Gah some people just dont think (or something).

[ShambleS1980]

ok not gonna mention any web site names so hopefully this wont get closed.
but i have been trying to buy something from a well known auction site.

as always i set my self a reasonable budget for what i want to buy.
mean while i also scour the internet looking for the same item new as cheap as possible.

any way took me a while but i did find what i wanted on line with postage brand new for ~£58 including postage "was from germany but still that was the cheapest one"

so off i go to the auction site happy in the knowlage that i am willing to pay a Good % of the new price for the item. and place my bid

1 hour left on the item some on has bid £70 + £8 postage. which is £20 more than the thing costs new.. for second hand.

and im looking through the auction site and theres lots of the same thing going on. "lots of people are paying more for this item than it would cost new if you shop arround" i dont comprehend it..
has it come to a point where people just blindly go to a well known auction site and start bidding on items without ever checking to see if there is a better deal out there for a new item?

its kind of silly really, but of course the most infuriating thing is. people like my self who will spend the time to check the current value of the item they want new. may as well not have bothered if the masses just blindly bid on items.

i think i did pretty well there not to mention any web page names, and not to mention the item so cant be price driving either.

i did eventually get the item by negotiating with a seller newly listing the item, was more than i wanted to spend but less than it would cost new so it works out.

 

[ColourWheel64]

I suppose sometimes an item can be worth more in the heads of the buyer than the RRP. If the buyer feels that they have paid a fair price then it's difficult to knock it really.

Getting as much stuff as you can and spending as little as possible isn't everyone's aim. It does seem to be assumed though, and we all know what assuming does, don't we?

It turns us all into donkeys

 

[Astral]

On the particular auction site, are you able to contact the highest bidder to ask their reason? The thing is, there could be all kinds of speculative reasons why someone does something that on the surface seems foolish, but may actually make sense if you know their reason.

I'll give you a few..

- "I was extremely drunk"
- "I didn't even check if it was cheaper elsewhere"
- "I don't care if it is cheaper elsewhere, this one comes with a FREE bumper sticker" :wooha:
- "Na speaka Engrish. Na comprehenda"
- "XXXXXX auction site is the only one I trust, so don't mind paying a bit more for that security"
- "I wanted it as a gift for someone and shipping was much quicker, even though the item was dearer" :readit:

I am sure you get the idea

 

[NinjaRabbit]

It's herd-mentality. People see other people bidding, so figure it must be the one to go for.

It's like when you park your car in a largely empty car park, and of all the spaces anyone could've picked, you find two or three cars soon parked right next to yours.

 

[ShambleS1980]

i have to presume that they just didnt check.

to be fair. it took me a few hours to find it at the price i did new, and most places list the things from £90-£120 but i knew that was rediculous because when it was 1st released "quite a while ago" it was about £80.

still i think if i was able to contact these higest bidders they would not be happy to know that they could have found it cheaper new.
"one of them had a broken part, and still sold for more than new"

so i dunno i have to just assume some people think that if its listed on an auction site and second hand. and if they check the previous prices they sold for that it obviously must be the cheapest option.

personally i like to shop arround for a while untill im certain of what the cheapest "online" new price including postage is.
it's just a bit annoying it seems others dont do it too which makes my efforts futile lol.

thy say ignorance is bliss. and i think they must be right because if i hadnt gone to the trouble to find the cheapest prices possible, then i would not be infuriated by the people who did not.

 

[-Acid-]

Don't forget all the fake bids that go around driving prices up on that site. It's not hard to get your mates to bid your own item up to push the price up a bit.

 

[Astral]

Yep Shambles, each to their own - I think you've probably nailed it though...they didn't spend the time to research first, but you did.

I find it interesting the time people spend considering a decision, relative to the purchase price.

For eg. I was looking to buy a usb multi card adaptor the other day from a certain other site...there they were...$5.45 with shipping...$6.76 with shipping...$4 + $1 shipping...$3 + $3 shipping...$99c + $5.55 shipping...and so on...hundreds of them...all kinds of styles...I spent probably 20 mins deciding which one was the cheapest to buy, and then bought it. But...and this is the bit that to most wouldn't make sense...I can decide on most Amiga purchases within a split second, even when the purchase price is a lot more than a $6 purchase. Doesn't seem rational does it? The thing is though...I can rationalise it. It comes down to confidence in what I am buying - and in this comparison there is confidence towards the more expensive item regardless of the massive price bracket.

Aaaaaaaaaand...to make matters worse, I then still questioned whether my $6 usb adaptor purchase was the cheapest it could be.

 

[thecellartroll]

So buy a load at the cheapest price you found and get 'em listed

 

[ShambleS1980]

id feel dirty lol

 

[ColourWheel64]

personally i like to shop arround for a while untill im certain of what the cheapest "online" new price including postage is.
it's just a bit annoying it seems others dont do it too which makes my efforts futile lol.

