11 Oct
2006
11 Oct
'06
1:27 p.m.
Date: Wed, 11 Oct 2006 10:27:38 -0400
From: Ray Arachelian <ray at arachelian.com>
Robert Borsuk wrote:
I think I experienced this first hand within the last year.
I bid on a Fujitsu magneto-optical drive. Ah, here's the URL still
on my Snipeswipe page
<http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=8786740987> .
I was willing to go to about $16 (with shipping it would have been
closer to $30).
After the auction, the high bidder had the gall to email me to tell
me that he sells items of the type I'm interested in and that I
should visit his store. Of course, he sells MO drives for well over
$100.
So this creature outbids me and then tries to turn around and sell me
the same item at a higher price. If I had been willing to pay more,
I would have bid higher.
I can't point out some way in which this behaviour is morally wrong,
but it is certainly irritating.
Jeff Walther
The interesting thing is that he will list items
for bidding, then if
they don't sell he will relist them at a higher price.
He does eventually sell things so I guess it encourages the high prices.
I've
seen this kind of behavior before. It seems to be a new business
model.
It works by listing and relisting the same items, or opening it as a
store and listing them always. Whenever anyone sells a similar item
that competes with the store, that store bids and buys the item, then
relists it at the higher price. Even if they don't win those items,
they'll at least drive up the prices for them to be in range with what
their store is selling, thus driving up the expected price for that item
in the market.
The end goal is to be the only source for a set of items, and to be
always available. The high price of the items justifies their cost of
doing business (space, ebay fees, buying competing items, etc.) but of
course screws the buyers. In the long run, supposedly, they wind up
making more money by being the only source.
That's what you're seeing.