Ebay/craigslist rants/scams thread:

[Beamin]

I wonder if this actually works. People will list things at 10-20X the normal price. Are they betting someone will buy it accidentally? As soon as you buy it you are going to see their other listings for less money so I would imagine that they would cancel their order leaving the seller to relist the item.

I saw a wire wrap tool which sell for 20-30$ for some reason but some are around $300. I saw one of these and messaged the seller to see what the real price was. They told me that was the real price. I emailed them back with comparable listing and some of their own listing for the exact same thing at a fraction of the price. They told me that that is how much it cost. I told them they should get out of the ebay business and start selling crack because the stuff they are smoking is really good.

Here is an example of listing that came up under oscilloscope probes. Same thing at 10X the price.



http://www.ebay.com/itm/Progress-Lighting-P6136-09W-12-Volt-Low-Voltage-T4-Mini-Pendant-Tulip-with-White-/332293364192?epid=11004703889&hash=item4d5e3a59e0:g:RFMAAOSwOMdZXUtv

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Progress-Lighting-P6136-09W-12-Volt-Low-Voltage-T4-Mini-Pendant-Tulip-with-/142524556588?hash=item212f20252c:g:9KkAAOSw62VZ0OD5

The other thing that pisses me off is when Chinese people list the ads and they exaggerate the ratings of something not knowing that if the number is too high that's actually a bad thing. Look up 7kv spark ignitors. They will say 7000kv 70,000 volts 7Mv or what ever they think will make the product worth more. Even if you email them they will give you the same load of bullshit.

Or they think they understand western culture and will write things in their ad like: "100% certified senior technician good happy guaranteed customer service A+++ feedback policy."
Yes that is believable and its not condescending or makes your ad look foreign and untrustworthy.

[Beamin]

Another fun thing about craigslist is when people need a discount because you can't deliver a $10 item to their house that's 40 miles out in the middle of nowhere. It seems like everyone asks for this. I always say the same thing "Does BestBuy give you a discount when you have to drive to the store because live out in the middle of nowhere? No? Why do you suppose that is?"

Or: "But I can get a new one at Home depot for only $50 more."
"Then go to home depot and buy a new one because that's a much better deal from what you have told me."

"There is a guy selling one down the street from me that is cheaper and in better condition." Then they offer some ridiculous price. "Then go buy that one. Why would you even bother calling me if there is one for sale right down the street for less money?"
"Better yet give me the phone number of the guy selling the one down the street. I want to buy it and then put it on craigslist and make some quick money." 

[Richard Crowley]

I was under the impression that sellers would greatly inflate their prices when they were out of stock (or out of the office, etc.) and unable to deliver.  And then change the price back to "normal" when they were ready to do business again.  Apparently easier (or cheaper?) than de-listing the item and then re-listing it.  Of course in the case of a one-off listing on Craigslist, etc. that seems unlikely to be the case.

[Beamin]

I was under the impression that sellers would greatly inflate their prices when they were out of stock (or out of the office, etc.) and unable to deliver.  And then change the price back to "normal" when they were ready to do business again.  Apparently easier (or cheaper?) than de-listing the item and then re-listing it.  Of course in the case of a one-off listing on Craigslist, etc. that seems unlikely to be the case.

Ebay never lets me play with the price but there could be different types of auctions. While I would think that's what they are doing they will have items that are normally priced and everything in between up to the crazy price.

Another thing about ebay is their customer service is hit or miss. They have a call center in india and the people have never used ebay before. I don't blame them when the seller fees of a $10 item are a weeks pay for them but sometimes they will fight with you over little amounts of money. I bought something for 6 bucks that never came a few months ago and called to get my money back. It was a scam seller: They get good feed back on little items then as soon as the limits on their account goes away/up they will max out their listings with a fake item at a lower price then everyone else. They make as much as they can until ebay closes their account. The rep on the phone argued with me like it was her 6 dollars that she made that week. She told me to call my bank and get the money from them or call paypal. Call anyone but them. After a while I just hung up called back and then after about 5 minutes the rep refunded me $10.00. I like to do the speech where I tell them that in America our government doesn't repay back people who get scammed by foreign countries. Many of these call center people are told that the US/Canadian gov. pays people back and you are not really scamming a real person but rather the rich and evil government. They tell them this in case they might act like a decent human being for a second and sympathizes with the customer. US banks do this not allowing you to talk to the rep directly when you go into the bank and not letting the bank employee authorize your money back. ATT wireless does this when your service gets shut off due to aa disputed bill not letting you out of the automated system until you pay the bill. Once  you do that you are fucked because the rep will straight up tell you they can only authorize so much back. They are hoping you run out of time or patience and give up. Glad they got rid of the "job killing" regulations that used to make that illegal./Rant=off

[Refrigerator]

I've read on another forum that some sellers on ebay raise the prices on items that are out of stock, that way they don't have to relist the item once it's back in stock and in the process they avoid relisting cost and keep the potential customers that have it in their watch/wish list.

