Extremely over priced goods

[peternt2001]

Hi, i know the forums used to be a wealth of information. I havent been on for a long time since they changed everything. But was wondering if anyone else had similar thoughts to me. Recently I have been looking for a new phone and a smart watch. While looking through all of the listings on ebay, it struck me that there are sellers who have listed buy it now prices, sometimes up to $1000 over the retail prices in the shops for items. 
First off i thought they may have made keying errors with the price or put the price up as to stop anyone from buying as they were holding the items for someone already committed to a purchase ( if that makes sense ) . But then looking at more and more of these listings i see that a lot of them have already sold many items at the extremely over inflated prices. 
This made me to start to think, is this a form of money laundering, selling items either to themselves or friends for huge huge mark ups normal people wouldnt pay, so that they can claim a legitimate income from selling on ebay. For example i have seen some smart watches that sell for $400 at the top end of pricing in shops being sold on ebay for $1499 and that seller having many sales. Does anyone else think there is the possibility that ebay is now being used to launder money ? 

[cq_tech]

Take $100k of illegally obtained drug money to the casino and change it into chips. After half an hour of gambling (win, lose, or draw) cash your chips into a casino cheque at the cashier's window. The money has now been laundered and there isn't even any income tax payable on gambling winnings either.

[peternt2001]

I am not saying they are laundering money, as i do not know. I just found it very strange that some items sell well above normal retail prices. As some have said they do this practice to keep their advertisment alive until they have new stock. That is a very reasonable explanation. But one i disagree with, as some of my searches for items i want turn up more extremely over valued goods than ones that seem to be legitimately for sale. But one thing i did see the other day, was one seller had as their photo " temporarily out of stock "which i thought was a good idea. 

But as for money laundering i can see how it could happen. Have illegal money you need to turn into legal money. Sell 10 items ( they may or may not exist ) to a friend or someone you are working with to launder money for exessive amounts, say $1000 above retail on each item. Now you can claim $10,000 as lawful income, yes you will need to pay taxes on that income, but now it is legal money you can put into your bank account, and you will even be able to claim stock and ebay fees as a tax deduction. All they need to do is show a paper trail showing purchases as a source of income. 

[lyndal1838]

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@peternt2001 wrote:

But as for money laundering i can see how it could happen. Have illegal money you need to turn into legal money. Sell 10 items ( they may or may not exist ) to a friend or someone you are working with to launder money for exessive amounts, say $1000 above retail on each item. Now you can claim $10,000 as lawful income, yes you will need to pay taxes on that income, but now it is legal money you can put into your bank account, and you will even be able to claim stock and ebay fees as a tax deduction. All they need to do is show a paper trail showing purchases as a source of income. 

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That is not a very likely scenario.

First your friends would have to be agreeable to helping you launder that money.

Then you would have to show that you had received the money.....not that you already had it.

If you try to put it through paypal you will be caught by their rules which are specifically aimed at stopping the practise.