Misleading ads
Summary: bibbi77it expresses concern about misleading pricing practices on a trading platform, noting extreme examples like overpriced common items or strategic price manipulation through shipping fees. daxsisko responds that such practices have long existed and advises buyers to be vigilant. Despite reporting these issues, bibbi77it believes the platform’s response is inadequate and worries about inexperienced users being misled. quartzdrive suggests that inflated values might also stem from misleading media reports, and bibbi77it shares concerns about the platform's decline due to increasing challenges for both buyers and sellers.
Good morning
I’m not a seller, just a buyer.
Lately I’ve noticed a big problem that I think especially harms sellers, but that could also have major consequences for buyers: there are listings with absurd prices, either excessively high or excessively low.
Today, for example, I saw a 100 lire coin worth a few cents, listed for 25,000 euros. Yes, twenty-five thousand.
The other day, on the other hand, the opposite situation: a banknote worth 200 euros, listed for 0.01 euros with 200 euros in shipping costs.
In this way, in searches, when sorting by "lowest price," the listings from those trying to game the system show up first...
Can nothing be done to prevent all this?
quartzdrive
·2 weeks agoIf we're talking about numismatics and philately, it's also the fault of the many cheap, low-quality newspaper articles that throw out absurd figures for coins that in truth are worth at most a few euros, and by "a few" I mean counted on one hand and not even fully open, people believe it and hope to find the sucker.
bibbi77it
OP2 weeks agoMaybe, but I don't think a very common 100 lire coin was valued at 25 thousand euros by some magazine.
I joined the community just a few days ago, but I'm reading that eBay is in steady decline: from the fees for sellers to the human phone support that has disappeared.
At this rate eBay will be in trouble soon... too bad, because I based part of my collections on some "little gems" I found here...
daxsisko
·3 weeks ago · Editedfrankly, the "crazy" prices have always been there ....... and anyway just do the search " show first : price + shipping : cheapest ", which has existed for years so they don't show up first......... or just read the listing carefully (and not distractedly....... as a multitude of users do...... ) to avoid any possible buying mistakes...... I’d add that hoping eBay will automatically remove them is completely utopian.....
bibbi77it
OP2 weeks agoYes, okay.
But it's still absurd that something like this is allowed: describing a very common coin, one that has been circulated and worn, as "rare" in the item's description should be a violation of eBay's rules.
I reported it, but the reply was that it doesn't violate eBay's rules.
When you say you just need to read the description carefully... they're definitely not fooling me, but I'm thinking of inexperienced users or maybe older people...
daxsisko
·2 weeks ago · Editedwhat I already said still stands...... these fake listings have been around since the dawn of eBay..... and eBay usually doesn’t remove them, let alone automatically (then there are always exceptions, for example when there are blatant and repeated violations of the rules .......);
the fact remains that the buyer has to be careful...... otherwise, whether they buy on eBay or not, they’re taking a risk ...........