I'm not naming names or posting the Item's ID but this seller shot himself in the foot. (He may be an APUG member/subscriber).

I needed a lens board,urgently (sorted now) one came up on Ebay (UK) "Crown/Speed Graphic lens board for Copal #0 shutter. Recently purchased new and has not been used."

So I offered to Pay just over the new price (I'd seen) if he'd change it to a "Buy-it-now" price (So as not to circumvent the Ebay system). He decline saying "I'd rather let it go to auction".

It sold for 99p + £2 postage, approx $2 + $4 postage, I offered him just over the price of an identical new board from the US with a "Buy-it-now price" of $15.95 approx £8, and I'd a3s6 added the cost of postage US/UK, the same seller has/d 3 boards for $38.88. But I needed a board fast and postage from the UK was going to be far quicker.

His loss, checking his feedback (15) he bought the board for $49 so he did very well selling it on for $2. I deliberate refrained from bidding !!!!!

I guess he's learnt a hard lesson, which we all need to heed - research the market before you buy or sell.

Ian

Sounds as if he ignored your reasoning which gave him the "true value" because he thought the U.K. market value was much greater and lost heavily. Human greed costs. Time he read the " Great Crash" by J.K. Galbraith. People operated under similar illusions of "things could only go up" in 1929 and some ended up jumping out of skyscrapers! Now that's an even harder lesson!


pentaxuser

But the he bought from the US in the first place its a world market palce now at least at our level :D

Ian

But the he bought from the US in the first place its a world market palce now at least at our level :D

Ian


Exactly Ian. That seems to have escaped him despite your pointing it out. I can understand any seller thinking( maybe wrongly these days) that most U.K. buyers might pay a small premium for a U.K. based source but ordinarily the premium would be so small as to mean that he'd need to sell in large quantities to make any real money.

At best and being as kind as possible, he hasn't grasped the economics involved. If it wasn't for import duty, maybe the additional in-transit period and maybe the hesitation felt by some about dealing with sellers outside the country, there are certain items, cameras being one, where I think, the U.S. including U.S. e-bay could put many U.K. businesses and U.K. sellers out of business.

pentaxuser

It would seem that, in ensuring the seller learned a hard lesson, you poked yourself in the eye quite hard as well (by not acquiring a cheap lens board)?

Indeed! :)


I don't quite understand the point of this thread. Maybe he learnt a lesson, maybe not - he bet and lost this time; doesn't mean that he won't necessarily win next time.

Perhaps the more important lesson is this: We'd all do well to remember that the seller has every right to choose how and with whom he deals.

and that the buyer also chooses who he purchased from.

To be fair to this seller I hadn't even thought of seeing if his feedback showed how much he'd paid when I made him the offer, so I guess he didn't realise he'd paid over the odds in the first place. So he paid $45 for one board & I paid $38.88 for 3, these are all new boards.

The moral is shop around & watch the prices before hand, as a buyer.

It would seem that, in ensuring the seller learned a hard lesson, you poked yourself in the eye quite hard as well (by not acquiring a cheap lens board)?
I'd already bought the 3 boards, if I'd placed bid then I'm sure the price would have gone up quite quickly, it was only so low because no-one else bid on the item.

The seller probably put a starting price of 99p and the buyer might have placed a maximum bid of £5 or more but with no other bidder the item sells for the starting price as I discovered when buying a DVD last month as the only bidder.

Ian