wrk101

Just picked up a nice mixte on ebay Saturday for $50. So I do not see his auction being successful.

But, I have watched some sellers with ridiculous, buy it now, nosebleed prices. Week after week, the item does not sell. But they keep reposting it. Sometimes several months go by, then all of a sudden, it sells! A watched a guy do this with a small anvil paperweight (I have the same item, picked up at a garage sale). He lists it for $200. WTF! We are talking about a $20 item. So I post mine at a slightly lower price, but high as well. We both do this for several weeks. No sales. I give up, about two months later, his sells. He does it again, with a duplicate paperweight, took him about three months, but it sold. Meanwhile, I still have mine....... Unusual strategy, and you have to be very patient, but sometimes it does work (but not so great for the buyers.)

Chombi

Did you see those Edco bottom brackets going for over $300 each? they've been unsold for something like over 3 months already. There's also a few of NOS Mavic handlebars going for near the same prices. I got an NOS Mavic 351 handlebar for 68 bucks year before last!....They're good stuff, but maybe not $300+ worth! What's going on?? It's not even riding season yet! Do they really want to sell their stuff?? Bad thing is, when overpriced stuff like this dwells around at eBay for a long time, the prices of similar items tend to rise too, as other sellers think they can get something close to those prices.

Chombi

aixaix 

I wonder how many things that get posted with ridiculous BIN or high reserves actually sell, and how many sellers simply bid themselves with a different ID, suck up the ebay fee, then repost the same item with the hope that they've raised the perceived value of their item.

oldlugs

I think you hit the nail on the head there.

The part I don't get is how long some are willing to keep paying the listing fees and reserve price on an item that has at best a 2% chance of selling at some insanely high price. Even at $0.99 listing fees, it cost a dollar every two weeks to list in a regular auction, that means that after a year, they spent another $25 or so dollars to keep it listed, I've watched some items go more than a year, some are up, then they disappear and two years later they're back up at an even higher price. I watched one guy listing a Ross fixie conversion back in 2003, the bike was listed way high and never sold. I watched it for at least 10 months, it expired and was gone for a while, it was back up again a year or so later at double the price, that time for even more money. The seller stopped listing, I didn't see any more items after that, then a few months later I see the same bike, same pic, listed in the same city for an even crazier price. I know the bike was the same because I saved the pics for reference.
It never sold, and I'm sure it will pop back up. The bike was a red Ross Gran Tour with white bar wraps, Sugino maxi cranks with the read caps and washers, and brown sidewall tires pictured against a red brick wall. The bike looked OK but it was a low end frame that weighed a ton. It seems to me the shipping was pretty high too, he had it listed at $100 shipping way back when you could ship a bike for $35 coast to coast. I think the last time the shipping was at $160 or so. The amount of eBay fees paid had to exceed the value of the bike. Worse yet, the bike didn't have any components to justify it as even a parts bike. it was low end all around. It may have even had steel wheels.

repechage

Barry Scott, he announced on the CR list that he is going to do his own site, so my guess is probably drift away from ebay. Like Hilary Stone has.
Barry does seem to find significant stores of parts in "lots". Indeed his prices are dear, I think the folk who buy are those who want NOS which is what he mostly sells and they also want it now, or are tired of waiting and watching. I do often find his Sale prices still absurd.

repechage

Ding, Ding, Ding. Works kind of like gasoline prices, when it was $1.25 a gallon, $3.30 obscene....
Then the bars get relisted for $150. and someone jumps, with the view that they got a deal.

joejeweler

I realize this is an older thread, but i just felt the need to vent!

I came across this very "Rare" 1" threaded Chris King headset that is currently on sale for just $450.00 and for only 18 more hours. (and it's $150.00 OFF! "D ) An early version without the logo, according to the seller.

This one is not even NOS. It's USED and with one cup a bit gouged,...lol

It's listed on ebay by the seller pb*bikes , who a lot of you know has a ton of feedback,.... BUT,.... his prices are totally insane!

