Puzzle prices
Ebay puzzles sellers are the worse. Some I would say are price gouging. Just in the last day a puzzle that was $14.98 on Amazon free shipping was priced on EBAY for $35. Just using this one as an example, but its not the only one. I recently bought (9 )300 piece large size puzzles from BITS & Pieces and free shipping which you need to watch for and sales. Total price was $71.00. Amazon prices are also way better than anything on EBAY. But if people do their research before buying then they will find this also if they have not already. Good luck all of you overpriced puzzle sellers on EBAY. I will never look again..
14 comments
fashunu4eeuh
·3 years agoWell, first, i am sorry you had a frustrating shopping experience on eBay. There are all shapes and sizes of sellers here, many great ones, and rarely a few less so. It has over a billion listings from millions of sellers.
I hope you will give us a second chance, taking into consideration that there are a wide variety of sellers with an absolute bonanza of puzzles.
Amazon and eBay are very different types of e-commerce retailing. Amazon owns its own fleet of shipping trucks and delivery drivers, owns humongous warehouses chuck full of merchandise it also can own outright, located at strategic places throughout the US and the world so it can deliver often in one day.
eBay is none of those things. We sellers cannot always compete on prices that the behemoth Amazon can offer. But what we can do is provide more personalized customer service, and a vast amount of pre-owned goods, some of which would never be listed on A.
eBay is old folks selling their ancestors’ collectible crystal, perhaps to make ends meet. Is a new mom feeling proud of her efforts selling her older kid’s hand-me downs from her kitchen table in rural America. Is big box sellers. Is hobby sellers and professional sellers.
eBay is a true amalgam of different sellers from all walks of life with goods both old and new, high dollar and low.
eBay policy and federal laws prohibits price gouging, which as some posters pointed out, is defined as exorbitant increases in pricing for commodities (food, shelter, fuel, medical supplies, etc) to take advantage of the buying public during a time of crisis or emergency.
Puzzles (which are not essential items) can be priced at any dollar amount the seller chooses. They are free to wildly over price or under price. The self-correcting influences of our free market system takes care of those who may over-value their goods.
So you wait a day, then run your Search again for the puzzles you want at the price you desire. I hope you will. Best wishes to you.
duffy4444
·3 years ago@char63762:
At one time I had over 70 puzzles for sale on both Amazon and eBay. They all sold, almost entirely here because of better exposure. I don't sell them currently because of high shipping prices. Many sellers on Amazon have had their items listed for a long time, and many are not aware that the shipping price has gone way up since their listing. Just like some lazy sellers anywhere online, they are taking only a tiny profit or even a loss when they realize what the shipping cots are now.
So congratulations on getting a great deal wherever you can find it online. I've found them on Amazon and right here on eBay as well. It balances out. All sites have items overpriced and some bargains as well. That's not price gouging. Price gouging is what happened in the early 1970s with the energy crisis that had cars backed up for blocks just for a few gallons of very expensive gasoline for that era.
Saying that Amazon prices are way better than eBay's is just a knee-jerk reaction that doesn't require any thought. It goes both ways. I sold on Amazon for over 20 years, and recently stopped selling there altogether because I have been routinely selling 20-30 times more on eBay than on Amazon the exact same items. A seller's sales metrics comparison also has to be a factor to be considered in pricing.
Cheers, Duffy
susanb1872
·3 years ago@duffy4444 "Price gouging is what happened in the early 1970s with the energy crisis that had cars backed up for blocks just for a few gallons of very expensive gasoline for that era."
The energy crisis was due to the oil embargo of 1973 imposed by OPEC. Simple economics-decrease the supply and prices go up (in this case way up) so this was not price gouging. It is possible that some companies took advantage of the situation and raised prices more and did engage in price gouging but the overall price increase was due to lack of supply.
duffy4444
·3 years ago@susanb1872
Your last sentence was my point. Of course the energy crisis was due to the oil embargo. What I said had nothing to do with blaming the embargo. I was referring to service stations that really jacked up the price of gasoline and gouged customers. I remember that, as I was one that had no choice but to wait in line for an hour or more to fill up in the Los Angeles area at the few stations that had gas.
The overall price increase was due to the embargo, but there were a lot of places that really gouged thousands of customers on top of that. It led to laws being passed to crack down on the practice. Perhaps I should have made that more clear, but I though what I was referring to was obvious in context.
Cheers, Duffy
retrogames10000
·3 years agoI think you should first consider that perhaps the eBay seller has only priced his items according to eBay comparable sales, and did not look elsewhere to price their items.
Today I am spending my time pricing out 600 games after pricing 900 games yesterday and will be doing this all week. My only source for pricing is eBay comps and current active listings, it seems wholly irrelevant to me that you could maybe get the item for a lower price on another site.. we are here on eBay!
Could you imagine how difficult it would be for an eBay seller to price all prices according to the comps of every other website? In any event, mismatched pricing is why the send offer button exists!
ebeths_eclectic_collectibles
·3 years agoAnd I am sure the power of the market will correct this. Buyers are free to spend or not spend as they like. We are talking puzzles here not bottled water during a natural disaster
inhawaii
·3 years agoI disagree with you that all ebay puzzle sellers are the worst.
femmefan1946
·3 years agoI was looking for a particular title on AZ today.
Book prices were reasonable but shipping started at $11.67 and climbing.
richard1rst
·3 years agoWell, I offer this as a defense of all eBay sellers not any one category.
Trying to compare Amazon to individual sellers is a fictitious comparison. AZ has enormous buying power due to its size and can browbeat any supplier it wants into prices and terms we can never hope to achieve.
AZ reported 134.4 Billion in revenue for 2023 2nd quarter and net profit of 6.7 billion (compared to a LOSS of 2 billion last year). That makes their profit 4.9% of sales.
Do you really expect any of us here to even try to emulate that? Generally the shipping alone for a 2 pounds puzzle can be $10-$15.
Feel free to buy wherever you want. But I most strenuously object to your attempt to try to compare any of us to Amazon’s scope and, by extension, to insult us in the process.
ittybitnot
·3 years agoFeel free to buy wherever you want. But I most strenuously object to your attempt to try to compare any of us to Amazon’s scope and, by extension, to insult us in the process.
@richard1rst
Actually, I am prolific BUYER. I use a handy tool: Right click on the photo and let google show me where the cheapest prices are, or better yet where the photos of the item were lifted from that are truly not as advertised/described on an eBay listing as rare or vintage.
Not all buyers are ill informed or lazy. You want to pay $50 for something on eBay that can be had on AliExpress for $4.27, be my guest.
luckythewinner
·3 years agoIf I wanted 300 piece puzzles I would pay $1 for them at the flea market.
That aside ...
Here on eBay I see 62,000 puzzles sold in the last three months. So I guess the sellers on eBay do not need your good luck wishes.
dnasilver
·3 years agoNot everyone spends their time looking for the cheapest. Some feel their time is more valuable spent elsewhere.
bonjourami
·3 years agoSellers are allowed to charge what they want, its always smart to comparison shop. This is not price gouging, which is raising the prices of essential items during a crisis. As far as I know, puzzles are not essential items.
kensgiftshop
·3 years agoThe one selling it on Ebay, is probably dropshipping it from Amazon.
As with any item, site or seller, buyers need to do a little research because Ebay won't always be the cheapest.