TOPIC:

The sniping topic lead me to make this thread about more general ebay psychology. Everyone knows there is some bizarre behaviour on ebay and I thought it would be interesting to discuss it further.
Topics could include (my observations):
- People will often pay more for a "project" (box of random parts covered in filth) than something that has been tidied up for sale.
- People will often pay more for something that has been poorly listed, presumably because they think they are getting a bargain.
- These two points lead me to wonder if it might be worth taking your nice tidy unfinished project and putting it in an old shoe box with the contents of the kitchen bin and some random bits of Lego/Meccano and shaking vigourously. Then listing it as "Unknownn Tamia (sic) projekt".

Please post your observations and maybe tactics to counter them.

I do remember a very nicely built Wild Willy with an impressive sales pitch that made quite the top dollar.
So if you do it right, a good car and ad will sell well.
Let's see if I can find that topic...

Yep, here it is :

Someone has made en effort to sell a WW1

I agree of course that there's a lot of weird eBay behaviour around...

Edou wrote:

Yep, here it is :

Someone has made en effort to sell a WW1

I agree of course that there's a lot of weird eBay behaviour around...

I remember that topic !
The description the seller made was just impresive with a huge amout of pictures on his description. Besides that the WW looked almost new....
Besides that i love the theme with the military girls next to Willy

Honestly speaking i don't pay too much attention to the item description i'm looking for. I know that some seller use diferent methods to increase their income, either for selling old and useless stuff or something that looks good but it's terrible used/abused.
My method is to ask some random questions about the listed item and wait for the response. In many cases the seller knows what i'm talking about, that means the she/he is also aware of the product.
I think everyone has his own method, but i my case the nicest and cheapest Tamiya cars i ever bought were the ones i found on local ads or with a complete wrong description on Ebay.

Wow! that is an impressive ad.... and she's a babe - RAWR! You know what they say - "Sex sells".

I was thinking more about "project" items - comparing a nicely organised and cleaned unfinished project with a box of random, grubby bits. I think (some) people like to have something unknown about their purchase - it adds to the thrill. I know I find it quite exciting not knowing exactly what I'm going to get. Trying to identify unknown bits from a photograph is fun too.

hehe, I can recall a couple of months ago some guy had listed a couple of cars, and in each picture he had his (girlfriend/wife) with only a on bikini holding them (no face in picture though, just some nice sized breasts). I doubt he would have gotten any more for the cars though,

yogi-bear wrote:

hehe, I can recall a couple of months ago some guy had listed a couple of cars, and in each picture he had his (girlfriend/wife) with only a on bikini holding them (no face in picture though, just some nice sized breasts). I doubt he would have gotten any more for the cars though,

What, like this
(click the link at your own risk )

yeah along those lines but not so much cougar looking! Get her in a bikini and take of 30 yrs.

Martin wrote:

...
What, like this
(click the link at your own risk )

... Stifler's Mom

I did ask if the bint came with the heli, didn't get a response though, so I guess not. Don't want it then...
As for Ebay behaviour, I think lottery winners might have a lot to do with some of the stupid prices on daft items too, eg bidding on "used cat litter + tray" a little while back.
Yep, agree with people overbidding on poorly listed stuff thinking they're getting a bargain.
I also think that with sniping becoming more common (Which usually involves putting a higher than usual bid in at the last second to ensure you win the item) the prices are being driven higher.
I've also noticed "phases" of what's popular & what's not (Apart from what's related to events/what's on telly/time of year etc) - eg, at the moment it's nigh impossible to buy broken transmitters for sensible money, yet the interest in complete acoms AP227 mk2 has virtually vanished again.

You also have to wonder how many "quiet" members on here use the site for "tipoffs" - why look yourself for dodgy listings when there's lots of people on here highlighting them for you?