Weighing eBays ultimate bargains

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< < Back to Start of Article Fans of John Wayne, take notice: On eBay last week, a search of the actor's name in the movie category returned more than 2,000 items.
.
Many had opening bids of less than $1 and included offers to "Buy It Now" for just a few dollars. But one, a VHS tape of "Flying Tigers," had a particularly intriguing "Buy It Now" price: $0.01.
.
One cent. One forgotten coin in the family of small change that lives under the floor mats in your car.
.
The deal will probably not surprise avid users of eBay, since other examples turned up, too. Last week, for 1 cent, people could forgo the auctions and immediately buy emergency cellphones, leather holsters, battery chargers, stuffed toys, insulated lunch bags, cigarette lighters, foot jewelry, earrings made with cubic zirconia, CDs, software and movies. A search on "Buy It Now" items using the keyword "DVD" turned up 265 items for 1 cent.
.
Take a look at the math. To list the item on eBay costs 30 cents. To attach the "Buy It Now" label costs 5 more cents. Putting aside the cost of using the PayPal service to collect payment and less tangible costs like time and labor to ship the goods, the seller is 34 cents in the hole even assuming the item sells.
.
Hani Durzy, a spokesman for eBay, points out that only a tiny fraction of 1 percent of eBay's items are sold this way. Marsha Collier, the author of "eBay Bargain Shopping for Dummies," warns that such sellers may be trying to skim off some profit by inflating the shipping costs. High-volume eBay vendors known as power sellers who specialize in high-value items like rare coins or antique cars wave away the 1 cent deals as too cheap to be worthy of contemplation.
.
But deep in the nooks and crannies of the infinitely variable and sometimes bewildering world of eBay, there exist sellers who think that the seemingly nonsensical makes sense. Something about the peculiarities of the auction site, with its accommodation of overstocks, liquidators, bulk buyers and makeshift basement storage, leads sellers to resort to penny sales. What gives?
.
Robin Kay, a power seller in Egg Harbor, New Jersey, is the person who decided to list the John Wayne movie for its implausible price. She runs a business called Nancobbler's Movies and More, which exists solely on eBay. She started in 2001 as a movie enthusiast and collector who bought and sold a couple of movies at a time. Now she sells 250 movies a week on average and as many as 500 a week around the holiday season - all new, and most up for bid for $5 to $15. She has received positive feedback from more than 13,000 buyers representing 98 percent of her customers.
.
Kay, who buys her inventory from wholesalers, explained that the John Wayne VHS tape was part of a shipment of 28 boxes of DVDs and videotapes that arrived last year.
.
"There were movies stacked so high I couldn't see beyond them," she said.
.
Most of the movies from those boxes have since been sold, but until the final 10 minutes before the auction closed, "Flying Tigers" had not flown anywhere. As she has done before, she said, she decided to sell it for a penny to make room for new merchandise. Her penny sales, she acknowledged, are all business losses.
.
The "Flying Tigers" movie, by the way, carried a shipping charge of $5.98. Kay said the costs break down this way: $1.43 for postage, 50 cents for a bubble-wrap envelope and as much as $1.89 for delivery confirmation - a common way to head off disputes about delivery. She said the remaining $2.16 covers the cost of using PayPal and the cost of using eBay. The leftover $1.08 helps her cover the cost of storing it and getting it to the post office while providing some cushion to absorb the listing fees for items that never sell.
.
One can only speculate on other sellers' reasons for offering products for pennies. Consider the seller identified as Afford-Sales, who was offering cubic zirconia diamond stud earrings last week for 1 cent and charging $4.99 for shipping. The seller did not return requests to comment.
.
But Collier, the author of the eBay book, took a look. She pointed out that the seller, whom she assumed was a man because of his merchandise, had received only two feedback responses, both positive, and had opened his account just a few months ago. He had opened a store on eBay called Afford Penny Sales, which listed a leather vest, a leather cap, pellets for a BB gun, pocket knives and a food processor for prices ranging from a dollar to $9.99. Other 1 cent items included a lighter shaped like an alien with green flashing eyes.
.
"He's so new," Collier said. "He's running those items to draw sales."
.
Durzy, the eBay spokesman, would not comment on the motivations behind 1-cent sales. But he did describe some practices that eBay considers a violation of the rules. Manipulating feedback is one. On eBay, having a good reputation is the key to strong sales. So a seller might try to make items look like bargains, in hopes that buyers will be so happy that they will give positive feedback.
.
Inflating shipping costs is another no-no, partly because it can be used to circumvent eBay's fees. For every item sold on the site, eBay takes a small commission of the final value. If the sales value is only 1 cent, and the real value of the item is hidden in exorbitant shipping costs, eBay does not get its cut.
.
"There's a principle involved," Durzy said. "Yes, each individual cut we take is very small, but there are millions of transactions happening."
