Restrict "silly" prices - please!

Graham

Whilst I respect everyones right to price things at any price they choose…

some ridiculous prices do show up, most likely from placing the . in the wrong place (or omitting it)

now I realize you can't actually stop it as it may be a deliberate price entered…

however an "are you sure" type pop up may help alleviate this - maybe triggered by being "n" x the current average or perhaps being the "most expensive"

errors (and deliberate overpricing) really mess things up for everyone.

A good example of "overpriced" is look at 10197 - that puts the average at almost $400 - it ain't gonna sell at that price for quite some time. $800? maybe in 6+ years time! - Actually I doubt it ever will - TLG know what is happenning they have allowed many speculators to buy 1000's of these (and the other modulars) so expect to see 100's of New/Sealed "for sale" (the ones that actually sell will be close to retail) for a very long time!

G

Hoddie

I've seen 10197 sell for £380 which is ~$600 - eBay's recent history shows one sold at £300 ($500ish). Some parts of the world struggle to get Lego sets, particularly TLG exclusives. If sellers are willing to take the risk of sending something to the Middle East or parts of Africa/Asia, there are people out there willing to pay much more than those of us with greater access to the primary/secondary markets.

Why does over-pricing mess things up for everyone? I ask only because I set my own prices without reference to what others are asking for.

Thor

I am sorry Graham, but I do not think it is legally appropriate for BrickOwl to question any price a seller may wish to use or to assume it might be mistaken. Such a system-wide comparison and questioning of prices via the pop-up you suggest might be seen as unwarranted pricing pressure or interference from a third party - i.e. BrickOwl.

I think the better idea to prevent the mistake you noted is for the system to simply require a period or decimal in the price (if it does not already require this). This would prevent mistakes where the seller types "80" in the price box thinking it means $0.80 while the system interprets it as $80.00. In this case, a pop-up could show simply reminding the seller to insert the decimal in the proper place. The pop-up does not question the amount of the price. It simply asks for proper formatting.

Thor

Graham

OK well I am very surprised. That's almost 4x retail!

Surely you don't just arbitrarily price things? Perhaps you go by what you've sold, but theres always going to be new parts that you haven't sold then do you not refer to what others are selling for?

I use the average to get an idea of the value of any given sets parts - to decide if I buy or not, another recent topic discussed a sets part out value showing at least 3x reality!!

Graham

I am sorry Graham, but I do not think it is legally appropriate for BrickOwl to question any price a seller may wish to use or to assume it might be mistaken. Such a system-wide comparison and questioning of prices via the pop-up you suggest might be seen as unwarranted pricing pressure or interference from a third party - i.e. BrickOwl.

I think the better idea to prevent the mistake you noted is for the system to simply require a period or decimal in the price (if it does not already require this). This would prevent mistakes where the seller types "80" in the price box thinking it means $0.80 while the system interprets it as $80.00. In this case, a pop-up could show simply reminding the seller to insert the decimal in the proper place. The pop-up does not question the amount of the price. It simply asks for proper formatting.

Thor

That is a good idea - I went off on a tangent!

Hoddie

I set my pricing purely on what I want for them. I take all sorts of things into account, the Lego Replacements price, the cost of the set(s) I got them from, whether I think they're rare and/or useful. I'm relatively new to this, I used to just eBay in bulk everything that I bought but didn't need, so I'm learning as I go.

If I'm genuinely stuck for a price I might have a look at BO and BL pricing, but in these cases there are often none to compare to. At this point I just tend to go with a gut feeling with the intention of re-visiting the price later if needed, but often they're bought before I get chance!

Graham

hummm I might pay you a visit then… if you price low

TLG prices are interesting the pnuematic cylinders are $24 EACH! can buy them here at ⅓ that!

Brikomania

On the other hand, lego's price for the roof wedge used in the Mini VW van and the Arkham Ashilum is about 1/2 of BL's.

Gerald
(The guy who bought 195 of them at .99)

Timothy_Smith

I think the better idea to prevent the mistake you noted is for the system to simply require a period or decimal in the price (if it does not already require this). This would prevent mistakes where the seller types "80" in the price box thinking it means $0.80 while the system interprets it as $80.00. In this case, a pop-up could show simply reminding the seller to insert the decimal in the proper place. The pop-up does not question the amount of the price. It simply asks for proper formatting.

Thor

Requiring a well-formatted input is good programming as well as good law. The ability to handle "partial numbers" is a historical artifact left over from the days of punch cards and core memory, when storing a decimal point had a measurable cost and processing that decimal took a measurable amount of computer time. Modern programs running on modern computers have the resources to check formatting and provide polite, helpful, error messages on encountering an ill-formed numerical sequence.

IOW: post this as a separate suggestion and you've got my vote.