question about buy it now motivation

[Brian Ashton]

It seems buy it now dominates ebay... But by far the vast majority are nothing more than a rip off price (with free shipping as a pathetic lure). at least thats what ive seen, and now simply filter out all buy it now... Is that the motive though? Are these sellers simply trolling for idiots? Or are they delusional to think what they're peddling is worth 3x more than what the market is paying. Enquiring minds want to know. I'm starting to see a trend where they're talked about the same way collectors were/are.

[David Weaver]

I think they're mostly things people don't want to sell very badly.

One of the bigger problems with ebay has been their shift from listing fees to only or almost only final value fees. I'm sure they did that to increase the volume of stuff on ebay, but it just clutters up the listings.

I search auctions that are nearest ending, and BIN items that are newly listed and that's about it - anything in between is a waste of time to look at. If there's a BIN item that's been on for a while, chances are it's a joke.

I listed a couple of things in the past few weeks, and noticed that there's a BIN listing fee of $0.30 for each item I listed. I didn't list the things at nose bleed prices, though, and could only wish $3 of final value fees would be transferred to some fraction of that as a listing fee.

[Tom M King]

Sometimes it works in the buyer's favor. I bought a turn of the Century Stanley no.8, that had never been used, with no rust other than a very light dusting, with 100% Japanning, for $75 Buy it Now. By the view count at the bottom of the page, I was the third viewer. I almost couldn't hit the button fast enough, but managed to.

[Brian Elfert]

There is a lot of stuff on Ebay that is a ripoff, but there are also some bargains to be found yet. A few weeks back I wanted some new light fixtures for my ceiling fans that still had standard light sockets. I found a number of them on Ebay. All other sellers are selling the newer light fixtures with candelabra base light sockets. The prices were pretty decent to boot.

Last year I bought some brake parts for my motorhome and paid 1/3 less on Ebay than the local supplier wanted. Everything I buy on Ebay is Buy It Now. I rarely even look at auction listings.

[Curt Harms]

Buy it Now is fine as long as you have a pretty good idea what something is worth. For instance I was on a seach for a not-so-common adhesive mount for a newly acquired factory refurbed Garmin GPS also purchased BIN. The same or similar device was simply not available locally and other mail order sources were signifcantly more $.

[Dennis Peacock]

What surprises me at times is people actually bid higher than full retail for some items.

[Chris Padilla]

BIN is nice when I don't feel like fooling with nor waiting for an auction. As long as the price is reasonable to me or in comparison to other selling the same/similar products, I like it and use it quite a bit. Often though, BIN prices are just too high. I've been doing a fair share of "make me an offer" on some listings and it has worked out quite well.

[Val Kosmider]

My favorite "oddity" on Ebay is "Or Best Offer". In my world, that means if I bid $5.00 and no one bids any higher, I own it. In the world of Ebay it apparently is something akin to a bid. You submit a "Best Offer" (which looks to me like a bid) and the seller either accepts it, rejects it, or counters. Isn't that the essence of Ebay to begin with? Bids...Offers.....You bought it, or it didn't meet the reserve?

Shakes head.

[Brian Elfert]

My favorite "oddity" on Ebay is "Or Best Offer". In my world, that means if I bid $5.00 and no one bids any higher, I own it. In the world of Ebay it apparently is something akin to a bid. You submit a "Best Offer" (which looks to me like a bid) and the seller either accepts it, rejects it, or counters. Isn't that the essence of Ebay to begin with? Bids...Offers.....You bought it, or it didn't meet the reserve?

Best offers are typically attached to Buy It Now sales. The seller can accept or decline best offers. There is the ability for a seller to set a best offer price that will automatically be accepted.

I don't think it is possible to have a best offer attached to an auction offer, but I could certainly be wrong.

[Jim Koepke]

I listed a couple of things in the past few weeks, and noticed that there's a BIN listing fee of $0.30 for each item I listed.

Could that be a response to all the ridiculous/ludicrous BIN listings?

I recently popped on a BIN item. A half dozen Buck Brothers gouges at about $10 each. Most of my reason for buying them was for my grandson who is taking an interest in carving. I could likely sell them each as $15-$20 BINs plus flat rate shipping.

What surprises me at times is people actually bid higher than full retail for some items.

I sometimes wonder about this. Especially when a common #5 Stanley/Bailey plane sells for high dollars. Maybe it is the need for some folks to 'win the day' by winning the bid.

There is the possibility of overseas buyers. Buying used may be less costly than paying import taxes on a new item.

jtk

[Wade Lippman]

I have bought maybe 5 things on eBay this year, all of the were buy it now. They were always cheaper than I could buy it for other places. I made two best offers, one was accepted the other wasn't.

I think maybe you are looking at the wrong items.

[Brian Ashton]

I agree what some are saying, deal can be had. But at the rate of about 1:50,000 - still not worth the effort to click on buy it now and look everyonce in awhile.

For the most part I only look at tools and I know what they're worth, but the prices associated with buy it now are almost arrogant. to me it's as if that select group of sellers (you know the ones, prices are so far fetched…) are using the business tactic of signalling and bombarding ebay with their outrageous prices in hopes that we will eventually accept them as normal.

[David Weaver]

I agree what some are saying, deal can be had. But at the rate of about 1:50,000 - still not worth the effort to click on buy it now and look everyone in awhile.

For the most part I only look at tools and I know what they're worth, but the prices associated with buy it now are almost arrogant. to me it's as if that select group of sellers (you know the ones, prices are so far fetched…) are using the business tactic of signalling each other and bombarding ebay with their outrageous prices in hopes that we will eventually accept them as normal.

Those folks have so many tools listed, and in my opinion, they don't care if they sell 1 or 2 a day and have 5000 listed if they have no listing fees, because they're using ebay as a large net to catch a few suckers and they have business capital tied up in the inventory and not personal "need-it-now" money.

[Doug Ladendorf]

What surprises me at times is people actually bid higher than full retail for some items.

This one kills me. I recently watched a Gransfors small forest ax, available at Lee Valley for $125, get bid up to $165 plus $14 shipping.

[Kent A Bathurst]

BIN is nice when I don't feel like fooling with nor waiting for an auction.

Exactly. The auction process annoys the heck out of me, because if I want to get a decent "something" that way, I have to go sign up for one of those programs that skulks around and then automatically jumps in at the last second.

I'm not going to sit there and watch. I will make a bid that is my highest reasonable offer, and let it ride. Only to find I got snaked by 32 cents or something with 14 seconds left.

Uncle.

If there is something I want, with a BIN that I feel is reasonable, I buy it.

Obviously, not a big ebay hound. I don't buy tools there - I don't know those sellers. I buy tools here, and then only from guys I "know", of from the regular sales venues.