Insane sold items - what is going on?

[luluinportland]

This is an ongoing issue with no explanation that I can find. I went through it a few years ago with Beanies. Even today there are 99 cent beanie babies (that are t even worth that) that show as sold (NOT only best offer - you see this with auctions and with fixed price sales too) for hundreds of thousands of dollars. For every worthless beanie, there are dozens of sales in the multiple tens of thousands. When I was trying to sell Beanies I got so frustrated that I bought a price guide and discovered that the true value of most beanies was a dollar, sometimes as much as five. There’s like six beanies in the history of beanies worth more than $10. I think we can agree that whatever is going on here,  no one is buying a 50 cent beanie for 900k. 

Now I’m back in this nonsense with baseball cards. I know people have issues with using sold prices to inform your listing’s price, but with baseball cards, there’s the stated value that guides show and then there’s what it will actually sell for based on current saturation of the market. I DO need to know this info so I’m not spending time listing cards that will not sell at their value at this time.

There is also a range of prices based on numerous factors, one of which is a valuation that costs $40 per card to obtain -  so it’s important for me to ascertain if it’s worth paying this. This, seeing an accurate range of sold prices is truly necessary if I want to sell baseball cards on eBay. 

that being said - this insane sales price thing is now causing me headaches yet again. A card that I personally own two copies of and which is valued at $17 (but  which currently sells for around $2) shows up as having sold for over 15,000 - not possible. And the cards I have are perfect. They come from newly opened packs, so while condition is a big factor, that is not the case here. There is no version of this card worth 100$ let alone 15k. 

I’ve seen this subject discussed in older posts, but in these threads, seasoned sellers try to rationalize how the item could have actually been sold for the insane price. These sellers also try to claim it isn’t a problem and that eBay should not be involved. 

its not just beanies and baseball cards either. This phenomenon pops up in all types of popular collectibles but - and this is important - you do NOT see this in less popular types of collectibles. For example, I sell water gloves that can sell for as much as $200 and in searching sold prices, I’ve never once seen any price over $200. the price manipulators seem to only be interested in creating these outrageous sales records for items that are sure to 1) get a lot of views in searches, and 2) create confusion for buyers and sellers. And that’s a problem eBay should look into and help us navigate, especially for sellers who rely on these marketing tools. 

What  if this was a stock price for my company and I know shares have a value of $3 but suddenly an online index is manipulating the market to show this stock as having sold for drastically inflated prices?  Something would be wrong and it would be 1) something the price manipulator is doing to profit off price manipulation, and 2) almost certainly illegal. 

Similarly, there is something wrong with what’s going on here and I don’t understand - ebay takes a cut of sales. We have to pay tax on sales. Why would someone purposefully list something at hundreds of thousands of times it’s value and fake a sale? What could the point be? 

And I absolutely think this is a question worth answering. Even if it isn’t a cover for something illegal, eBay should not allow sellers to distort valuable market information that sellers need to inform both pricing and if - indeed - something is even worth listing. 

would love to hear insights that make some sense out of this, and also would appreciate if anyone has ideas for how to disregard these types of sales in searches. I’ve tried limiting the sale type but while these sales often happen in “best offer accepted” transactions, that is by no means always the case. There’s a worthless beanie right now listed as sold at over 300k for a fixed price sale. 

[luluinportland]

Buyer #1) I like paying when I make an offer so I don't have to remember to go back later and check out

Buyer #2) Paying when I make the offer is too much of a commitment for me

I am definitely buyer #1. I turn off a lot of my notifications to get a bit more peace from technology, but the result of that is that I sometimes miss reminders to pay or just forget, especially if the seller lets the offer linger for a while. I also feel - as a seller - that a pre-paid offer is a bit more incentivizing. Like, you just click accept and you're paid; nothing left to do but ship. It also seems like this would screen out buyers who aren't confident about their purchase and might become a hassle down the road. 

[clemowbooks]

@luluinportland 

My understanding of sport bidders is that they are people who bid on thousands of items with no intention of paying and then make their money by receiving items from the small number of sellers who ship without being paid.

No.

They never pay at all.

And many of the suckered sellers don't file Unpaid Item Claims, instead leaving angry (and "illegal") negative feedback.

So the sport bidders, who are mentally if not physically 12 year old boys, may go on for some weeks before enough UIDs accumulate for eBay to close their accounts.

[clemowbooks]

@12345jamesstamps China(PRC)...during the 1960's if someone needed postage to mail something that person had to use it as postage and not take it home unused.

We were in university at the time, and DH had a subscription to the Peking Review (Chinese equivalent of Pravda --solid propaganda) which was mailed with the colourful Cultural Revolution stamps. DH made a bit of money selling them to collectors when he opened his shop.  Too bad he didn't hold on to them for another 20 years, but baby needed a new pair of shoes.

[12345jamesstamps]

So funny.

The Chinese have so much money now they are buying anything made in China...including junk...LOL

Because the Chinese didn't have money back then.

[dbfolks166mt]

     Money laundering tactic. 

[1786davycrockett]

@luluinportland 

"So I'm trying to understand why people think the unopened boxes post 70's are not worth anything. We heard the same thing from our local card shop owner. "

One of the easy answers to your question simply revolves around the term "collectible":  once an item (or a variety of similar items) is promoted (generally by the manufacturer) as being "collectible," it loses its value as a collectible -- simply because far too many people make the decision to become "collectors" of those items.

You may have heard the stories about the children in the 1940s whose comic books were donated for scrap drives to support the war effort, or in the 1950s for Boy Scout paper drives.  And I'm sure that you've heard the stories about the kids in the 1950s and 1960s, who attached their baseball trading cards to the spokes on their bicycle wheels, to make a cool "motorcycle" sound.

And, about a dozen years later, those items that survived had become true "collectibles" -- because (1) there were fewer of them that had survived in "collectible" condition; and (2) because they were never promoted as "collectibles" in the first place.

Few of the products promoted as "collectibles" today are actually worth collecting -- there are just far too many produced of each item -- and the manufacturers are not going to simply STOP making an item, especially if the sales are good:  "Limited Edition" is worthless information, unless the manufacturer openly admits that the production number is actually "limited" to a small, verifiable number.

The disposable comic books and trading cards and magazines of over 70 years ago have maintained their collectibility, simple because they were never initially promoted as being collectible, and also because they were "throw-away" items -- as the original owners (children, that is) grew older and lost interest, the comics, trading cards and magazines would be thrown away, or given away -- and not carefully preserved as future investments.

Wanna start investing in TRUE "collectibles"?  Check your garbage cans and recycling bins -- today's junk may well be tomorrow's treasures!

[yuzuha]

I don't think I've ever sold a Beanie Baby for more than $8 and probably half of the ones I've sold have been accompanied by a note from the buyer thanking me for having a replacement for their child's favorite stuffed toy.

[deva58]

Did you even read the question? Are you special needs?