Was calling the Cup Cake woman a *****. Not the previous Poster.Originally Posted by Hendarion
Was calling the Cup Cake woman a *****. Not the previous Poster.
All apologies but I think your logic may be a bit flawed (and I knew you were calling the stupid cupcake woman a *****)
By my rationale, it's fine to charge a 'FAIR' price for an item with a 'FAIR' profit margin included. I'm surprised any collector would not object to prices that are so disproportionally inflated.
I'm not the one who originally sold it and it can go for up to £20-30 BNIB in auction at most. Neither did it take more than a quick look at his feedback to see what was going on. (It was on the first page of his feedback viewing at 200 items per page.) Whenever I'm looking for anything on eBay, though, I do check up on feedback. If he had any brains, this seller would have separate buying and selling accounts. At least then it wouldn't be so obvious just how much he is inflating his prices.
There are numerous ways to calculate fair selling prices for items which include labour, overhead costs, taxes, value of goods, etc. and these sellers are so far off the mark it's not even funny.
Obviously, I'm not talking about those occasions where someone manages to get an 'arcane monstrosities dwarf juggernaut' or the 'chicken dragon' at a bargain price. I am discussing the accepted market value for an item. Hell, if I won a chicken dragon for £20 and sold it for £400, I wouldn't be complaining but these sellers systematically over inflate the prices of items.
There are many sellers on eBay who charge fair prices and they're the ones to buy from. You know who you are and we all thank you for keeping the hobby fairly priced. The rest of 'em can bog off, though.
Not to sound rude but I suspect some people may not have a problem with this kind of behaviour because they are either the buyers of these items or the sellers themselves.
Sorry, about the long post
Fair is what the market will bear.
If the guy who did the stripping can make that sort of profit, good luck to him. Supply and demand. Take the Oil companies. As soon as supply is threatened, up goes the price. But when the crisis blows over, they often stay up. Then they plead poverty, make people redundant, and post record profits.
If someone has a product you want, they can indeed name their price. It'll come down if people don't want to pay it. Take Promethean Sun. Sold my copy the other week. Cost me £30, I put it up for lower than the going rate (around £90) and it ended up selling for £102. Can't say I feel I ripped anyone off, as I charged what the market was willing to pay. If it hadn't sold, I'd have relisted at a lower price.
Are you a banker by any chance? LOL
Anyway, you've made my point in two ways.
Is it ethical to OVER charge for an item or commodity? No. The oil companies prove that. Everyone knows their prices are over inflated. It's easy to see that from the profits they post year after year. Millions in fuel poverty and they make more and more profit. That's not right. If you don't agree with that, I think we'll have a hard time coming to an understanding.
Secondly, you STARTED your copy of Promethean Sun at a certain price. That's the difference. You didn't go out to gouge anyone. £102 is the price that it was bid up to. That is the market price for that particular item at that particular time. Had you listed the book as a 'Buy It Now' 'until sold' at £200-300, I'd have said that was not a fair price or fair to fans of the hobby.
I don't have a problem with market forces. What I have a problem with is over inflation of prices. If an item has a proven market value of £20, it is unfair to charge naive consumers (or parents or grand-parents looking for a present) 5-10 times that price.
A fair price is a fair price. It's not 'what the market will bear'. That's oil company and banker thinking. It's 'what the market can maintain and continue maintaining'.
Last edited by immortalXerxes; 09-05-2012 at 21:53.
I still priced it far higher than I paid for it. When it went up, it was the only copy. I could easily have kicked it off at £100, and I'm pretty sure it would have sold!
And not a banker. But I do kind of work in the financial sector, in so far that unreasonable customers can report me to the Ombudsmen (thankfully, an old friend of mine IS an Ombudsman!)
The other point about naiive buyers, when it comes to out of production (and in this case, frankly lack lustre) model, I don't think you will find a naiive buyer. Now, if it was say, a box of current Marines being mislabelled as OOP and Rare etc, then I'd agree it is possible. But in this instance, not so much.
Last edited by Mr Ogre; 09-05-2012 at 21:56.
The final price compared to what you paid for it is not what concerns me. What concerns me is the prices being above the market value. You sold your item at the current market value. You knew the thing was worth £90-100'ish so you priced it accordingly. Would you have thought it fair or ethical (had you been running an eBay shop and therefore able to 'run until sold') to list it as a Buy It Now for many times that price. And...if it actually sold for £102 then I imagine it would have sold at £100
Anyway, I think we'll just have to agree to disagree, on this one.
