I suppose it depends if sellers are simply listing with the "unpredictability of buyers" in mind, as versus the "naivete of buyers". Conning, lying, misrepresenting and item is and does stink of "rip-off artists". This is rampant on eBay, and its only benefit should be to quickly announce to everyone to do their own research before making any purchase. Then again, as is discussed here, sometimes there is information that is purported that isn't able to be researched. This is where sellers prey on any buyers, not just buyers with a relatively low amount of knowledge.
As many have articulated here, if a seller is simply putting a price tag on an item that is 5x the "value", then this price choice is not indicative of an intent to rip off. The price choice is not what determines value, the purchase price is what carries that burden. That having been said, from my experience, the unpredictability of buyers does not have as much to do with people new to the hobby, but instead to buyers within the hobby who have endless checkbooks. I mean, look at the recent prices of T206 backs that have sold. I can't tell you how many times I have priced something that I deemed "very high", accompanied with a best offer option, only to have it bought without an offer ever being sent.
I would hope that many buyers new to the hobby are becoming A LOT more diligent, I would think that that is simple common sense. I've only been involved in the hobby for a few years, and my first T206 Cub wasn't purchased for 300$ because it was an
"ANTIQUE BASEBALL CARD GEORGE BROWN CUBS T206 BV$6000"
If a grown man does no research on an item, and pays, in the eyes of knowledgeable hobbyists, 10x what the card's actual "value" is, then don't blame the seller.
I wrote most of this stuff up before reading through the posts of this thread, and don't want to get too off topic per Leon's request!
Anyways, more stuff that I had already written:
I suppose it depends on how one views the other side of the transactional spectrum, as I now noticed John mentioned. If a buyer offers 10$ for a 200$ card, what do you do? If it were me, I almost always would simply counter the offer, and say thank you for your interest. I've never been offended by an offer. Some buyers, which I suppose I understand, may just choose not to respond and ignore an offer --- which is certainly understandable in some cases --- or may choose to be offended and angered by the offer, as though it insults their intelligence. I say this because I know buyers will feel this when they see certain prices that sellers put on their cards. Heck, I do it naturally before I remind myself to not get offended by it. By the same token, when you don't win a certain card you were bidding on, don't you end up saying "Man, some idiot paid that much for that card?; Good for them!" The fact is that, though you're incredulous at the price, it did in fact sell for that price. I believe that's happened to me when buying T206 Cubs maybe 15 times in the last 2 weeks, heh!
Regarding scanner fraud, it's just fricking stupid. Greed plays such a role in people, and without trying to sound righteous, I simply don't understand it - as I know many of you don't either. It is infuriating, but it won't change. Ebay is focused on high prices, and they don't really care about the means at which this is accomplished, means that include shill bidding, fraud (as long as a buyer doesn't realize they were defrauded by a seller, at which point, if a buyer does realize it --- eBay will oh so joyfully come to their rescue!
), etc.
Perhaps it's now the exception and not the rule anymore, but there are plenty of sellers who provide fantastic scans and don't put any BS information, many of which sell or post on NET54.
Perhaps, for once, we should start a thread of GREAT sellers. What a novel idea!
Sorry if all that was too tangential, I wrote it down and figure it would be a
waste of my time to erase it now!
As always, I enjoyed many of your posts! Other than yours Glenn
j/k, but I'm sure we'd get along in person or on the phone!
Oh, and I LOVED the Anchorman reference.
.