Ebay stupidity...

[EricF]

I've been in the market for some new studio monitor speakers for my man-cave/recording room, and decided to go with a pair of Dynaudio BM5As.

On Friday, I found a seller on eBay with a starting price of $450 and a BIN of $825. Noticing that the seller's location was less than 30 minutes away from me, I contacted him about picking them up and saving the $80 shipping charges (which is a bit steep, but not totally unreasonable if he's shipping across the country). He was fine with that, so I submitted a bid with a maximum of $500. The $450 starting price was less than the reserve (reserve amount was undisclosed). The auction ended with me as the only bidder at $450.

I contacted the seller to see if he'd still be willing to sell the monitors. Being that I was very interested in them, and I wouldn't have to wait, I offerend to bring him $500 cash that day. The seller responded that he couldn't take less than $800.

I proceeded to explain to the seller that his asking price of $800 was unrealistic. The current verison of these monitors sells for $700-800 brand new. Based on completed listings on eBay, the older model (which was the one for sale) typically sells for $400-500 on the used market. If they were worth any more, there would have been more bidders.

The seller responded again that he wouldn't go any lower than $800.

Oh, well.

After all that mess, I made a deal with another seller for the current version, brand new, for $700 including shipping.

[electracoyote]

Not uncommon in my experience. eBay sellers do weird stuff sometimes.

[Relic]

Sellers are really under the microscope on eBay. As a seller, I can tell you that you have to tread very carefully. This is due to there being a lot of slimy sellers out there that ruin it for us all. I've had stuff sell for waaay lower than I wanted but I still had to honor the price if I valued my ability to remain a seller in good standing.
If I failed to set a realistic reserve price, then it's my fault, not the buyers. I take the loss.
if you wanted those BM5A's for that price, you could have easily filed an ebay claim and they would have pounced on him. Still, sometimes stuff isn't worth the aggravation, I can def understand that..

[i_got_a_mohawk]

Sellers remorse, see it every now and again.

Also, some people tend to forget that it's an auction, it won't always sell for as much as you might like and that it is meant to be a form of contract.

(he may also have not put a reserve on it, because that costs more and he thought he'd take the risk)

[EricF]

Technically, the seller didn't do anything wrong. He included a reserve price, but my bid didn't meet his reserve. In that sense, he did a good job of protecting himself from selling too low. However, his starting price of $450 was pretty misleading in that regard. Filing an eBay claim wouldn't have fixed anything (as far as I can tell), and it wasn't worth the effort for me to take it to another level.

My issue is with his unrealistic expectation on the value of the speakers. It was a waste of time and energy for both of us.

[i_got_a_mohawk]

Ahh, sorry, I misread the part regarding reserve price.

Aye, sounds like he had unrealistic expectations over the value of the speakers!

[Relic]

Originally Posted by EricF

Technically, the seller didn't do anything wrong. He included a reserve price, but my bid didn't meet his reserve. In that sense, he did a good job of protecting himself from selling too low. However, his starting price of $450 was pretty misleading in that regard. Filing an eBay claim wouldn't have fixed anything (as far as I can tell), and it wasn't worth the effort for me to take it to another level.

My issue is with his unrealistic expectation on the value of the speakers. It was a waste of time and energy for both of us.

Ahh, yeah I misread what you had posted as well. Sorry about that! I see where you're coming from now. Yep, he just sounds like he's got some unrealistic expectations on what he's going to get for these. In the end, he'll probably end up selling them for less than that I'm sure.

[Indiana Mike]

Maybe his wife told him to lose some gear,,,,and maybe he made sure he couldn't....

Sorry honey,no one wants them ....

[Indiana Mike]

A seller can asks any price he wants , a potential buyer has the right to pass.

Now , had you actually won and he backed out that would be different.

He's still out some listing fees even though he didn't sell it.

[Ziltoid]

People selling their stuff often think it's worth much more than it actually is. True story.

[EricF]

Originally Posted by Indiana Mike

Maybe his wife told him to lose some gear,,,,and maybe he made sure he couldn't....

Sorry honey,no one wants them ....

You might have a valid point - lol.

[electracoyote]

Yeah, hard to tell what's on this seller's mind. If he has a set rock-bottom price in mind, that's what reserves are for. Also, on a second chance offer, the seller should try to price it close to fair street market price, if he really wants to sell it.

Some sellers insist on top dollar, but they usually do a perpetual listing that automaticlly relists every 30 days, and then wait it out hoping for the right sucker to come along.

Sounds like this guy should take that route and set his reserve accordingly rather than wasting people's time, but like I said, hard to tell what some of these sellers are thinking.

