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Sellers, please do not raise the price of watched items and then offer a discount that isn't real.

When I am mulling a purchase, comparing items, and planning to buy items, sometimes I put them in my watch list. Lately, it's become a weird trend that an item I'm watching has its price raised and then an offer given to me to pretend the listed price is a deal. If I'm watching an item, I'm considering buying that item at that price. But when a seller raises the price just so they can pretend to give me a discount, I no longer want to deal with the seller, and suddenly find myself wishing for a BLOCK SELLER option. When I'm watching an item, I'm not begging for the item to be discounted, but I'm also not expecting the seller an hour later to raise the price of the item so they can send me a special offer at sometimes more than I was watching the item originally. For example, I was watching an item listed at thirty bucks because I thought it might be nice at that price. The seller, no more than a half hour later and before I finished shopping today (it was in my cart) raised the price to $34 so they could send me a special offer to discount it back down to $30. As a buyer, I either figure the seller thinks I'm an idiot, or they're mad at me for only watching their item. Sometimes, the seller messes up their math and will raise the price too high, and the new discount is more than the original price only hours before. I don't know what to really say about the feature, but it's very frustrating. Maybe I'm just overly sensitive, but it feels like the seller is pushing or playing, and neither one makes me feel like spending any money with that seller anymore, even if it's just thirty bucks. Raising the price just makes me stop watching it, jot the seller name down, and no longer want to do any business with them.

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Sellers, please do not raise the price of watched items and then offer a discount that isn't real.

I think many of the sellers are misunderstanding what I believe the OP was trying to convey. It wasn't a matter of a simple price increase. It was done (from the way it's described) as a means to give a FAKE sale price. We all have to raise prices from time to time. I think even the OP would understand that. 

 

However raising the price only to turn right around to "offer" a sale price a few minutes later, that is exactly the same price it was a few minutes ago, is a different matter. That's not raising prices to keep up with costs. That's having a fake sale, a bait and switch, sale. 

 

Some sellers here may not see the moral dilemma. I can, both as a buyer and a seller. 

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Sellers, please do not raise the price of watched items and then offer a discount that isn't real.

I agree that seems disingenuous. It works both ways though. Send offers on multiple items only to cancel the lower end one to get what you really wanted at a discounted price. Just move on to the next and not let it worry ya.
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Sellers, please do not raise the price of watched items and then offer a discount that isn't real.

 

Motivating buyers , Raise the price, Selling smart ?  

 

Some sellers seem to be annoyed with potential buyers who fail to purchase an item that has been listed for a some time,& has experienced buyer interest, likely some buyers may be holding off expecting the price to drop, the seller then reprices the item much above the former price, apparently hoping this may encourage some buyers to make their purchases of other items now , suspecting item prices will soon likely go up.

 

 

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Sellers, please do not raise the price of watched items and then offer a discount that isn't real.

Sounds like a glitch, sellers typically can't raise prices on items that are close to a sale, such as items in watch lists. I cannot raise the  price on watched items, not sure how someone else could either. But could just be a glitch in ebay's system that's allowing sellers to do this.

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Sellers, please do not raise the price of watched items and then offer a discount that isn't real.

Not sure if this is happening in your scenarios, but you may be watching things when they are on sale and when they go off sale, the price goes up. I had a buyer send me a note a couple of weeks back stating that they were sad I doubled the price. I didn't double the price - a 50% off sale ended. I added the sale back on for her. I get messages like that ever so often, often very nasty ones, when I didn't raise the price. 

 

 

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Sellers, please do not raise the price of watched items and then offer a discount that isn't real.

What you are talking about is done at just about every major retailer there is.

 

When I was in the grocery retail business and if something was going to go on sale in a few weeks, we would raise the retail price.  If something is normally $2.49 and is going to go on sale for $1.99, we would raise the retail to $2.99 because saving $1.00 looks more appealing to a buyer than saving $.50.  Also, before it goes on sale, the store ends up making an extra $.50 on the said item.

 

I'm sure the seller of the item you are watching isn't screwing around with you and is looking to attract people that want to buy that said item as soon as they see it.  

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Sellers, please do not raise the price of watched items and then offer a discount that isn't real.


@gamersbaystore wrote:

Sounds like a glitch, sellers typically can't raise prices on items that are close to a sale, such as items in watch lists. I cannot raise the  price on watched items, not sure how someone else could either. But could just be a glitch in ebay's system that's allowing sellers to do this.


@gamersbaystore 

I can revise prices on listings with watchers. I just raised one, to make sure it was still the case.

