Are Ebay Buyers Just Becoming Ridiculously Cheap Now?

beetlegum

CAGiversary!
Not too long ago, I could put up an Ebay auction for an xbox game, start at 0.01, and get a decent price. Lately, my auctions have performed so poorly that I rather just keep the game instead of giving it away. For example, I listed KOTR2, and the max bid was 6 bucks. I listed Rainbow 6 Lockdown for 24.99, and no one would touch it. Cmon folks, this is 50% off.

My other recent sales include Far Cry Instincts for 32 bucks and Heroes of the Pacific for 33 bucks. These games will cost you 44 bucks at Gamestop used. I just don't understand why the market is becoming so freaking cheap on Ebay now.
 
It could be your listing or something title. I once sold a year of xbox live with counter strike for about 90 bucks all brand new and sealed.

I then sold the same auction a little later and the high bid was only like 45 bucks. Just like anything else supply and demand.
 
[quote name='beetlegum']For example, I listed KOTR2, and the max bid was 6 bucks[/QUOTE]

That's funny, I did a search for ended auctions on KOTOR 2 and the cheapest I see is $18 (possibly $15 for the PC version).

If you show us the listing, we'll tell you what you did wrong :)

First mistake: it's KOTOR 2, so you can close this thread right now if you listed it under KOTR 2, but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and say you only wrote it like that by mistake on CAG.

BTW, here's a prime example of how not to list an auction:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Rainbow-Six-Lockdown-for-X-box-X-box-Rainbow-6_W0QQitemZ8225618695QQcategoryZ62053QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

This poor putz is just reeking of "something stoopid will happen if you buy from me".

EDIT: If your eBay name starts with sammy, your rainbow six auction is used, doesn't have the number "6" anywhere, and it's a one-liner auction, I hate those...
 
Prices normally start to drop in the next month when more new games come out and everyone starts buying presents for christmas, strange that you're having problems already.

Although people having up for the xbox 360 could be a small part of it.
 
ya win some, you lose some. there's a lot of luck involved. I had been watching Shining Force 2 auctions for a couple weeks, saw most of them go for ~50, except one that went for ~30, but the seller had pretty bad feedback. So I go to sell mine, and get ~34. I wondered if it was a recent neutral that I received, but after scoping out some more, I saw others go for ~30. Then I found out that finished auctions for this game were mostly in the 30s with a bunch of random ones in the 50s, including some poor sap who sold complete copies of Shining Force 1 and 2 together for $30!

you never know what'll happen.
 
likely market saturation on the new games - I scored a Halo 2 for $13 + $5 priority shipping last week b/c a bunch of people bought them for $20 to resell from EB and there were 1000's on eBay :D Made me very happy.
 
Thanks for the responses, guys. You can take a look at the auctions, and tell me what ya think:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=8220782820&rd=1&sspagename=STRK:MESO:IT&rd=1

Granted, I know the Blockbuster element and missing manual is a factor, but $5.50 is just shockingly low for this A+ title.


I can't figure out what turned people off on this one:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=8225698894&rd=1&sspagename=STRK:MEUS:IT&rd=1


Maybe someone can shed some light.
 
Lockdown was once $30 at BB, just fyi.

^above: I think 4.50 and 4.96 is alot for shipping, but Kotor2 should have done better. ( I would have bid on that)
 
Someone I know bought Lockdown for $15 plus shipping just a few days ago. So it doesn't surprise me that you only got $26 for it.
 
I think people have just soured to eBay. It used to be a place to get great deals... but now with powersellers and eBay stores listing 90% of every search ... and with ridiculously expensive shipping, not to mention eBay giving the ebnefit of the doub to scammers and said powersellers and stores... the population as a whole (especially gaming) has given up on eBay. It's a shame really... greed kills everything eventually though, I suppose.

I'm not saying the OP is being greedy at all... but I think it kinda explains the poor response to your auctions.

I agree with the statement that your shipping and handling is a liitle high, it only costs $2 or so for shipping with DC, and another $0.90 for the envelope... but you know what? It beats this $7.95-$9.95 "flat-rate" b.s. that seems to be all over eBay nowadays...

