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Post by donculley on May 7, 2020 13:39:55 GMT -6
Has anyone noticed the prices of models has gone sky high on Ebay lately ? I know theres always some people that put high prices thinking they have gold, but it seems like everyones getting in on the act. Some kits are priced higher than you can get at hobby stores, and even poorly built , junk or incomplete kits are higher than before. Do you think its because the virus has sellers raising the prices , thinking that more people are home and are looking for a kit to build , or are they the one who are out of work and selling kits to make some money ? Or , worse yet, I've reached the "you kids get off my lawn" stage of life where everything cost more money than it did in the "good old" days ?
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Post by 41chevy on May 7, 2020 15:31:35 GMT -6
Greed mostly, probably because most shops are closed, stupidity on the real values and the thought that putting it on E Bay someone will buy it.
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Post by kabdriver on May 8, 2020 9:49:48 GMT -6
I think that since eBay stopped charging listing fees and only charge you when you sell there's no reason for sellers NOT to list everything they own at a crazy price just in case someone is desperate enough to buy it. Funny story - I used to work for a place who sold desk chairs on eBay. We'd get them from a supplier in the hundreds and sell them on eBay and because we'd sold so many we were always the top listing if you searched 'desk chair' or 'office chair' or whatever. The problem was, if we went out of stock on these chairs it would take forever for us to get high on the search listings again, and with the best will in the world with supplier delays and unexpected sales spikes we couldn't always keep them in stock. So, what we'd do is change the price of these $70 office chairs, once we got low on stock, to $150 so that no one would buy the last one, but so we could stay high in the search rankings. First time we did that, we had five left, and some company bought all five at the higher price. Next time the same situation came up we made them $200...and those all sold too. Highest we ever sold an office chair for was $400...I don't know if people thought it must be super quality compared to the cheap ones, or if they were businesses who just REALLY needed a new chair or what the deal was...but yeah Glad I don't do that job anymore anyway
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Post by kabdriver on May 8, 2020 9:55:34 GMT -6
Also, I experimented with selling on eBay last year, making some paint masks for modellers. Out of every 10 I sold, on average (I sold a couple of hundred all told at $10 a go), I was having eBay refund 3 out of 10 of the buyers because they claimed they hadn't received them. Even if I had tracking, if the person came back and bought more because them liked them, whatever...30% of my customers on that little experiment were saying the stuff never got there even if their name signed for it and USPS swore they'd got it just fine.
I don't know where these people must live where 1/3rd of their mail never gets there, but I know for damn sure that 1/3rd of my mail doesn't go missing in transit. I figured to make it worth continuing to do I needed to assume I'd always lose 30% or so of all my sales (even before you consider ebay and Paypal fees)...and it wasn't worth it. So, I'm not surprised eBayers jack their prices up if they're dealing with that crap every day.
But still, I'll totally support a seller on eBay selling at fair prices versus buying directly off Amazon or whatever where I can - it's nice to support local hobby stores, even if they're not so local
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Post by stevielewis on May 8, 2020 10:42:06 GMT -6
Right now it's mostly greed that's driving the prices up.
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Post by 41chevy on May 8, 2020 12:30:51 GMT -6
Also, I experimented with selling on eBay last year, making some paint masks for modellers. Out of every 10 I sold, on average (I sold a couple of hundred all told at $10 a go), I was having eBay refund 3 out of 10 of the buyers because they claimed they hadn't received them. Even if I had tracking, if the person came back and bought more because them liked them, whatever...30% of my customers on that little experiment were saying the stuff never got there even if their name signed for it and USPS swore they'd got it just fine. I don't know where these people must live where 1/3rd of their mail never gets there, but I know for damn sure that 1/3rd of my mail doesn't go missing in transit. I figured to make it worth continuing to do I needed to assume I'd always lose 30% or so of all my sales (even before you consider ebay and Paypal fees)...and it wasn't worth it. So, I'm not surprised eBayers jack their prices up if they're dealing with that crap every day. But still, I'll totally support a seller on eBay selling at fair prices versus buying directly off Amazon or whatever where I can - it's nice to support local hobby stores, even if they're not so local I sold a very expensive Revell of Germany truck kit on E Bay, the seller claimed he never got it and yes even with the UPS signature he got a refund. About a week later I see it on E Bay for the guy who claimed he never got it. Knew it was mine because I used to put a mark on the front of the boxes after one buyer whined about missing parts and returned the kit for a refund. Problem was the kit box was a Wal Mart issue. Started marking everything I sold after that.
