eBay has become the place for scalpers to sell overpriced wares, after they emptied store shelves. From toilet paper to graphics cards, that's where the buyout stock, sell for profit happened.

Now even without shortages, this philosophy persists at eBay. Nothing to lose for them, free money to make on uninformed buyers.

Worst case they end up not selling and can possibly return items for full refund.

Scummery at it's finest

Probably listing bots that scrape eBay to decide what price to set. It can lead to some pretty interesting results.

See the $23,698,655.93 book on Amazon. https://www.michaeleisen.org/blog/?p=358

Is that device out of production? They might be counting on limited availability to jack up prices.

Is that product not available in all markets? They might be counting on someone in Sweden, who might not be able to buy that device is willing to pay a premium.

Was there a recent price drop? Maybe this is listed in the product's old peice amd they are slow to drop it.

I wonder if it it just straight up money laundering.

The MA1 is not worth the trouble. It is soooo finicky. I've had to factory reset and re-setup on multiple occasions from things as simple as walking out of range.

After me and my daughter spent a full hour trying to get any of our phones to reconnect to the damn thing, I had had it and sent the thing back to Amazon and got my $100 back. Much happier just using a cable again.

There was a while when Motorola couldn't keep up with demand, so they were out of stock in most retailers. These are probably leftover price-gouging listings from then.

Unfortunately, it's pretty well proven that people will still buy something at a ridiculous markup if it isn't available otherwise.

In addition to what others have said already, keep in mind that the items in this list are the ones that did NOT sell. If there were 100 cheaper offers and 30 that demand a batshit insane price, the 100 cheap ones will be sold eventually and disappear from the list, leaving only the batshit insane ones active.

Just an example ....

• Beauty and the Beast "rare" black diamond collection, still sealed - $35,- https://www.ebay.de/itm/134709088162?epid=15033850025

• The same movie in the same condition - $6.000,- https://www.ebay.de/itm/115763173389?hash=item1af405d80d:g:KEkAAOSwIrhkQXJt

The prices for that thing vary extremely but guess which ones get actually sold ...

Part of me wonders if eBay is doing some price fixing.

They suggest prices, they offer AI generated descriptions for your products, they handle the shipping fees and process all of the money from buyer to seller and take their cut in the process.

But if they are suggesting prices and causing the price of everything to increase so that they can increase their cut of the proceeds then it seems like that might be if not illegal then at least concerning and possibly legally actionable.

ebay is where you go for aliexpress junk that you might find from a local seller instead if you need it sooner. that's about it. once in a Bluemoon a sale coincides with prices not being jacked and you can get a slight bargain (in the last year I managed to get a Bass at a good price and some bike tyres) but other than that just cheap junk is all it's good for

Image Transcription:

Four eBay listings for Motorola MA1 Wireless Auto Car Adapters.

The first listing is for a pre-owned Motorola MA1 Wireless Car Adapter for Android Auto by seller garyinok11. The image shows the adapter partially resting atop its manual. The listing is priced at $95, +$12.25 shipping.

The second listing is for a brand new Motorola MA1 Wireless Android Auto Car Adapter NEWSEALEDSHIPS TODAY by seller jotam-25. The image appears to be a stock photo of the adapter. The listing is priced at $189 or best offer, with free shipping.

The third listing is for a brand new NEW Motorola MA1 Wireless Android Auto Car Adapter USB Bluetooth FAST SHIPPING by seller beautysupplyoutlet88. The image shows the box for the adapter. The listing is priced at $189.95, with free shipping.

The last listing is for a brand new Motorola MA1 Wireless Android Auto Car Adapter Dongle - FREE Shipping ! NEW by seller ausgoods1. The image is the same stock image as the second listing. The listing is priced at $127 with free shipping from Australia.

[I am a human, if I’ve made a mistake please let me know. Please consider providing alt-text for ease of use. Thank you. 💜]

The MA1 specifically was out of stock for a while which lead to high prices on secondary markets. Like most secondary markets when the primary market supply goes up there's a bit of a lag before the prices fall down again.

Because why not, maybe someone will buy it from you as they don't know better, and you cash in the profit. It doesn't cost anything to post something on eBay after all.
Some of them don't even have the thing in the first place, if someone buys the listing they go get one from Amazon or a local shop and send it.

If you actually want to know what people are willing to pay for something though, look at the completed auctions.

Because people do pay the money.

If an item is hard to find they will pay it.

People that only buy stuff on eBay will pay for it.

If someone randomly sees the item they need they will buy it.

Example: I paid $2,200 on eBay for an RTX 4090 FE because they were sold out everywhere. The extra few hundred bucks for me was worth it to get the FE card over 3rd party cards since it is the smallest and quietist of the bunch. None of the other 4090s fit in my case.

Ebay is like a free market in itself. If someone post a product and it sells for an extravagant amount then other sellers will increase their prices... because capitalism and all that.

Huh? Get the AAWireless, it's better.

People still use eBay?