e-bay sellers well above list prices - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: jpb
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 25, 2013, 10:50:52 am
content: I've noticed this phenomenon before, especially on e-bay UK. Sellers offering test equipment at much higher prices than the standard manufacturers official channel. Who buys them? Do people assume that if it is on e-bay it must be a bargain?These people are asking £2,326 for an Agilent 33511B:http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/GENERATOR-WAVEFORM-20MHZ-1-CH-ARB-33511B-2143001-/350835589255?pt=UK_BOI_Electrical_Components_Supplies_ET&hash=item51af6e4087The full list price is £1,257 ex VAT or £1,508 inc VAT before any dealer discount!

author: tom66
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 25, 2013, 11:27:20 am
content: I've wondered about sellers, such as top-quality-tools, for a while. It looks a lot like they have just copied good deal of the Farnell catalogue into eBay -- I'm guessing they're a power seller of some kind and have no listing fees. They also sell items at high markup. I guess they either:a) do enough business with Farnell to get zero shipping charge & zero minimum order so they're just a drop-shipping bizb) combine everything into a large order at the end of the day and ship them out separately, allowing people to bypass Farnell's default £20 minimum orderBut their markup on some products is enormous!

author: mikeselectricstuff
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 25, 2013, 11:42:57 am
content: Yes - I'm sure they just auto-scrape Farnell & sell to people who don't know about Farnell... I'd be surprised if they sell many high-ticket items.Once you have the process automated it's probably easy money - they seem to get plenty of sales.No idea how much co-operation they get from Farnell, presumably at least some.Maybe it actually is Farnell, operating a covert retail division.

author: jpb
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 25, 2013, 11:59:36 am
content: What is puzzling is that it is only some items (e.g. in this case just one model of function generator out of a range) and the mark up is so enormous.I assumed that in this case they perhaps looked up the price of the 2 channel model by accident.It would be interesting to know if they ever sell such big ticket items at the prices they ask. I heard one suggestion that they may be less constrained by export restrictions - but this would not be legally the case even if they were more lax with the paperwork in practice. In any case, a 20MHz function generator is hardly cutting edge technology and similar could be simply imported from China.But I see what you mean about Farnell - I just looked up one of their other items at random:http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/LOCTITE-1126639-SEALANT-BLUE-LOCTITE-5926-100ML-/271226758374?pt=UK_BOI_Electrical_Components_Supplies_ET&hash=item3f265fe4e6Loctite which they sell for £18:49 whilst the same item on Farnell is £9:85 plus VAT or £11:82. So they seem to take the Farnell price and add 56%. I notice the seller is based in Gibraltar which is probably less regulated in terms of buyer's right of return.But why don't they get negative feedback from buyers who discover after purchase that they've paid at least 50% over the odds? To answer my own question, I see e-bay feedback doesn't cover such a criteria, as long as an item is as-described, is dispatched quickly and p&p charges are reasonable the buyer has no basis for complaint just because the price is way over the odds.

author: mariush
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 25, 2013, 12:47:43 pm
content: Farnell doesn't sell to individual persons in some countries in EuropeOther hobbyists don't have credit cards so they can't pay to order from FarnellDigikey is too expensive at 20$ shipping unless you order a large quantity (160$+ if I remember correctly)His shipping would be faster and cheaper than asian sellersSo as long as he fills this niche... some people will buy because they don't have another choice or just don't know about other online stores.

author: Rufus
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 25, 2013, 12:50:25 pm
content: Quote from: jpb on July 25, 2013, 10:50:52 amI have commented on that seller here before. The biggest problem is the pollution of search results from their 238,000 listings.I contacted ebay suggesting they provide an 'ignore seller' feature and mentioned that top-quality-tools and their 100k+ listings scraped from the Farnell web site was the reason for my suggestion.I got the expected idiotic response suggesting that I might have selected top-quality-tools as a favourite seller.Ebay's listing fees which make listings free after the first thousand (or whatever it is) is the other part problem. It encourages drop shippers like this to create hundreds of thousands of listings.

author: mikeselectricstuff
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 25, 2013, 01:04:03 pm
content: QuoteBecause they don't want to make themselves look stupid?

author: madires
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 25, 2013, 01:23:38 pm
content: I've decided to boycott ebay and paypal some years ago after they made things worse and worse and started to suppress private sellers. Yesterday I wrote in another thread about insane prices for used T&M stuff at ebay.de and we see new rip-offs each day. ebay is just the market place but if they encourage all the bad sellers (= more profit for ebay also) it will make itself obsolete. I'm sorry for the fair sellers but it seems that they need to look for a new market place anyway, since ebay isn't fair to them either.

author: ErikTheNorwegian
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 25, 2013, 02:00:42 pm
content: Hantek DSO8060 60MHz Five-in-one Handheld OscilloscopeShopping around and checking prices is a must.. there are huge differences.Buy one or get two at the same price..497,- + 10$ shippinghttp://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-Hantek-DSO8060-60MHz-Five-in-one-Handheld-Oscilloscope-/290672129924?pt=BI_Oscilloscopes&hash=item43ad68b784or pay premium prize from lockal dealer.. (If you live in the USA)999$ + 25$ shipping ..http://www.ebay.com/itm/HANTEK-DSO-8060-5-1-MOBILE-SCOPEMETER-/380609369441?pt=BI_Oscilloscopes&hash=item589e161561Thats more than dubble the price..So is it if you get some trubble with the scope, what is more important? Since you can buy two for the price of one driect from China you actualy get a good "waranty"!Downside is that you probobly kill of your lockal supplier that could be handy to have lockaly if you need a ex probe sett within a day..Or you could buy itcheapestfrom another "lockal" dealer forhttp://www.circuitspecialists.com/dso-8060.html469,- + shipping and get"Shipped & Supported from the USA" service..I would choose the latest...

