Silliest non-TSR auction price
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Post Posted: Mon Jul 03, 2006 2:34 pm 
 

Kingofpain89 wrote:
Yeah, there has been quite a bit said about this seller over the last few weeks.  Obviously a complete nutjob.  8O


Check his Completed Sales for the last month. He's sold exactly three items, all overpriced IMO.  Once was bought by a zero FB seller, one was not a terrible deal if you are a Harn fan (since it's still in the SW it appears), and one is a model kit so I have no idea what it may really be worth.  Basically, he's an idiot fishing for other idiots, and I suppose he figures at 2 cents a listing fee he can afford only 2-3 sales a month at those monster prices.

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Post Posted: Tue Jul 04, 2006 1:30 am 
 

As I recall, that seller re-shrinks everything...so shrinkwrap might not mean anything.


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Post Posted: Tue Jul 04, 2006 10:24 am 
 

Well, he did manage to sell the following:



http://cgi.ebay.com/BNIP-AD-D-Greyhawk- ... dZViewItem



8O



Assuming the buyer is legit.

  

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Post Posted: Tue Jul 04, 2006 8:57 pm 
 

Assuming the buyer is legit.


He buys a $90 module the day he joins ebay - yes stranger things have happened but I'll bet that Valhalla has another one of these listed soon!


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Post Posted: Tue Jul 04, 2006 9:38 pm 
 

gyg wrote:
He buys a $90 module the day he joins ebay - yes stranger things have happened but I'll bet that Valhalla has another one of these listed soon!


To be honest I don't think they are smart enough to do this.  If they aren't smart enough to realize that their prices are in some cases 100 times overpriced and that even the dumbest buyer is not going to pay that price.  I can't see them trying to build interest by creating a false account and buying their items.

The buyer might not be legit but I don't think it is theirs.

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Post Posted: Tue Jul 04, 2006 11:47 pm 
 

fair comment - It'll be interesting to see how quickly feedback is forthcoming.

  

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Post Posted: Wed Jul 05, 2006 11:28 am 
 

Mars wrote:
To be honest I don't think they are smart enough to do this.  If they aren't smart enough to realize that their prices are in some cases 100 times overpriced and that even the dumbest buyer is not going to pay that price.  I can't see them trying to build interest by creating a false account and buying their items.

The buyer might not be legit but I don't think it is theirs.


Yet that buyer has bid on nothing else since...could just be a stupid newbie, but there is another copy on sale in an ebay store right now for about $20.  Odd that the bidder chose the copy $70 more expensive. I'd be extremely suspicious of this transaction.

Mike B.


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Post Posted: Wed Jul 05, 2006 12:48 pm 
 

Valhalla's business concept isn't really too unrealistic.  

Let's postulate that they want to sell on Ebay, but they do not want to really hastle with Ebay.  

They post a few items, at ludicrous prices, hoping for a newbie buyer.  They re-shrink items "for protection," adding to the psychological value of each piece.  

They do not accept PayPal, so they are more immune to charge-back and other costs associated with that service.

If they sell one item a month, they still do better than most sellers and with a lot less work.  

It might work.

Mark   8)


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Post Posted: Thu Jul 06, 2006 11:17 am 
 

MShipley88 wrote:Valhalla's business concept isn't really too unrealistic.  

Let's postulate that they want to sell on Ebay, but they do not want to really hastle with Ebay.  

They post a few items, at ludicrous prices, hoping for a newbie buyer.  They re-shrink items "for protection," adding to the psychological value of each piece.  

They do not accept PayPal, so they are more immune to charge-back and other costs associated with that service.

If they sell one item a month, they still do better than most sellers and with a lot less work.  

It might work.

Mark   8)


    Ebay store costs $25 or so a month, only 2-3 cents an item listing fee, I guess they are coming out ahead if they sell even one item.  But still looks less like a business model than just sheer overwhelming greed and ignorance.  
    Not accepting paypal isa double edged sword I think....I bet they get a lot of "nonsales" where the newbie buyer just never sends the check or money order and Valhalla has no real recourse but negative feedback. When the buyer has to fill out and mail a payment vs sending it immediately through paypal they often take the time to think it through and may get cold feet  (particularly if they happen to look around ebay a bit and see other dealers selling the same stuff for $100 less).
  I predict it's not long before they get negative feedback and crap up their feedback rating, when you are counting on newbies for the majority of your business you are going to get plenty of deserved and undeserved rotten eggs thrown your way.

