Flea Bay Pricing?

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bob2935
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Flea Bay Pricing?

#1

Post by bob2935 »

Please help me understand why the prices of nice cane rods Leonard's, Howell's etc. have been listed for above 5,000.00 What is the logic behind this or is there one wacky seller doing this. I know there has been a resurgence of some type but the pricing seems beyond insane. Please help me understand

Bohemian Bob
Last edited by bob2935 on 02/21/22 07:47, edited 1 time in total.

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ibookje
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Re: Flea Bay Pricing?

#2

Post by ibookje »

It's a flea bay tactic to get the best offers without the risk of selling it too low.

GMflyf1sh
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Re: Flea Bay Pricing?

#3

Post by GMflyf1sh »

Same rods listed multipole times trying to find a sucker and they are the highest priced. It is the same japanese seller using different accounts - serial numbers are the same for all of the Howells on E Bay right now. FO course I could say the same thing for some of the Japanese rso in a box for a buy it now of 1800

adrien schnee
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Re: Flea Bay Pricing?

#4

Post by adrien schnee »

Yes, it’s unrealistic Bob. There’s a listing online now from a Japanese vendor for a recent model Winston Boron eight weight for $9500. It reaches well beyond the wildest optimism of striking the customer jackpot.

NewUtahCaneAngler
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Re: Flea Bay Pricing?

#5

Post by NewUtahCaneAngler »

adrien schnee wrote:
02/21/22 06:39
Yes, it’s unrealistic Bob. There’s a listing online now from a Japanese vendor for a recent model Winston Boron eight weight for $9500. It reaches well beyond the wildest optimism of striking the customer jackpot.
Perhaps they added another zero by mistake and didn't notice?

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Re: Flea Bay Pricing?

#6

Post by jim royston »

Some of those, maybe most of those ridiculous prices are from sellers in Japan. I don’t think they expect to sell them to US buyers

adrien schnee
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Re: Flea Bay Pricing?

#7

Post by adrien schnee »

NewUtahCaneAngler wrote:
02/21/22 07:52
adrien schnee wrote:
02/21/22 06:39
Yes, it’s unrealistic Bob. There’s a listing online now from a Japanese vendor for a recent model Winston Boron eight weight for $9500. It reaches well beyond the wildest optimism of striking the customer jackpot.
Perhaps they added another zero by mistake and didn't notice?
Joe, I’d like to think so, but it’s not the case. The same seller has had a number of items for many months priced from the ridiculous to “ call Guiness “. Often they have two or three listings simultaneously for the same item, one priced out of the stratosphere and the other one or two just foolishly hopeful. A ploy I suppose to make the lesser priced listings seem a bargain. Which they are far from. At this moment there is the above mentioned Winston at $9495.00 as well as an Orvis Battenkill salmon rod and Scott graphite Spey priced identically from them. Clearly not a misplaced zero, though a misplaced sense of reality,

Webfly
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Re: Flea Bay Pricing?

#8

Post by Webfly »

They also have 11000+ items for sale and only 83 sold in the last 90 days. Beyond comprehension...Oh, and every single item has a different background in the photos.

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Re: Flea Bay Pricing?

#9

Post by kevinhaney1 »

It's a flea bay tactic to get the best offers without the risk of selling it too low.
Yeah, they think that if they put the price 10 times what its worth, someone may think they are lowballing them by offering them 20% when its only worth 10-15%. They only catch the folks that don't know what the item is really worth.

Kevin
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Peales
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Re: Flea Bay Pricing?

#10

Post by Peales »

I didn’t dig any deeper on the Ebay seller from Japan. I’m impressed that they have 11,000+ items in play, w/83 sales in the last 90 days. At those prices that’s a lot of dough. I wonder how many people are involved in that business?

I’ve always thought that Ebay is a great indicator of current market values… outside of a the occasional, uninformed, sometimes delusional, seller.

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BigTJ
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Re: Flea Bay Pricing?