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Early-KING-H...item48559e454e

The thing that bugs me is about a year ago i sent a few paragraph message through ebay to him on a similarly insanely priced bicycle item, and thought i was fairly decent about it. Didn't call him names, just voiced an opinion that i, for one, felt my intelegence was being insulted by the pricing on most everything he sells. (or lists for sale)

I gave him examples of items i had recently picked up on ebay,.....for between 1/5 to 1/10th his BIN prices, just so he might understand where i was coming from.

Well, a year goes by and i happened upon the Chris King headset on sale for $450.00 , and thought i might rekindle our "friendship"

......and i get this message when i tried to contact him through ebay:

"We're sorry we couldn't find an answer for you. Unfortunately, this seller is not able to respond to your question. We suggest reviewing the item again to see if your answer is in the seller's listing"

WTF???? So ebay allows sellers to even block questions from potential buyers now??? Unreal.

I've come to the conclusing that seller's like this simply prey on the ignorant, and it's a shame he makes ANY sales. Ebay allowing guys like this on their siteis even more disgusting, but then the $ is also all those folks care about!

P.T Barnum was SO right.

If he was still alive, he might have added to his well know quote:

"There is a SUCKER born ebery minute,.....and eBay will find them for you!"


Here's the listed description as posted on ebay,....better hurry! :




RARE CHRIS KING HEADSET

EARLY VERSION WITH ONLY KING ON THE TOP NUT

NO LOGO ON CUPS

**botton cup has a little gouge in it, hidden when installed with that side towards the down tube

SLEEK & UNBRANDED VERSION OF THE BEST HEADSET THERE IS

1" threaded

iab

1700 feedbacks in the last year. 2 neutrals, 1 negative.

If you don't like the price, don't pay. Simple concept.

Nice rant though.

thinktubes 

Capitalism rules!

Chombi

I'm thinking that some C&V component sellers at ebay kinda use the auction site as a sort of museum for their stash, pricing them with so high that some of them stay unsold for months and I'm sure, in some cases, years at ebay. I guess they figure if someone eventually does get desperate enough and pays them their BIN price, then it was worth letting it sit for a while in eBay for everyone to drool on for long periods.
In the end, it's really the seller's right/prerogative on whatever price they put on their goods and nobody can tell them otherwise, but what I don't like is when the high pricing start to influence other C&V parts sellers to raise their prices to similarly insane levels to see if they can sell close to those prices, which in turn affects the availability of affordable components one might need for a project. What is good is those other sellers eventually lower their prices to more affordable levels after maybe they get tired of seeing their components just sit at eBay unsold with the "hyper price" seller's stuff,............but the whole thing just tranlates to more time we lose on C&V projects that we want to complete.
I guess we can just chalk it all down as some of the goofy things we have to go through as C&Vers these days....
Just do yourself a favor and don't bother opening those looney priced auctions at ebay and move on with your search with other sellers instead, that are more serious about selling their stuff.......
JMOs....

djkashuba 

PLUS 1.
It is not food or medicine.

-D

CenturionIM

Also, C&V obsession is sweeping across Asia. Some of the fans there are pretty flush with cash and is willing to pay a premium.

But, 450 for a headset? Heck, why not just email Chris King company and ask for one to be produced for you according to their old spec.

Pars 

Yes, you can still get the 2 Nut Headset (albeit with more logos). Why you would pay $450 for one is beyond me? I would think you might be able to remove the logos, or maybe talk them into doing one without?

https://chrisking.com/headsets/hds_2nut

Dawes-man

That'll be interesting. Since hosting his own site I've found Hilary Stone's prices to very reasonable but I don't expect Barry Scott's to go that way. He's been offering a pretty cruddy Lloyd saddlebag support for several weeks now at $250 while the latest to sell on eBay went for just over $13, in very clean condition, although they typically sell for around $30 to $40.

I think the difference is if you're into bikes or money.

miamijim

Not so long ago Barry (pb bikes) posted here on the forum in response to someone similar to yourself. If it makes you feel better to bust his balls go ahead....but at the end of the day he's making money.

My 2 cents: Good for him.....they're his parts, he took time to find them and market them. He can ask whatever he wants.....

