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The NEW! Official Seller Silliness Thread


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I could have sworn there was such a topic on here already, but after much searching, I can't find it.

Anyway, have you found as seller engaging in really stupid behavior?  Do they have a copy of Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt and want to get $10,000 for it?  Is someone trying to hype their mundane sale to a point of astronomical hyperbole?  Or, have you found an auction that for whatever reason, you couldn't get half way through the description without rolling your eyes five times?!

Well, post that type of ridiculousness here.

If this thread already exists, I'm really sorry.  I'm not sure why I couldn't find it but through searching and browsing, I couldn't spot it.

Edited by RH
  • Like 1

Exhibit A:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dig-Dug-II-Trouble-in-Paradise-NES-1989-SEALED-PLEASE-READ-FULL-DESC/324320104629

This guy actually has a bunch of "sealed" games, and he pushes hard in the titles that they are "sealed!".  Not necessarily new, but I guess having a game shrinkwrapped makes it more desirable even if, as is the case with this item, there is visible label damage!

Well, at least the auctions start at $1.  He might have some good stuff, but he gets a grade of E for all of that effort.  I'd be mad, but if you buy a "sealed" NES cartridge, thinking it's new... you kind of get what you deserve because no one should think that's "new".

 

2 hours ago, RH said:

Exhibit A:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dig-Dug-II-Trouble-in-Paradise-NES-1989-SEALED-PLEASE-READ-FULL-DESC/324320104629

This guy actually has a bunch of "sealed" games, and he pushes hard in the titles that they are "sealed!".  Not necessarily new, but I guess having a game shrinkwrapped makes it more desirable even if, as is the case with this item, there is visible label damage!

Well, at least the auctions start at $1.  He might have some good stuff, but he gets a grade of E for all of that effort.  I'd be mad, but if you buy a "sealed" NES cartridge, thinking it's new... you kind of get what you deserve because no one should think that's "new".

 

This actually made me angry. Did you see the back label? Offensive. 

23 minutes ago, MiamiSlice said:

This actually made me angry. Did you see the back label? Offensive. 

No, I didn't.

I have a generic saved search and a few of this guys items appeared on it.  That's why I pointed this out.  He uses more or less the same description on everything. I'm not at all sticking up for this guy.  He seems to have only sealed the carts, but there was some CIB stuff that he didn't appear to try these shenanigans with.

I always thought these sorts of threads were silly. There's an endless number of people who think their trash is worth gold. On eBay, there's an insane number of way overpriced listings - but who cares? For every one of those, there's a person who has no idea what they have, and instead sells it for pennies on the dollar, and we brag about those finds. You can't have one without the other, so why not ignore the idiots who price too high, and just celebrate the ones who price too low?

31 minutes ago, DarkKobold said:

I always thought these sorts of threads were silly. There's an endless number of people who think their trash is worth gold. On eBay, there's an insane number of way overpriced listings - but who cares? For every one of those, there's a person who has no idea what they have, and instead sells it for pennies on the dollar, and we brag about those finds. You can't have one without the other, so why not ignore the idiots who price too high, and just celebrate the ones who price too low?

Well, they come in all forms.  I do ignore the extremely high priced ones unless you drop into the description and it's as if they know they have trash and are trying to sell/convince someone to buy the item.

Regardless, every now and then you bump into something that just evokes a giant sigh, and you want to share it.

Did one similar called it "Post the Come On Man... " because every time you see this you say "Come ON MAN"..

The sad truth is that they unduly or on purpose manipulate the market with these crazy price.

I whet to buy an item that was a for offer and offered them a reasonable price only to be kicked back saying that "on eBay their is one for xxxxx for sell" 

 

Edited by JVOSS
11 hours ago, DarkKobold said:

I always thought these sorts of threads were silly. There's an endless number of people who think their trash is worth gold. On eBay, there's an insane number of way overpriced listings - but who cares? For every one of those, there's a person who has no idea what they have, and instead sells it for pennies on the dollar, and we brag about those finds. You can't have one without the other, so why not ignore the idiots who price too high, and just celebrate the ones who price too low?

I personally can't recall a single time I've seen something selling for pennies on the dollar. I've been buying retro games on ebay only on the last 4-5 months but still. I search ebay for stuff I'm I'm looking for several times a week, and optimize my search (BIN+recently listed or auction+ending soon).

When a seller sells something for fmv (according to pricecharting / gamevaluenow), I'm happy because it seems most of the time sellers try to sell for 125%-150% of the fmv.

I suspect this is because ebay has that algorithm telling sellers how much their items are worth (or so I'm told).

Anything on ebay being 80%-90%  of the fmv I consider a bargain. Really, in five months of using ebay regularly, I didn't see a single real bargain.

2 hours ago, JVOSS said:

@RH not to steel your post but @sg17 gvn and pc are not fmv.

No worries. I don't mind threads getting derailed, so long as people still enjoy posting the listings they find, along the with the conversations.

