ebay rip off

[Jacob]

What do you think of this £1116 set of chisels?
Looks to me very much like Faithful brand - normally retailing for £30 to £50 the set, and barely worth it at that.
Is this fraud or a legitimate way to rip off a rich nutter? Caveat emptor etc.

 

[bugbear]

In his feedback I found:

Good chisels
Member ID mjwarrillow ( Feedback score of 40Yellow star icon for Feedback score between 10 to 49)
10-Jan-12 17:20
12PC PROFESSIONAL WOOD CARVING CHISEL SET w WOODEN CASE (#280537745728) £16.95 View Item

So I think it's an innocent "decimal point" typo.

BugBear

 

[hiho9]

some sellers do this when they have run out of stock, instead of removing then re inserting.

ronniesunshine does it alot

 

[RogerP]

Sellers don't want to take down running listings and pay again for a new listing. So they just revise the price for a day or two (which costs nothing).

 

[Jacob]

Oh right.

 

[Gerard Scanlan]

I was wondering about those crazy prices too. The things you learn on this forum it is amazing.

 

[bugbear]

Sellers don't want to take down running listings and pay again for a new listing. So they just revise the price for a day or two (which costs nothing).

Ah - that's a new one on me. Live and learn. Thanks.

BugBear

 

[Jacob]

Could also account for book prices. I buy quite a lot of books, sometimes from recommendations here.
Amazon resellers or Abe Books sometimes have e.g. Joyce at £60 or more. If set up a search you will get it for £1 sooner or later. I got one for 1p plus postage.
But then someone might imagine that the high price is the market price for a collectable item. Sometimes it will be, other times just someone out of stock and not wanting to have to relist.
Then if anyone orders at the high price the seller is going to get on his bike and track down a £1 copy as fast as he can!

PS Joyce is on at the moment from £150 (madness!) to £10 for a tatty copy ("acceptable"). Most often at £30 to £40. Maybe time to off load my little collection?

 

[AndyT]

Jacob - that's an interesting can of worms you've opened there.
The answer seems to be that used book prices are being set by computers, not by woodworkers!

Have a look at this blog post for example - Amazon’s $23,698,655.93 book about flies for more info on the dark arts of online bookselling.

 

[Eric The Viking]

Have a look at this blog post for example - Amazon’s $23,698,655.93 book about flies for more info on the dark arts of online bookselling.

That's truly brilliant!

I love the tabulated price changes, too. I quite often buy s/h books via Amazon - will tread more carefully in future!

E.