This is a more general rant. Which is my specialty.
We all know what price-gouging is. We can argue about what constitutes it. Is buying a bargain purchase and reselling it for market price a price gouge? Or just normal reselling?
The worst problem with the gouging is the ripple effect it causes. Most sellers on Ebay have no idea what MIMP are worth. And they are lazy. Very lazy.
So to find out what price to charge, they do a simple search for listing prices. They see prices like Mike the Gouger on Ebay and bam! That's the opening bid. Then someone else sees their price and prices it according to that. And so on...
This problem could (but won't) be solved in a few ways.
1. Stop using List Prices and look at Sold Prices - after all, the only important price is what the item sold for (or didn't sell for).
2. Stop buying from gougers - this is logical but will never happen in reality. I buy from them too. Most collectors will or risk not getting the best figures.
3. Price your items at market value or what you paid for the item - this is a complicated solution as the market for MIMP wavers. And it assumes that people would change their habits. I try to follow this rule, but there will always be those that do not.
I realize that there is nothing I can say that is new to the topic. But I felt like typing some scrawl on here and figured it would at least give new sellers something to think about.
I think we all look for bargains and I try to sell them at market price, though I sell for less to my friends. There is something fun about having armies of MIMP. I probably wouldn't sell to strangers at all if I was really rich.
I hope you have enjoyed another rant (if anyone actually reads these) and keep on MIMP'ing!
Behemoth
We all know what price-gouging is. We can argue about what constitutes it. Is buying a bargain purchase and reselling it for market price a price gouge? Or just normal reselling?
The worst problem with the gouging is the ripple effect it causes. Most sellers on Ebay have no idea what MIMP are worth. And they are lazy. Very lazy.
So to find out what price to charge, they do a simple search for listing prices. They see prices like Mike the Gouger on Ebay and bam! That's the opening bid. Then someone else sees their price and prices it according to that. And so on...
This problem could (but won't) be solved in a few ways.
1. Stop using List Prices and look at Sold Prices - after all, the only important price is what the item sold for (or didn't sell for).
2. Stop buying from gougers - this is logical but will never happen in reality. I buy from them too. Most collectors will or risk not getting the best figures.
3. Price your items at market value or what you paid for the item - this is a complicated solution as the market for MIMP wavers. And it assumes that people would change their habits. I try to follow this rule, but there will always be those that do not.
I realize that there is nothing I can say that is new to the topic. But I felt like typing some scrawl on here and figured it would at least give new sellers something to think about.
I think we all look for bargains and I try to sell them at market price, though I sell for less to my friends. There is something fun about having armies of MIMP. I probably wouldn't sell to strangers at all if I was really rich.
I hope you have enjoyed another rant (if anyone actually reads these) and keep on MIMP'ing!
Behemoth