Now, regarding eBay not being FMV (Fair Market Value, @sg17) I disagree, but with an asterisks. I've heard other collectors mention that if you are paying any eBay price, with the exception of that super-rare seller who lists a $200 item for $10 because they don't know what they have or care, eBay is a "rip off".  I can't agree with that.

eBay is the best place to find specific items you are looking for.  If you guys have some magical, gaming honey holes, I'd like to know.  I've searched everywhere from online, and locally, eBay is the best place to buy, but regarding the asterisks, you have to be smart.  Obviously, you don't do a quick-search on the bay and just buy the first item you see.  Be a little patient, wait for an auction, or maybe just wait for the BIN seller who needs quick money, so they offer the given game at 10-20% less that typical going rates of other actual sales.  These are rare, but do happen from time to time, especially on common games.

eBay is a great place to get "FMV", with a patience and strategy.  Regardless, it's not difficult, and if you guys know of some way to quickly do better than 20-25% of eBay, I'd sure like to know!  Again, eBay is for specific-searches.  Obviously, if you hit up retro shops, conventions, or yard sales, you can do way better, but that's collecting without focus.  I don't consider those deals "FMV".   They aren't.  You were looking for any good deal that catches your eye, and you make those purchases.  There's nothing wrong with that, but those deals are far easier than getting the specific, older games you want to buy today, or in the coming weeks.

On 10/9/2020 at 1:12 AM, sg17 said:

I personally can't recall a single time I've seen something selling for pennies on the dollar. I've been buying retro games on ebay only on the last 4-5 months but still. I search ebay for stuff I'm I'm looking for several times a week, and optimize my search (BIN+recently listed or auction+ending soon).

When a seller sells something for fmv (according to pricecharting / gamevaluenow), I'm happy because it seems most of the time sellers try to sell for 125%-150% of the fmv.

I suspect this is because ebay has that algorithm telling sellers how much their items are worth (or so I'm told).

Anything on ebay being 80%-90%  of the fmv I consider a bargain. Really, in five months of using ebay regularly, I didn't see a single real bargain.

It used to be easier to find "BIN snipes." I'm pretty sure that people have made a profession out of it now, and use bots and scripts to get there faster than any human looking at listings could. I rarely find snipes these days, but I think its more to do with competition than the lack of them existing. Back in my heyday, I definitely found numerous under-priced "just-listed" eBay BINs, and built my collection that way. That's why I can't fault idiots selling stupid stuff for 500% of FMV.

Also, usually things on eBay aren't going for PC/GVN "fmv" because auctions end cheaper than BIN listings. Since those two sites average the two, you're unlikely to find a BIN for the same price an auction would end at, just sitting there collecting dust. If you want to pay under PC/GVN, watch auctions on the items you want. BIN exists for the "Gotta have it now" crowd.

 

  • Thanks 1
1 hour ago, DarkKobold said:

OK, after saying bad things about this topic, I had to share this...

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/TurboGrafx-16-Turbo-Express-Authentic-Original-System-Box-Only-POOR-/264898222574?&_trksid=p2056016.m2518.l4276

 

$90 for a piece of trash? Sign me up!

But think of how elite you could look with that on your shelf

  • Haha 1
On 10/9/2020 at 7:08 PM, JVOSS said:

This one just gets under my skin. People like this are working the market for there "investment"

image.thumb.png.49a093a374af2cb4e1b1e754427dc115.png

Maybe someone here who sells on ebay can comment on that. From what I've understood sometimes its a better idea to change the price of the listing to something ridiculous when you're out of stock. Both because its cheaper to keep the listing alive then to close it and repoen, and both because this way your listing retains its "reputation" (i.e. number of viewers and stuff like that which give it a higher priority in search results). I suspect this is the case here.

 

8 hours ago, JVOSS said:

RWV is 6.99  but this fool price....

image.thumb.png.1ecba66e3857cedfbbfd198dbe48bd69.png

Here on the other hand, the seller is new, so it seems unlikely he utilizes the tips&tricks I just mentioned. So there is no explanation for this craziness.

 

Edited by sg17

One type of silliness I really like is sellers trying to resell repros.

Sometimes you have stuff which shameless ripoffs and borderline scams, like this guy over here:

image.thumb.png.d2b9df01db595dddc969bd6d575edddd.pngPrice of lot higher then sum of prices of (common) items - check. Seller has no reputation and should actually sell at lower then average to compete - check. Carts are actually repros and are only worth the price of the low quality plastic and pcb - check.

 

But there are other sellers trying to sell repros. Sometimes not *that* greedy. So how do sell people a people a piece of plastic and keep a profit margin when they can just order it from china? Well, you just stress the fact that you sell QUALITY REPROS! Here are some specimen for illustration:

Spoiler

image.thumb.png.7a985869249112f7c045aca1b2df4a05.pngimage.thumb.png.8fe42fc3bcbdbefa35284cef71b383b8.pngimage.thumb.png.3fb3163b8d249da81b6aafcdc33224fd.png

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