Craigslist scams with Harbor Freight items RANT

[kenmac]

Back when ebay was first getting started, there where some great deals from people selling stuff on there, but then over time, the bigger sellers started listing stuff that you could go to another website and buy for less money. .

Don't know if you have ever bought a vehicle from anyone listing for sale on auto trader, but when it first started, it was mostly individuals selling autos there. Anymore, it's car dealerships advertising there

 

[kenmac]

A lot of people have no real concept of what things cost and don't seem to want to spend the time to find out. My family had a grocery store in the 1970s that we closed and auctioned off the contents. Full and partial cases of groceries often sold for more than the shelf price. My dad said he should have forgotten about running the store and just had going out of business sales.

funny but correct, There was a furniture store here once, that had a going out of business sale about every other month.

 

[Gem99ultra]

My millennial SIL swears it is not so,, but,
Amazon MUST use an algorithm that adjusts price,,
after an item sits on the shelf too long, the price starts to drop,, it continues to drop until sales start,,
AS SOON as sales start, the price goes up,, and up,,, and UP!

It is how Amazon gets items to show up at low prices sites like gun.deals | Guns and Ammo Search Engine and Gun Deals

I bought a MAGLITE "D" cell flashight last October for $17 from Amazon,, I had seen it at gun deals.
the next day it was up to $26,,,

As a previous Amazon seller - I can vouch for your statement, i.e. Amazon DOES use an algorithm for monitoring and adjusting prices. Invariably they'll keep the Amazon price below 3rd party prices, often even below the 3rd party cost. Once the 3rd party drops the item for sale, the Amazon price will go back up to a profitable level.
Is that practice illegal? No. But in my opinion it is unethical. Some would label it as "simply business". I would also bet that Amazon is not the ONLY seller out there with that practice.

 

[kenmac]

For the most part, if I don't need it for a few days,I can usually purchase it from e bay,or amazon cheaper than purchasing local. Most times I pay no taxes and I don't have to burn fuel to go get it

 

[TractorNH]

Amazon is constantly changing the prices on items. If you want to know if you're getting the best Amazon price you use a site like CamelCamelCamel.com. You go to the site and paste the URL of the amazon item in the search box and it will show you the price history of the item.

For example, I need to pick up a couple more diesel cans. I bought two of these back in October for about $18 but the price is now almost $24 so I'll either wait for the price to drop or I'll get them locally if I find a good price.

Here's a screen shot of what CamelCamelCamel.com shows you:

 

[bcp]

I was at a similar auction which had several large horse watering troughs. I grabbed my phone and saw they were $50 new at TSC, so thought if I could pick them up cheap, they might be worth grabbing, even though I really didn稚 need them at the moment. They went for $80 a piece. I just walked away... shaking my head. It took me 2 minutes on my phone to get the info. And the funny thing is... the buyer certainly thought he got a good deal... because it was at auction.

He was the WINNER of the bidding competition!

Bruce

 

[Alan W.]

I have started to notice that Amazon and Ebay prices can be beat easily elsewhere also on a lot of items. A Milwaukee drill I was wanting to purchase was cheaper at two other places with free shipping.

 

[fried1765]

For the most part, if I don't need it for a few days,I can usually purchase it from e bay,or amazon cheaper than purchasing local. Most times I pay no taxes and I don't have to burn fuel to go get it

Exactly correct!

 

[kthompson]

Clearly you live where there are a lot more retail choices than I have. No, Amazon doesn't always have the lowest price, but it's usually competitive and it's convenient. Most of what I buy there is stuff not available locally.

I'm always skeptical about buying new stuff off Craig's list or Ebay.

No doubt there are items on Amazon that are not common purchases locally but seriously normally find Amazon is not lower than can purchase most items locally.

 

[JasperFrank]

As Lead Tech of a GOOD computer refurbishing shop, of an "un-named" main stream computer refubisher in my area that WILL rebuild and sell computers, I became very frustrated with the disconnnect of my suggested pricing and what Admin wanted to do. They over-rode my pricing all the time, placing used stuff in the same pricing structure of new goods. Everyone mostly now, has a Smart Phone. They can look stuff up right there, right in front of you. I could no longer justify what Admin was doing, cause the customers were correct and would find the same things we were selling used, for much, much less, as new goods: So after several letters to Admin, that went no where, I quit.