TOPIC: The reason why stupid people are allowed to have money

Ebay baffles the heck out of me sometimes. It just makes no sense. You watch people willing to pay more than retail for things or just drastically overpay when there are cheaper options with identical products. Not that I'm complaining really. Well, not when I'm the one selling things anyway. It does make it harder to get good deals when you're the one trying to buy though.<br /><br />I'm actually selling a few things on ebay right now for a friend and decided to just put it up as a Buy It Now. People are often willing to spend quite a bit more if they don't have to bid on the item. At least, that's the way it seems from the completed auctions page. What I don't get is why so many people are just watching the item. It's a buy it now, after all. The price isn't goign to change and the first person who wants it, gets it. Why the heck do a half dozen people have it on their watch list? Maybe it's just a backup option or something but it seems peculiar to me.<br /><br />

Yea I don't get it either. I rarely buy on ebay mainly because I expect to get a better deal in exchange for buying a used item being sold by an individual (who may only have something like 30 feedback) rather than an established seller like Amazon.<br /><br />In fact, I use Amazon as my basis for what items are worth new and I'm frequently forced to abandon my interest in items on ebay when the bidding exceeds the price for the same NEW item on Amazon!<br /><br />Yea unbelievable...<br /><br /><br /><br />

I've seen some Used Dwarven Forge boxes sell for more than their currently-in-print price.  Silly.

Everything is worth what the buyer will pay for it.

<br />Everything is worth what the buyer will pay for it.<br />

<br /><br />But only to the buyer.  :|<br /><br />

But really you should look around and know what you expect to pay regarding whatever and wherever you're buying it from.<br /><br />I'll never forget an incident my mom told me about regarding some store(I forget which), but they had put a big display of gatorade up and put Special Sale notice on it one summer.<br />The 'special sale' price was a $1 higher than the week before. My mom knew the price and walked away.<br />But plenty of people saw the word Special Sale and figured it had to be a good bargain, even though it was higher than their normal prices.<br /><br />Know the product and what it goes for.

<br />Why the heck do a half dozen people have it on their watch list? Maybe it's just a backup option or something but it seems peculiar to me.<br />

<br /><br />While you can not discount stupidity, I would hope the explanation is an automated watch script.  Then again, they may have set the watch not even paying attention to the method of sale...

I have a tendency to put "Buy It Now" auctions on my watch list if I'm not sure I want to buy it, or if I'm still comparison shopping.  Then I get the reminder email, so I have a chance to make a last-minute decision.  Although I haven't actually bought anything I've done that with in a while...

Well, on the plus side the item sold. On the minus side, it was sold to a frenchie.  I'm thinking of adding a froggy surcharge to the invoice just for having to deal with things like customs forms.

I find that most folks don't accept international bidders..though I'm unsure why. Does this add some extra layers of risk?

Yep. Though, if you're careful, it's no worse than any transaction. A lot of payment methods from overseas are the types which can be canceled if they haven't fully cleared yet. So it looks like someone's payed you but once you mail the sucker, poof, payment vanishes. It's also hard to contest or sort out anything if it turns into a FUBAR situation.

Just found another reason people don't accept international bids/buyers. Paypal charges an extra 1% cross-border fee. It's not huge in the grand scheme of things, but if you consider the fact that you're normally paying 3%, it's a 33% increase. Froggy just cost me an extra buck sixty-six.