Author Topic: eBay lunacy... (Read 4068 times)

comicus · « **on:** February 29, 2008, 12:51:40 PM »

Some funny stuff going on over on eBay right now... I'm sure we're all familiar with the relatively common (and dreadfully written, if you ask me) Tic Tac Dough home game, released by Ideal in 1977. A recent eBay auction saw two bidders run the auction up to $510. The seller, likely realizing that something was amiss, ended the auction.

This, however, leads to another eBayer putting their copy of the game for sale, with the following blurb:

Quote

Up for auction we are offering this vintage game - The New Tic Tac Dough TV Game. This game is in LIKE NEW CONDITION. Most the of the play money is still connected to the original cardboard back, they were never tore off the pad. All the pieces are included in this great game. See the same game listed on Ebay that is currently over $500.00- WOW this must be a super rare game! Feel free to ask any questions. Paypal preferred or money orders only.

That auction now sits at $105, with three different people placing their bids. Their eBay IDs differ from those who were bidding on the first auction.

Has the power of suggestion and the efforts of two eBay trolls turned the TTD home game into something much more valuable than it ought to be?

Jimmy Owen · « **Reply #1 on:** February 29, 2008, 12:58:43 PM »

Items like that are worth what the bidder is prepared to pay for them. I buy old TV Guides that cost .15 when they came out and consider them a bargain at ten times the original price.

comicus · « **Reply #2 on:** February 29, 2008, 01:04:01 PM »

[quote name=\'Jimmy Owen\' post=\'179400\' date=\'Feb 29 2008, 12:58 PM\']
Items like that are worth what the bidder is prepared to pay for them. I buy old TV Guides that cost .15 when they came out and consider them a bargain at ten times the original price.
[/quote]
Well, yeah, but I'm not so much relating this to the price of the game when it was new, but rather what I've seen copies of the game sell for in previous eBay auctions. I track TTD items all the time (kinda hoping to someday find one of those awesome "Beat The Dragon" caps they used to give away to audience members) and I've never seen the '77 game sell for over $20. Heck, the 1950s versions of the game don't usually sell for more than $20, although it does seem a bit more common than the '77 release.

Joe Mello · « **Reply #3 on:** February 29, 2008, 01:14:44 PM »

[quote name=\'CountdownRound\' post=\'179398\' date=\'Feb 29 2008, 12:51 PM\']A recent eBay auction saw two bidders run the auction up to $510. The seller, likely realizing that something was amiss, ended the auction.[/quote]
Having no concrete knowledge over the workings of eBay (and no real desire to learn), what would the red flags have indicated?

Matt Ottinger · « **Reply #4 on:** February 29, 2008, 01:19:53 PM »

[quote name=\'CountdownRound\' post=\'179398\' date=\'Feb 29 2008, 12:51 PM\']Has the power of suggestion and the efforts of two eBay trolls turned the TTD home game into something much more valuable than it ought to be?[/quote]
Sure looks like it. I've always said that all it takes for you to make a killing on Ebay is for there to be just two people who want your item badly enough. In this case there appear to be three, idiots all. One hundred dollars is a nonsensical price for that game, and who knows where it might end up? I give a lot of credit to the seller for getting one out there to take advantage of the nonsense, though.

chris319 · « **Reply #5 on:** February 29, 2008, 01:25:20 PM »

That's nothing. The Electro Voice RE27 is a microphone popular with radio broadcasters. A one-year-old used RE27 in mint condition recently sold on ebay for $590.

The exact same microphone can be purchased brand spankin' new for $449, a savings of $141:

http://www.fullcompass.com/product/296435.html

Matt Ottinger · « **Reply #6 on:** February 29, 2008, 02:43:57 PM »

[quote name=\'Joe Mello\' post=\'179405\' date=\'Feb 29 2008, 01:14 PM\']Having no concrete knowledge over the workings of eBay (and no real desire to learn), what would the red flags have indicated?[/quote]
People will sometimes make absurd contingency bids to guarantee they get an item, only to get burned when somebody else does the same thing, inflating the price beyond all reason. Sometimes, they're just troublemakers without any intention of paying. Either way, the Ebay machinery automatically bills the seller a percentage of the final price, a fee that comes totally out of the sellers' pocket if he doesn't actually get the money from the high bidder. Depending on the circumstances, sometimes it's easier to delete the entire auction than to go through the hoops to get an unpaid listing rescinded.

lobster · « **Reply #7 on:** February 29, 2008, 03:26:13 PM »

i'm kind of a coin nerd and so I thought I would try my hand at a little fun..

in 2006 I "bought" a box of $100 of unopened uncirculated rolled nickels from my bank and immediately listed it on Ebay w/ a reserve of $101, knowing I wouldn't "lose" anything.. (not all banks have the ability to get coinage direct from the fed like this one did) and the winning bidder won it five days later for $132 plus $9 shipping

.. I've experimented with several different varieties of this and have some hilarious anecdotes of other such sales.. just a hobby

I personally don't get it, but some people just get excited over uncirculated coins I guess, even if they're minted that same year (?) ..

so my point of relevancy here is, many times buyers on ebay disregard face value (in this case, a very SPECIFIC face value) for something they think they simply cannot get elsewhere.