You might be better off selling it here on CAG!
 
[quote name='TurkeyOnRye']
You might be better off selling it here on CAG![/QUOTE]

I doubt it. With all the sales coming up like the buy-2-get-one's, trade-in deals, and especially Black Friday just around the corner, no one here's going to pay that much. Trade, maybe.

I've found that certain types of items fetch higher prices on different days of the week. This, of course, varies during different periods of the year. For me, individual videogame items do better on Mondays-Thursday and usually get lower prices on the weekends. Some of my best sales were on Monday's and Tuesdays. Especally for Buy-it-nows, they'd get snapped up in a heartbeat in the beginning of the week, but if listed on a saturday, they'd sit over the weekend and get snatched up on a Monday unless some schmuck put in a low ball opening bid over the weekend.

Between Thanksgiving and Xmas, though, it's a whole different story.
 
[quote name='bmulligan']

Between Thanksgiving and Xmas, though, it's a whole different story.[/QUOTE]


Does stuff go for less or more?
 
Looking at your auctions:

Well your KOTOR 2 is in a black DVD case with no manual. That's going to really kill the value. Plus 'cover art is same as original' makes me think you probably had a print out of the cover art (not the real cover art) in the case. If that's right I'd call that fairly deceptive. What were disc only copies going for?

Plus you don't have real photos for either. That can hurt.
 
Use a large photo of the actual item.

Give a thorough, honest description.

Finally, and most importantly, BUY IT NOW IS YOUR BEST FRIEND. You can't get lowballed if you put a fair price on the item with the starting price a few bucks cheaper. Inexperienced sellers always think they are going to get people having a bidding war on their item. It only happens 1 times out of a 100. On average, you will make more per auction with a BIN price.
 
[quote name='Apossum']Does stuff go for less or more?[/QUOTE]

I've found it evens out. Prices seem a little more erratic around there. But, about a week before christmas, prices drop. It's a great time to buy, and a great time to sell rare items. I had cotton for turbo duo, sealed, once on ebay 3 days before christmas. Normally worth about 150, I got 350 by guaranting arrival by christmas. I always hold a few rare things and put them out before christmas with very high buy it nows with guaranteed christmas delivery, it works more often than not. I also always buy a bunch of video game lots around that time. Last year I bought a turbo duo lot for 200, pulled about 150 dollars in games for myself (normal ebay value) out of it, then sold the rest individually and got about 250 for it.

Also, someone mentioned bidding wars, they almost never happen unless you have something rare.
 
I don't know if it was mentioned or not but I don't see the number 2 or II in the title indicating that it is the newer game and not the 1st game (except for the Sith Lords part).

EBay buyers probably thought it was the first game without clicking the auction to look at the description. Lots of people only look at the title and don't even read the description.
 
the supply of games is very abundant on ebay..........also, people know now that games plummet in price within a month of release
 
[quote name='beetlegum']Thanks for the responses, guys. You can take a look at the auctions, and tell me what ya think:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=8220782820&rd=1&sspagename=STRK:MESO:IT&rd=1

Granted, I know the Blockbuster element and missing manual is a factor, but $5.50 is just shockingly low for this A+ title.[/QUOTE]

Well, more and more people are being conscious of a game's box and manual increasing it's value in case they want to sell it. So you didn't have the original box and there were no instructions... so I'm not shocked to see it end at $6 though that's definitely less than the average price.

Also, as others have said... Supply and Demand play a part too. If there are plenty of complete copies, I'd guess people would rather go for that instead of an incomplete copy.
 
If I were you, I'd have put KOTOR in the title. People like searching for the shortest term possible, and that would've given you a little more exposure.
 
[quote name='kimsh0t']rez was just sold 73 plus shipping.

i think alot of rare games are goin down hill.[/QUOTE]

Around novemeber of last year to january of this year sealed rez's were only going for about 65 or 70. I know because I found a bunch of them in canadian toys r us's and that's what I got. So, if anything, they're heading back to what they were.
 