.Fans of John Wayne, take notice: On eBay last week, a search of the actor's name in the movie category returned more than 2,000 items.
.
Many had opening bids of less than $1 and included offers to "Buy It Now" for just a few dollars. But one, a VHS tape of "Flying Tigers," had a particularly intriguing "Buy It Now" price: $0.01.
.
One cent. One forgotten coin in the family of small change that lives under the floor mats in your car.
.
The deal will probably not surprise avid users of eBay, since other examples turned up, too. Last week, for 1 cent, people could forgo the auctions and immediately buy emergency cellphones, leather holsters, battery chargers, stuffed toys, insulated lunch bags, cigarette lighters, foot jewelry, earrings made with cubic zirconia, CDs, software and movies. A search on "Buy It Now" items using the keyword "DVD" turned up 265 items for 1 cent.
.
Take a look at the math. To list the item on eBay costs 30 cents. To attach the "Buy It Now" label costs 5 more cents. Putting aside the cost of using the PayPal service to collect payment and less tangible costs like time and labor to ship the goods, the seller is 34 cents in the hole even assuming the item sells.
.
Hani Durzy, a spokesman for eBay, points out that only a tiny fraction of 1 percent of eBay's items are sold this way. Marsha Collier, the author of "eBay Bargain Shopping for Dummies," warns that such sellers may be trying to skim off some profit by inflating the shipping costs. High-volume eBay vendors known as power sellers who specialize in high-value items like rare coins or antique cars wave away the 1 cent deals as too cheap to be worthy of contemplation.
.
But deep in the nooks and crannies of the infinitely variable and sometimes bewildering world of eBay, there exist sellers who think that the seemingly nonsensical makes sense. Something about the peculiarities of the auction site, with its accommodation of overstocks, liquidators, bulk buyers and makeshift basement storage, leads sellers to resort to penny sales. What gives?
.
Robin Kay, a power seller in Egg Harbor, New Jersey, is the person who decided to list the John Wayne movie for its implausible price. She runs a business called Nancobbler's Movies and More, which exists solely on eBay. She started in 2001 as a movie enthusiast and collector who bought and sold a couple of movies at a time. Now she sells 250 movies a week on average and as many as 500 a week around the holiday season - all new, and most up for bid for $5 to $15. She has received positive feedback from more than 13,000 buyers representing 98 percent of her customers.
.
Kay, who buys her inventory from wholesalers, explained that the John Wayne VHS tape was part of a shipment of 28 boxes of DVDs and videotapes that arrived last year.
.
"There were movies stacked so high I couldn't see beyond them," she said.
.
Most of the movies from those boxes have since been sold, but until the final 10 minutes before the auction closed, "Flying Tigers" had not flown anywhere. As she has done before, she said, she decided to sell it for a penny to make room for new merchandise. Her penny sales, she acknowledged, are all business losses.
.
The "Flying Tigers" movie, by the way, carried a shipping charge of $5.98. Kay said the costs break down this way: $1.43 for postage, 50 cents for a bubble-wrap envelope and as much as $1.89 for delivery confirmation - a common way to head off disputes about delivery. She said the remaining $2.16 covers the cost of using PayPal and the cost of using eBay. The leftover $1.08 helps her cover the cost of storing it and getting it to the post office while providing some cushion to absorb the listing fees for items that never sell.
.
One can only speculate on other sellers' reasons for offering products for pennies. Consider the seller identified as Afford-Sales, who was offering cubic zirconia diamond stud earrings last week for 1 cent and charging $4.99 for shipping. The seller did not return requests to comment.
.
But Collier, the author of the eBay book, took a look. She pointed out that the seller, whom she assumed was a man because of his merchandise, had received only two feedback responses, both positive, and had opened his account just a few months ago. He had opened a store on eBay called Afford Penny Sales, which listed a leather vest, a leather cap, pellets for a BB gun, pocket knives and a food processor for prices ranging from a dollar to $9.99. Other 1 cent items included a lighter shaped like an alien with green flashing eyes.
.
"He's so new," Collier said. "He's running those items to draw sales."
.
Durzy, the eBay spokesman, would not comment on the motivations behind 1-cent sales. But he did describe some practices that eBay considers a violation of the rules. Manipulating feedback is one. On eBay, having a good reputation is the key to strong sales. So a seller might try to make items look like bargains, in hopes that buyers will be so happy that they will give positive feedback.
.
Inflating shipping costs is another no-no, partly because it can be used to circumvent eBay's fees. For every item sold on the site, eBay takes a small commission of the final value. If the sales value is only 1 cent, and the real value of the item is hidden in exorbitant shipping costs, eBay does not get its cut.
.
"There's a principle involved," Durzy said. "Yes, each individual cut we take is very small, but there are millions of transactions happening."
