall average selling price of an item unless its so uncommon there are not enough sales to judge value clearly. This happens with niche items and what I see personally with those rare ko's that turn up now and again. Like those Spanish 4" He-Man ko's that showed up last year. In that case, they were sold at auction and buyers clearly set the price they were willing to pay (at least the top two bidders anyway) which ended up being something like $100-200 per figure! There were no recent sales to gauge value with, few if any had seen them before, and those bidders really wanted those figures. The next time they came up they didn't sell for nearly that much and they are at much more reasonable prices now. Collectors bidding each other up like this with niche items trying to be the first or only person to own something uncommon is worse for collecting than eBay is IMO. I think all this stuff is true to some extent, and I think you in particular have some good points about items that may be coming up for the first time ever, or maybe only come up a few times a year. There are other dynamics at work though. I have found that whatever you sell, if you specialize in certain lines, you can outperform in those lines compared to someone who just has a few items available in that line. I just sold a piece for 100 bucks which I have just found in the last week two of the same thing with various conditional differences selling for $40-50 less. And that is just one example and not the first time it's happened with me personally. If I look at sold listings for, let's say the seller wheeljackslab, and I compare his sales with sold listings of the exact same thing, I bet he is making out like a damn bandit even in an oversaturated category like Transformers. I believe it may have to do with how search results come up... anecdotally, some may be hidden or way down in the list of best matches, and items may be totally misplaced when you search by price. I also believe some people just have no idea how to use the search feature and probably get what they want if it's in the top results. Ebay pushes you to list and sell things in a certain way, and the major reward for doing it their way is how your listings show up in their best match results. |
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Post by waywardmonk on May 17, 2015 16:57:29 GMT -6
It wouldn't surprise me if eBay did something like that, but they are so casually unscrupulous with their practices I think they would simply advertise a policy that gave sellers that bide by their rules or "suggestions" the top search results. I think mostly those sellers are getting the better business just because they have developed a loyal repeat buyer base through good service and lots of inventory. wheeljackslab you mentioned has a 99.7% feedback rating of over 70,000. I'm sure he has many collectors that follow his auctions specifically. When I used to know dealers, I would pay them a little more because I knew who I was dealing with and trusted them. Kinda like paying more for name brands at the grocery store. I'm sure this affects average selling price a little.
eBay has made many changes since I started in the 90's, but users have changed too. Shoppers and sellers are both more savvy and people in general are more computer/tech literate. Anyone with a smart phone can take a pic and set up an eBay ad easily in minutes. Buyers don't have to search through ads anymore, just preset searches and get an email when what they're looking for becomes available. If it's an auction, just set the alarm on your phone and put your bid in wherever you are. When I've gone to garage sales and flea markets, so many people have their phones out looking up prices and seeing what things are worth. It's a tough market anymore unless you have something a lot of people want.
On the flip side, my daughter who is only teen but still a veritable expert on all things tech and trendy couldn't care less about eBay. I know young people use it, but it was different when eBay first started. It was the hot new thing and everyone with a computer was involved. It wasn't just buying/selling, it was entertainment. That's gone and despite eBay's monopoly on on-line auctions, they've had to change their model many times since then trying not just to make more money, but to stay viable.
Even with the tech of today, I missed two standard auctions just this weekend that went pretty low simply because I have a life and didn't feel like taking the time to snipe them. I think this happens a lot nowadays and why small sellers are running to Buy It Now.
It's all kind of a mess and I'm a little tired of it. I'm trying to move away from selling on eBay. I'm going to try BluJay for selling my low-value and niche extras as they accumulate and only use eBay for stuff I know would sell fast without risk.
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Post by Thor Laserpunch on May 17, 2015 17:58:39 GMT -6
Well, their search placement is pretty much a secret formula, but I'm certain they tell you in selling practices FAQs and store subscription pages, etc., that you do get better results if you do X.
As far as seller feedback is concerned, I am sure that figures into that formula, although ebay seems to be in bed with some major retailers to hide their feedback on item pages (TRU may be an obvious one to some of you). In fact, this past week or so they announced a test on their selling forum to see if doing this influenced certain buyers' behavior on a larger scale. I'm sure they do a lot of unannounced tests like this all the time, which could explain a lot of the semi- or non-functionality of the site on a constant basis, and just highlights your point that they are as you put it "so casually unscrupulous. Their own changes and constant revamping of fees can be partly blamed for prices increasing there over the years.
I have thought about using blujay for some things as well. It's a total waste of time to list pieces for less than $10 when they take 10% of the sale price and 10% of the shipping fees.
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