Am I missing something here? You say that you're hunting around for the bargains, and infuriated by those that don't do the same?

After thinking about it for a bit, it seems to me that the only reason why you're able to find the bargains is because there are so many other people that are happy to pay higher prices. So really, if everyone was to do as you do, only then would your effort be futile, because getting the bargain would be the norm. It wouldn't be a bargain any more. In fact, the cheapest price is bound to be too low to sustain a production line, so the items that you're looking for would be less abundant making it less likely to be available.

Personally, I do like a bargain too, but I also pay more for something if it's in a certain condition or edition and I can get it there and then. I don't like a bargain if I can see the seller doesn't know what they have, they obviously work hard and could do with the money.

Even if not, I sometimes really like a service and really want to help it's maintenance. It could be money or spreading the word.

I certainly don't begrudge bargain hunters, but I think it's something else when the bargain hunters are infuriated by everyone else.

Have I got the wrong end of the stick or something? This really doesn't make sense to me.

 

[ShambleS1980]

im just saying if you can buy it new for less why pay more for it second hand meaning i cant get it second hand for a reasonable price, because people did not bother to check if it was cheaper new than they were willing to pay second hand lol..

its not like its a retro item or something. and im sure they stopped production on them now as there is 2 or 3 more current models available.

Its like if ford decide the new moddle of the capri is coming out so they want to get rid of the old ones from fore courts and drop the price to £6k.
why would you bid on a used one with chipped paint 146k miles on the clock and a bad service history untill you won it for £6.5K, meaning that some one who wanted to buy a second hand capri at a reasonable price cant buy it because you just spent more on it than it costs new..

 

[ColourWheel64]

Yeah, I think I know what you're saying. There are certainly plenty of people that assume that a new car is always going to cost significantly more than buying second-hand. Rationality doesn't come into it at all. It's as if they're programmed.

Do you mean that a bum deal can be staring someone in the face, but they still take it over a better one?

If it's that what infuriates you then I totally understand. Especially if it's someone you care about. I don't anyone likes to see people being conned, especially if they do it to themselves.

 

[ShambleS1980]

its a bit of a mixed bag.
if i wasnt trying to buy it i would want them to buy new if they were willing to spend that much.
i hate to see people over spending as i know how tight money can be.
And have more than once told people that they sent me to much money for a service, or sometimes if they sent some money and said il send more next week. out right refuzed to accept the more next week lol.

(its why i added prices to my xbox repair thread, people were sending my crazy money like it was expected)

Then in this instance. its different. this time i dont have much money in my budget and i know how much it costs new. so i think I have enough money here to make a valid bid which should be enough to win the item, because you would have to be stupid to pay more for it second hand when its less than a 3rd more than im offering new.
and then they go and bid twice as much as i did which is more than the same item new would cost.
This means i couldnt buy the item i wanted even though i was willing to pay a reasonable price, simply because some one did not care enough to check what it costs new lol..

I did evntually get the item i wanted for about my budget price. but i just see so many people blindly bidding on the things.

i could buy up a bunch of the things and prety much double my money on every single one if i was to pray on the auction site sheep. but like i said earlier that would make me feel ditry. and i know me. if any one would send me a question about it id end up telling them where to get it for less lol.

 

[Astral]

It's maybe not always about the "cheapest" to some people. Maybe it's about value. There is a big difference between price and value. For eg. to you the item was worth 80E, but you had the time to spend getting a "bargain". To someone else it was worth 120E to just buy it and therefore have time to sit around drinking **** all afternoon, while they also paid some neighbourhood teenager to mow the grass for 20E. He/she didn't mind paying 60E more all up, even though they could've got the lot for 80E - by buying the item for 80E and mowing the grass themselves. But because to him/her they saw better value in paying more money so they could do other things, that's what they did.

i could buy up a bunch of the things and prety much double my money on every single one if i was to pray on the auction site sheep. but like i said earlier that would make me feel ditry. and i know me. if any one would send me a question about it id end up telling them where to get it for less lol.

This is how 99.99% (for the lack of a better statistic) of the population of the world "make" money - (it's really just the transferance of money but I'm sure you get the point). It's a big part of what makes the economy work - "profit" and the circulation of money. A lot of people have STRONG opinions on this, but I don't think profit is a dirty word - it's only a dirty word if you think it is.

 

[ShambleS1980]

I just noticed something even more crazy on the acution site now..

the actual one i found for cheaper new is in the sponsored links at the bottom of every listing for that item..

so now i am even more bewildered lol.

here i had to edit and stuff to get a completed listing and the sponsored links in a pic, but i cant comprehend it.

(some have sold for more than that but i did it by most recent)