On Mon, 27 May 2002, William Robb wrote:
> An item I was bidding on ended for somewhat
> more than the article would have cost brand new.
> Is this a common occurence on eBay?
>From my experience, I'd say yes. In fact, I've sold stuff for prices
higher than they'd sell for new. IMO, Its all about the available market
of the individual buyer / bidders. In determining what's fair pricing
(i.e., what we would pay for something at, say, keh or B&H), we're
excluding one obvious fact: Such resources are not known / available to
everyone. When I see ridiculously high prices for stuff on ebay, I tend
to picture folks in Smalleville, USA, who only have one major Camera shop
in the town; like a Wolf/Ritz outfit who's prices are exhorbitant. Hence,
to them almost any price is a good price.
I was reminded this weekend though that it's not always "Smallvillers"
when I saw someone drop a brickload of money at Wolf for some very nice
equipment that would've likely been 30% cheaper virtually anywhere else. I
cringed at the sight. But these are the people you could be bidding
against.
A classic example of this (IMO) is when I see rolls of Elite Chrome 100
sell for more than $3 or $4 a roll on ebay. It makes no sense to me since
it sells at B&H [much more reliable!] for about $2.80 per 36exp roll
(imported)... but then I learned this weekend (in a pinch) that locally
(From Walgreens to Wolf) the 24exp version sells for $8 to $10 a roll.
Incredible. Needless to say, I made due with what I had.
With all of that said, it's starting to seem like the more knowledgeable
and resourceful a consumer you become, the less "incredible" various ebay
"deals" begin to look.
My $.02
jerome
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