Wednesday 21 November 2012

eBay Strikes Again

Though not eBay of course, but its bidders.

I think I have already expressed my feelings about bidders on eBay who push the price of an item far beyond the item's retail price. I still fail to understand the nature of such behavior, yet recently eBay has given me a couple more examples.

Recently I have been on the hunt for cheap water filter replacements. Amazon.co.uk has a six-pack of them for 16 GBP with the traditional Amazon free delivery. I thought I would check up eBay before making a purchase. Recently, an item ended - as a result of 14 bids the winner got the same six-pack for 16 GBP + 4.99 GBP for delivery. How crazy is that?

Another example - I've been looking to purchase a coffee Moka pot. Again, 21 GBP for a brand new one delivered at Amazon vs astonishing 21 GBP + 6 GBP delivery on eBay.

I still fail to understand what motivates these people to push the bids up so high. Clearly, anyone making bids on eBay is aware of Amazon and would at least check what the retail price of the item is before making a bid. I was thinking that maybe some tend to think that the delivery from an eBay seller for which they have to pay an extra may be faster than Amazon's free service, but then again, these people have 5-7 days to wait for an auction to end, thus time is hardly critical for them. I can't understand why one would not only prefer a shady eBay seller with no warranty or returns against good old Amazon.

Whatever the reason, it all makes me sad and angry. I come on eBay to hunt for good deals and expect them to be lower than the retail price of the item. Unfortunately, many a time this is not the case.

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