What's up with this auction tactic?
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Maybe it is a "See Honey I'm Trying to Sell it" auction.You list it so high noone wants it and he can bring up the listing and say that famous line to the wife who wants it gone.
Well it's an FFL, so I'm leaning toward the Judge's explanation , so far.
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I have noticed a handful of various old Gun internet Auction sellers, who are FFL Dealers, who raise the price each time the Gun fails to sell.
I have known Antique dealers who do similar - they over price an item to begin with, then, keep raising the price there-after.
Seen it with old Cars sometimes also.
To me it seems insane or at least crappy, as what is usually going on, is they are hoping for 'A Live One' who will be naively influenced BY the 'price' to imagine that this MUST be THE very 'best' example out there, and, who will then naively buy it on that bass of naïve conflation.
Not much in Life offends me, but, I will say, that practice comes close!
Lol...
I have known Antique dealers who do similar - they over price an item to begin with, then, keep raising the price there-after.
Seen it with old Cars sometimes also.
To me it seems insane or at least crappy, as what is usually going on, is they are hoping for 'A Live One' who will be naively influenced BY the 'price' to imagine that this MUST be THE very 'best' example out there, and, who will then naively buy it on that bass of naïve conflation.
Not much in Life offends me, but, I will say, that practice comes close!
Lol...
Maybe it's that tactic, this one has 5 figures of transactions, most not in Colt.
I used to sell real estate a long time ago. I was told by an old timer that allegedly they had seen this practice work with houses. No interest? Raise the price and see what happens, they said. Frankly, I never was willing to gamble my clients listing and my commission on a theory that seemed so backwards and in direct contrast with basic supply and demand principles.
On a semi related note, I have heard of sellers who just trashed their product ("A real piece of junk!" etc) with surprisingly good results. I do believe this theory has some merit.
Judge may be onto something with his ideas- The human mind is a strange thing and often hard to make sense of...
On a semi related note, I have heard of sellers who just trashed their product ("A real piece of junk!" etc) with surprisingly good results. I do believe this theory has some merit.
Judge may be onto something with his ideas- The human mind is a strange thing and often hard to make sense of...
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Those are "politician" auctions,they don't mind spending outrageous amounts of our money to get those awful guns off the streets.:bang_wall:When it get's closer to17-20 K they'll jump on it,seller just hasn't found the magic politician thief number yet.
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JudgeColt's explanation is probably the closest to the reality of the situation.
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I have seen this happen the past couple years with some of the rarer Colt snake guns, but the prices doesn't come back down according to the auction, however I know there are "backdoor deals" made on some of them. I think Judge's explanation is right on, except in this case the buyers will contact the seller, who would probably make a good "car salesman" too lol. The gun finally disappears from the auction site, or is "sold" at that price but the actually selling price is much less, probably about were it started at. Once you get past 1000, the seller fees on GB are only like 1.25%. So even IF the seller paid 6000-7000 for the gun, it "sells" for 15000 but actually brings 11000. He only pays $50 more in seller fees to sell it at that high price and make a mint. I don't like the tactic either, but I don't ever bother trying to buy anything a seller does this with, so I don't worry about it.
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2,350 Posts
Quite a few internet auction items are simply "fishing expeditions" where the sellers hang a ridiculously high price on the item and don't really care if it ever sells. It doesn't cost the seller anything to keep relisting and if a willing pigeon happens to come along, he's hit paydirt. Plenty of real estate is listed the same way.
I worked for a boat dealer while in high school, that had let the distributor stick them with a solid floor Zodiac with a 20 hp outboard on it. In N. Texas, as you can guess it was not a fast mover at $4995.00. Sat on the showroom floor with a big display for 1 1/2 years. Finally, the owner made a new sign for it with $5995.00 crossed out and $5279.00 as the "reduced" price. It was gone in 2 weeks. Go figure :-0
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5,858 Posts
Hard to figure the human mind, greed, curiosity, etc.
I can't see the logic unless if someone saw it at 13K & he re-lists it at 12K, price reduction maybe a come-on.