I'll try to make future posts more about some guy selling a plastic WW2 soldier as Warhammer. This probably isn't the place to be getting into big long winded debates about business ethics
What makes an item "worth" 90 pounds? What makes it worth anything? As Mr Ogre pointed out once you get beyond cost of production and materials, it is worth whatever someone is willing to pay for it. There is nothing unethical about overcharging for something in a non-monopoly environment such as miniature wargaming, because if it isn't worth what it's priced at then it simply will not sell.
You're right and many of them don't sell.
Maybe what we need is a website like 'The Comic Book Price Guide' but for wargaming miniatures. (It'd be a hell of a lot of work to put together!) If anyone knows of such a site, I'd be grateful if they could put a link up. At least, we'd know what a fair price was then.
Anyway, as my very first post on this matter pointed out, the guy had the phrase "Low start price" in his listings which could mislead anyone who may be buying for someone else and/or doesn't know the hobby well (or is just plain stupid) into believing that they are getting a good deal. Nobody in their right mind can deny that that is unethical (except the resellers themselves, of course!)
And that's my final input into this one because I think it's one that can go on forever and I've got models to paint
I have to add this (with my head bowed and flagellation whip at the ready).
The missus just told me she's spoke to the seller in question and the "Low start price" comment was from when he was running auctions NOT Buy It Now listings and that he'd just forgotten to remove that comment from his listings so I have to go and sit in the corner with a pointed hat on now
And just to really rub my nose in it - She pointed out that he, also, does FREE P+P worldwide. So while the prices might seem high for UK buyers (and let's face it we can grab old Warhammer stuff in UK only auctions quite cheap), they're OK for someone from Australia or New Zealand. I've posted stuff to Australia and it costs nearly a tenner to send a small miniature by Airsure so it'll cost a lot more to post the heavier models there.
So if you're overseas, some of his stuff is not as ridiculously priced as I thought. If you're after the smaller man-sized figures, it actually comes out quite reasonable for some of them. (Damn, I hate being wrong!)
Anyway, I'm big enough and ugly enough to admit when I've misjudged someone. Now I've got to go and cower in a corner now (with models and painting supplies, of course).
I'm aware of that.
Eldar - Fear The Rainbow!
My Eldar Painting Log (including Revenant/Phantom/Super Heavies) or direct gallery - random selection of 16 years painting Eldar
She made a ridiculous gamble, and predictably lost. In terms of being a business person, that's being a *****.
Apologies if this has already been posted here....
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Warhammer-...item231d3750c4
£7.75 maybe.... but...£775 for an OOP rulebook? Then again he has hundreds of books for sale at this price...
Gooseberry yoghurt is just .... wrong
£775? Really? They must have missed the decimal lol. Who would buy that? That's insane! And they have 6 more lol...
I've got one of those. Lol. Actually I hot hold of a soft back copy of that rulebook that has the signatures of all of those that worked on it inside the front cover. I'm not sure that would make it worth seven hundred odd quid though.
Wattle's Termite Tranport
http://www.warseer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=259494
By that guy's prices, you signed one must be worth almost ten thousand pounds...
elves in the snow
a blog of Wood Elves and Warhammer
That's crazy! Just think of the listing costs for all those books!!!
We're sorry we couldn't find an answer for you. Unfortunately, due to the high number of emails this seller receives, they aren't able to respond to your specific question right now. We suggest reviewing the item again to see if your answer is in the seller's listing.
Yeah I wonder why :P
Oh my god! I've got that book! I was going to throw it out, but now? I'M RICH! RICH I TELL YOU!!!
Just because the horse is dead is no reason to stop flogging it.
they see me trollin, they hatin
DESTINY IS CALLING!!! but beer is on the other line.....
18.5 plus 3 p&p for a model that comes in a set of 2 for 20 and has less then 2 P&P i mean come on!
Mat Ward Fact #1432- To appease the few wargamers dissatisfied with his work, Mat Ward has used his own money to set up a help-line for them to call. Please dial 1-800-WHOGIVESA****
Guild up to join the Mat Ward Defence League!
Like Heresy Era Marines? Like Blood Angels? Check out my Heresy era Blood Angels log.
18.5 plus 3 p&p for a model that comes in a set of 2 for 20 and has less then 2 P&P i mean come on!
In fairness, bidding seems to have started at 99p and the seller does tell you it's available in a set of two.
Gooseberry yoghurt is just .... wrong
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
nagash66