eBay dolts

What would cause an intelligent person to list a very common edition of
a common book (let's say a blue spine non-1st of the Hardy Boys "The
Tower Treasure") for $10.00 when a) there are a couple of hundred other
auctions of the exact same edition currently listed for as little as
$.50 , b) it's listed on Amazon for as low as $.01 and c) it costs
twice as much (or so) to list an item for $10.00 instead of $9.99?
What are they thinking. What? What?

RWF wrote:
What would cause an intelligent person to list a very common edition of
a common book (let's say a blue spine non-1st of the Hardy Boys "The
Tower Treasure") for $10.00 when a) there are a couple of hundred other
auctions of the exact same edition currently listed for as little as
$.50 , b) it's listed on Amazon for as low as $.01 and c) it costs
twice as much (or so) to list an item for $10.00 instead of $9.99?
What are they thinking. What? What?


They are likely thinking one of two things:

A. "Wow, I've never heard of this book. It must be worth a zillion
dollars!"

B. "I bet there are millions of suckers who've never heard of
ABE/Alibris/Addall (etc.), so I can probably find one to pony up ten
bucks for this piece of junk."

Both are not unheard-of on eBay.

Some Guy wrote:

RWF wrote:
What would cause an intelligent person to list a very common edition of
a common book (let's say a blue spine non-1st of the Hardy Boys "The
Tower Treasure") for $10.00 when a) there are a couple of hundred other
auctions of the exact same edition currently listed for as little as
$.50 , b) it's listed on Amazon for as low as $.01 and c) it costs
twice as much (or so) to list an item for $10.00 instead of $9.99?
What are they thinking. What? What?


They are likely thinking one of two things:

A. "Wow, I've never heard of this book. It must be worth a zillion
dollars!"

B. "I bet there are millions of suckers who've never heard of
ABE/Alibris/Addall (etc.), so I can probably find one to pony up ten
bucks for this piece of junk."

Both are not unheard-of on eBay.

More than likely, they didn't carefully consider the situation
when the price was listed, and the buyer didn't either.

What would cause an intelligent person to list a very common edition of
a common book (let's say a blue spine non-1st of the Hardy Boys "The
Tower Treasure") for $10.00 when a) there are a couple of hundred other
auctions of the exact same edition currently listed for as little as
$.50 , b) it's listed on Amazon for as low as $.01 and c) it costs
twice as much (or so) to list an item for $10.00 instead of $9.99?
What are they thinking. What? What?


They are likely thinking one of two things:

A. "Wow, I've never heard of this book. It must be worth a zillion
dollars!"

B. "I bet there are millions of suckers who've never heard of
ABE/Alibris/Addall (etc.), so I can probably find one to pony up ten
bucks for this piece of junk."

Both are not unheard-of on eBay.

More than likely, they didn't carefully consider the situation
when the price was listed, and the buyer didn't either.

Oh, I misread this. I thought you were talking about abebooks.com

BTW, it's always strange to see people use abebooks.com as a guide
to the value of a book.

Walter Traprock wrote:
What would cause an intelligent person to list a very common edition of
a common book (let's say a blue spine non-1st of the Hardy Boys "The
Tower Treasure") for $10.00 when a) there are a couple of hundred other
auctions of the exact same edition currently listed for as little as
$.50 ,

It is called "human greed."

b) it's listed on Amazon for as low as $.01 and c) it costs
twice as much (or so) to list an item for $10.00 instead of $9.99?
What are they thinking. What? What?


They are likely thinking one of two things:

A. "Wow, I've never heard of this book. It must be worth a zillion
dollars!"

B. "I bet there are millions of suckers who've never heard of
ABE/Alibris/Addall (etc.), so I can probably find one to pony up ten
bucks for this piece of junk."

Facts is, you have just described the
way a great many "bricks-and-morter"
used book dealers price items. And
that is not necessarily bad, because --
especially if the store has an affluent
clientele -- there are people who would
rather pay $100 and walk out with a
book that strikes their fancy than
fuss around on the net and hope
to get one in the same condition for
$50 or even $25. They
feel their time is worth more than that.
Sometimes "what-the-traffic-will-bear"
is going to be different for a store than
for the net, and it is hard to fault
anyone for taking that into account
when pricing.

Both are not unheard-of on eBay.

More than likely, they didn't carefully consider the situation
when the price was listed, and the buyer didn't either.

Oh, I misread this. I thought you were talking about abebooks.com

BTW, it's always strange to see people use abebooks.com as a guide
to the value of a book.

Yes, it is, since AddAll.com is a much more
accurate guide, having Abebooks and many
other listings. In fact, it seems to me that
AddAll (considered as it currently exists)
is a far better guide than any printed
pulication claiming to be the most
authoritative. Those value guides are out-
of-date in at least some respects the
minute they roll off the printing press.