/i would never call my buyers "suckers" ..
//to their faces

Matt Ottinger · « **Reply #8 on:** February 29, 2008, 03:52:52 PM »

[quote name=\'lobster\' post=\'179420\' date=\'Feb 29 2008, 03:26 PM\']I personally don't get it, but some people just get excited over uncirculated coins I guess, even if they're minted that same year (?) .. [/quote]
Like the current Ebay ad campaign points out, sometimes it's the thrill of the auction that will do that to people.

Years ago I attended a Star Trek convention that featured an auction of commercially available items the dealers were selling in another room. Nothing rare, certainly nothing unique. Routinely, people were getting so caught up in the bidding that they were paying more for an item than if they simply went to the other room and bought it.

Joe Mello · « **Reply #9 on:** February 29, 2008, 03:55:49 PM »

[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' post=\'179423\' date=\'Feb 29 2008, 03:52 PM\']Years ago I attended a Star Trek convention that featured an auction of commercially available items the dealers were selling in another room. Nothing rare, certainly nothing unique. Routinely, people were getting so caught up in the bidding that they were paying more for an item than if they simply went to the other room and bought it.[/quote]
Not even autographed? Wow.

/Has seen pants go for a high value at anime convention auctions.
//Depressing, really

lobster · « **Reply #10 on:** February 29, 2008, 04:16:50 PM »

[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' post=\'179423\' date=\'Feb 29 2008, 02:52 PM\']
Years ago I attended a Star Trek convention that featured an auction of commercially available items the dealers were selling in another room. Nothing rare, certainly nothing unique. Routinely, people were getting so caught up in the bidding that they were paying more for an item than if they simply went to the other room and bought it.
[/quote]

Hah! Then there are the people that buy ratty clothes at thrift stores for $1/ea and list them on Ebay with special trendy keywords that auto-magically raise the value of said used clothing by 100 fold! My favorite example: "VINTAGE EMO RETRO Def Leppard Concert TShirt, NR" .. it was a nasty looking original t-shirt from 1981 that was probably in some sweaty dude's closet for a decade before somehow being talked into donating all his stuff.. sold for about $150 .. it's all about the keywords

case in point: Note the gratuitous usage of "Vintage" and the word "Emo" as a selling point

call me a stereotyper but if I were ever to see someone walking down the street wearing an original "Led Zeppelin" concert tshirt from the 80s, I'd think "this guy has been wearing a tshirt for three decades, how disgusting" as opposed to thinking "this guy blew $80 for that emo retro vintage shirt on ebay" ... in either case, in my mind, the guy loses

jalman · « **Reply #11 on:** March 01, 2008, 01:33:29 AM »

[quote name=\'lobster\' post=\'179425\' date=\'Feb 29 2008, 04:16 PM\']
in either case, in my mind, the guy loses :D
[/quote]
That usage of smiley scares me. Then again, I'm not moved one way or another about someone's t-shirt. (Maybe when I'm 30) Also, I hate engaging in bidding wars on eBay; I've seen better activities to go Nelson Muntz on. :P

/eBay is a last resort for me
//shudders at the thought of bidding hysteria at a Doctor Who convention
///scarves aren't that useful to me at the moment

chris319 · « **Reply #12 on:** March 01, 2008, 11:59:11 PM »

I've said it before. Go down to the art supply store and buy $20 worth of appropriately-colored card stock and black markers. Cut the card stock into the shape of price tags and make little envelopes for them. With the marker write "Refrigerator" in small letters and "$895" in large letters. Advertise them on ebay as "ORIGINAL PRICE TAG USED BY BOB BARKER ON THE PRICE IS RIGHT" and each one will fetch at least $50, guaranteed. Make 100 of them and you've made $5,000 on an investment of $20.

comicus · « **Reply #13 on:** March 08, 2008, 07:52:35 PM »

Thought some of you might be interested in a follow up... the seller of the item contacted me and informed me that the winner of the $105 TTD game auction did indeed follow through and pay for the item.

Amazing.

Adam Nedeff · « **Reply #14 on:** March 08, 2008, 08:37:16 PM »

[quote name=\'chris319\' post=\'179543\' date=\'Mar 2 2008, 12:59 AM\']
I've said it before. Go down to the art supply store and buy $20 worth of appropriately-colored card stock and black markers. Cut the card stock into the shape of price tags and make little envelopes for them. With the marker write "Refrigerator" in small letters and "$895" in large letters. Advertise them on ebay as "ORIGINAL PRICE TAG USED BY BOB BARKER ON THE PRICE IS RIGHT" and each one will fetch at least $50, guaranteed. Make 100 of them and you've made $5,000 on an investment of $20.
[/quote]
And if you're too lazy to cut the paper, you can skip that step by going to Office Depot and buying cardboard luggage tags. Same size & shape. BONUS: If you buy the kind that already has a string tied to them, you have "original Bill Cullen version price tags."