#11

Post by BigTJ »

In my experience there are plenty of delusional sellers on that place. And nearly as many delusional buyers. It’s a match made in heaven for those types.

John

Doug K
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Re: Flea Bay Pricing?

#12

Post by Doug K »

happens with used books on Amazon too..

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/15/tech ... icing.html
and
https://www.wired.com/2011/04/amazon-flies-24-million/

basically it's a battle of the bots.. pricing algorithms may work if the market is large enough, for rare items the algorithms break down.
Now I wonder if these cane rod sellers are using bots, or just wildly optimistic ? It only takes one delusional buyer, as John says..

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Seabowisha Salmo T
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Re: Flea Bay Pricing?

#13

Post by Seabowisha Salmo T »

Doug K wrote:
02/22/22 11:49
happens with used books on Amazon too..

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/15/tech ... icing.html
and
https://www.wired.com/2011/04/amazon-flies-24-million/

basically it's a battle of the bots.. pricing algorithms may work if the market is large enough, for rare items the algorithms break down.
Now I wonder if these cane rod sellers are using bots, or just wildly optimistic ? It only takes one delusional buyer, as John says..
hello, doug; i believe it is a prestige and "elitist" condition with our japanese friends. if one buys a rod for y dollars and states the asked price was x dollars to his friends, he may gain status among his peers. i know it AIN'T the cowboy way. just my opinion, ymmv
regards, jim w

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Re: Flea Bay Pricing?

#14

Post by Dave Westburg »

I've seen the same phenomenon with JS Sharpes Bamboo rods. The Sharpes rods from Japanese sellers are offered at twice the price of JS Sharpes bamboo rods by other sellers.

I sold an Orvis bamboo rod on the auction site a while ago. The American buyers were dickering with me over price. A Japanese buyer paid full price no questions asked.

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Re: Flea Bay Pricing?

#15

Post by joep »

The first thing I do when I go on the site now is sort it how I like and select only us sellers. It was becoming too much clutter otherwise.

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Re: Flea Bay Pricing?

#16

Post by jeffkn1 »

Joe

Many moons ago a search for bamboo rod would return an average of 150-200 rods, except on holidays. This morning, without any qualifiers in my search, the list was 2200 listings. When I added two qualifiers (used, and US only) it came down to 150 listings.
It's bad enough that pricing has gotten absurd but most of those sellers are using fixed prices, in which case the listing gets automatically relisted. Not only are we seeing crap week after week, it's the same crap half the time. Would I miss ebay if it went away and there was an alternative? T'ain't likely.

Bacchus_2
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Re: Flea Bay Pricing?

#17

Post by Bacchus_2 »

Perhaps the sellers forgot to convert their prices from yen to dollars. What also surprised me when I was looking at reels was so many reels in mint or near mint condition. Maybe the same few reels but still, made me wonder…

Best,

Don
There are times, I think, when a trout angler must prize what he catches with his eyes as much as what he firmly hooks. - H. Middleton

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Re: Flea Bay Pricing?

#18

Post by GetnThere »

I brought a couple of blue collar rods for 25 to 35 seemed reasonable. However as I watching the prices they seem to be all over the place. Buy for 40 to 70 relist it for 200. I was trying to gauge where my rods would be after I refurbished them. Thus it's rather difficult to really tell. So I go to sites like Rick's to check. Anyone have any other ideas?

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Re: Flea Bay Pricing?

#19

Post by mtn »

I was looking at 2 different listings for the same model rods recently and the first think I noticed was the photos were of the same rod. Same seller id, 1 following the other, same serial #. Sketchy to say the least.
Mike

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kevinhaney1
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Re: Flea Bay Pricing?

#20

Post by kevinhaney1 »

If there’s anything that I’ve learned from my 25 years on eBay, is that if there are if there are ANY red flags, do not bid…. And eBay itself will do absolutely nothing to prevent fraud…

Kevin
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