Ebay madness!!!

[ige87]

A couple of days ago, I noticed one hell of an auction on ebay uk. Some guy selling a TD-20 kit with some extra pads and a full 2.5K Mackie sound system. I had it in my watch list but it vanished. The amazing thing was the starting price of 1p! This did make me kinda suspicious but he had great feedback, including some drum equipment. Anybody else see this, or know anything about it?

[hodsmack4]

dude, no offense, did you just discover ebay? It is a haven for scumbags trying to (and many succeed) screw people over. Best advice - if its too good to be true, stay out of it.

It 'disappeared' because morons log into bogus emails that send their ID's and Passwords to these crooks, who then post items on your ebay ID. They 'beg' you not to 'ask the seller a question' because they don't have the correct permissions to go in and change your email account that those messages go to. So in turn, they plead (usually in the form of a .jpg or other picture image) for you to email them directly. That way you don't alert the TRUE seller.

Bottom line - if you are willing to risk that kind of cash, you better darn well make sure you contact the seller and 'touch base' making sure you feel confident it is real. Do not ever email some thug that posts his email address in the actual description - 9/10 times, that's the flag!

Don't get duped

[stickinthemud]

Hodsmack4,

You are no doubt correct, especially since the auction was pulled, but sometimes people will start an auction really low, knowing that bidding will end at a good price. I think the purpose of this strategy is to get bidders interested and count on "bidding fever" to set in. I don't think I would have the nerve to do this, but it works for a lot of people.

Again, in this case it was almost certainly a scam.

[ige87]

No. I'm not that green! Yes, it did look too good to be true, but it didn't have most of the nonsense scammers usually put. It had a thorough and accurate description, no 'use this email to contact me'. I wasn't intending to bid, was just curious to see if others did. It just confused me as I've never had things vanish from my watch list before. Do they do that now?

[hodsmack4]

No. I'm not that green! Yes, it did look too good to be true, but it didn't have most of the nonsense scammers usually put. It had a thorough and accurate description, no 'use this email to contact me'. I wasn't intending to bid, was just curious to see if others did. It just confused me as I've never had things vanish from my watch list before. Do they do that now?

if it is a scam, they pull it in a second and if you have bid on it, they will send you an automated email that the auction had been pulled. I think it works like this....if the seller 'pulls' it....basically they just end it and the auction will still exists but say 'the seller ended the item early for........(reason here)'. If Ebay takes action and ends it, you will not find that auction again - it will say it 'no longer exists' or something to that effect. When this is the case, I am confident you can assume scam city

[grog]

Um, okay, everything people have said about edrum scammers on ebay is true. And the fact that this auction was yanked is also a red flag.

But, the starting price isn't. It's pure economics combined with the mentality of ebay buyers.

Ebay's cut of the final price is greater the higher you set the starting price. Therefore, to cut as much ebay overhead out of your take, you start the price at rock bottom.

That takes care of the pure economics. Furthermore, if you start an item's base price out too high, it almost always kills your auction before it gets started. People simply balk at starting out too high. I've seen this time and time again: an item starts at nothing and is bid up to a minimum price on another identical item that has *no* action. And nine times out of ten, that higher priced item doesn't sell.

The potential bidders will take care of the rest. That's cuz there will always be somebody, usually many somebodys, who recognizes the "going rate" on the item in question and is willing to bid up over a low price in the hopes of still "saving" several hundred bucks (in this case). Then another somebody will do the same thing to that somebody.

And all the while, you watch your auction price go up and up.

That's how I've sold all my various ecymbals on ebay. Start them at a rock bottom price and let the psychology of auctions take care of the rest. Edrum components have done an insanely good job at holding their price over the last couple of years. There's been an occasional dip here and there on something but it seems people are willing to pay much higher than I would expect for just about any piece of edrum gear.

https://www.myspace.com/rubberuniverse

[hodsmack4]

Sure people list items and start at lower prices than what they obviously will get for them. I didn't really read the OP's post as that, but that the item was REMOVED and he was flustered as to why. If I listed a TD20 kit for 1000, I'm going to get emails, offers, and who knows what else. Much more than if I listed same kit starting at $3500. It is psychology. Realistically, that first kit at $1000 will likely sell for market around $4000 as probably the other one at $3500 would. I suppose many people feel they are getting a deal when they bid on something that 28 other people are also bidding on, when in reality, they can look 2 listings down and actually get the same thing for cheaper (only it didn't start out at the 'rock-bottom, this isn't really what this overly expensive item is going to end up at', price). I like to think people are smarter than that.....but then.......