h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

From time to time an item appears with an obviously unrealistic price, for example an inkjet printer cartridge for more than £200 or this battery http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/6-cell-5200-mAh-Battery-for-Acer-Aspire-4741-4741G-5741-5551-5552-5750-New-/181124296208?ssPageName=ADME:SS:SS:GB:1120 which normally costs in the £10-30 range (even if an acer original).

What is going on here? Are these just mistakes or is there some search-engine optomisation shennanigans going on here? I've seen it too often I think, for it to be random typo mistakes. The link above, for example shows that some have been sold at this price

Oh wait... i've just had a thought... is this something to do with feebay's free relisting if not sold policy? Making sure the last item does not sell so that the seller avoids re-listing fees?

I've noticed these too.

Wouldn't ebay get wise to the practice?

They would have to be pretty quick off the mark to increase the price when they got down to one remaining in stock. And in the case of this laptop battery, if the first 9 had all been £188 they would never have got down to 1 remaining in the first place.

PP.

There's definitely some sort of trick or dodgy practice going on. I've seen it too often over the years (or maybe not that long) for it just to be accidental . Hmm

Buy it and you get a free kg of cannabis delivered with it...

It isn't just ebay.

What would you pay at Amazon for an old-style Nokia C1-01 phone?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B004OBZQ96/

Also, you might like to buy this excellent book:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Flying-Wainwrights-Simon-Blake/dp/1291747249/ref=asap_B00MQVJVKG_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1414593688&sr=1-1

Available brand new for £16.30, or you might prefer a used copy for £86.50.



And then of course there's the by-now-surely-infamous Box Canvas Print Of Paul Ross. Even if you don't have the requisite £2,500 (or if you want a used one, £6,495.99), it's worth visiting the page just to read the reviews...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Box-Canvas-Print-Paul-Ross/dp/B001N6W8U0/ref=sr_1_3?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1414593818&sr=1-3&keywords=paul+ross

Pooh. That's just reminded me I wanted to buy someone your book as a present, Hoo.

Dunno about eBay but h2g2 is turning out quite useful for xmas pressures for hard to buy for people.

Of course, if that ever changes, there is always the Paul Ross play picture.

Damn predictive text an all who sail in her.

Buy it from Lulu.com, it's cheaper.

http://www.lulu.com/shop/simon-blake/flying-the-wainwrights/paperback/product-21463157.html

Presumably there's some automated auction listing/price varying software thing is responsible for some of the strange prices. Some kind of measure of supply and demand, prices for similar items, page views etc.

Other possibilities.... in one computer game (Eve Online) it used to be reasonably common for people to price very cheap things very expensively in the hope that someone would misread it and buy it, or misclick, or something. I think there used to be similar buy/sell offers in stock markets to catch the fat fingered, but think that might now be illegal.

Do people sometimes assume that second hand must be cheaper? I used to buy DVDs of TV box sets and then sell them on ebay after one watch, and usually make nearly all my money back - once I even made a profit.

Another possibility might be listing one item at an artificially high cost to make your other listings of the same item look like a bargain in comparison. When it comes to value we're good at comparing, but much less good at absolute value calculations. I mean, are old mobiles worthless junk, or collectors' items?