@sjchaps wrote:
If there is no reason economic or otherwise why do sellers do it?
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Fuse-Type-Lamp-12V-150mA/273907520154?hash=item3fc629129a:g:lEMAAOSwZ1BX...
Put the link in your browser search bar and then go and look at the rest of the listings in the store.
Again ask yourself why do they do it if it only brings them grief and not profit.
If for what ever reason the system does not recognise it as a problem it will not be fixed.
An honest review is all I asked for....
You guys win, I have looked back a few years and when ever this subject is raised it's approached in the same way by the same people.
Disappointing, Steve c
You're assuming that the only economic advantage a seller can gain from the practice is profit in their pocket from someone buying it, when that just isn't the case.
To understand why a seller would want to artificially inflate the price to keep a listing live and visible on site, but prevent or seriously deter purchase, you need to understand how the search engine (cassini) works, and the "best match" system as well.
Sellers are effectively rewarded for building and maintaining listings with strong sales history - this means sellers began to fear their listings ending when they sold out because they would lose all that advantage they had earned. As I said before, the out of stock feature wasn't always available, so sellers began to look for alternative ways to keep listings live, but ensure as much as possible that they wouldn't sell - inflating prices is the obvious answer to that, and the practice became pretty common. Why do sellers still do it when they can keep listings live, but not showing on site if they are 0 stock? Habit, mostly.
Plus, listings on the site, when in best match sorting order, are ranked by several factors. Impressions is one factor (the number of times it shows up in searches at all, since it indicates to eBay that buyers are interested in an item if it appears often). If a listing is not visible on site, it can't get impressions.
Also, I doubt you'd be surprised that listings which have ridiculous prices generate a lot of attention - attention is currency, albeit not directly or immediately of the cold hard cash kind, but of the rippling effect kind. I mean just look at all the free attention you've provided for the seller here, and all the attention every seller who's been the subject of "prices / postage is ridiculous!!!!" threads received. I know of one seller in particular that used to list an iPhone for (I think) 3 million dollars. It never sold, obviously, but it was one of the most watched items on eBay at one stage, and they did it because it got their other listings - with realistic prices - much more attention, and I'll repeat, attention (good or bad) is currency.
You paid attention to the seller's postage costs. You paid attention to all of their listings, and you engaged with the seller directly because of their postage costs. You also got other people to pay attention to them. The seller has benefited from all of the attention, whether they got $500 for an item or not.
