ShockandAww
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[quote name='spmahn']First off this isn't another post bitching about the lack of a stead supply of cheap games, it's a post questioning the market forces that may be artificially inflating secondary market prices.
Secondly, while supply has decreased, prices have steadily been rising, but with no discernable proof that there is any real increased demand. The worst thing eBay (and that's a long list) ever did was allow people to list items for free, and only pay a fee if it sells. The end result of this is that while formerly people would list their items as an auction , and the market would determine the price, now what you see is an endless supply of Buy it Now listings that are almost all resellers listing items at inflated prices hoping to find a naive buyer. Since the seller isn't paying unless it sells, there's no incentive for them not to do this. [/QUOTE]
I'm a small time "reseller troll" and here are some random thoughts on this:
1. I don't collude with anyone. I look at the completed ebay listings which tells me what people are willing to pay for a given item. I only list based on that.
2. If prices are rising to me that means either demand has increased and/or supply has decreased. The opposite is true if prices are falling.
3. I regularly drop/raise prices of my Buy It Now listings (and I only do BIN listings). If an item just sits there, isn't getting views or watchers and such...the price will drop until that changes. Period. So while I can set the initial price I as a seller want, that doesn't mean anything in reality. I can obviously only sell something for what people are willing to pay.
Likewise if I have say 10 of something and they are selling well, guess what? The price is going to increase when I notice. Again though it can only go up to what others are willing to pay if I want to sell it. There have been many instances where I sold an item and the demand increased quite a bit and I wished I had listed it for more than I did.
Now, to directly answer the quoted section of your post. Is what you're saying (artificial price fixing) possible? Sure, but does it happen? Very rarely from my experience. I have had a case where someone has messaged me asking me not to sell item X for such a low price. In that case I ignored it and promptly sold the item, but I could have agreed and raised the price and it probably still would have sold. In that case I believe it was a rare item but there wasn't a huge demand for it.
The thing there is there was myself, and one other person with the item for sale. So in the real world where an item or service is hard to come by or rare or there's a monopoly between a couple companies or some similar situation sure I bet there is quite a bit of artificial pricing. On ebay though not so much unless it's a case like I said.
The closest thing to artificial prices I can think of is this case: Item X is limited and is selling well for say $50. I as a seller know that it's limited and don't like the lowish prices the item is selling for. As a reseller troll I am greedy and want more money. I buck the trend and list the item for $80 and it sells. In cases like this (and I fully believe there are cases like this) two people, the seller and the buyer, can basically dictate the future market and change the "value" of an item at least for a short period. Now listings after that will lean much closer to that $80 mark since other sellers will see that is what they can get for it. Again though that's the seller and the buyer, not just the seller. There are probably pretty simple ways to abuse this to attempt to single handedly dictate the entire market for an item, but I don't really see it happening.
I'm wondering if you have any specific examples you could tell me about? As in a specific game. Or is it just a general increase all around? In that case I would almost certainly believe it's just the market at work and with supply going nowhere but down prices inevitably will go up.
Secondly, while supply has decreased, prices have steadily been rising, but with no discernable proof that there is any real increased demand. The worst thing eBay (and that's a long list) ever did was allow people to list items for free, and only pay a fee if it sells. The end result of this is that while formerly people would list their items as an auction , and the market would determine the price, now what you see is an endless supply of Buy it Now listings that are almost all resellers listing items at inflated prices hoping to find a naive buyer. Since the seller isn't paying unless it sells, there's no incentive for them not to do this. [/QUOTE]
I'm a small time "reseller troll" and here are some random thoughts on this:
1. I don't collude with anyone. I look at the completed ebay listings which tells me what people are willing to pay for a given item. I only list based on that.
2. If prices are rising to me that means either demand has increased and/or supply has decreased. The opposite is true if prices are falling.
3. I regularly drop/raise prices of my Buy It Now listings (and I only do BIN listings). If an item just sits there, isn't getting views or watchers and such...the price will drop until that changes. Period. So while I can set the initial price I as a seller want, that doesn't mean anything in reality. I can obviously only sell something for what people are willing to pay.
Likewise if I have say 10 of something and they are selling well, guess what? The price is going to increase when I notice. Again though it can only go up to what others are willing to pay if I want to sell it. There have been many instances where I sold an item and the demand increased quite a bit and I wished I had listed it for more than I did.
Now, to directly answer the quoted section of your post. Is what you're saying (artificial price fixing) possible? Sure, but does it happen? Very rarely from my experience. I have had a case where someone has messaged me asking me not to sell item X for such a low price. In that case I ignored it and promptly sold the item, but I could have agreed and raised the price and it probably still would have sold. In that case I believe it was a rare item but there wasn't a huge demand for it.
The thing there is there was myself, and one other person with the item for sale. So in the real world where an item or service is hard to come by or rare or there's a monopoly between a couple companies or some similar situation sure I bet there is quite a bit of artificial pricing. On ebay though not so much unless it's a case like I said.
The closest thing to artificial prices I can think of is this case: Item X is limited and is selling well for say $50. I as a seller know that it's limited and don't like the lowish prices the item is selling for. As a reseller troll I am greedy and want more money. I buck the trend and list the item for $80 and it sells. In cases like this (and I fully believe there are cases like this) two people, the seller and the buyer, can basically dictate the future market and change the "value" of an item at least for a short period. Now listings after that will lean much closer to that $80 mark since other sellers will see that is what they can get for it. Again though that's the seller and the buyer, not just the seller. There are probably pretty simple ways to abuse this to attempt to single handedly dictate the entire market for an item, but I don't really see it happening.
I'm wondering if you have any specific examples you could tell me about? As in a specific game. Or is it just a general increase all around? In that case I would almost certainly believe it's just the market at work and with supply going nowhere but down prices inevitably will go up.