Had a nice wood carving, I kept reducing its price but still no sale. Carried it around till it showed signs of wear. Decided if it ever did sell it would bring good price & tripled the original price. Surprised it sold at next showing. I think if an item is priced too low it can be ignored & putting a stiff price on mine got attention.
I can't see the logic unless if someone saw it at 13K & he re-lists it at 12K, price reduction maybe a come-on.
Had a nice wood carving, I kept reducing its price but still no sale. Carried it around till it showed signs of wear. Decided if it ever did sell it would bring good price & tripled the original price. Surprised it sold at next showing. I think if an item is priced too low it can be ignored & putting a stiff price on mine got attention.
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12,840 Posts
Now that I am thinking back on some of my own experiences...I actually saw this sort of thing work a few times.
I used to do Antique Shows, selling stuff I had drug home too much of. Last one I did was around 1994...and, then, I gave up.
I was always super reasonable with my prices, and, I tended to know my items well. No BS, just honest good guy prices and straightforward unclutters presence, treating others how I would prefer to be treated.
Well, it did not work well at all.
People would pass up my items to pay more, for a lesser version of the same or kindred item, with another Seller twenty feet away.
Show after Show, I kept glimpsing this occurring.
One lady, who passed on a lovely Antique Box she had shown interest in, I asked her - "If you don't mind my asking, why did you not buy the little lovely old Box you had just asked me about?"
She replied "I am looking for a $20.00 present, for a friend...your Box, when I had asked the price, was $10.00."
The other thing with all this, was people would often prefer to spend more, MUCH more, for a poorer condition but otherwise identical item, which was priced more, because the same item priced 'reasonably' made them worry it 'Must have something wrong with it."
I had forgotten about this bitter, disillusioning Lesson with being a Seller at Antique Shows, but, in it's multifarious forms, over decades, in all parts of 'life', it finally turned me away from wanting anything to do with 'the public' or how they 'really' think, or how they really 'think' about anything whatever.
Occasionally conversing with different kinds of 'dealers', in moments of candor, I found they had noticed the same things, and, that they had incorporated their contempt for people's mentality, into their Business Model.
Of course, corporations, politicians, religious leaders and so on, are all long since masters of harnessing their contempt, for how people 'think', and they manage their customers accordingly, and, we wonder why the people-world is so screwed up.
Eeeeeesh! What a mess!
I used to do Antique Shows, selling stuff I had drug home too much of. Last one I did was around 1994...and, then, I gave up.
I was always super reasonable with my prices, and, I tended to know my items well. No BS, just honest good guy prices and straightforward unclutters presence, treating others how I would prefer to be treated.
Well, it did not work well at all.
People would pass up my items to pay more, for a lesser version of the same or kindred item, with another Seller twenty feet away.
Show after Show, I kept glimpsing this occurring.
One lady, who passed on a lovely Antique Box she had shown interest in, I asked her - "If you don't mind my asking, why did you not buy the little lovely old Box you had just asked me about?"
She replied "I am looking for a $20.00 present, for a friend...your Box, when I had asked the price, was $10.00."
The other thing with all this, was people would often prefer to spend more, MUCH more, for a poorer condition but otherwise identical item, which was priced more, because the same item priced 'reasonably' made them worry it 'Must have something wrong with it."
I had forgotten about this bitter, disillusioning Lesson with being a Seller at Antique Shows, but, in it's multifarious forms, over decades, in all parts of 'life', it finally turned me away from wanting anything to do with 'the public' or how they 'really' think, or how they really 'think' about anything whatever.
Occasionally conversing with different kinds of 'dealers', in moments of candor, I found they had noticed the same things, and, that they had incorporated their contempt for people's mentality, into their Business Model.
Of course, corporations, politicians, religious leaders and so on, are all long since masters of harnessing their contempt, for how people 'think', and they manage their customers accordingly, and, we wonder why the people-world is so screwed up.
Eeeeeesh! What a mess!
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