Aldi goods on Ebay

sammyjammy

I was doing a search for reviews on an Aldi hair product earlier and Ebay came up as selling it, at 300% of the Aldi price.  Just curiosity really but who buys these things?  I understand people might not have an Aldi nearby but I just can't understand who would pay these prices - I'd rather go without if I couldn't source it myself. 

It just seems wrong to charge such hyped up prices.

savergrant

What kind of price? Given the choice between paying £2 in an aldi store but having to travel 20 miles and hope it's in stock, or paying £6 to have it delivered to me I would be tempted to pay the extra. If it was a £50 item no chance.
Worth remembering aldi is classed as a discounter so it's a bit different to an item selling on ebay for three times what it costs in John Lewis.

OneThranWeeCutty

I’ve noticed this before too. 

I bought a candle in Aldi (Hotel Collection - Glacier) a while ago but I should’ve got 2 cos I love the fragrance of it. Had a look online and they came up on eBay for £££’s. I didn’t buy it but I did wonder why it’d be priced so high!  

vacheron

Probably because eBay buyers don't know it is from ALDI, nor may they know the ALDI selling price. As far as they're concerned all they can see a "nice item" that they're willing to pay that amount of money for to obtain in a convenient manner.

Also, as the ALDI special offers can often sell out quickly or aren't availible in all stores. So if someone really liked a particular item and can't buy it locally, they could very likely be willing to pay a little more to replace the thing that they liked so much.

The large wholesale distributors that sell to ALDI may also be thinking the same "why are people paying 300% more in ALDI when we sell it for a third of the price?".

It all boils down to accessibility and convenience.

MikeyPGT

OneThranWeeCutty said:

I’ve noticed this before too. 

I bought a candle in Aldi (Hotel Collection - Glacier) a while ago but I should’ve got 2 cos I love the fragrance of it. Had a look online and they came up on eBay for £££’s. I didn’t buy it but I did wonder why it’d be priced so high!  

Maybe cos there were lots of people like you who wanted to buy something no longer in stock so it became a 'seller's market' ...

I sell stuff on Vinted - whatever price you ask people try to haggle you down by at least 40% so better to start high and come down a bit than get mucked about.

OneThranWeeCutty

Hmmm £320 for a £4 candle is ‘more money than sense’ territory. Or AI put the decimal point in the wrong place… 

jeffuk

Retail arbitrage, a lot of people make a decent living doing it. Google or Youtube for more info. 

soolin

The Aldi offers tend to sell out as soon as they are announced or hit the viral social media groups. So re sellers buy it up and resell at a profit , sellers have always done it and always will.

Aldi had wooden toys a few months back, sold out in minutes once shop,opened and I saw those changing hands at triple the prices on Vinted and eBay within an hour of the shops opening.

It was the same in past years when H & M used to release designer inspired clothing, wasn’t there a Kate Moss dress that people queued outside the shop for for days before it was released? Ticket touts are the same, buy to resell. 

it is unfortunately a standard small business seller tactic, I don’t see how it can be stopped but perhaps sellers should understand this makes them a business and they should be paying tax on it. 

sammyjammy

£4.99 each in Aldi and on Ebay for upwards of £23.99 for 2, just seems wrong to me and a bit sad.  I guess its on Aldi if they don't limit how many one person can buy.

Thanks for responses, very interesting.

Pollycat

I guess everything is worth what somebody is willing to pay for it.

DullGreyGuy

sammyjammy said:

I was doing a search for reviews on an Aldi hair product earlier and Ebay came up as selling it, at 300% of the Aldi price.  Just curiosity really but who buys these things?  I understand people might not have an Aldi nearby but I just can't understand who would pay these prices - I'd rather go without if I couldn't source it myself. 

It just seems wrong to charge such hyped up prices.

It's not just limited to Aldi either, though they may be one of the more common sources for such goods. 

Went to an exhibition on the history of Tiffany a while back and like all good exhibitions you exit through the gift shop which were selling various "limited edition" things like a cotton tote bad in Tiffany blue with the logo etc for £20 or something... so a bit toppy for what it was but not your standard Tiffany markup of being 4-5x the price it would be elsewhere without the brand. Various other things like colouring pencils in Tiffany blue with the logo etc.

Looking on eBay the totes in particular were selling for £100. You may think ok, not everyone can get to London in the couple of months the exhibition was on for but go to the galleries website at the time and they were there for sale for £20 + £5 P&P

On eBay today there are two listed for sale, one at £99 and the other at £146, at least now you can't buy them from the gallery. 



Why do people do it? They dont know where the goods came from? The goods are sold out? They arent near a store and either it's not available online or they dont realise it is? Impulse buy when it flicks up on eBay?