Drillium Dude 

I'll strip the anodizing and remove the logos; my fee would be $100, so that would put the grand total somewhere around $250 - a steal, in other words

DD

thinktubes 

Agree - selling on Ebay or anywhere is still a lot of work and you'd be a fool not to max your margin.

1 Lugnut

Check this post out by notoptube (aka: PB bikes):
https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...1#post15243952

joejeweler

"He's making money" sure,...but at what cost? It's quite obvious that is ALL he is interested in! It certainly does nothing to enrich the hobby or biking in general. I for one am put off by what i percieve as a greedy persuit to take advantage of the ignorant,......some who have more money than brains.

Much like someone scamming a "mentally challenged" person for personal gain,.....this man has no conscience.

I would venture a guess that if YOU offered him a NOS version of the older Chris King headset in question, that he wouldn't be interested in buying it at even 1/2 of his selling price of this used (and damaged) one!

That, in my mind, says it all. I suspect he might pay a little more than the current new pricing of a modern version, and then price it "on sale" at just $900.00

It would be interesting if anyone here HAS sold him some NOS vintage componants, and see what he has offered to pay and what he subsequently listed them for.

BTW, .....perhaps the "pb" in the name stands for "Please Bendover"

KonAaron Snake 

Joe - thank God we have you to tell us what used items are worth. I'm glad we also have you to tell us what our obligations are to he hobby when we sell on eBay.

If you look at PB's feedback, it's mostly stuff like normally priced tires and tubes- I suspect his optimistic auctions are attention drivers for the stuff he sells. I also remember a large lot of bikes being sold last year - I thought the asking price was outrageous, but PBBikes didn't - and he bought them at a lot more than I'd have paid.

wrk101

I guess some of us are OK with the profit motive, others think it is evil.

aramis

Shipping, and the way buyers see shipping (with all the free shipping offered by big companies, they assume the cost is low) has really made it harder to make money selling stuff. I used to sell a lot of car parts, but they are heavy and shipping can get out of hand quickly on those.

Luckily many bicycle parts are small and can be shipped first class or in priority flat rate padded envelopes to keep the cost lower.

Anyone remember 2 pounds, 2 days, $2.90? Those were the days!

joejeweler

I did read through that thread,....thanks. A good read for sure,.....and at least Barry admits his pricing is ridiculous! But what does that REALLY say about his business model?

.....come here, buy something from me at what i know is moon money,.....and please have a nice day. You-all come back now,...ya-hear?

China now has all the cash from selling lots of their crappy products, (it's all a lot of the poorer US workers can afford anyway), and are continually importing lots of the gold off the world market. (as well as hording their massive domestic gold production) I doubt the US has added to the countries gold hoard in many decades! Plenty of new dollars added to the "money" supply though!

Soon they'll take over the world reserve currency status because our dollar is becoming as good as toilet paper. (it used to be the dollar was "good as gold"!)

So good paying USA jobs sold out to foreigners so that the greedy big corporations could make a LOT more. US workers screwed again.

Recently there is a movement in the works to be able to sell USA produced LPG (propane gas) overseas, as it has been accumulating and priced pretty low.

In the USA the propane is affordable, and actually pretty low. Solution to get MORE dollars for the gas (the benefit Corporations!) is to get permission from the US ****erment to sell this off to foreign buyers where the propane sells for MUCH higher pricing. It's anticipated this will, of course, drive up the price of the gas to US customers.

Now we have all the nice vintage stuff also going overseas because of greed, so US vintage collectors get screwed,.......see a pattern here?

It never ends!

joejeweler

Don't need the sarcasm. You sound like you might be a business owner, so maybe sky high pricing is not new to you???

Frankly,....i ONLY buy reasonably priced vintage gear anyway, so i doubt i'd every buy anything pb*bikes sells. (he probably wouldn't sell to me anyway! SO WHAT!)

I couldn't enjoy riding a bike i knew i got reamed on parts with. Couldn't look in the mirror either and admit i was dumb enough to pay those prices.

KonAaron Snake 

Occupy PB Bikes!

These unregulated eBay sales of used bicycle parts are the real force behind the market downturn.