eBay

ricarmic · ‎08-08-2018

This is an interesting scenario.

I need to buy a new watch. Not in major hurry.

Found the watch, Canadian seller, has 10 of the one I wanted. $69.99 $C in par with the lowest prices out there. Feedback passable.

Wanted to wait till the next coupon came out.

Coupon comes out, has to be $70 or more, sigh.

Continue waiting, a while later I check, only 9 now and the price is $81 and change $C (the dollar had changed a bit but not that much)

A few days later only 8 now and price is $83ish.

Today only 6 left and the price is now $86 ish (and finally I started taking note of the US$ price and it is higher as well).

So the method appears to be as items sell, the seller knows that the display/view rate will go up and raises the price some each time an item sells.

I supposed in the grand scheme of things it probably works in a scenario where one isn't counting on repeat buyers, I know personally I've dropped watching the item now, the latest 15% coupon doesn't bring it close to the original price, and I'm a bit put off by the practice.

My own mantra is that if the item is selling fast, it helps increase my overall view rates, and I leave the price the same (I'm already making my margins so why not?).

Anyway thought this was an interesting method I'd never thought of.....

pjcdn2005 · ‎08-08-2018

I've never seen that before either. The odd time I have listed something that sold super fast and I realized that I may have under priced the item so I raised the price for the ones that I had left. But that's a bit different than continually raising the price. That would annoy me if I was watching something too.

However, I wonder if it has something to do with the new rules regarding markdown manager. Since an item can't be put on sale if the price was recently changed, perhaps the seller is doing his own version of a sale and the first time you saw the price it was actually a 'sale' price??

But...I guess if that were the case the price would probably go up and down..not up and up!

ricarmic · ‎08-08-2018

Hmm apparently my observation skills are not that acute anymore.

It appears that none of them have sold on eBay.

The count has been diminishing, but I only noticed now that there aren't any sold!

My guess now is that they are listed in multiple locations and as the overall number they have left reduces, they increase the price.

This makes no sense on eBay though since none of them have sold here, and raising the price just makes them less desirable, as was the case with me!!

I'm wondering if they're a drop shipper or something.

This confuses me very much now.....

hlmacdon · ‎08-08-2018

@ricarmic wrote:
I'm wondering if they're a drop shipper or something.

This confuses me very much now.....

Sounds like a plausible scenario as that would mimic inventory/pricing data syncing with updates, although a bit unusual to move from a natural price point to something more markup based.

momcqueen · ‎08-08-2018

In another online shopping venue, there sits a standard 15 items saved in my cart while I wait for the right moment to buy them. These items change price by one cent, six cents, one dollar et cetera several times a week. Maybe the seller of your watch is trying to stimulate action or is readying for a big Markdown in the near future.

kawartha-ephemera · ‎08-08-2018

@ricarmic wrote:
Hmm apparently my observation skills are not that acute anymore.

It appears that none of them have sold on eBay.

The count has been diminishing, but I only noticed now that there aren't any sold!

My guess now is that they are listed in multiple locations and as the overall number they have left reduces, they increase the price.

This makes no sense on eBay though since none of them have sold here, and raising the price just makes them less desirable, as was the case with me!!

I'm wondering if they're a drop shipper or something.

This confuses me very much now.....

Like you guessed maybe the vendor has the watch listed on multiple sites and is managing multiple channels from a central console such as Shopify or equivalent.

I know Shopify has a long list of channels they claim can be managed and kept in sync from their console.

Any tips to share regarding a good affordable watch?

femmefan1946 · ‎08-08-2018

On dotCA in CDN $?

He maybe watching foreign exchange too closely and constantly changing to get a preferred cost in some other currency-- probably USD.

https://www.xe.com/currencycharts/?from=CAD&to=USD&view=1Y

We'll see what the Saudi kerfuffle does to the dollar over the next weeks. The two problems being that we buy 11% of our oil from SA, and the possible cancellation of the LAV contract (which should have been cancelled when the government changed, but there...)

ricarmic · ‎08-09-2018

I'm a creature of habit, I've been wearing Timex Ironman triathlon watches for probably over 20 years now. The style I like aren't available in stores at least where I used to get them but are available online. Model T5K196 is the one I'm looking at, it's blue now where it was orange in the past but I'm going to step outside the box, mostly because I have no choice.

ricarmic · ‎08-09-2018

I at first thought it was the same, mirroring the dollar difference, however the equivalent US$ value has gone up as well, as far as I remember the $C amount is a $86.99 $C amount and the US$ amount is the converted amount, so they are keeping the $C amount "normal"

The price has gone up 23% since I began watching, our dollar hasn't changed nearly that much.

It has never gone down.

ricarmic · ‎08-28-2018

Hmmm an interesting update, checked today and the price is back down to the original price of $70.99 $C ($54.66 US). Quantity is now 4.

Now I really have no idea how this particular vendor is determining their pricing!!

Too bad for them, with the 15% off coupon, I would for sure have purchased from them if I hadn't already purchased elsewhere.......which I did already.....

(PS apparently my eye colour registration isn't what it was before, it isn't light blue, it is actually grey where it was orange before. I still like it)