Jacked up prices

[jvsimo]

Over the last few days I have had about 30 or so Overhead Fishing reels on my watch list. They are at about 95 cents and $11 postage. Then they all seem to get 5 or 6 bids in the last hour or so and end up at $30 to$50. Are there any rules against sellers bidding on their own items?

[putney32]

yes there are rules about sellers bidding on their own items, however I fail to see what that has to do with the auctions you mentioned.

the majority of savvy ebay buyers ONLY bid in the last minutes / seconds even, of an auction, therefore, one would expect the price to go from way tooo cheap to 'retail value' in the last few minutes.

nothing unusual about that at all.

[springyzone]

Not sure about fishing rods, but what I have sometimes found, where you have a lot of similar new items (eg tupperware) on sale, or even second hand items. is that if something starts off cheap, it can get a lot of watchers and invariably it doesn't end up going for that unless you get really lucky. But there can sometimes be another item, maybe the same thing, that starts off at what looks like a high price in comparison, but ends up selling cheaper.

So.. have you had a look at the more realistically priced fishing rods? Have a look at the range $20+

I wouldn't think that if the 30 or so things in your watch list are always being bid up that they would all be shill bidding. Unlikely.