Internet Mystery

[botias]

When I'm used book shopping on Amazon or Ebay, it's not unusual for there to be one seller with an outrageous price. $199.00 for a bestseller paperback that others are charging less than $10 for, for example.

This one takes the cake: $2000.00 (plus $3.99 shipping) for a book that ranges from $8-30 at all other sellers, including another listing of the same book with the same seller.

What gives? Is is some sort of statistical manipulation? A ploy to snare the unwary shopper?

ETA: It is actually a ploy

Comments

[silverusagi]

I've always wondered why they did that...

[lotorsincline.livejournal.com]

I wonder who would be so stupid to fall in that scheme...

[cleoius.livejournal.com]

My friend Patty has been experiencing this with certain manga. Like the last volume of a manga that got discontinued from being translated into English, a seller will have a copy for a thousand dollars! It drives her nuts!

[botias.livejournal.com]

It sounds like those manga are a genuine rarity, but these listings are just people playing the odds with items that are not rare or valuable. The risk nothing by making the listing and once in awhile it pays off with tens or hundreds of dollars.