Minor ebay annoyance: "Rare" items

RHemmings

Just a minor annoyance, but I see numbers of items that are described as "rare" or "extremely rare" when in actual fact they are ten a penny, and there are usually several of them on ebay at the same time. On some forums, this is commonly laughed at in ebay threads. Why do people do this. For example, this auction:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/YAMAHA-TX7-FM-EXPANDER-TONE-GENERATOR-/170691932558?pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Pro_Audio_Synthesisers_CV&hash=item27be08318e

It says that it's:

Very rare and sought after for producers in music studios.

No it's not, they are ten a penny and there are loads of them available. And it's worth about £80, not the £250 starting price.

Sometimes I wonder what people are thinking. Do they actually believe that these things are rare? Or do they think they can fool people into paying massively over the odds by claiming that they are rare collectors items?

hermum

Often you see private sellers who have several of the very same very rare, sought after item listed at the same time. They have generally found the rare item-s unused in their loft.

lovinituk

RHemmings wrote: »

Sometimes I wonder what people are thinking. Do they actually believe that these things are rare? Or do they think they can fool people into paying massively over the odds by claiming that they are rare collectors items?

Probably a bit of both but I suspect mostly they think they can fool people. And there are plenty of people ready to be fooled out there - thats why scams are so prevalent!

pulliptears

I used to buy and sell a lot of 80's toys years ago, especially Care Bears after I discovered that certain bears were more valuable having only been made in the UK. I did well out of it for a while, picking up bears reasonably cheaply from boot sales. As people started to realise though I lost count of the amount of sellers who'd stick on a ten a penny bedtime bear with the words 'RARE!' and try and charge £30+ for a bear worth £3 at best. This happened at boot sales as well as on ebay.

Always made me smile. No clue. First rule of business, know your market lol

olias

No different from the hideous 'limited edition' (of 500,000) china plates with a picture of a weeping child on that they flog on the back of weekend supplements. It's a draw to get people to part with their cash. If the customers are thick enough to fall for it and not do their own research prior to buying then more fool them, and good luck to the sellers.

Olias

Kite2010

At least that auction hasn't got the R word in it's title.

ali-t

I often wonder if anyone ever uses 'rare' as a search term when they are looking for items to buy so it seems like a pointless use of a word in the title when it could be used for something more descriptive.

Enfieldian

My pet hate are the auctions that have a fixed starting price but state "No reserve!"... Yeah right....

No reserve is a 99p start and it sells at what it gets, not (as in the last case I saw) a £2,500 starting price... Surely that is the same as a £2,500 reserve, no?

mandragora_2

Enfieldian wrote: »

My pet hate are the auctions that have a fixed starting price but state "No reserve!"... Yeah right....

No reserve is a 99p start and it sells at what it gets, not (as in the last case I saw) a £2,500 starting price... Surely that is the same as a £2,500 reserve, no?

I'm the opposite. I don't mind if someone tells me the minimum they'll accept. That seems fine to me - and fair enough. I actually don't like reserve auctions on Ebay - put in a bid, it's rejected, put in another bid, rejected too. Don't make me mess about and guess; tell me how much the very least you'd accept would be and I'll take it from there, and decide whether or not I want to get involved in bidding.

hermum

mandragora wrote: »

I'm the opposite. I don't mind if someone tells me the minimum they'll accept. That seems fine to me - and fair enough. I actually don't like reserve auctions on Ebay - put in a bid, it's rejected, put in another bid, rejected too. Don't make me mess about and guess; tell me how much the very least you'd accept would be and I'll take it from there, and decide whether or not I want to get involved in bidding.

Same as you, reserve auctions I can't be bothered with. I much prefer to know what the lowest is they're happy with.
Generally you don't get quite so many plonkers refusing to sell because it hasn't reached the price they were hoping for.

brettcta

running a few experiments on ebay, i've found that 'rare' items get more attention, viewers and bids than their non-rare counterparts (same item without rare in the title)