Pictures in eBay auctions

[smotan_02]

Wait...I just figured out why. OK, can someone explain THIS to me (these are both current listings)....

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1966-FULL-WO...f#ht_500wt_701

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1966-FULL-WO...7#ht_500wt_935

[bn2cardz]

All of their auctions are duplicates of each other with zipshere always having the lower price (and the very high feedback). They also started on ebay within 4months of each other (zipshere being the older of the two).

I believe seller oldiesandgoodiesstore was set up to make it look like you are getting a good deal if you buy from zipshere (hence why their feedback is so high). Yet you are buying from the same person. Yet if someone doesn't do their homework then buys from oldiesandgoodiesstore then they get extra money from the same item.

[D. Bergin]

Originally Posted by bn2cardz

All of their auctions are duplicates of each other with zipshere always having the lower price (and the very high feedback). They also started on ebay within 4months of each other (zipshere being the older of the two).

I believe seller oldiesandgoodiesstore was set up to make it look like you are getting a good deal if you buy from zipshere (hence why their feedback is so high). Yet you are buying from the same person. Yet if someone doesn't do their homework then buys from oldiesandgoodiesstore then they get extra money from the same item.

Yup. Same seller both accounts it looks like.

Back to the issue of the photo. Never understood why some sellers (and this looks like a fairly high volume one), don't figure out how to use a scanner.

A cheap scanner will still give you 1000% better results then a cheap digital camera.

They shouldn't give you a hard time about wanting to see the back either.

[thecatspajamas]

Originally Posted by D. Bergin

Yup. Same seller both accounts it looks like.

Back to the issue of the photo. Never understood why some sellers (and this looks like a fairly high volume one), don't figure out how to use a scanner.

A cheap scanner will still give you 1000% better results then a cheap digital camera.

They shouldn't give you a hard time about wanting to see the back either.

A lot of sellers only have one imaging method: either they have a scanner but no camera, or vice versa. Even worse are the ones that actually use a cell phone for both taking photos AND posting the item to eBay. Lousy pics are bad enough, but coupled with a description that reads like an 8th-grader's text message, I find myself having a hard time having faith in their "it's in great condition" kind of descriptions.

I guess I can see how someone just selling one or two items here and there might not want to invest in an equipment upgrade and just use what they have on hand. More surprising to me are the sellers who have a store or are selling on a regular basis, and can't seem to understand that purchasing even a low-end scanner or camera will pay dividends once buyer's can actually see details of what they are selling.

[smotan_02]

Originally Posted by bn2cardz

All of their auctions are duplicates of each other with zipshere always having the lower price (and the very high feedback). They also started on ebay within 4months of each other (zipshere being the older of the two).

I believe seller oldiesandgoodiesstore was set up to make it look like you are getting a good deal if you buy from zipshere (hence why their feedback is so high). Yet you are buying from the same person. Yet if someone doesn't do their homework then buys from oldiesandgoodiesstore then they get extra money from the same item.

Good catch, so would people see this as a good business practice or unethical? I guess eBay is really the only place where I can set up two shops with the expressed intent of making my other shop looking like a bargain. This pretty much seals the deal that I dont want to do business with this guy. Plus that is a lot of duplicate listing fees for the sake of making one item look better over another.

[thecatspajamas]

Originally Posted by smotan_02

Good catch, so would people see this as a good business practice or unethical? I guess eBay is really the only place where I can set up two shops with the expressed intent of making my other shop looking like a bargain. This pretty much seals the deal that I dont want to do business with this guy. Plus that is a lot of duplicate listing fees for the sake of making one item look better over another.

I don't know whether it would be ethical or not, but it certainly doesn't seem like the most cost-effective business practice. Especially if you're using the exact same photo for the listing in both stores. On unique items, it's going to be painfully obvious what is going on (as it turned out to be with this ticket), and for items with enough examples out there for the identical photos to be obscured in the mass, the effectiveness of one high-priced example added to the mix is questionable. Seems to me that the better way to go would be to list it once, at the higher price, with a Best Offer option and accept any offers down to the lower selling price or anywhere in between.

In the interest of full-disclosure, I have on occasion doubled up listings like this between two accounts, but only to take advantage of the occasional "free listing day" promotion by eBay (which are not always available to both Store subscribers and non-Store subscribers at the same time). In the end though, it just caused too much confusion for some buyers, even after I explained what I was doing, to be worth the savings in listing fees.