Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Every time I look for something on Ebay, I consistently find that sellers price things higher for items that are easily purchased from a local Wal Mart store. It's like they buy things at Wal Mart, list them on Ebay higher than the retail price. I terminated my Ebay account several years ago, but started looking at it recently again and it's even worse now. Prices on ebay are double the retail price on many things.
There are two reasons, I think: sellers are often idiots, and EBay has been strenuously promoting itself as an alternate retail outlet for about a year now. So instead of, well, EBay stuff at EBay prices, there is a trend of sellers trying to open competitive 'retail' operations. They price against other online retailers, not other EBay sellers. That's probably dragging regular EBayer prices up.
But mostly, sellers are idiots who think pricing something two dollars under discount retail will bring the shopping hordes. And there are more and more of them - individuals, indy stores, chain stores - getting into the "retail through EBay model."
Because (in my observation) nothing on the interwebz can ever stay what it was successful at - it has to become all other successful things, too. Look at the blurring and spreading of features in social media - they all do much the same things now, just with different cute logos and user interfaces.
Every time I look for something on Ebay, I consistently find that sellers price things higher for items that are easily purchased from a local Wal Mart store. It's like they buy things at Wal Mart, list them on Ebay higher than the retail price. I terminated my Ebay account several years ago, but started looking at it recently again and it's even worse now. Prices on ebay are double the retail price on many things.
For example? What items? Are you actually searching for the lowest price? I see a lot of rip off prices on eBay, but if I search for the lowest price, I can get some good deals.
I do 95% of my online shopping on eBay. It's not the lowest prices. But I get a lot of Amazon Prime items on eBay for about 50¢ to $1 over the Amazon Prime prices, and I don't have to pay a $119 a year for a membership. I also get a lot of items on eBay shipped from Walmart for $1 - $2 over the Walmart price, and I don't need to order $25 worth to get free shipping. I buy a lot of cheap stuff on eBay shipped free direct from China at prices that beat any US price.
So I don't agree that eBay prices are high. You just have to learn how to search for the low prices.
I do 95% of my online shopping on eBay. It's not the lowest prices. But I get a lot of Amazon Prime items on eBay for about 50¢ to $1 over the Amazon Prime prices, and I don't have to pay a $119 a year for a membership. I also get a lot of items on eBay shipped from Walmart for $1 - $2 over the Walmart price, and I don't need to order $25 worth to get free shipping. I buy a lot of cheap stuff on eBay shipped free direct from China at prices that beat any US price.
But if you're paying $1-$2 over each time you buy something, how much are you really saving?
About a third of the sellers I encounter have the same items for sale today that they were selling a year ago, because their prices are so unrealistic. There's a woman who was selling a set of four dishes as a Buy It Now for $32. She included a Make an Offer sticker, which generally translates to a selling price of 75% of the Buy It Now price. I wanted to get to $24, but she wouldn't go lower than $28. She was rather unpleasant, so I didn't buy the dishes.
She's had them up for at least three months now. About a month ago, she lowered her price to $24, the amount I originally wanted to pay her, but the dishes still didn't sell. Since they didn't sell for $24, she now has them listed at $60, this time with no "Make an Offer" sticker.
The dishes are going to sit there for years. This logic I do not understand. These dishes are nothing schmancy.
Hmm, I find great prices and bargains on eBay, but you have to really look and compare. The prices from different sellers can be all over the place. I find that one seller may be asking a stupid high price for something, but often another one doesn't seem to realize the value and have things under priced, especially on Auctions.
I actually find many things on eBay cheaper than on Amazon these days. Even on books, especially used ones.
I think one thing that is making online shopping a little pricier these days is that shipping costs have gone up so much. And I'm not fooled by Amazon's "free" shipping. Unless you buy a lot, you're paying for your shipping in your Prime membership fee.
But if you're paying $1-$2 over each time you buy something, how much are you really saving?
