Craigslist scams with Harbor Freight items RANT

[KennyG]

A lot of sellers now use algorithms to adjust prices now and they get more sophisticated all the time. Some are based on time in stock and backlogs but they are also based on demand and competitive prices. Some actually track the number of views on the website and move the price up if they see a lot of interest. Others look at the prices other sellers are asking and adjust theirs accordingly.

Competitive algorithms don't always try to undercut prices. Sometimes they look at competitors and undercut the price by a certain amount (down to a lower limit where they would lose money.) However, some sellers think they are "premium sellers" and price a little above the competition. In the early days of algorithms, the "upsellers" did not put a limit on the price. In some cases, two sellers would both consider themselves "premium" and both used algorithms. The result would be a $25 item listed for $200 or $300 as the algorithms battled.

 

[3Ts]

What amazes me is that used HF stuff will often sell at auction for more than it costs new. Sometimes a fair amount more. Beats me.

I went to an estate auction at a ranch. They had a pallet of 100 T-posts which I was after, but the bidding went over $300 and I dropped out. The bidding continued on to just over $400. There was also a 10% buyers premium and TSC had the posts for $3.19 all fees included. :confused3: I have to assume that people don't bother checking prices before bidding.

 

[kc5dlo]

I have noticed the higher than Harbor freight cost items on craigslist often. Many times they are well used too. I am not going to call it a scam but I once bought an item on ebay and later gone back and looked at the same item and it had a price of several hundreds of dollars when the original was 10 or 20 bucks. A day or two later it was back down close to the price I paid.

 

[aczlan]

I have noticed the higher than Harbor freight cost items on craigslist often. Many times they are well used too. I am not going to call it a scam but I once bought an item on ebay and later gone back and looked at the same item and it had a price of several hundreds of dollars when the original was 10 or 20 bucks. A day or two later it was back down close to the price I paid.

One reason for that, might be that they were out of stock on that item and I don't know if this is still the case but at some point it was better for them and their selling fees to raise the price rather than mark it as not in stock and then back in stock.

Aaron Z

 

[Industrial Toys]

I bought a bulldozer push broom off E-Bay I think. I was surprised when it came in a Home Depot Box!

 

[thepumpguysc]

IT, same thing happened to me, but on a MUCH smaller scale..
I ordered a pet-proof sliding glass door SCREEN KIT..
It came w/ the size screen I needed, the rubber gasket & the install tool..
It came in a HD box..
I looked the kit up on the HD website & it was 10.00 more PLUS tax.. {+ gas & time to go get it..}

 

[kthompson]

Three things came to my mind reading these post...first, this is how free market always operates. Whether at flea market, yard sell, big box store or giant mall. A low price leader is often used to draw business. The second one is...am I at the site where there is long on going thread on how sorry HF stuff is? Third that is I have seldom seen a price on Amazon could not do better in local store.

 

[Dadnatron]

I went to an estate auction at a ranch. They had a pallet of 100 T-posts which I was after, but the bidding went over $300 and I dropped out. The bidding continued on to just over $400. There was also a 10% buyers premium and TSC had the posts for $3.19 all fees included. :confused3: I have to assume that people don't bother checking prices before bidding.

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.

 

[Oaktree]

Third that is I have seldom seen a price on Amazon could not do better in local store.

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.

 

[KennyG]

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.