$55.000 listing for a $50 pair of boots?? Educate me!

[designerfashionfinds]

How is it possible that a seller can list a pair of $50 boots for over $55,000?  My guess is that it pushes them right to the top in the search engine.   This is a seller with a big store and 6 digit feedback.  Why are they allowed to do that and not be sanctioned for it?

I see it all over the place in many categories.  

[mkaczorsee]

Typo?

Ask seller. 

[totoro470]

I can't speak for every case, but sometimes it's a mistake/typo when listing/relisting the item. For me personally, the relisting tool ebay uses can be janky at times and is prone to mistakes. It will often reload and sometimes entire listings won't load in at all and everything will look blank. It does this on every computer I've tried it on, with different browsers. It has to do with ebay constantly saving every page and dynamically resorting the listings as you're editing them. It's especially bad if you're sorting your relisted list by item price and not by name- as the list will dynamically reload the list AS YOUR TYPING STUFF IN. I've had this type of price mistake happen to me personally, I went to change something that was $54.98 to $49.98 and the page reshuffled itself and half the listing refused to reload their details, I hadn't realized I typed in $4998 instead because I couldn't see the price anymore.

Like everything else, I learned to work around ebay's janky programming and I haven't done it sense but I can see how these mistakes happen sometimes. I'm just glad I don't use the APP anymore on my tablet, for the first few years I listed on that thing there was countless bugs/issues.

[audioarchive]

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@designerfashionfinds wrote:

How is it possible that a seller can list a pair of $50 boots for over $55,000?  My guess is that it pushes them right to the top in the search engine.   This is a seller with a big store and 6 digit feedback.  Why are they allowed to do that and not be sanctioned for it?

I see it all over the place in many categories.  

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First, there is no rule against listing anything for any price. I can list a grain of rice for a billion dollars if I want.

Your guess is most likely incorrect. But even then, what is the point of being at the top of search if they are extremely overpriced.

Sanctioned for what? Again, they can put whatever price they want on an item.

Quite possibly it's a typo. They may have meant 55.00 and accidentally hit 0 instead of the decimal point. Or, they may be out of stock and want to keep the item listed until they can get more in stock. Or they feel that a famous dead celebrity's ghost is currently wearing them and want to get top dollar.

Bigger question: Why does this bother you?

[designerfashionfinds]

I'm sorry. It was a typo on my part. My question should have read
$55,000, not 55.000. My point was that I see this very often. Very inexpensive items are located at the top of search and they are for thousands more than what the item is worth. I realize that you can put whatever amount you want on an item. Maybe now that I have fixed my typo someone can help me answer the question I had.

[totoro470]

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@designerfashionfinds wrote:
I'm sorry. It was a typo on my part. My question should have read
$55,000, not 55.000. My point was that I see this very often. Very inexpensive items are located at the top of search and they are for thousands more than what the item is worth. I realize that you can put whatever amount you want on an item. Maybe now that I have fixed my typo someone can help me answer the question I had.

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We knew what you meant. We were saying the person listing for $55,000 may have made a typo. It's kind of funny though, the fact that you did a typo as well kind of proves how easy it is to make a simple mistake.

[berserkerplanet]

The only search a $55,000 price is going to push the listing to the top of is a search with a "Price+Shipping: Highest First" filter - which is pretty much a useless view for most purposes.

Are you sure you aren't seeing sponsored listings with those prices at the top of the results?

A seller can set a crazy high price, use a stupid high promoted listing rate to ensure* "winning" placement, and never have to worry about one of those items selling - therefore never have to worry about paying the additional 100% Promoted Listing FVF either. Basically free advertising on eBay's dime due to loophole in promoted listings scheme.

*not certain even a 100% PL rate guarantees top placement. Not sure if it's a total "highest bidder wins, or if there are also random factors involved. Also not sure if FVF caps apply to PL FVFs.

[argusmike]

@designerfashionfinds

Could be any of the suggestions, but I once heard the following explanation. Say you want to sell only to a specific category of buyer, or you want to get a feel for the buyer before closing the sale. So you put the item up at a price no one  would ever pay,  but you allow offers. This way you get to exchange messages with each potential buyer before the sale.

[b4b4b4b]

I have read many posts here that say sometimes sellers put a ridiculous price they know no one will pay because they are actually out of stock for the item and they don't want to lose their product's placement in search.

[mcdougle4248]

Does the listing have Best Offer on it?  It could be that the seller would like to have the boots purchased by a particular buyer that messaged them about listing the item on a certain date and/or to sell at an agreed upon price.  When the listing gets offers from other than the intended buyer, the seller declines them until the intended buyer makes an offer and then accepts.  

[emerald40]

I always thought sellers did this when they were out of stock but wanted to keep the original listing with all its history.

So they put it at a ridiculous price to keep anyone from actually bidding on it until they could replenish.

[adkhighker]

I have also seen something similar to this when running searches, and I'm guessing it's done with a purpose, although I'm not sure what that purpose might be. While it might be the case in some instances, I don't think it's always because of someone wanting to hold onto their search placement.

Recently I saw something priced similary to the boots you saw. I wondered why on earth someone would do that, and the first thing I did was I looked into the seller's "other items" they had listed just so I could see what their other listings looked like. Maybe that's the purpose they do it, to get you to look at their other stuff out of curiosity?

[adkhighker]

Or maybe they do it so the following week they can lower the price by $54,500 and have one of those listings with "Price lowered" in it, hoping someone won't be able to resist such an incredible sale where they're saving $54,500 and only paying $500 for a $55,000 pair of boots! 

[southern*sweet*tea]

Three possibilities:

1. The seller made a typo.
2. The seller is out of stock, so they inflated the price so high that nobody would buy, and will lower the price when they get the item back in stock.
3. The seller is delusional or clueless.

[castlemagicmemories]

Could be a typo, could be they raised the price as a place holder and they are out of stock.