3 ms·

I am confused, don't shoppers do research and choose the item with the lowest price?

jccc 10y ago
Enough of them don't that this eBay game becomes profitable. Consider the trouble and expense: All they're really doing is point-and-click throughout. You just need a few.
- resolaibohp 10y ago
  You are correct about this. As someone who sells a product on eBay and also contends with the counterfeits who are actually cheaper than mine. I still get plenty of sales, as do the cheaper counterfeits. It seems like people do not pay much attention.
  - bitJericho 10y ago
    There's also people that know about counterfeits and avoid them.
mmagin 10y ago
eBay doesn't generally help shoppers make a good decision. Beyond the fact that the web site is a mess, they don't seem to care at all about listings which seem to attempt to match searches with results that aren't what people are looking for. For example: listings only selling the original box an item came in and not the item, listings for a part or manual - both of which make "price: low to high" searches useless. Looking for certain used electronics (recently music synth stuff, in the past vintage test equipment), I tend to have to select a lot of filtering options: "North american sellers only", "Condition: Used", etc.
- Tempest1981 10y ago
  Amazon has 1 page per product, with all sellers listed, even "used" iirc - nice. eBay is indeed a mess.
- brokenmachine 10y ago
  The thing I find most annoying on ebay searches is sellers who list multiple items on the one listing. So if your search is ordered by price, it will show their listing first when in reality, the actual item you're looking for is much more expensive. I have no idea why ebay allows this to happen.
  - Grishnakh 10y ago
    Amazon is just as bad, if not worse. (Not trying to excuse Ebay here.) I'll frequently do a search on Amazon and see some ultra-low price on something, then click on that to see the product. Half the time, the product page will have a bunch of different options, and the ones you want all cost far more, and only the ugly pink one is cheap, or the one in extra-extra-small. Or sometimes, I won't even be able to find the one at that ultra-low advertised price. Or it'll be in the "other sellers" section, along with a gigantic shipping fee.
Grishnakh 10y ago
No. People are stupid and ignorant. Ebay doesn't show the lowest-price option by default; its default is "best match", whateverTF that is. You have to explicitly choose "lowest price + shipping". I'm in the habit of always doing this, and generally researching things to death when buying online to make sure I get the best deal, but I know I'm not a normal shopper. Most people just see something that looks good and click on it and buy it.

jccc 10y ago

Enough of them don't that this eBay game becomes profitable. Consider the trouble and expense: All they're really doing is point-and-click throughout. You just need a few.

resolaibohp 10y ago
You are correct about this. As someone who sells a product on eBay and also contends with the counterfeits who are actually cheaper than mine. I still get plenty of sales, as do the cheaper counterfeits. It seems like people do not pay much attention.
- bitJericho 10y ago
  There's also people that know about counterfeits and avoid them.

mmagin 10y ago

eBay doesn't generally help shoppers make a good decision. Beyond the fact that the web site is a mess, they don't seem to care at all about listings which seem to attempt to match searches with results that aren't what people are looking for. For example: listings only selling the original box an item came in and not the item, listings for a part or manual - both of which make "price: low to high" searches useless. Looking for certain used electronics (recently music synth stuff, in the past vintage test equipment), I tend to have to select a lot of filtering options: "North american sellers only", "Condition: Used", etc.

Tempest1981 10y ago
Amazon has 1 page per product, with all sellers listed, even "used" iirc - nice. eBay is indeed a mess.
brokenmachine 10y ago
The thing I find most annoying on ebay searches is sellers who list multiple items on the one listing. So if your search is ordered by price, it will show their listing first when in reality, the actual item you're looking for is much more expensive. I have no idea why ebay allows this to happen.
- Grishnakh 10y ago
  Amazon is just as bad, if not worse. (Not trying to excuse Ebay here.) I'll frequently do a search on Amazon and see some ultra-low price on something, then click on that to see the product. Half the time, the product page will have a bunch of different options, and the ones you want all cost far more, and only the ugly pink one is cheap, or the one in extra-extra-small. Or sometimes, I won't even be able to find the one at that ultra-low advertised price. Or it'll be in the "other sellers" section, along with a gigantic shipping fee.

Grishnakh 10y ago

No. People are stupid and ignorant. Ebay doesn't show the lowest-price option by default; its default is "best match", whateverTF that is. You have to explicitly choose "lowest price + shipping". I'm in the habit of always doing this, and generally researching things to death when buying online to make sure I get the best deal, but I know I'm not a normal shopper. Most people just see something that looks good and click on it and buy it.