Since I'm on a roll tonight I thought I would bring up something I saw on eBay.
A seller (I don't remember who) had a half dozen or so DE razors listed. Every one was a nice looking well pictured item. Nothing in particular made these stand out, except the bidding and the prices. Each and every one had in excess of 7 bids, some as high as 15 bids (with several hours left). All of the razors were bid up to what I felt was much to high, I'm talking in the $75.00+ range for an adjustable slim. Repeating myself, these were nothing special, no funky date codes, no odd markings, not new old stock and the seller wasn't claiming anything special. Several hundred matching razors were for sale as usual by other sellers. Even the popular sellers, with hundreds of razor sales, that get a premium price for their goods had much lower buy it now prices on the same model razors.
Same model Razors on the same page coming off at around the same time had bids in the $7.00 to $20.00 range with 1 or 2 bids.
Now I'm no stranger to eBay as part of my families business has been using it for many years, buying and selling mostly vintage collectible items. And I must say this stuck out like a sore nose. Only these amazing razors demanded such a high price.
All the sellers feedback and bid activity was "private" (kept from public view). This is odd and you rarely find this. In most cases one would want to let potential buyers know "who" is buying what. The exception might be if your selling something "odd" and your buyers take some comfort in knowing their ID is kept out of public view. I know I've sold rather large womens shoes, like 13 or 14's (Which would be a mens 12 or so) and had male buyers ask to keep their buyer names private by not leaving them feedback, you can fill in the blanks.
What I suspect; Is that who ever this was was running up their own bids, or having an associate do so in the hopes of selling them at the higher price. although I'm not sure anyone would have paid the price these were bid up to.
Another thought was a price scheme in which two parties list similar items, one bids up the items to add value to his associates like items. In effect setting a higher market price.
I detect for a living and I know that when something smells bad it stinks. Believe me, don't think for a minute that someone wouldn't do this just to make a couple or hundred extra bucks.
Disclaimer; I am sometimes wrong, but never in doubt.
I think this is my longest post (rant) ever.
A seller (I don't remember who) had a half dozen or so DE razors listed. Every one was a nice looking well pictured item. Nothing in particular made these stand out, except the bidding and the prices. Each and every one had in excess of 7 bids, some as high as 15 bids (with several hours left). All of the razors were bid up to what I felt was much to high, I'm talking in the $75.00+ range for an adjustable slim. Repeating myself, these were nothing special, no funky date codes, no odd markings, not new old stock and the seller wasn't claiming anything special. Several hundred matching razors were for sale as usual by other sellers. Even the popular sellers, with hundreds of razor sales, that get a premium price for their goods had much lower buy it now prices on the same model razors.
Same model Razors on the same page coming off at around the same time had bids in the $7.00 to $20.00 range with 1 or 2 bids.
Now I'm no stranger to eBay as part of my families business has been using it for many years, buying and selling mostly vintage collectible items. And I must say this stuck out like a sore nose. Only these amazing razors demanded such a high price.
All the sellers feedback and bid activity was "private" (kept from public view). This is odd and you rarely find this. In most cases one would want to let potential buyers know "who" is buying what. The exception might be if your selling something "odd" and your buyers take some comfort in knowing their ID is kept out of public view. I know I've sold rather large womens shoes, like 13 or 14's (Which would be a mens 12 or so) and had male buyers ask to keep their buyer names private by not leaving them feedback, you can fill in the blanks.
What I suspect; Is that who ever this was was running up their own bids, or having an associate do so in the hopes of selling them at the higher price. although I'm not sure anyone would have paid the price these were bid up to.
Another thought was a price scheme in which two parties list similar items, one bids up the items to add value to his associates like items. In effect setting a higher market price.
I detect for a living and I know that when something smells bad it stinks. Believe me, don't think for a minute that someone wouldn't do this just to make a couple or hundred extra bucks.
Disclaimer; I am sometimes wrong, but never in doubt.
I think this is my longest post (rant) ever.
