Moral responsibility?

A busy, harassed mum is quite likely to buy the expensive item.

Some might call it a blatant rip off to charge 3 times the price that it can be bought from the official manufacturers web-site.

SW

Perhaps I've been ripped off to many times to just let it go.

SW
 
Sarah Winfield said:
It's items and sellers like this that I was alluding to:-

PlayMobil 7829 battery box for RC Train, Garden Railway. BNIP | eBay

Playmobil spare:-

Battery Case for RC train - 7829 - PLAYMOBIL® United Kingdom

SW
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£6:00 from playmobil, this is what has been the thread throughout, you need to look at the source first, never buy from ANYWHERE till you have looked EVERYWHERE, sometimes you may to buy from somewhere more expensive because "other" perks e.g. speed of delivery, but if the buyer clicks buy without checking, sorry but only one person is to blame, the buyer. Sounds harsh, maybe, and there maybe some hard lessons to learn but life is not easy, and some people prey on the weak.
 
I suspect these days many folk wouldn’t mind too much if they paid a little more for an item that they could get hold of quickly, their logic (?) being that the saving they could make by researching and shopping around isn’t worth the hassle involved. That said, this seller is rather taking the Michael as there seems no obvious justification whatsoever for the jacked up price.
 
Have you seen the Playmobil open wagons, now being offered for £55.00 each? :eek: - Though I would guess these have gone from Playmobil's site now??
 
I began this thread because I don't like seeing people being ripped off. As it is I have a battery holder coming at an acceptable price. I did some investigation and during my research I came across the two totally different prices.

Personally I've always been more than fair with people usually at my expense. Ebay are to blame for not having any ethics or moral principle towards those who use their site.

I know I have been very trusting of people which has cost me dearly in the past. I like to think I can trust people the same as they can trust me. Maybe I should be more cynical.

SW
 
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I use the Internet and Ebay all the time. I have no problem with Paypal either. My problem is with Ebay sellers - some of whom, live in a fantasy world. Also, many will not post outside the UK Mainland and if they will post some apply postal charges that would make our Antipodean colleagues think twice.

An example of a recent Internet purchase - 8kg Bag of special medical diet for our cat Mae - 61.99euro delivered from Zooplus. Vet's price 52.45 per 4kg bag! (Zooplus virtually pro rata for same size - I just saved another couple of euros!). I saved a total 42.91 (plus about 4.50 in diesel)

And, it's alright thinking of High Street shops if they sell what you want - the Eastern and Southern seaboards of this country have similar choices to the UK but here, in the West, it's one size fits all. My G Scale hobby would never have progressed if wasn't for Ebay. Also sending cheques to pay for things is (almost) an obsolete form of paying. Paypal is great, it's linked to my Debit Cards so I can pay in Euro or Sterling, I have had refunds and compensations.

But, one person's meat is another person's poison (notice the political correctness:) - what a good boy I am!).
 
Sarah Winfield said:
I began this thread because I don't like seeing people being ripped off. As it is I have a battery holder coming at an acceptable price. I did some investigation and during my research I came across the two totally different prices.

Personally I've always been more than fair with people usually at my expense. Ebay are to blame for not having any ethics or moral principle towards those who use their site.

I know I have been very trusting of people which has cost me dearly in the past. I like to think I can trust people the same as they can trust me. Maybe I should be more cynical.

SW
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Sarah,

See I don't think it’s anything to do with eBay, if in the modern age you are capable of using a computer to get on eBay in the first place then you are also capable of using the likes of google to search for a better price. For example if you were having a something done on your house that required a builder you wouldn’t normally go with just one price you get a few prices in and pick the best that offered what you want. (be that price service or time)

Look at the Massoth DCC chips Muns at Garden Rail outlet tends to have the best price but is often out of stock due to the high demand at his prices, but I could go to the likes of P&S hobbies and get one next day.

I.e. -

Garden rail outlet - Massoth eMotion XL Locomotive Decoder - £55 (not in stock)

P & S - Massoth eMotion XL Locomotive Decoder - £70 (in stock)

(above at time of checking)

Some times convince wins, looking at the above i wouldn't buy from P&S when GRO has it for less but if i was in the shop and had just brought a unchiped loco from P&S then i wouldn't give it a second thought and would get the chip at the same time as the new loco.

Andrew.
 
Not wishing to continue this dialogue indefinitely, could not the same be said about the unfortunate bridge collapse in Italy?

The vehicle drivers are not to blame it is the company that provides the structure for getting from one side to the other.

Or perhaps my analogy is wrong.

All I'm saying is that it is a shame ebay (the bridge builder) doesn't consider the buyer (the driver) isn't being fleeced by the seller.

SW

Please don't see that as in bad taste. there are thousands of similar incidents.