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Post Posted: Fri Jul 07, 2006 8:43 pm 
 

Highest (or pretty darned close) price for a WD #1... and it's a reprint, too! :)


** expired/removed eBay auction **




Allowing $10 for the messy #3 and perhaps $25-$30 (optimistically?) for #2, that leaves ~$195 for #1.



Seller played the bidders along very well...

  

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Post Posted: Fri Jul 07, 2006 10:17 pm 
 

He played the bidders along too well...including a threat at one point to pull the item if bidding did not pick up.

That would have been the end of my interest in the item.

He revealed how many watchers there were...why does Ebay even let sellers know that information?

He discussed buy-it-now offers...and I think he invented some of it, including the guy he supposedly blocked from the auction.

I would agree that he played it well, but I wonder why they let themselves get played?

Mark   8)


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Post Posted: Fri Jul 07, 2006 10:39 pm 
 

I thought his statements were pretty contradictory.  He doesn't want to be sent offers but then says he will pull it and sell it privately?

The other thing I didn't like about this one is that he never came out and said that these were not first prints but reprints.  The one bidder explicitly asked this and the seller did not come out and say that they were 2nd prints instead he just said look at the pictures.

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Post Posted: Sat Jul 08, 2006 1:36 am 
 

I guess it's within eBay's rules to reveal the number of watchers in updates to increase interest and potential frenzy, but would you feel it's ethical?  
It seems tacky at the least...

  


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Post Posted: Sat Jul 08, 2006 2:21 am 
 

MShipley88 wrote:why does Ebay even let sellers know that information?

I'm not seeing the downside.

If buyers can use one click to add an item to their personal watch list, why can't sellers receive what is, essentially, just the accumulation of all those clicks that happen to be on their own auctions? eBay's street is already one-way enough in favor of buyers, frankly — don't take away my watcher statistics, too. 8O

But posting them for public consumption in an ongoing auction? No, that won't do. That's just way out of bounds. That seller is just an embarrassment, for a number of reasons.

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Post Posted: Sat Jul 08, 2006 7:10 pm 
 

Xaxaxe wrote:I'm not seeing the downside.

If buyers can use one click to add an item to their personal watch list, why can't sellers receive what is, essentially, just the accumulation of all those clicks that happen to be on their own auctions? eBay's street is already one-way enough in favor of buyers, frankly — don't take away my watcher statistics, too. 8O

But posting them for public consumption in an ongoing auction? No, that won't do. That's just way out of bounds. That seller is just an embarrassment, for a number of reasons.


Well...Ebay might limit that information for a couple of reasons.  First, there is the way this seller used that information.  We have no way of knowing if such statements are true and this opens the door to fraud.

Second, a seller who has not got enough watchers for his satisfaction might pull the item...which strikes me as cheating in an auction situation where the seller is taking a risk in an effort to get the maximum possible money.

This guy actually threatened the watchers with exactly that (pulling the item) if they did not start bidding.  My first reaction was...well...less than gentlemanly.  I would have taken the item off my snipe list at that point.

IF the total number of watchers were available to everyone, that would be a different story...but in that case I would not use the Ebay watch list.  Letting the seller know what I am doing strikes me as unfair, particularly when he is not banned from telling everyone else that I am watching.

Mark   8)


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Post Posted: Sun Jul 09, 2006 4:45 pm 
 

eh... That WD#1;

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0003853006

$235 and two new bidders...



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Post Posted: Sun Jul 09, 2006 4:50 pm 
 

faro wrote:eh... That WD#1;

** expired/removed eBay auction **

$235 and two new bidders...

(How's the basement smell on your's, Mike <mdr003>?)




to each their own like, but for a msg, thats just mad! mind you then i cant talk some of the things ive bought...but hey there ya go.



Al


Are we nearly there yet?

  

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Post Posted: Sun Jul 09, 2006 5:05 pm 
 

killjoy32 wrote:to each their own like, but for a msg, thats just mad! mind you then i cant talk some of the things ive bought...but hey there ya go.

Train-collector with poor feedback? Looks more like a trophy win to me.

(Would almost have been cheaper for them to pick up the other 99 at the same time. Presuming they actually want to read these. ;))

  
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