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Why do some sellers on eBay offer products for a higher price than what's in stores? Some of you go to eBay a lot, so you might seen this odd behavior.

Take for instance... Mass Effect 2. ME2 is a new game (released January 26, 2010) and I've seen it at EB Games for $55 for the regular version and $70 for the collector's edition.

That doesn't seem too unusual, right? Well, on eBay I've seen one seller who lists ME2 for $99 (starting bid!) or $124.99 if you choose "Buy it Now." On top of both prices is a $19.99 shipping fee. Another example is someone who's selling ME2 for $79.94 under "Buy It Now" (no bidding is present) and lists $31.40 as a shipping price.

I should note that both examples are the collector's edition and that prices are listed in USD. That means the overall price is HIGHER for those in Canada (like Maia and me). That probably accounts for the higher shipping costs.

I can easily find ME2 in stores -- where I can get it immediately -- for far cheaper than I could from some sellers online. That's weird because I can only think of two reasons to use eBay: to buy a very hard-to-find item or get something at a less expensive price than elsewhere. Considering ME2 is pretty easy to find, I can't understand how these sellers can justify their prices.

For the record, there are lots of sellers who offer bids for ME2 which are less than the in-store price. Those sellers I can understand, but the others... well, they make no sense at all.

It's kinda like spamming.

Advertising on E-bay is free.

Offering a product at over the original value doesn't cost a dime.
There's not really much chance of actually getting what you ask for, but you can always try, and if there's one loon, one dopehead who is prepared to pay more than the original value for the game... Ka-Ching!

Reminds me of that guy who wanted to sell the, what was it, KQ5 sound track or something, for $500.
Another example would be the desperate souls who try to sell Box Office Bust for $50 or so, while in retail they dropped the price to $20 a week after release due to the crappy review scores it got.
But yes, like BBP said, they could always get lucky...

Yep - as BBP said, some people think that, just because they are morons, the whole wide world is full of morons too!

Either that, or they want to rip off the whole world and are counting on the fact that somewhere, someone is unaware of the real price in the shop and how easy or hard it is to get a particular game, and will actually pay these ridiculous prices. (I mean... $500 for the soundtrack of KQ5??? Come on...)

I have no explanation for the high cost of the item itself, but as far as high shipping like that with a buy it now option is something to be careful for.

There have been many times I've bought games that I thought I got for a great deal and never checked the shipping cost because I figured it would be less than 10 dollars.

In fact, one time I was buying NES games from a sellers store on ebay for between 5 and 10 dollars per. I commited to buy all the items but the seller would not combine the shipping. He sent a box no larger than a Space Quest IV box through the mail. I paid $52.00 shipping for it...

I hope that you gave him negative feedback. That can happen with regular auctions, too. You should always check shipping before bidding or committing. Another rule of thumb should be to read the description. There are many unscrupulous sellers that use "stock" images of their item to make it look like a game is complete with box and extras, but hide the fact that it is just the raw media at the bottom of the page.

The stock photos really irritate me! Just a couple of weeks ago I thought I'd come across a copy of Yobi's Magic Spelling Tricks and I was like

Scroll down to find out that no box is included, they'd just found a picture of it on the internet.

I should have left the seller a negative feedback but I didn't in fear of getting several myself out of revenge. I have to say that I'm glad Ebay has stopped sellers from being able to counter back with a negative if they failed to pack an item safely or just plain rip you off.

I was going through my ebay searches just now. Check this auction out: King's Quest, 1984, original box, CD-ROM version, $90.

Linky

At least, near the bottom of the page, he acknowledges the problem:

* NOTE: ORIGINALLY THIS BOX CONTAINED THE IBM 128K DISK. THIS DISK WAS LOST, I REPLACED IT WITH THE CD-ROM VERSION!!

Sure, except that he fails to mention it's the King's Quest VII CD-ROM, not the original King's Quest (which was never individually released on CD-ROM by the way).

People like this should have their seller status revoked.

Darn! I missed this catch! That's incredible! Can't we point this out to someone over at eBay? Or post a comment somewhere to warn people?

I have just reported the item.

I had already found that one a while back. The KQ1 gray box is the only KQ that I am missing. I was watching it until I saw the "CD-ROM version" nonsense.