The Price is Right? Wrong!

[carboxymoron]

I dunno if it's a new trend or hobby around here, but since the classifieds moved back to normal forum format and you can reply to ads, there's a lot of people going around pointing out price differences and what they feel should be the "correct" or "fair" price for other people's items.

I'm not complaining for my own sake even though I've recently been at the receiving end of this (expected it sooner or later); I'm not that desperate to make a sale and I don't need to undervalue my items.

Not everyone has the market rate at their fingertips, not everyone tracks every single sale and knows the history of 2nd hand items moving around this community. So I feel that if there has been no deception involved and the seller's price is misinformed, just drop him or her a PM explaining nicely what the realistic resale value is. Rather than posting on the ad itself, causing unnecessary risk of misunderstanding even if you have good intentions. Even if the item is priced at 100% of the original new price, that's nothing for you to complain about. Too bad for the seller if he can't make a sale then. However if the ad is obviously misleading in order to raise the price, then maybe there is reason to publicly call out the price for the benefit of other buyers who are not as well informed as you.

It's a bit discouraging to see people picking on each other, and just hilarious when the "whistleblower" has overpriced items himself.

 

[K2desoog]

did that once. send a PM alerting seller that sale price for his used gtr is the abt $20 difference from a new one!
No tq's given; but not that i expected it.
Just doing my bit for the Buy & Sell community.
Not sure if he's managed to sell it.

 

[relinquish69]

as long as people feel comfortable paying for something they want, why would being a price police benefit you in such a scenario?

to me anything below the first hand price is a considered cheap already. cos we have to realise that 2nd hand goods are subjected to availability.

 

[wasp]

There's this 1 sale I wanted to input that the price was too high. But decided not to, don't want to be labeled as a busybody or spoiler.

 

[fezz]

There was this guy who texted me saying that the price of the item that i was selling was too high. So i told him i can lower the price a bit more if he's interested in buying it from me. And his reply was: "No. Not interested."

 

[parablue74]

I'm still having a problem with Ebay.. my friend almost got cheated by an african customer.. NO, don't trust africans.. I don't hate them, but they try to cheat too much...
Price wise, there are some who try to hub on naive customers and try to cheat them off money, it's true, happens in every industry... but kinda, if there's no rating game, how do people know?
I was upset with ebay, cos ebay only allows rating after a transaction is done.. so I know this person is cheating, but I can't rate him, why, becos I'm not going to spend a high price for his over-fetched price??? Doesn't make sense...

 

[ymmak]

I think buying/selling musical instruments is not like buying properties like DBSS. No need to be a busybody and make a big fuss. Price policing of musical instruments does not work significantly to the interest of the public, so why bother?

When it comes to 2nd hand transactions, I believe in free market economy: anybody can buy/sell at any price they want, but over a period of time, there will eventually be some form equilibrium where any mispricing will be eliminated. So that means that if a seller overpriced his/her item, after some time, due to lack of interest or demand at that quoted price, the seller may decide to reduce the price to move the item. In a free market economy, price policing just distorts pricing and invites criticisms from other forumers. On top of that, I have encountered many lowballers who disguised themselves as price polices, very annoying.

Of coz, if any fraudulent act is suspected, policing may be a good idea to caution the naive. But as ordinary users of the forum, I guess it is unwise to take actions into our hands. I suggest alerting the moderators and let them take the necessary actions.