I will post no further comments on this topic. This is supposed to be a G scale enthusiasts forum.
 
eBay isn't setting the price it’s just the store front, by having no involvement its setting an open market were the sellers have the choice of what the sell at. Look again at my post why does P&S sell at a much higher price than GRO I assume they come from the same supplier in the first place, both shops offer the same level of service if in stock but both have different prices, it’s just the way of the world. You get just as many happy customers form both shops thus we have to assume that some people just don’t care about getting something for the best possible price, thus the reason why pricing is always different there’s always going to be that customer that will pay no matter the price difference.
 
Sarah Winfield said:
Ebay are to blame for not having any ethics or moral principle towards those who use their site.
Click to expand...

I wasn't going to weigh in on this one... but what the heck. :p

I don't see how your statement is at all factual or fair Sarah. I've been using Ebay for 18 years. I was there when it started as the "wild west" of auction houses. Ebay has most definitely upped their "ethics or morals."
  • When it started you could purchase pornography. It was listed open and freely. Today, it is behind an ID wall, no longer openly sold without censoring from minors.
  • When it started you could purchase firearms, freely. Now, almost none - including many accessories - are allowed to be sold.
  • Fakes and knock-offs were everywhere. They are still there today, but far less prevalent.
  • Dozens of "banned" items are now controlled. Body parts. Explosives.
In the beginning - the seller was just "the seller" - now you can search their history, read reviews, and more importantly - you can "report the seller" or "report the item" and eBay will review the offense you suspect.

No, I would say eBay has very much imposed ethics and morals (some that do not always align with their customers') into their system.

Perhaps the most important trend that applies to your complaints though - is that in the last year or so, eBay has begun placing adverts for the SAME product you are viewing within the auction listing. These adverts come in two forms - first, the "Find similar items to LGB XXXXX from $XX.XX" clickable text links that will allow you to click through from a single auction listing to an eBay produced list of the same item currently listed for sale. The second is the scrolling banner at the bottom of auctions typically titled "you may also be interested in" or "similar to your search" which feature auto-generated lists of auctions (and their photos) of the same or similar items. (There is a third banner as well - the "people who viewed this also viewed..." group.)

Look at the way you can now sort searches. Newest Listed, Ending Soon, Highest, Lowest (+ shipping) - do you know why eBay sorts with the "+ shipping" function? Because sellers, who were acting unethically, were listing items for very low prices, and then inflating their shipping costs by orders of magnitude. I once purchased a $5 dollar LGB part, no bigger than a sugar cube, and was met with a $26 dollar shipping fee! (Shame on me for not reading the entire auction closely enough!)

Due to the rise in this practice - eBay now sorts pricing INCLUDING the shipping costs, to help ensure its customers are not taken advantage of.

In short, eBay has for some time now made an effort to show YOU the same product at different prices when viewing a specific auction. They have provided tools to find every possible listing of the same item and compare their relative pricing. As others have mentioned - the search function for completed and sold items will give anyone who wants historical pricing data a look at the past 6 months of sales.


But let me take this to a very different, but impactful question... Every time I have found a great Buy it Now priced LGB locomotive on eBay and purchased it, knowing full well that I would have paid more for it (as in, literally, I was ready to pay 200 quid for this item, but the seller only wants 100 Buy it Now) have I acted without "ethics or morals?"

Each time I have found a train car that was listed SUPER cheap (and I have) - and I purchased it, not even for myself - but rather to resell for double the price weeks later at my local hobby shop - was I acting without "ethics or morals?"

When I stumble upon an eBay auction that is clearly the kids or grandkids "clearing out" Dad's old trains and their listed prices show they have ZERO clue in the value difference between a Bachmann plastic boxcar, and an Accucraft brass boxcar - that they are just getting rid of "all this old stuff" - are you suggesting I have an ethical or moral obligation to contact them and tell them their mistake? (And before you answer - when I have done this is in the past, they sure don't like it, especially when I point out that the Bachmann car is not as valuable as the Accucraft car.)

No, of course not. So don't blame the messenger.

These aren't life saving medications.
This isn't a basic food staple to sustain life.
These are toys.

The seller on eBay (or Amazon for that matter) has no obligation to price match their items, no more than you, as a buyer, have an obligation to decline purchasing items that you know are priced absurdly low.

If you are angry about individual's and their pricing, then don't buy from them. The open market will soon regulate out the over-priced offenders. But please don't misdirect blame where it doesn't belong. eBay has done more than most any online market place to impose "ethics and morales." If a buyer overpays for an item, that is squarely the buyer's fault. No one else is to blame**.



(**Obviously this statement assumes a non-fraudulent listing. Ebay can and does have its problems, but differing prices on the exact same item listed is not one of them.)
 
Well said Parkdesigner. I don't like eBay type sites because I really don't like buying of the internet, but eBay are probably one of the better ones. The problem people have is that they expect everything on the site to be cheap, when all it is doing is getting buyers and sellers in touch. Think of it as an estate agent, they will sell your house to a buyer, but it's down to the clients to sort out the nitty-gritty details.
 
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