 

In my experience, just because an item has a watcher, sure doesn't mean it's close to a sale. The one I just raised has had the same lone watcher since 2018, I think. (I also think that buyer is on my BBL, but I digress...) I don't play 'tricks' with the feature, as @willsgarden62 mentioned... but I have that power.

 

I sure hope that if it's a glitch, they fix it real slowly. I like it. We have so little control anymore...

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Sellers, please do not raise the price of watched items and then offer a discount that isn't real.


@gamersbaystore wrote:

Sounds like a glitch, sellers typically can't raise prices on items that are close to a sale, such as items in watch lists. I cannot raise the  price on watched items, not sure how someone else could either. But could just be a glitch in ebay's system that's allowing sellers to do this.


No glitch, this is common behaviour. Before offers to watchers/buyers sellers raised prices and then used Promotion Manager to have a "sale".

 

Prices on Fixed Price listings can be changed at any time, having watchers doesn't affect that at all.

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Sellers, please do not raise the price of watched items and then offer a discount that isn't real.

Some sellers may be revising the listing while you are looking at it. A seller does not know you are looking at it at that minute. But when you get out of the ad without buying it at the price you liked, the new revised (unintentional against you or any particular other person), then the new price is allowed to take effect. Whereas if you had just bought it instead of watched it, then the original price would have been it. So it could be just coincidence. 

 

Sometimes too, sellers use the strategy to alert possible buyers that prices are subject to change (increase) at any time, so get it while you can.

 

And as someone else pointed out, it could be that a sale ended in-between the times you viewed it.

 

No one thinks you are "an idiot" as you said... really, there may be a valid reason for the change.

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Sellers, please do not raise the price of watched items and then offer a discount that isn't real.

Sorry buddy.  My items for sale didn’t appear out of thin air.  I pay for packing materials, postage, eBay fees, PayPal fees and then I have to go buy new stock that I think I can make a profit on.  Who do you think you are to tell me what I can do with my prices?

 

I’d actually turn this around on YOU.  Do you know how many items I’ve had 4-7 watchers on a fairly priced item for sometimes over a year?  I send out “offers” and temporarily reduce the price about 20% and the watchers have 48 hours to respond.  They don’t do it.  Sometimes they try to counteroffer ANOTHER 20% off.  Where in the eBay guidelines does it say I need to give away my items at the price YOU want?  I do not care if I lose watchers, those are the watchers that are going to consistently look for the cheapest option instead of the fairest option.


I do NOT accept lowball offers, and I HAPPILY raise my prices when the buyer isn’t smart enough to take the lowest price they could, WHILE they could.

 

Id literally leave you negative feedback as a buyer just for posting this, if I could.  Period.

 

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Sellers, please do not raise the price of watched items and then offer a discount that isn't real.

I raise my prices all the time on watched items.

 

It's the seller's right to raise a price.

 

It's shopper's right to pass on the lower price.

 

They snoozed, they losed.

 

 

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Sellers, please do not raise the price of watched items and then offer a discount that isn't real.

Right on!!

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Sellers, please do not raise the price of watched items and then offer a discount that isn't real.


@jerzee908 wrote:

What you are talking about is done at just about every major retailer there is.


@jerzee908

Actually Kohl's got sued for doing such an unethical practice.

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Sellers, please do not raise the price of watched items and then offer a discount that isn't real.

I would most certainly like to have the option to BLOCK sellers for a wide variety of reasons.

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Sellers, please do not raise the price of watched items and then offer a discount that isn't real.

I haven't run a sale in years. For me, they just never worked.

 

Sometimes I'll raise my prices. Sometimes I'll lower my prices. I take best offer on practically everything I have listed, and will consider all offers. In my experience (others may vary) I will have more activity and more item sales (with a best offer or a full price sale) when I raise a price than when I leave it alone or lower it.

 

The items I sell (for the most part) have no set value. They are only worth what one person is willing to pay at any given time.  Since the vast majority of my items sell with little views and no watchers, I'm thinking that just the adjustment in price raises the item in search. I really don't know, though.

 

But it's the buyer's choice - buy or don't buy. If someone thinks my prices are too high, they can certainly purchase from another seller. It won't hurt my feelings at all. That's called freedom of choice.

 

Just my two cents FWIW

The easier you are to offend the easier you are to control.


We seem to be getting closer and closer to a situation where nobody is responsible for what they did but we are all responsible for what somebody else did. - Thomas Sowell
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