What exactly is going on here?

[2010byandsel100]

Mattel Millennium Princess Barbie Doll (24154)

There are a bunch of these barbies going for outrageous prices.  You can buy one for $25.

the sold ones have  one bidder who isn't a registered user.  some have been relisted (I imagine for non-payment).

I was thinking it was money laundering but they aren't the same seller. 

Could someone be trying to inflate the prices artificially and other sellers jumped on board?   Thoughts   

[jda12121]

I think you need to find something else to do with your time. We have enough conspiracy theories floating around.

[dryophelia]

@2010byandsel100 

I can’t understand it either. 
If you’re tired of the Barbie prices, branch out and look at beanie babies and Corning ware. 

[dirk12955]

A record of a sale on ebay is not proof of any money actually changing hands.   

[eburtonlab]

Just because an item is listed for a high price does not mean it will actually sell.

Just because an item is listed as sold does not mean that money ever changed hands.

Certain types of items -- Beanie Babies, Disney VHS tapes, Corningware casserole dishes -- seem to attract a lot of attention for having listings with exorbitant prices.

If you see a common mass-produced item that appears to sell for a four or five figure price while the same item also sells for $20 or less, check the feedback of buyer and seller. If no feedback is exchanged or if the item is relisted, then it is very probable that no money ever really changed hands.

It is extremely unlikely that there is any connection with money laundering, or human trafficking, or international terrorism. The truth is usually much more mundane. Just a run-of-the-mill scam, or a seller raising the price for an out of stock item until it is restocked.

For items that appear to sell at an outrageous price, more likely someone is trying hard to create an impression that such items are selling for high prices in order to convince someone else to pay a lot of money for an ordinary item.

There are much better ways of laundering money than via eBay listings of phony sales for Beanie Babies or Barbie dolls.

[maxine*j]

When looking at Current Listings, remember that the asking price is not the selling price. Sellers can ask any amount they want, but that doesn't mean they'll ever get it.

When looking at Sold Listings, remember that those Barbies "sold" for that price in the sense that those were winning bids or BINs -- but the buyers will never pay for them, and the fact that the items are never paid for isn't shown.   The buyers were not crazy. What they really wanted was what they got -- publicity.

It's an old ploy to create interest and inflate values, at least temporarily, at least long enough for a few people to unload their languishing stock at good prices.

It's a technique that has been used, in various guises, in the fine arts, antiques, and antiquities markets for a long, long time because it works.

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[maxine*j]

BINGO!  But it's still an "auction record" to impress the unwary.

This is rather like "book value."   Book value only tells you what one or more of the items sold for, once upon a time, in this venue or that.   Book values are often inflated -- that is, the author looked for the most expensive example he could find -- because that keeps up the value of his book on values, and it keeps up values in his area of collecting.  

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[dirk12955]

I spent many years in the coin business watching dealers manipulate the prices on coins.   

It's easy to do, and is still done today on a regular basis.   

[dbfolks166mt]

     Possibly money laundering.