[rdl]

If a listing is fixed price on Ebay (Buy it now) and the quantity available goes to zero, the listing is ended automatically and all sales history is lost. Not so good if you have sold hundreds of an item with good feedback. If you're about to run out it's better to raise the price to a point where no one will buy the last few until you can restock rather than lose the listing, because you can't temporarily suspend a listing

I believe this only applies to individual sellers. If you have a store I think items can be out of stock and you can also close down/suspend temporarily for vacation, etc.

[Beamin]

Or they think they understand western culture and will write things in their ad like: "100% certified senior technician good happy guaranteed customer service A+++ feedback policy."

It's stated that China has 300M people learning or have learnt English, but the real fact is only very few of them can use English good enough to blend in an English speaking country. Among the good English speakers, only a few understands western culture, the way westerners think and some common memes in western world.

Chinese people have spent tons of money learning English, but the culture of China, especially the concept of education, makes learning "real" English really hard. We have a very competitive culture, which means, from a kid was born, his goal is to fuck other people and step on other people. From kindergarten, Chinese kids are educated to be "better", and to get privilege from being a good student, by getting higher scores than other school kids. In other words, education in China is not to teach, but to pick the smart kids and toss the others. Language education is no different. Chinese kids learn English by being forced to learn complicated and mostly useless different obscure combinations of moods and tenses and clauses, but commonly used conversation skills and words are not learned, because they are deemed to be "cheap and easy", and are not effective to discriminate smart kids and less smart kids.

If you are Chinese with very good English speaking/writing proficiency, would you like to work for an international company making a good salary and perks, or would you like to work for an eBay seller? The majority of very limited amount of "real" English speakers in China don't work for eBay sellers, so what you are reading are likely to be machine translated or translated by the seller's kid in a grade school.

I won't be surprised by and kind of Chinglish on eBay, after all, you don't sell on eBay if you have a degree of English Literature.

It may seem reasonable to consolidate many small sellers together and share translation and other resources, just like Amazon, but that doesn't work in China. A big part of low cost of made in China is because small players don't have to follow the laws. As an individual small seller, one can sell non compliant goods and not pay tax without raising a flag. If you consolidate 1000 sellers, they will raise a flag in both importer country's customs as well as Chinese IRS. So, consolidating resource and play by the books is not always cheaper than going individual under the radar.

You just gave me an idea of how to make money on the side from my favorite office I work out of: my laptop as I lie in bed in my boxers.

[skarecrow]

It always amazes me when the eBay seller is an electronics recycler, and they have thousands of sales with positive feedback on items that they charged 10-200 times more than small sellers.  I agree with some previous posts about upping the price when stock goes low (I've done that myself), but those people are actually listing and selling at those hugely inflated prices!

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[CatalinaWOW]

It always amazes me when the eBay seller is an electronics recycler, and they have thousands of sales with positive feedback on items that they charged 10-200 times more than small sellers.  I agree with some previous posts about upping the price when stock goes low (I've done that myself), but those people are actually listing and selling at those hugely inflated prices!

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You are paying for more confidence that the item is working fully.   You are paying for the ability to return the item if it doesn't meet your expectations.  And you are paying for that item being there for months or years until you decide you have to have it.  In many cases you are paying for a vendor who actually knows what he is selling, not someone who bought an estate and can't tell the difference between a toaster and an environmental chamber.

I am one of those small sellers.  I try very hard to make sure that what I am selling meets its description, but I don't accept returns.  I just don't want to deal with it and usually am selling at a price point where the return postage is comparable to the value of the item.  And as a small seller I can only do a maximum of 30 day listings, and can only renew a 30 day listing twice.  So if I don't price it to sell quickly there is a fair amount of extra effort on my part.  And finally, my sales are a hobby.  I don't have to survive on the proceeds.  If I did I would have to price things much higher or go do something else.  So my prices reflect a desire to do little with the mechanics of sales and no need to do more than finance the next round of fun.  I am motivated more by full shelves than by dollars.  But I don't represent every Ebay seller or probably even a common subset.

Celebrate the fact that there are low price sellers out there.  Have some sorrow for those who are making their living from these types of sales and are being undercut by people like me.  And recognize that there are several markets out there.  Some folks can take chances on low priced stuff knowing they have the time and knowledge to put it right.  Others need to have the device in production within minutes of delivery and don't have any ability to do more than turn it on and set the dials appropriately.  They will pay more to make sure their needs are met.

[skarecrow]

It always amazes me when the eBay seller is an electronics recycler, and they have thousands of sales with positive feedback on items that they charged 10-200 times more than small sellers.  I agree with some previous posts about upping the price when stock goes low (I've done that myself), but those people are actually listing and selling at those hugely inflated prices!

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You are paying for more confidence that the item is working fully.   You are paying for the ability to return the item if it doesn't meet your expectations.  And you are paying for that item being there for months or years until you decide you have to have it.  In many cases you are paying for a vendor who actually knows what he is selling, not someone who bought an estate and can't tell the difference between a toaster and an environmental chamber.

It a perfect world that would always be the case, but I have dealt with some of those sellers in person, and not only do they not offer any returns or exchanges, but usually they don't even know if the item works!

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[lordvader88]

I've seen PC parts listed for insane prices, some might just be old adds? IDK, but some are new and at crazy prices.

Anyone who looks for more than 2 seconds should realize that.