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In lugnet.trains, John Eric Voltin writes:
> I periodically notice currently available LEGO sets on eBay for prices above
> suggested retail. I assume these items sell to individuals that are not
> familiar with LEGO Shop-At-Home or www.lego.com. For example, today I
> noticed one of LEGO's new sets (Super Chief) that is currently selling for
> $40 (actually $39.95) with an opening bid of $55. I suspect a few people
> will not know they can buy this set directly from LEGO. I particularly like
> the comment in the eBay ad "Not available in any store." The ad fails to
> mention that the same set is available through LEGO's online and mail order
> stores. I guess these don't qualify as "stores".
>
> I wonder if there is any way to make potential eBay buyers aware of the
> alternatives for buying LEGO. It seems that a few people are taking
> advantage of other people's ignorance. Of course, I should probably be
> offering to sell new, MISB LEGO sets above suggested retail and be glad when
> someone takes me up on my offer.
>
> Any thoughts? Does this seem exploitive to anyone?
Yes, it does, but caveat emptor, of course.
In this case since the early orders are going to get filled first, if the
seller has actually ordered already, the buyer would get the item before he
would if he ordered it for himself, by some number of days. So there's
arguably some value in that. But the seller SHOULD, if he's any good,
disclose that the item is from S@H. Not that the seller has to, just that he
should.
This has been discussed before, in various market groups. eBay makes it
quite hard to do anything about it.(1) Not that I and others haven't tried.
Some searching with various search strings in the market hierarchy should
locate the discussions. Try Don Quixote if you want to find out what I've
done in the past, for example. Also try "not available in any store" as a
search string. That one takes more sifting, though.
FUT market.theory as this isn't quite on topic for .trains, IMHO.
1 - You can't mail the bidders as that is bid siphoning. You can't leave
feedback to the seller because only the winning bidder can. You can't put up
a competing listing that tells how to get the item as that's "using a
listing to generate 3rd party sales". You *can* put up a listing that offers
to SELL people the info on how to get the item though. At least I think you can.
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Current LEGO Sets on eBay
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| I periodically notice currently available LEGO sets on eBay for prices above suggested retail. I assume these items sell to individuals that are not familiar with LEGO Shop-At-Home or www.lego.com. For example, today I noticed one of LEGO's new sets (...) (23 years ago, 18-Feb-02, to lugnet.trains)
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