.Fans of John Wayne, take notice: On eBay last week, a search of the actor's name in the movie category returned more than 2,000 items.
.
Many had opening bids of less than $1 and included offers to "Buy It Now" for just a few dollars. But one, a VHS tape of "Flying Tigers," had a particularly intriguing "Buy It Now" price: $0.01.
.
One cent. One forgotten coin in the family of small change that lives under the floor mats in your car.
.
The deal will probably not surprise avid users of eBay, since other examples turned up, too. Last week, for 1 cent, people could forgo the auctions and immediately buy emergency cellphones, leather holsters, battery chargers, stuffed toys, insulated lunch bags, cigarette lighters, foot jewelry, earrings made with cubic zirconia, CDs, software and movies. A search on "Buy It Now" items using the keyword "DVD" turned up 265 items for 1 cent.
.
Take a look at the math. To list the item on eBay costs 30 cents. To attach the "Buy It Now" label costs 5 more cents. Putting aside the cost of using the PayPal service to collect payment and less tangible costs like time and labor to ship the goods, the seller is 34 cents in the hole even assuming the item sells.
.
Hani Durzy, a spokesman for eBay, points out that only a tiny fraction of 1 percent of eBay's items are sold this way. Marsha Collier, the author of "eBay Bargain Shopping for Dummies," warns that such sellers may be trying to skim off some profit by inflating the shipping costs. High-volume eBay vendors known as power sellers who specialize in high-value items like rare coins or antique cars wave away the 1 cent deals as too cheap to be worthy of contemplation.
.
But deep in the nooks and crannies of the infinitely variable and sometimes bewildering world of eBay, there exist sellers who think that the seemingly nonsensical makes sense. Something about the peculiarities of the auction site, with its accommodation of overstocks, liquidators, bulk buyers and makeshift basement storage, leads sellers to resort to penny sales. What gives?
.
Robin Kay, a power seller in Egg Harbor, New Jersey, is the person who decided to list the John Wayne movie for its implausible price. She runs a business called Nancobbler's Movies and More, which exists solely on eBay. She started in 2001 as a movie enthusiast and collector who bought and sold a couple of movies at a time. Now she sells 250 movies a week on average and as many as 500 a week around the holiday season - all new, and most up for bid for $5 to $15. She has received positive feedback from more than 13,000 buyers representing 98 percent of her customers.
.
Kay, who buys her inventory from wholesalers, explained that the John Wayne VHS tape was part of a shipment of 28 boxes of DVDs and videotapes that arrived last year.
.
"There were movies stacked so high I couldn't see beyond them," she said.
.
Most of the movies from those boxes have since been sold, but until the final 10 minutes before the auction closed, "Flying Tigers" had not flown anywhere. As she has done before, she said, she decided to sell it for a penny to make room for new merchandise. Her penny sales, she acknowledged, are all business losses.
.
The "Flying Tigers" movie, by the way, carried a shipping charge of $5.98. Kay said the costs break down this way: $1.43 for postage, 50 cents for a bubble-wrap envelope and as much as $1.89 for delivery confirmation - a common way to head off disputes about delivery. She said the remaining $2.16 covers the cost of using PayPal and the cost of using eBay. The leftover $1.08 helps her cover the cost of storing it and getting it to the post office while providing some cushion to absorb the listing fees for items that never sell.
.
One can only speculate on other sellers' reasons for offering products for pennies. Consider the seller identified as Afford-Sales, who was offering cubic zirconia diamond stud earrings last week for 1 cent and charging $4.99 for shipping. The seller did not return requests to comment.
.
But Collier, the author of the eBay book, took a look. She pointed out that the seller, whom she assumed was a man because of his merchandise, had received only two feedback responses, both positive, and had opened his account just a few months ago. He had opened a store on eBay called Afford Penny Sales, which listed a leather vest, a leather cap, pellets for a BB gun, pocket knives and a food processor for prices ranging from a dollar to $9.99. Other 1 cent items included a lighter shaped like an alien with green flashing eyes.
.
"He's so new," Collier said. "He's running those items to draw sales."
.
Durzy, the eBay spokesman, would not comment on the motivations behind 1-cent sales. But he did describe some practices that eBay considers a violation of the rules. Manipulating feedback is one. On eBay, having a good reputation is the key to strong sales. So a seller might try to make items look like bargains, in hopes that buyers will be so happy that they will give positive feedback.
.
Inflating shipping costs is another no-no, partly because it can be used to circumvent eBay's fees. For every item sold on the site, eBay takes a small commission of the final value. If the sales value is only 1 cent, and the real value of the item is hidden in exorbitant shipping costs, eBay does not get its cut.
.
"There's a principle involved," Durzy said. "Yes, each individual cut we take is very small, but there are millions of transactions happening."
.