Scott 498g -Such A Bargain

https://www.ebay.com/itm/RARE-1917-...AOSwZrtcmDDf

This sellers prior activity has been garage sale material.

*** Moved by Staff to a more appropriate forum. ***

Darn, he may not ship to Canada. What a shame.

If you are sorry about that not shipping to Canada, look at this gem of a listing:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/RARE-US-1c...cectupt=true

And the ultimate:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1-Cent-Ben...AOSwO7NclvW~

We can laugh at this but it has the potential to do harm.

The problem is that ebay has very few staff who know much about stamps. I get a chuckle every time I see the homepage of the stamps section and the'color' categories. 'Blue' stamps, 'Red' stamps, as if those are major categories of collecting.

I do find it pretty hard to believe that anyone would spend that kind of money without having some idea of what they were doing. But.........

Look on the bright side, if someone does buy it they'll earn $70.74 in ebay Bucks!

Keep an eye on these. Every single thing listed has sold... not this kind of money but some way over what that crap should sell for (150 for a celtic lakers 1980s print you cant give that stuff away). I bet they come down but some/few of these are going to sell for stupid money. Go look at $23 sticks of deodorant that sold and you will understand.

So do you want ebay telling you what you're allowed to ask for things? So you list something and a day later ebay takes it down and tells you that you were asking too much. You'd be ok with that?

bobby, what he's referring to here is not that ebay should police normal pricing, or even an item which is listed at a high end price, but when something is so egregiously overpriced, they should act.

If I were ebay, I would be very concerned to see a series of sales like these which were completed. Why? It would smack seriously of money laundering. That would make more sense than believing there was someone who was so ignorant to buy one of these lots otherwise.

Stampman, thanks, that was my point. I agree ebay ought not as a rule be inserting themselves into whatever a seller wants to offer an item for; it's just that we are seeing more and more of this ridiculous stuff as time goes by. My concern isn't that someone is going to get scammed so much as it is for the health of the hobby. I wonder how many potential collectors have been lost because they see a listing such as this and think their similar stuff is worth big bucks. They take it to a dealer and get laughed out of the store.

I also agree with the poster who voiced suspicion of this not being a real auction. Something else might be going on here.

The original post shows what the ebay stamps area has become for collectors; i.e,. a buying platform where 95% of the items listed in many areas are vastly overpriced, damaged , or both.

I don't believe this damages the hobby. It damages the ebay stamps area, and it encourages collectors and sellers to seek other venues for buying and selling. If there is a need for a better buying and selling platform, the market will make it happen.

I disagree 100%. That's an extremely slippery slope. Who is anyone to tell me what I can ask for something? Buyers have responsibility too.

Should flea markets police vendors too? Should market personnel walk around the market looking for overpriced items and make them mark it down or shut them down? How about stamp shows? Should someone from the show walk around and decide a maximum your allowed to price something?

Please don't tell me that's different, because it's not. They're all just venues.

I think this is overblown. No one is paying six figures for a philatelic item without knowing exactly what they are doing, on ebay or anywhere else. Anyone who does deserves what they get for being such a huge fool.

Policing pricing is not anything ebay has any business doing. Every seller has a right to price their merchandise as high as they want, no matter how ludicrous. It doesn't mean it will sell.

Now, if on the other hand, you think that ebay should institute a fee structure that disincentivizes this sort of pricing, that's a different discussion.

I still would argue against it.

Don't like? Don't buy. It's just that simple.

"there is a sucker born every minute"

That was years ago, now days it's like one per second !