Whats with some people selling & buying on Ebay and other marketplaces?? (1 Viewer)

[todd s]

I had noticed a few months ago that the movie "Fletch" is out of print on dvd and it was selling on Ebay for over $30 plus. So the other day I read on the Digital Bits that a special edition is coming out on May 1st. Its even listed on Amazon for $13.99. So I check Ebay and the dvd is still selling for the high price. So I decided to put my unopened copy on Ebay. It just sold for $51 plus shipping!! Now, I had this happen before when I sold my original Willy Wonka dvd for around $40...But, the S.E. dvd hadn't been widely announced yet. It was only because I follow these dvd boards that I knew. But, the new Fletch dvd is on Amazon and I am sure elsewhere.

And on a similar note. Whats with some of the sellers on Amazon marketplace. Some of them are selling the items way more than Amazon sells it for and then they charge shipping. I saw a dvd of a tv show that was sold by Amazon for $27.99 delivered. An marketplace seller was selling theirs for $35 plus shipping. And it wasn't like Amazon lowered their price. It was always that way. I am just trying to figure out what schmo would buy the more expensive one? When the cheaper one is listed right in the same place.

 

[Eric Peterson]

Three word answer!

People are stupid.

I did the same thing with several of my releases including Willy Wonka. At one point, I sold my original Rocky DVD and purchased the whole boxset with the proceeds. A lot of people still don't know how to do a quick internet search. No complaints here!!

 

[MarkHastings]

I've alwaya laughed when I saw people selling items for more than Amazon.

You gotta love the page that says:
But new for $19 or buy used for $36!

If the discs are broken, does the price then jump to $42??

 

[Chris Lockwood]

> If the discs are broken, does the price then jump to $42??

I'll sell you the empty, cracked case for $87.

 

[Malcolm R]

Most people are not hyper-aware of the entire roster of upcoming releases. They don't visit sites like HTF and Digital Bits everyday and will not know of any pending releases until the day of release, or even a few weeks after when they finally see it on store shelves.

 

[Paul_Sjordal]

The explanation is thousands of years old:

 

[Brian Perry]

Another story I saw today was that eBay is prohibiting the sale of "virtual" items that are created within video games. At first I had no idea what that meant, but apparently in some fantasy games, you can create unique elaborate weapons or magical items that can be given to other players. So people were sellings these things on eBay for real money, and then arranging a meeting in the game (online I presume) to transfer them.

The people who spend long hours creating the items argued that what they create is their own property (much like a Word document belongs to the author, not Microsoft), but I guess that didn't fly with eBay.

 

[Holadem]

That's very interesting from an intellectual property POV.

--
H

 

[Harpozep]

A customer of mine said the feds are trying to tax items like this that are sold to others. Even virtual cash and other items created in virtual worlds have a real value if one of us sells it to another person. So consequently the concept of a sales tax could have some merit to those so inclined to issue the tax.

Don't know if it is true, but it does sound like a fantasy the tax folks would love to implement. Most of us who ever thought about it know the feds would love to have a cashless world where all our transactions are electronic or on paper. That would be heaven for tax folks and law enforcement!

I'm sure its only a matter of time before a lot of sellers on ebay get some audits from the tax folks. I mean, their sales are right in the open for the feds and state tax folks to monitor. Most of the folks I know who sell stuff on eBay never report it on their income tax . Which is quite silly since so much goes through banks and paypal, etc.

 

[Paul D G]

Absolutely! My kid has this GeoTrax train set and we never have enough straight track pieces. You can never find them in the store. In tracking them down I saw they were selling on eBay for upwards of $20. I ordered a box from the manufacturer's website, then upped the order to two and posted one on ebay.

Bought it for $15, sold it for $51!! I was tempted to include a link to fisher price.com but thought that'd be too mean.