After all, if you are trying
to sell something, "what the traffic will
bear" is most realistic guide of all.
Of course, people need to use AddAll
intelligently, which, for instance, often
means ignoring the fantasy prices at
the top of the descending scale of listings.
As I maintained in another post recently,
if one dealer is trying to sell a book for
$150 and four others are trying to sell
copies of the same book in the same
basic condition for between twenty
and forty dollars, then I would argue
that the value of the book is around
$30. (This also may mean throwing
out a suspiciously low price, where,
for instance, someone may be offering
the same book in "acceptable"
condition for $5. That simply means
they are offering a reading copy for
$5 and their listing should not be
considered in gauging value
if the other prices above are for copies
in "very good" and "near fine" condition.

(And, talk about some buyers being fools,
the biggest idiots are those who take
"acceptable" as meaning anything other
than "reading copy." -- and pay any
more for an "acceptable" copy than
they would pay for a book graded and
priced as a reading copy.)


[Memo from the upstairs office.]

wrote in message
oups.com...

Yes, it is, since AddAll.com is a much more
accurate guide, having Abebooks and many
other listings. In fact, it seems to me that
AddAll (considered as it currently exists)
is a far better guide than any printed
pulication claiming to be the most
authoritative. Those value guides are out-
of-date in at least some respects the
minute they roll off the printing press.

Nope. Addall, bokfinder and all the listing sites
list asking prices. As did\does ABPC which lists
catalogue prices.

The only truly authoritative guide was\is BAR
Book Auction Records, which actually lists
selling prices. The prices books actually
sold for.

As it happens, it shouldn't be that difficult (programming
wise if not storage wise) to do a complete scan of say addall
each week, and working on the assumption that any books missing
from last week's scan, must have sold at their last listing price,
record that as the actual selling price.

That might then be considered authoritative.


michael adams

....

On Nov 2, 3:51 am, "michael adams" wrote:
wrote in ooglegroups.com...

Yes, it is, since AddAll.com is a much more
accurate guide, having Abebooks and many
other listings. In fact, it seems to me that
AddAll (considered as it currently exists)
is a far better guide than any printed
pulication claiming to be the most
authoritative. Those value guides are out-
of-date in at least some respects the
minute they roll off the printing press.

Nope. Addall, bokfinder and all the listing sites
list asking prices. As did\does ABPC which lists
catalogue prices.

The only truly authoritative guide was\is BAR
Book Auction Records, which actually lists
selling prices. The prices books actually
sold for.

As it happens, it shouldn't be that difficult (programming
wise if not storage wise) to do a complete scan of say addall
each week, and working on the assumption that any books missing
from last week's scan, must have sold at their last listing price,
record that as the actual selling price.

That might then be considered authoritative.

Yes, but that is an excellent system
which does not as yet exist. As of now,
regarding the printed Book Auction Records,
would there not be a good many instances where
they might list a book as having sold for $95, yet
AddAll might show four copies (same book,
same condition) listed by
reputable dealers for $20 - $40 dollars?
Now, if you are looking for that book
are you going to cheerfully pay some
dealer (who insists that the Book Auction
Records is the dernier cri regarding book
values) $95 or are you going to pay another
reputable lister $25?

[Memo from the upstairs office.]

michael adams

...



- Hide quoted text -- Show quoted text -

In article . com,
"RWF" wrote:

What would cause an intelligent person to list a very common edition of
a common book (let's say a blue spine non-1st of the Hardy Boys "The
Tower Treasure") for $10.00 when a) there are a couple of hundred other
auctions of the exact same edition currently listed for as little as
$.50 , b) it's listed on Amazon for as low as $.01 and c) it costs
twice as much (or so) to list an item for $10.00 instead of $9.99?
What are they thinking. What? What?

A few weeks ago some genius put a later state Modern Library Dracula (no
DJ, fair condition) on eBay with a starting bid of $700. Then he
withdrew it and out it up for $500, then $100. Of course, it didn't sell
- it's worth $3 at best as a reading copy.

I see this all the time. I see people starting copies at absurdly high
rates when a search of eBay itself shows the same title, same printing,
same condition appearing multiple times at 10% the rate.

Some people just have high hopes, I guess.

"Scot Kamins" wrote in message
...

Some people just have high hopes, I guess.

No kidding. Forex, I read this group in the hope that someday someone will
say something interesting.

PAGHAT, PAGHAT COME BACK TO ME!!

On Thu, 2 Nov 2006 11:51:47 -0000, "michael adams"
wrote:

As did\does ABPC which lists
catalogue prices.

The only truly authoritative guide was\is BAR
Book Auction Records, which actually lists
selling prices. The prices books actually
sold for.

Since nobody else corrected you, ABPC compiled auction records, not
catalogue listings.