Can I ask a competition seller to stop price decrease

[jason-sellz]

Basically another seller and I have similar prices, and in competition for the past few weeks after both being forced to lower our prices (for me by $3.50) a bit things have been going smoothly but before when I was selling at a slightly higher price, there were the same number of buyers as now.

Just curious is it against Ebay selling practices policy to for example make an agreement to raise our prices by like 10% or 20%? I probably won't do it because me staying at this price and not doing natural price changes as the competition changes, is because I'm kinda cautious and what if the smaller seller doesn't follow the agreement and instigates a price war? I don't know how much lower I can go to still have profit for real.

I'm sure it's not an unfair price or "price gouging" by any means.

[stainlessenginecovers]

---

@dirk12955 wrote:

According to some of our posters,    At my neighborhood garage sale there are 3 families 

selling bottled water,  and they agree to set the price at a $1.00 per bottle,   They should 'all be charged with price fixing,  tried,  and sent to Leavenworth.   

---

Apples and Oranges.

[farmalljr]

---

@stainlessenginecovers wrote:

---

@dirk12955 wrote:

According to some of our posters,    At my neighborhood garage sale there are 3 families 

selling bottled water,  and they agree to set the price at a $1.00 per bottle,   They should 'all be charged with price fixing,  tried,  and sent to Leavenworth.   

---

Apples and Oranges.

---

Non sensical response. You can't price fix anything on eBay. It's not the only place to buy anything sold here. Price fixing infers that all avenues to acquire a certain product, all sellers are setting a price in concert with each other. 

Again, people here sling around terms in complete ignorance of what they mean. 

[inhawaii]

---

@turnpiketreasures1 wrote:

You don't have a single competitor, when I put lego star wars into eBay search, 57,000 results came back. You'll drive yourself crazy trying to undersell everyone. Just price according to what you need to sell things for to make a profit. 

---

Great advice.

I agree.

[deltilogical]

I'm fairly sure 2 individual Ebay sellers could agree on pricing without it being price gouging its not like they have a monopoly or the item is essential to life.   If Ebay and Amazon got together to fix prices, that might be different.   if Big Pharma and the airlines can do it, individual sellers on Ebay can do it.   

[theteamsetguy]

@deltilogical ,

Ask American airlines about collusion.

https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-antitrust-airlines-lawsuit-20180618-story.html

[cardsforauction]

Another problem with communicating with the other seller ( I would not)  is that the other seller could report you to eBay regarding this price fixing scheme and your account could possibly get suspended.  You don't know how the seller will react to your idea.  This could be a big mistake.

[mam98031]

---

@byrd69er wrote:

Just curious is it against Ebay selling practices policy to for example make an agreement to raise our prices by like 10% or 20%?

Well, contact ebay and ask...but I'm sure you could guess their answer without even calling.

---

Sellers here are allowed to set their own pricing except on when increasing the prices of goods, services, or commodities to a level much higher than is considered reasonable or fair during the time of crisis like hurricanes, earthquakes, pandemics, etc.

Toys, collectibles etc would not be considered in this.  It if for things that are needed to survive during these times.

[deltilogical]

We know the airlines collude in pricing illegally.  We can watch it in realtime on their computers.  I drove a travel agent crazy one day trying to find the best price - all the prices were the same but the agent couldnt' say that out loud!

If 2 farmers at the farmer's market agree to not sell their tomatoes for under $2 lb, I'm asserting that is not illegal and analogous to 2 ebay sellers making a pricing agreement.  Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe the government can tell us how to price our stuff. 

[mam98031]

Two sellers in the VAST number of sellers selling legos is not hurting anyone but likely themselves.  But I don't think the OP should take that route anyway.  

Whatever the two sellers do, it is so unlikely it will affect ANYTHING as there are just too many other sellers also selling the same or similar stuff.

It seems we are trying to read into this much more that is necessary.  Work together, don't work together, it will be nothing in the legos category.

[asset_liquidators]

What are you going to do when a 3rd seller comes along and undercuts you both? Asking for a friend...

[josephb555]

It is very unethical to ask another seller to raise prices. You must never ask any seller to make a change in his listing.