Pentax Digital Spotmeter prices

[Bob Gentile]

"... the winning bid was about $130 or roughly 30% over the new price... You'd think someone sufficiently sophisticated to be buying a spot meter would know how to find out what they sell for new..."

One person would be bad enough. But if it sold for that much over the new price, then there were at least two people involved... in a bidding war. Ha!

[Mark Stahlke]

I haven't looked at the bid history on this item but it sounds like it might be a case of shill bidding. I suspect there is a lot more of that going on than ebay would like to acknowledge.

Not too long ago I had something like that happen to me. I was bidding on a particular lens model and after loosing several auctions I got impatient (a mistake, I know) and the next time I saw that model come up I put in a maximum bid that I was sure would win the auction. Towards the end of that auction someone came along and starting bidding in minimum increments until my maximum bid was exposed and then stopped bidding just a couple of dollars short of beating my bid. Clearly, this bidder wasn't interested in buying the item but only wanted to push the price up. I won that auction and paid several hundred dollars more than what I thought was a reasonable and fair price for the lens.

Since then I don't bother with ebay. I'd rather buy from Midwest or KEH or even new.

Sign me "Soured on ebay"

[400d]

Given:
A) Shill bidding
or
B) 2 idiots do not know how to check the "Completed listings" box

End of story.

[Michael S. Briggs]

There are always strange price examples on eBay. Perhaps someone didn't check prices, or got caught in a bidding battle and bid too much. But maybe a high price for a Pentax Digital Spotmeter isn't as irrational as it might seen -- the price comparisons for new ones might not be pertinant -- elsewhere I've seen complaints that this meter is out of stock new for many months, with deliveries from Pentax apparently not meeting demand. Paying close to the new price for a used one might make sense for someone who wanted one soon.

Re shill bidding: someone bidding in small increments isn't by itself evidence for shill bidding. This is frequent behavior by an indecisive bidder. Instead of using eBay's proxing bidding system and starting with their maximum bid, they place a bid, find that they didn't win the item, decide that they actually want it more, place another bid for a bit more, etc. And how could they expose your maximum bid but be just short of beating it? Perhaps the price eventually got too high for a legit but indecisive bidder and they stopped bidding against your high proxy bid, which just happened to be a only bit higher.

[Jeffrey Sipress]

Sheldoin said: "I guess all it takes is two determined people who really want to win an auction."

That's about it. It all depends on who really wants the item that week. Everything is like that on ebay. I once couldn't sell a tool grinder. After two listings, it reached $650, and didn't sell. A month later, it sold for $2200. Exact same listing. Must have been a bidding war that week between two parties that never saw it listed earlier.

[Mark Stahlke]

Michael S. Briggs wrote:

And how could they expose your maximum bid but be just short of beating it?

It has to do with the bid increments. Here is an example that's very close to what happened to me. Suppose someone enters a maximum bid of $1002.00 on an item. Later in the auction someone else starts bidding and slowly raises their bid by the bid increment. The second person can't bid less than the current bid plus the bid increment. The way ebay's proxy bidding works, the first person's bid will be automatically incremented up to that person's maximum. So when the second bidder's bid hits $1000.00 in this example, the first person's bid will be increased to $1002.00. That is less than the current bid plus the bid increment. Thus, the first person's maximum bid is now known and yet, the second bidder has not exceeded it.

Clear as mud?

Cheers,
Mark

[Chan Tran]

I checked B&H and they sell it for $469 but they don't have it in stock. Other places want $600 and don't have it in stock either. I guess may be Pentax has discontinued the meter and thus driving the price up.

[tim atherton]

Yep, I looked around for a new replacement one a while back - couldn't find one in stock (and I vaguely remember word of it being discontinued...) - got a used one on ebay for about 340.00 in the end

[Ted Harris]

Last time I asked Jeff at Badger he said they had them in stock.

[Capocheny]

Last time I asked Jeff at Badger he said they had them in stock.

Hi Ted,

Unfotunately, no longer the case! I just got an email from Jeff saying that they don't have any in stock.

Apparently, it's back-ordered.

Even Jim at MidWest is out of them as well.

Life!

Cheers