I'm saving a LOT. First to start with the Amazon Prime items that I get through eBay. I can get about 120 Amazon Prime items shipped to me each year, before I would be spending more then I would on an Amazon Prime membership. I get about 50 to 70 Amazon Prime items. So I'm saving about $50 to $70 a year, not paying for Amazon Prime.
Walmart is hard. We all know that Walmart is cheapest. They sell cheap crap imported from China and US taxpayers subsidize their workforce with welfare, so Walmart doesn't have to pay them a living wage. It's pretty much impossible for anyone to beat Walmart's prices... Except eBay does it.
Here is an example. Solar Power Pocket Calculators, for 99¢ with free shipping direct from the factory in China. For the record, the cheapest pocket calculator that Walmart sells is $2.69, and you have to pick it up in the store, to get that price. So Walmart can't compete with eBay's prices, even with all the millions of dollars in subsidies they get. I would switch to buying on Amazon, or Walmart.com in a second. Except I can't afford an Amazon Prime membership, and I can't afford Walmarts ridiculously high shipping charges. Ebay is the best deal for me.
About a third of the sellers I encounter have the same items for sale today that they were selling a year ago, because their prices are so unrealistic. There's a woman who was selling a set of four dishes as a Buy It Now for $32. She included a Make an Offer sticker, which generally translates to a selling price of 75% of the Buy It Now price. I wanted to get to $24, but she wouldn't go lower than $28. She was rather unpleasant, so I didn't buy the dishes.
She's had them up for at least three months now. About a month ago, she lowered her price to $24, the amount I originally wanted to pay her, but the dishes still didn't sell. Since they didn't sell for $24, she now has them listed at $60, this time with no "Make an Offer" sticker.
The dishes are going to sit there for years. This logic I do not understand. These dishes are nothing schmancy.
I have almost given up on Best Offer items. Lately I have been getting all of my best offers rejected. One guy rejected my offer and made me a counter offer that I could pay full price. He said the best offer was only for people buying 10 or more of the items. Except that he had only three of them listed.
Hmm, I find great prices and bargains on eBay, but you have to really look and compare. The prices from different sellers can be all over the place. I find that one seller may be asking a stupid high price for something, but often another one doesn't seem to realize the value and have things under priced, especially on Auctions.
I actually find many things on eBay cheaper than on Amazon these days. Even on books, especially used ones.
I think one thing that is making online shopping a little pricier these days is that shipping costs have gone up so much. And I'm not fooled by Amazon's "free" shipping. Unless you buy a lot, you're paying for your shipping in your Prime membership fee.
I have picked up a lot of items from people who don't realize the value. I collect old maps, at least those that I can afford. A few years ago, I saw a listing for a "1950s Map", starting bid $5. Which $5 to $10 would be about the average price for something like that. I have bought a lot of them in that price range. Except looking at the pictures of this map I could see that it was clearly not 1950s, but rather early 1900s. Which makes it a lot more rare, and more valuable to collectors. To make a long story short I picked up the map for $5. If the seller had correctly listed the item, the bidding would have likely been out of my price range. People who sell collectibles really need to do research, or they could end up selling valuable items for ridiculously low prices.
Every time I look for something on Ebay, I consistently find that sellers price things higher for items that are easily purchased from a local Wal Mart store. It's like they buy things at Wal Mart, list them on Ebay higher than the retail price. I terminated my Ebay account several years ago, but started looking at it recently again and it's even worse now. Prices on ebay are double the retail price on many things.
I think eBay actually has a lot of good priced items. When I buy something like a hairdryer or blender for instants, I have three windows open Amazon Walmart and eBay and I see if I can find the same hair dryer. There are many times it’s cheapest on eBay.
However Amazon often has amazing deals in the warehouse deals section that eBay or Walmart cannot touch. I recently got a brush nickel kitchen faucet with pulldown sprayer for $22 advertised as used on Amazon warehouse deals due to a “small cosmetic defect”but there’s not a single cosmetic defect that I can see anywhere. I had new ones in my cart that were over $100 before I discovered it.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