Here's a tip - Never, EVER use a stock photo. Nothing screams scam like a Stock photo. Hell, even if you have a camera on you're cellphone USE it. I have never, and will never but anything using a stock picture. And you know that the description is 'used. plays good'.
 
[quote name='gizmogc']Here's a tip - Never, EVER use a stock photo. Nothing screams scam like a Stock photo. Hell, even if you have a camera on you're cellphone USE it. I have never, and will never but anything using a stock picture. And you know that the description is 'used. plays good'.[/QUOTE]

I've found that selling new/sealed games from current generation systems (excluding GBA), with the stock image, has no negative effect on sales. At least with buy it now.
 
[quote name='alonzomourning23']I've found that selling new/sealed games from current generation systems (excluding GBA), with the stock image, has no negative effect on sales. At least with buy it now.[/QUOTE]


Same here. It seems to make no difference whatsoever to the price.
 
I am having trouble believing why anyone bid on your KOTOR2:
1) KOTOR no where in the title OR description.
2) No mention of it being KOTOR "2".
3) Stock photo and no real photo.
4) No original case.
5) No original case art and shady wording describing the art.
6) No manual.
7) You require insurance, jacking the shipping to almost $7.

As for the Rainbow Six auction:
1) Does anyone search for "Rainbow Six"? Nope. Everyone calls it Rainbow 6 or R6. You have "6" no where in the title or description.
2) For some reason this time you don't offer insurance, and you charge an even higher base shipping rate. You also have it listed as US only.
 
[quote name='beetlegum']Not too long ago, I could put up an Ebay auction for an xbox game, start at 0.01, and get a decent price. Lately, my auctions have performed so poorly that I rather just keep the game instead of giving it away. For example, I listed KOTR2, and the max bid was 6 bucks. I listed Rainbow 6 Lockdown for 24.99, and no one would touch it. Cmon folks, this is 50% off.

My other recent sales include Far Cry Instincts for 32 bucks and Heroes of the Pacific for 33 bucks. These games will cost you 44 bucks at Gamestop used. I just don't understand why the market is becoming so freaking cheap on Ebay now.[/QUOTE]

eBay is definately the new garage sale. I hate selling on ebay anymore. No profit at all. Sometimes you're lucky if you break even.
 
i can tell you why your KOTOR 2 auction went so low. 1) the way the description is written it sounds like a bootleg trying to get past ebay radar (no manual, black dvd case, disc only), 2) no pic means they can't assume otherwise, i.e. that it's an original game. i wouldn't have bid on that auction either unless i found out beforehand from you that it was an original game.
 
you may have ended auctions wrong times. yes ebayers have gotten cheaper. i sold a game just last week started auction at a penny and it ended at about 45 dollars. 1 bidder bid up until 21 dollars then emailed me telling me he didn't mean to bid (last 10 hours of auction). i emailed him back telling "YES YOU DID MEAN TO BID". saw his feedback all 3 he won auctions for 1 penny. then looked at his current bidding he went and bid on the same game for a penny thinking he'd win it for a penny.
 
[quote name='blackjaw']look at one of my auctions...id suggest copying the format that i use or beefing it up...it gives a better description of what you are selling, etc.

also pictures never hurt...now that i have a digi camera again i am going to start doing pictures

for vidgame auctions, i rarely go over 1 day

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=8224110114&rd=1&sspagename=STRK:MESO:IT&rd=1[/QUOTE]


dude, i checked your feedback to see if i'd want to buy from you at some point... you buy alot of panties.
 
Here's a dirty little secret to reselling on eBay: Find out the item's average selling price before buying it.

If a game's average selling price is $4 and you can buy it for $4.99 before taxes and shipping, chances are that you won't make any money off of it.
 
Thanks for the responses. I was a bit lazy with these auctions,and just used Ebay's prefilled info. It's always worked for me in the past. I figured bidders would appreciate my honesty in the KOTOR auction. I could have easily not mentioned that the game was an ex Blockbuster rental. I bought the game at gamestop for 30 bucks. I didn't realize it was blockbuster till I got home so I really got ripped off on this one.
 
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