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Post by Paul B. Canney on May 9, 2020 2:33:33 GMT -6
Also, I experimented with selling on eBay last year, making some paint masks for modellers. Out of every 10 I sold, on average (I sold a couple of hundred all told at $10 a go), I was having eBay refund 3 out of 10 of the buyers because they claimed they hadn't received them. Even if I had tracking, if the person came back and bought more because them liked them, whatever...30% of my customers on that little experiment were saying the stuff never got there even if their name signed for it and USPS swore they'd got it just fine. I don't know where these people must live where 1/3rd of their mail never gets there, but I know for damn sure that 1/3rd of my mail doesn't go missing in transit. I figured to make it worth continuing to do I needed to assume I'd always lose 30% or so of all my sales (even before you consider ebay and Paypal fees)...and it wasn't worth it. So, I'm not surprised eBayers jack their prices up if they're dealing with that crap every day. But still, I'll totally support a seller on eBay selling at fair prices versus buying directly off Amazon or whatever where I can - it's nice to support local hobby stores, even if they're not so local I sold a very expensive Revell of Germany truck kit on E Bay, the seller claimed he never got it and yes even with the UPS signature he got a refund. About a week later I see it on E Bay for the guy who claimed he never got it. Knew it was mine because I used to put a mark on the front of the boxes after one buyer whined about missing parts and returned the kit for a refund. Problem was the kit box was a Wal Mart issue. Started marking everything I sold after that.
I've been at eBay since 1998. Typically I get 1 or 2 jackasses per calendar year. Whenever I do get someone claiming something was damaged, broken, etc, eBay typically tells me and I offer up a postage paid return label. (because your not getting to keep something for free) Also, immediately that bidder gets added to my blocked buyer list (so you don't get to do that to me again).
At least once a year I get someone sending me an email saying they are trying to bid on something; but ebay says I'm blocking them and can I remove whatever block is stopping them from bidding. My blocked bidder list is a forever list (like the cornfield here). One way in, no way out. So I never remove them from the list and I never respond to the email.
I'm not a know all at all things eBay. But my current rating is 6377, so I know a little something....
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Post by showrodjohn on May 9, 2020 3:39:00 GMT -6
You should see the prices of kits in Australia in hobby shops. We are allowed to go to the hobby shop. $50 to $60 Australian for a kit. I am lucky mu hobby shop sells second hand at a good price.
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Post by davevan1 on May 9, 2020 5:07:45 GMT -6
My buddy in So Cal has bought about 6 kits in the last 2 weeks.....he collects, and builds, 1960's era kits. He's gotten some great deals too. Last week he got two AMT factory sealed kits for 1969 for about $100 shipped. So I think it depends on what you are looking for. I picked up a few Monogram 'Early Iron' series kits for under $20 each. I figure a new kit MSRP is about $30 so a vintage mint kit for $20 is good.
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Post by 41chevy on May 9, 2020 8:49:29 GMT -6
I sold a very expensive Revell of Germany truck kit on E Bay, the seller claimed he never got it and yes even with the UPS signature he got a refund. About a week later I see it on E Bay for the guy who claimed he never got it. Knew it was mine because I used to put a mark on the front of the boxes after one buyer whined about missing parts and returned the kit for a refund. Problem was the kit box was a Wal Mart issue. Started marking everything I sold after that.
I've been at eBay since 1998. Typically I get 1 or 2 jackasses per calendar year. Whenever I do get someone claiming something was damaged, broken, etc, eBay typically tells me and I offer up a postage paid return label. (because your not getting to keep something for free) Also, immediately that bidder gets added to my blocked buyer list (so you don't get to do that to me again).
At least once a year I get someone sending me an email saying they are trying to bid on something; but ebay says I'm blocking them and can I remove whatever block is stopping them from bidding. My blocked bidder list is a forever list (like the cornfield here). One way in, no way out. So I never remove them from the list and I never respond to the email.
I'm not a know all at all things eBay. But my current rating is 6377, so I know a little something.... Been a seller since 1985 with a store since 1999, this issue with the Revell kit was when E Bay was refunding the buyers payment without any input from the sellers in the early 2000's. I was a partner in Gold Coast Hobby and I sold diecast cars, Marklin trains, The Drydock RC boat kits and plastic models on e Bay world wide and only had 4 issues. The Revell truck, a Humbrol color wheel, a "missing" book to Italy and an 80 kit shipment to White Fang Models in Australia where on case was damaged in transit. We worked with all to fix the issues. I did have a block list, bidder requirements and a list of countries on my no ship list. Most issues were in the western coast of the U.S.
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Post by patw on May 9, 2020 15:43:53 GMT -6
Same problem here in the UK, such high prices! I think that the sellers are trying to sell as if they were retail outlets with big overheads instead of just having a garage to store stuff. As a pensioner the budget is tight, so I look for only Auction kits most of them 'already started' to keep the cost down. Recently I've found a few reasonably priced kits because, I think that stock is not moving fast enough, furloughed staff have only 80% of pay coming in so budgets are tighter, so prices have fallen a little. The 'Buy it now' prices are going up all the time though, so I steer clear of those!
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