author: bilko
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 25, 2013, 05:47:03 pm
content: Quote from: Rufus on July 25, 2013, 12:50:25 pmI have also requested that Ebay feature a "blacklist" in their search criteriaThere are some sellers I would never want to buy from and don't ever want to see what they have to offer.I hope that Ebay acts on the complaints that it receives and implements these changes, the sooner the better.

author: tom66
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 25, 2013, 06:25:28 pm
content: If you run a browser on which GreaseMonkey runs, this can work well for blocking certain sellers.http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/157116

author: nctnico
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 25, 2013, 07:19:34 pm
content: Quote from: jpb on July 25, 2013, 10:50:52 amPerhaps... lots of sellers think they have a pot of gold to sell. Just let them... You don't need them because there are enough good deals on Ebay. Sometimes they are willing to lower the prices onto a reasonable level after some haggling.

author: NickAmes
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: July 26, 2013, 05:40:08 am
content: I'm not sure if they implement this feature in other countries, but ebay US can filter out specific sellers from search results, using the Sellers category in the Advanced Search page. I'm not sure if it works on multiple sellers, but I've used it several time to remove a single seller from the results.

author: Stonent
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 26, 2013, 06:32:39 am
content: Quote from: NickAmes on July 26, 2013, 05:40:08 amI always remove teoutlet when I'm looking at scopes. He keeps flooding with manuals in the scope section when he needs to put it in the manual section. msgorge is another person I filter because of just crap.

author: 807
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 26, 2013, 09:41:29 am
content: Quote from: jpb on July 25, 2013, 11:59:36 amWhy should a seller receive negative feedback just because a buyer couldn't be bothered to check the pricebeforebuying?I cannot believe the number of items that sell on Ebay for ridiculous prices. Not just electronics, but all categories.I sometimes see an item during a search where a seller has more than 1 of an item to sell at a stupidly high price. I would expect to see that none have been sold, but when clicking on the item, find that people have actually bought the things, and are perfectly satisfied by looking at their feedback! Madness!

author: jpb
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 26, 2013, 09:49:48 am
content: Quote from: nctnico on July 25, 2013, 07:19:34 pmI think in this case, from what others have posted here and from the fact that the number available matches the number available directly from Farnel, that the seller probably doesn't even have the goods. If someone buys at their inflated price they pass the order onto Farnell and take the 56% mark-up as their cut.

author: jpb
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 26, 2013, 10:12:33 am
content: Quote from: 807 on July 26, 2013, 09:41:29 amYes, of course it is the buyer's responsibility to check the price before buying. But in this case though, there is circumstantial evidence that the seller is marking-up (by about 56%) items supplied by Farnell which buyers in the UK at least with a credit card could buy directly. In my view, though I presume there is nothing illegal about it, it is dishonest for an (expensive) purchasing agent to masquerade as a supplier and the feedback mechanism should allow such practices to be exposed.

author: Majorstrain
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: July 26, 2013, 12:59:47 pm
content: I just came across this little gem of a dev board.1+2 Sets Freescale i.MX31 ARM11 Development boardAt the price it's listed it's a real steal. If you buy it you will defiantly have been stolen from.Nice of them to throw in FREE postage.http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/1-2-Sets-Freescale-i-MX31-ARM11-Development-board-/181177835479?pt=AU_B_I_Electrical_Test_Equipment&hash=item2a2f0a5fd7&_uhb=1Element14's price is only 1.8K

author: Rufus
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 26, 2013, 01:04:23 pm
content: Quote from: jpb on July 26, 2013, 09:49:48 amOf course he doesn't have the goods. When he gets a sale he places an order on Farnell with free delivery direct to the buyer. It is called drop shipping. I looked that their feedback when I was first annoyed by them polluting search results and some described the seller as a drop shipper.

author: bilko
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 26, 2013, 01:42:01 pm
content: Quote from: NickAmes on July 26, 2013, 05:40:08 amThis feature is implemented in ebay.co.ukHowever it is inconvenient to specify sellers to avoidEbay have a favourite sellers list that can be searched by.What we need is Ebay to do the same for a blacklist seller's search option

author: Grayfox
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 26, 2013, 01:52:43 pm
content: The lister makes the thing cost 3 times more or so because they have no current stock, so to avoid canceling the listing and wasting money, you just make it expensive so no one buys it.

author: bilko
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 26, 2013, 02:27:53 pm
content: Surely then, this is against Ebay policy "Avoiding Ebay Fees"If enough people reported such sellers, Ebay may eventually do something

author: ErikTheNorwegian
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 26, 2013, 05:32:14 pm
content: Quote from: 807 on July 26, 2013, 09:41:29 amTotaly agree, and the best price is as i mentiond further up, could be foundoutside of E-bay!

author: nctnico
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 29, 2013, 09:44:13 pm
content: The best price doesn't always include shipping costs, VAT and customs fees. And sometimes its just easier to buy through Ebay. I tried to buy something from Futuretech (Germany) but their website is a complete mess so Ebay was just much easier.