Why did this sell so high?


Possible causes as I see it.

A momentary lapse of reason.

A long night of drinking.

More money than brains.

Testosterone, as in "I won't be outbid!"

I'm sure there could be other reasons but none that make any more sense to me than those listed.:rolleyes:
 
There must be something........there were 17 bids, so at least one other person was willing to pay $1 less than the winning bid.
 
CNR Glen said:
Where are these guys when I list something on Ebay?!!
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No kiddin! lol whenever I seem to watch something on ebay, everyone and their brother wants to bid it up. But when im selling something.... (crickets) lol. I have noticed people overpay alot on ebay though. Along with trains we also collect a lot of Legos. I was watching a bid the other day for a set that retails for $90 (still in stores all over, not a retired set mind you). The bid started at 10 bucks and went sky high. Finally as the bid got close to the end and was bid up too high for me to want it anymore, I watched it hit 90, and then 95, then 100, and it finally sold for.... 127! I was thinking, are you serious, you just overpaid by 37 bucks. Now maybe that person lives in a place where it is sold out, but there was another listing that had those kits as a "buy it now" for the $90 dollar retail price, so I have no idea what the thought was. I kind of agree it is a mental, "I will have the last bid no matter what" mindset. Or maybe people just have too much money and are bored lol. Whatever it is, ebay can be a humorous place to watch.
 
TRAINFAN9510 said:
No kiddin! lol whenever I seem to watch something on ebay, everyone and their brother wants to bid it up. But when im selling something.... (crickets) lol. I have noticed people overpay alot on ebay though. Along with trains we also collect a lot of Legos. I was watching a bid the other day for a set that retails for $90 (still in stores all over, not a retired set mind you). The bid started at 10 bucks and went sky high. Finally as the bid got close to the end and was bid up too high for me to want it anymore, I watched it hit 90, and then 95, then 100, and it finally sold for.... 127! I was thinking, are you serious, you just overpaid by 37 bucks. Now maybe that person lives in a place where it is sold out, but there was another listing that had those kits as a "buy it now" for the $90 dollar retail price, so I have no idea what the thought was. I kind of agree it is a mental, "I will have the last bid no matter what" mindset. Or maybe people just have too much money and are bored lol. Whatever it is, ebay can be a humorous place to watch.
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Some people on eBat robo-bid using a program that watches an auction and automatically places a bid according tot he prospective buyer's wishes. It unfortunately looks like people using these types of things don't know how to set the options.

Then again people see something and say to themselves they have to have it, and hang the price. Recently at a Barrett-Jackson auto auction the original Batmobile from the TV series sold for $4.2 million. Yeah it might be a collectable but that much?
 
but it's never been used and unopened. Wait a minute here. If it's unopened, how did he get the picture of it sitting outside the box?
 
and thats why I bid and have a cut off price, and then go to buy it now to find what I want, usually for me ebay is used to find things that my locak HS does not carry or have the ability to order for me...
 
jackn2mpu said:
Some people on eBat robo-bid using a program that watches an auction and automatically places a bid according tot he prospective buyer's wishes. It unfortunately looks like people using these types of things don't know how to set the options.

Then again people see something and say to themselves they have to have it, and hang the price. Recently at a Barrett-Jackson auto auction the original Batmobile from the TV series sold for $4.2 million. Yeah it might be a collectable but that much?
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You are correct, it is called an auto bidder. The way it works is say you only want to pay 50 bucks for something. You put 50 in the automatic bidder, but it wont actually bid to 50 just yet. It will just outbid the current bid and any other bid until it reaches 50 dollars, then it will stop. My bidding strategy combines a little bit of this along with some other, top secret strategies lol

D&J RailRoad said:
but it's never been used and unopened. Wait a minute here. If it's unopened, how did he get the picture of it sitting outside the box?
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You know, that burns me up when people do that. It is no longer "New in SEALED box" it now is just extremely slightly used lol. Some of the fun for collectors is popping the seal on the brand new boxes, and knowing nobody else besides the workers have handled the product.
 
Yeah, it's interesting. If you're willing to pay $15, why not $17. It's easy to get caught up especially when you really want the item for whatever reason.

I found a cool old Athearns kit at my LHS once (see Avatar picture) and thought I'd really like another, so I went looking on eBay. Found one with a starting bid $17 higher than what I paid plus $15 shipping. Whoa! No deal. Tried to negotiate but the guy whouldn't budge.

Patience is the key. I ended up finding one for a few bucks less than I paid at the hobby shop and it had free shipping. Rare is a relative term.

By the way, the first kit I found on eBay (about 2 years ago) keeps getting relisted and the price keeps going up.

So what's my point. Auctions are fun and I think people end up willing to pay for a little extra for the excitement. I usually decide what the item is worth to me, set my high bid, and let it ride.

Doug
 
I put a lot of stuff in my Ebay watchlist just to see how it does sometimes - its suprising what things sell for - you can find some great deals and also see some really dumb prices. I recently watched a Proto 2000 boxcar go for $65. It wasn't anything special, except it was for sale by Dans Train Depot - I swear his stuff attracts the people that have no clue what things are worth. He must make a killing on the things he sells on Ebay becuase they are always going for too much. He takes really good, clear pictures so I think that must help. Plus he has a lot of listings to cross-promote items.

Ebay is a funny thing - I have sold a few things over the years - once sold an LBF 50' boxcar for $50 (started at $5). I also sold a really nice intermountain brand new hopper in the same batch for $15....doesnt make sense.
 
Since my closest LHS is a 300 mile round trip, I do a lot of buying off the Internet. e-Bay is just one source. But, if I see something that I need, I will bid once, at my maximum, and leave it alone. Granted I loose more than I win, but boy do I get some bargains. If I really need something that isn't on e-Bay, I'll hit an e-tailer site.

And yes, sometimes I see folks bidding on something way more than could be purchased at Walthers, Vallet Trains, or other similar sites. Hard to figure out.
 
Does boggle the mind sometimes what people are willing to shell out. Watched a single Budd dome car from Rapido's Via Canadian go for ~$350 the other day. Couldn't believe it.

That said, certain relatively rare items may have sentimental value and can warrant a higher price. I normally would not spend more than $20-22 for a brand new IMRC grain hopper, but a few months ago I was happy to shell out >$70 at the end of a bidding war for a used out-of-production one in Alberta colors that was lettered with my wife's home town on it and which I hadn't been able to find anywhere else.
 
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