E-bay madness

racket · Post by **racket** » Wed May 24, 2006 6:44 pm

I don’t get it:

360/12 auction

Does anyone have any insight on why someone is willing to pay $150 more than list price for 2004 360/12? Are Rics that hard to come by now? I understand paying a bit more to have it now instead of waiting for one to be built, but this is a standard 360/12 going for $1900. That’s just crazy

sloop_john_b · Post by **sloop_john_b** » Wed May 24, 2006 7:10 pm

Just utterly ridiculous. Ebay sellers love to play up the fact that RIC has long delivery times to justify driving up their prices.

simer4001 · Post by **simer4001** » Wed May 24, 2006 7:13 pm

Personally I think someone is a shill. No feedback from the high bidders. Makes you wonder though.

webhead · Post by **webhead** » Thu May 25, 2006 1:11 am

Yeah, that one is kinda wierd.

firstbassman · Post by **firstbassman** » Thu May 25, 2006 4:38 am

Yes, this issue has been brought up at least a couple of times before in the past six months.
Why is this ridiculous? It's just the law of supply and demand at work.
Some people are willing to pay a premium if it means not having to wait a year for an instrument. (Maybe myself included.)

randyz · Post by **randyz** » Thu May 25, 2006 4:47 am

It could be a foreign buyer and a seller willing to ship overseas. Exchange rates can make our prices in dollars look cheap, but it's hard to find sellers who will deal with foreign buyers.

leftyguitars · Post by **leftyguitars** » Thu May 25, 2006 4:55 am

It's still a good price for a nice one over here. But add $200 shipping and 6% import duty and 17.5% VAT on the total amount then add the Parcelfarce handling charge on top of that and all of a sudden...

jeff_ulmer · Post by **jeff_ulmer** » Thu May 25, 2006 12:01 pm

A bird in the hand...

If someone wants something now, then why is it surprising that they are willing to pay a premium for it?

kcole4001 · Post by **kcole4001** » Thu May 25, 2006 12:14 pm

Also consider trying to find a guitar of equal quality for $1500! It probably can't be done.

But ebay is the home of uninformed folks who pay more than they otherwise could simply because they get caught up in the vibe of it. It is hard, if you've already started bidding on an item, to resist the impulse to continue if you're outbid & the price is going past what you would normally consider a fair price.
I'm sure there are similar guitars out there for the taking at reasonable prices, but it does have all the goodies & is in nice condition.

Or, perhaps it's located close to the bidder. He or she may be able to pick up locally & save shipping & eliminate any worries about fraud.
I once almost paid more than I really wanted to for an amp that was only miles 50 or so away. That's pretty close in the ebay world!

kcole4001 · Post by **kcole4001** » Thu May 25, 2006 12:15 pm

Oh, and no, that's not me bidding!

jeff_ulmer · Post by **jeff_ulmer** » Thu May 25, 2006 12:25 pm

The other thing to consider is that buying something that actually exists, as opposed to ordering something sight unseen, insures that you know (within reason) what you are getting. Just because you order a new guitar doesn't mean it will look like the ones in the brochure.

kcole4001 · Post by **kcole4001** » Thu May 25, 2006 12:30 pm

And sometimes you just can't wait.
I've preordered some things that actually took just under 2 years to finally get to me, but nothing as special as a new Rick.

rick36 · Post by **rick36** » Thu May 25, 2006 6:12 pm

I bet the deal goes south. A lot of auctions won by (0) or (1) feedback winners have a way of falling apart when it comes time to pay.

dragon1952 · Post by **dragon1952** » Fri May 26, 2006 5:59 am

That auction was also a little misleading for the uninformed. He says 'from a lifelong collection of 43 years'. Someone who was "totally oblivious" might actually have thought is was 43 yrs old

And notice most people don't look at the questions and answers. The same question was asked 4 times.

leesh · Post by **leesh** » Fri May 26, 2006 7:51 am

The winning bid was from a guy in Canada.....