-paul

 

[andrew markworthy]

I agree with the above comments, but I think there's another factor as well - some people are just plain lazy and have too much money. These guys probably sort of know that if they hunted around they could find it cheaper elsewhere, but they know about ebay, they like it in a comfort blanket sort of way, and they have enough disposable cash that they can afford to pay over the odds. I must confess that a couple of times I've ordered stuff off ebay which would be (marginally) cheaper if I made a round trip of 40 miles to the nearest specialist store stocking the same thing, but that ain't quite the same.

What rattles my cage is guys who pay way over the odds for collectables on ebay and then push all the market prices up. I collect a fairly esoteric collectable, and ebay used to be a good place to pick up stuff at a fair price. Then along came a couple of jokers with money to burn who started buying up everything, with apparently limitless pockets. These guys competed against each other, so that items that could be picked up at a collectors' fair for chump's change were getting bumped up to (literally) 1000% of their value. Result - dealers started upping the prices and what was once a pleasant hobby became too expensive.

However, there is a payoff to this. The chumps who'd been on their spending spree started to try to sell some of their surplus purchases on ebay and rapidly discovered that nobody else was paying their sort of money. I reckon that both of them now own collections that are worth maybe ten thousand pounds less than they paid for them - and they know it. Payback can be sweet at times.

 

[MarkHastings]

I can understand the eBay thing, but the Amazon phenomenon still blows my mind. Is anyone ACTUALLY paying for a used item when the new item (on the very same page) is over half the price??

 

[andrew markworthy]

These new blood pressure pills are obviously affecting me - I thought I'd added a comment about this!

I share your incredulity. The only thing I can think of is that in some instances the used items are rare or more desirable earlier editions. E.g. I can think of a case in point - there was a book on birds that had an earlier edition with way better printing standards and the quality of the illustrations was superb, and it was worth the extra money. However, this hardly accounts for more common or garden editions.

A side question - is 'second hand' in common use in the USA to denote a used item?

 

[David Williams]

Yes, but not used as often as 'used'.

 

[Paul_Sjordal]

No, it's pretty cut and dry.

In Second Life, ordinary people can create items and sell them for real world money because the terms of service allow it.

In most other online games, certain items are difficult to obtain, but they are not created by the player, and the terms of service specifically forbid selling any in-game item for real world money.

 

[andrew markworthy]

David, thanks for the info.

 

[Jay Taylor]

If they’re selling the items for a profit then they need to be concerned but if they’re selling at a loss they don’t.

Now that I’ve started to replace DVDs with their high-def counterpart, I contacted an IRS representative because I’m considering selling my used DVDs for a loss at my shop.

He told me that if I was selling them at a garage sale (or I presume e-bay) for a loss that I wouldn’t need to report the income. However, since I was selling them at a retail establishment I would have to collect sales tax on the items even though I didn’t have to report the income from the sale of the used DVDs.

He also pointed out that I couldn’t claim the sales as a loss, which I didn’t expect anyway.

What I’m considering is different than a business that sells used DVDs for a living. They normally buy used DVDs (stolen?) for a small amount and make a profit selling them below their original retail price. So they have to report the profits.

 

[TravisR]

Yeah, my understanding is that the average guy doesn't have to worry about selling old DVDs or toys or comics because the IRS looks at like a garage sale. It's the guys that have 10,000 feedback and run their business through eBay that need to file it.

 

[Michael Warner]

This why I seldom gripe about having to double or triple dip on some titles -- I can usually sell the previous edition at a tidy profit before word gets out that a new one is on the way. I sold my three James Bond sets for over $200 each two months before the new ultimate editions came out. Factoring in what I paid for the originals and the replacements I still came out $400 ahead. What's not to like about that?

 

[Greg_S_H]

While we're wondering about things on eBay, why do people get into bidding wars with four, five, six days to go on an item? Do they just *like* paying more? "OMG, this guy bid! I have to bid, too! His proxy's higher than that? I have to bid again! Yay, I'm top bidder! But now I'm outbid? I have to bid again!" Jeez. If people would just relax until towards the end of the auction, these things wouldn't get out of hand. There's an item I'm watching that went on the block yesterday at $10, and it's already up to $50. The auction won't end until Friday.