Ebay bait advertising (apparently perfectly ok)

No, it was a universal power adaptor.

Sorry - my comment was just about the bait/switch pricing that some ticketing companies allegedly use. ā€œWeā€™re all out of the cheap seats, but we could sell you this other seat for double the price paid by the person sitting next to youā€.

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seems to be getting worse, its absolutely impossible to find the best price of a mid range item

such as a 2 metre cable
1, 2, 5, 10, 20 metre etc all listed together now all the time and the 1m being the only price listed
and the lowest couple often have the 2m for example significantly inflated.

It is certainly baiting and many cases the 1m is a scam, ā€˜out of stockā€™ place holder to put them at the top of the results.

Iā€™ll certainly be all over Amazon when arrives.

I blame ebay for this, simply being greedy charging too much for listings, causing the grouping many items in one item to because the preferred method for some sellers

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Iā€™m finding the same thing now with pretty much everything I want to buy. I was just looking for a certain tablet computer case, but it is impossible to find a listing for just that model, I had to search through hundreds of listings and keep eliminating the ones where the one I wanted was too expensive. There are lots of listings for just $1.00 or up to a few dollars. Most of the time $1.00 bought you a cleaning cloth that is not mentioned anywhere in the listing except hidden in the drop down menu.

Another form of baiting, and not just on ebay. I reported an individual website to the ACCC for advertising what appeared to be false high RRPs, well above the importers selling price that was actually in line with the USA parent, well above Big W, and so on, and other than the automated response, nada. A surprise?

Caveat Emptor

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Strange I pasted the detail into eBay and the item was listed and when I tried to purchase the amount WAS 4.99 180111 Errol

Iā€™ve been looking around for a suitable cheap camera to use on my bike after the most recent expensive one failed in several places due to being shaken too much along my very poorly maintained road. I donā€™t think >$300 is value for something that lasts not much more than 1 year!

I came across this, which seemed ridiculously cheap-

1080P HD Wireless Mini Camera WIFI Indoor Outdoor Spy IP Camera Home Security

Wondering what colours it comes in I checked, and it seems there is no choice, just camera, just a 32GB micro SD card or camera + 32 or 64GB microSD card.

I have spare cards, so just checked camera, and suddenly the price multiplied by 3 times (or 300% as they say on TV)!

Very dodgy, it seems they are only selling the 32GB micro SD for $11.99, despite what the title of the listing says, IE, a camera.

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@gordon, I merged your post into this old topic that I remembered.

Offering multiple products at multiple prices in the same ad seems a long standing ā€˜featureā€™ of ebay advertising.

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Ta, Phil. In a rush at the time, so didnā€™t check as thoroughly as I should have!

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if you are comfortable buying from Ali Express, have a look here. Perhaps you can find something that suits.

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Iā€™ve reported many of these to eBay. Never heard anything but ā€œit compliesā€.

Another similar ā€˜apparentā€™ scam is offering multiple colours or sizes but the cheapest one is always sold out. Harder to prove but seen it many many times with price differences large enough to indicate it is a scam.

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Yes I complained to ebay many, many times in written forms

The sellers do it to unethically bump their products up the results (sort by price order) and it is unfair to the honest sellers and unfair to consume or shopping time.

Often is is to hide the more expensive results and through frustration of effort; the customer to settle on the more expensive.

For mobile phone accessories it is not unusual to find search for a phone case results at all low as 0.05c

Result 1 $5 Colors: rag $5 case $30
ā€¦
Result 20 $25 case only $25

.

Even the product heading may drag you in to buy a Dyson Special Edition genuine
, but to achieve the list they will make sold out (probably never sold one)
Result 1
Colors: rag $5
dyson special genuine (sold out)
Cheap imitation knockoff alternatives (@ excessively over inflated $50-$500)
ā€¦
Result 20 Dyson special genuine only $500

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Itā€™s hard to believe this Ebay scam has continued for so many years without any sign of being wiped out. It is actually worse now than it was five years ago. I continue to report listings that are obviously misleading and they are always above board (I suppose it would only be non-compliant if eBay was to lose money from the listing).

The latest one I came across was a tablet computer case advertised for $1. There were various colours available in the drop down list, all for around $20. The only thing that was available for $1 was a cleaning cloth which wasnā€™t even mentioned anywhere else in the listing.

This makes it very difficult to compare products and find one that is good value. I donā€™t know why nothing can be done about this practice.

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Itā€™s very common - itā€™s not that nothing can be done, itā€™s a choice. I suspect Ebay just find it too difficult - the benefit simply doesnā€™t warrant the cost.

Another is the proliferation of sellers accounts - I recently looked for a rather obscure tool and found dozens of listings with exactly the same picture and description but 43 different sellers, all in the same suburb of Victoria. Not surprisingly their reputation was consistently lower than Iā€™d deal with and there were lots of complaints of drop-shipping from China even though they advertised Australian stock. I sent off a dozen or so low-ball offers which some time later were all rejected at approximately the same time, ā€œsuggestingā€ they seem likely to be the same person ā€¦ maybe ā€¦

Iā€™ve done this with other sellers who have spelling errors in their advertisements, usually not an issue unless the error then triggers invalid saved search results. One such error I contacted each seller and received the identical automated reply - cookie cut sellers ā€¦

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Yes, you really need to look at the reputation score and counts on Ebay now. It was once a ā€˜must checkā€™ shopping site for me, but I am more and more tending to ignore it for whatever website will tell me the actual price for what I want up-front and doesnā€™t make me jump through hoops just to find basic items.

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