[1958Bassman]

Originally Posted by EricF

I've been in the market for some new studio monitor speakers for my man-cave/recording room, and decided to go with a pair of Dynaudio BM5As.

On Friday, I found a seller on eBay with a starting price of $450 and a BIN of $825. Noticing that the seller's location was less than 30 minutes away from me, I contacted him about picking them up and saving the $80 shipping charges (which is a bit steep, but not totally unreasonable if he's shipping across the country). He was fine with that, so I submitted a bid with a maximum of $500. The $450 starting price was less than the reserve (reserve amount was undisclosed). The auction ended with me as the only bidder at $450.

I contacted the seller to see if he'd still be willing to sell the monitors. Being that I was very interested in them, and I wouldn't have to wait, I offerend to bring him $500 cash that day. The seller responded that he couldn't take less than $800.

I proceeded to explain to the seller that his asking price of $800 was unrealistic. The current verison of these monitors sells for $700-800 brand new. Based on completed listings on eBay, the older model (which was the one for sale) typically sells for $400-500 on the used market. If they were worth any more, there would have been more bidders.

The seller responded again that he wouldn't go any lower than $800.

Oh, well.

After all that mess, I made a deal with another seller for the current version, brand new, for $700 including shipping.

If these were new and the seller isn't a dealer, Dynaudio won't honor the warranty. OTOH, if you don't beat the crap out of them, you shouldn't have any problems, anyway.

[1958Bassman]

Originally Posted by EricF

Technically, the seller didn't do anything wrong. He included a reserve price, but my bid didn't meet his reserve. In that sense, he did a good job of protecting himself from selling too low. However, his starting price of $450 was pretty misleading in that regard. Filing an eBay claim wouldn't have fixed anything (as far as I can tell), and it wasn't worth the effort for me to take it to another level.

My issue is with his unrealistic expectation on the value of the speakers. It was a waste of time and energy for both of us.

How is a $450 starting price "mis-leading"? When I sell things, the ad process has a place for me to enter the starting price and it always shows ""Starting price of $.99 will get more attention". His ad got your attention, so it worked. He never indicated that he might sell for less- that was just the starting price. No more, no less. Since you already knew the going price for these, I don't see why there should have been any expectations of any kind.

[two fingers]

Value is a strange concept to many. An item is only worth what someone will ACTUALLY PAY for it. You may own a 70s P bass and think it is worth $2100 beat to pieces. You may have had Gruhn and two other places appraise the thing for $2100. All that means absolutely nothing. It is only worth what you can actually SELL IT for.

I used to be in real estate. I can't tell you how many listing I turned down because people had been told by an "expert" what their house is worth and I wasn't willing to put my rep on the line to list it for such a ridiculous price.

Of course, I learned those lessons the hard way myself. Try selling a Carvin bass sometime. You may as well give the thing away to charity for what the resale value actually is. Nice basses. Resale sucks.

[i_got_a_mohawk]

Originally Posted by two fingers

Value is a strange concept to many. An item is only worth what someone will ACTUALLY PAY for it. You may own a 70s P bass and think it is worth $2100 beat to pieces. You may have had Gruhn and two other places appraise the thing for $2100. All that means absolutely nothing. It is only worth what you can actually SELL IT for.

I used to be in real estate. I can't tell you how many listing I turned down because people had been told by an "expert" what their house is worth and I wasn't willing to put my rep on the line to list it for such a ridiculous price.

Of course, I learned those lessons the hard way myself. Try selling a Carvin bass sometime. You may as well give the thing away to charity for what the resale value actually is. Nice basses. Resale sucks.

Value is also the worth you hold for an item. If the market price is lower than what I value something for, I won't sell it. The item can be worth more to me than the market value (though obviously I wouldn't list it as such expecting to somehow get more than the going rate for it).

[two fingers]

Originally Posted by i_got_a_mohawk

Value is also the worth you hold for an item. If the market price is lower than what I value something for, I won't sell it. The item can be worth more to me than the market value (though obviously I wouldn't list it as such expecting to somehow get more than the going rate for it).

Good point. But like you said, those items are not ones you would try to sell. However, you're correct. I had left out sentimental value.

[MAJOR METAL]

I want to jam with you Eric.

[1958Bassman]

It's possible that the original owner bought them when they were more expensive and a current model and the price he was asking may be more reasonable for used, relative to the original price. Now that they're discontinued, the price went down and, at least from Sweetwater, they're no longer available. Their price in the link is $499 each and shows a list price of $625. $1250 down to $825 isn't as "unreasonable" as going from $998 to $825.

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/BM5A/

[yodedude2]

cool story. i'm not getting the 'stupidity' part, though.