Have you ever seen such unscrupulous seller before?

[chongfran]

I just recently bidded on an auction for Kuroshitsuji Static Arts figurines for both Michaelis Sebastian and Ciel Phantomhive.

http://page8.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/h130348569
http://page2.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/b100582583

Both auctions ended at very high prices. Almost more than 2 times the original sales price.

Nevertheless, a few days later, when I did a search for the same items again, to my surprise, Ciel-kun is up for auction by another seller. I was delighted until I saw how high the price the seller (haruharu20000410) tagged him at.

http://page8.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/h131221251
http://page4.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/d94460458

This is plain obvious that the seller is trying to make money out of them. I would call this "extortion" even though the auction is for everyone to bid at free will. But I just felt disgusted and, at the same time, angry at how this seller tried to make profits out from bidding wars.

Have anyone deal with this particular seller before and I am really curious if this seller is a japanese?

[Belldandy16]

hey, thats the way the world is nowadays. its all about the money. no love for the anime, its just business (im not saying thats right but im not supprised).
its just the way of the world.

[sensei]

Something is worth exactly what someone is willing to pay for it. I'd only think it was unscrupulous if I'd won the auction, then had the seller cancel the sale for some reason and put the item up for a higher price. On the other hand, I wouldn't bid on this person's auctions -- not because it was unethical, but just out of personal preference.

I've twice had the experience of a normally reputable YJ seller simply fail to deliver items I'd won. In both cases, I got the lots for very fair prices, surprisingly fair I thought afterwards. As the seller works as a go-between on commission, I suspect that the consignee in both cases refused to deliver the item after hearing the price the seller got for it.

On the other hand, I have not seen either lot appear for sale later. So perhaps it's a matter like "reserve price" on eBay: the seller starts the auction for less that s/he is willing to take as a sales price, and if the final bid is, in the seller's estimation, too low, then the item just never gets handed over.

I still bid on this seller's auctions because 95% of the time I get good stuff. But I always sigh a little sigh of relief when it shows up as "Received J" on my items page.

[cutiebunny]

Ah, I think I have an idea as to whom you are referring to, Sensei. Despite the cutesy seller name, *he* is a middleman and has a 'hard cash' only store in Tokyo. He has some nice items in his store, but, like 95% of all stores in Japan, does not accept credit cards.

I've had the same problem with this seller as well. After 45 days of waiting for the item to arrive, I contacted the deputy to ask where the item was. I think it took a total of approximately 3 months for the item to go from the Japanese seller to the deputy's Japanese address.

As far as speculators are concerned, my policy is to bid as high as I feel an item is worth. If I lose the auction and see it being resold, at least I'll have that warm feeling that I bid exactly what I wanted to pay for it and that, hopefully, the reseller didn't get it too cheaply. I also make it a policy to not buy items from people who engage in that type of behavior. I think that's really all that you can do - it is a free market and people are entitled to buy things to resell them for higher prices. However, if no one buys their merchandise, then they're left with it, and hopefully will learn that their behavior does not pay.

[Keropi]

Usually with such sellers, I'm just forced to wait them out. Usually that ends up being a wait for a more suitable auction from another seller.

I know the amount I'm willing to pay. If the starting bid is too high I just won't bid on it. I won't convince myself to bid on it. I won't scrounge up money and pay the price. I just won't bid on it. There are other things I can do with my money.

It's kind of fun seeing an item never receive any bids until the price is lowered.

It's often happened with me that if the seller had listed the item at a lower price to begin I would have bid on it. Unfortunately for the seller, after I've seen the item for so long the item has lost it's appeal. The initial shock and awe I had upon seeing the item has long since vanished.

That's the seller's loss. Or it'll take them longer to get their money.

[moonrabitt]

Well, I'm not really disgusted. The way that bidding works (the way I see it), it goes from VERY low starting price, to high price.
If you start off with a high price people will most likely not bid.
I experienced this with my SM locket I was selling.
I started with a high amount, no one bid, I lowered it to 9.99, and the thing went higher than the previous amount I had put.
--------------------------------------
Maybe before It would have troubled me, but with cel collecting it's the same thing. If you buy a lot of Vampire Knight sketches, for let's say $100 for 20 good ones, than you will most likely sell each individualy.
(Yeah I hate when that happens to me)....
---------------
Just tell yourself this: He will probably not sell them, and he will probably list them for cheaper ^_^

[dbzmomma]

Well, I'm not really disgusted. The way that bidding works (the way I see it), it goes from VERY low starting price, to high price.
If you start off with a high price people will most likely not bid.
I experienced this with my SM locket I was selling.
I started with a high amount, no one bid, I lowered it to 9.99, and the thing went higher than the previous amount I had put.

That's happened to me a lot. You see an item start at 99 cents, seems like a deal. The more it's bid on, the more you seem to want it. Before you know it, it went higher than your original opening bid. It's all psychological.

As for this person, weeeellll ... I did that for a while. Thought it might be a good business to be in. Buy low, sell high. Just like stocks. May seem unethical to you, but if this is his/her business, then I guess it has to be worth it to you to bid when it comes up again.

I'm reminded of the kid who bought up a whole bunch of domain names and then sold them to the brands for exorbitant amounts. (e.g. cocacola.com) Now THAT was unethical, but not illegal. One smart cookie. Capitalism makes America run.

[darksuzaku]

I have seen similar things like this but done by the same seller.

Example, a seller owns 5-10 cels (very similar between them) from the same sequence and decides to auction them one by one without giving a hint of how many he has left.

The first 2-3 auctions he starts the auctions at 1000 Yens and they end at a high price, for example 100000 Yens.

After he has auctioned 4-5 of the cels, the next ones have an starting price of 90000 Yens. With this auctions he sometimes sells them and sometimes not.

In my opinion you can't really blame him for doing that. It's obvious that he has saturated the market but i can understand that he still wants to get the same amount as he got from the first ones..... And honestly, if i was the one who got one of the first cels at a higher price (probably overpaying) i wouldn't like the idea of my rivals getting the next sequence mates at a ridiculously lower price.

The situation of the auctions you show is different. For example, if i have some item to sell and i'm not sure of it's price i'll search for the same or similar items sold before to see what they go for. I don't think it's wrong that i try to get those amounts.

[klet]

Wait, I'm confused. How are the two auction sets linked in any way besides the fact that the items are the same? It doesn't look like the seller of the second set is the winner of the first, so what's the problem?

I'm assuming you're upset because it seems that the second seller saw how much the first set went for, and decided to price his auctions accordingly, right?

It's hard to judge whether he actually did that, though. Heck, he may have bought the figures at an exorbitant price and is looking to recoup those funds.

The problem here is that the figures are collectibles, so they're value changes through the months and years. Individuals are always going to try to get the current value when they go to sell.