Q&A: Why do some Amazon sellers list books at very high prices?
QUESTION: I was listing a chemistry textbook for sale on Amazon Marketplace. New copies were available for $20.22, while a used copy in "good" condition was listed at $1,346.00. Why would a seller list their book at such an exorbitant price?
ANSWER: My hunch is this seller is trying to make a fast buck without really doing anything. This has been going on at Amazon ever since I started selling five years ago, although it's a lot less common now.
It's possible this seller made a typo when they listed their book for sale, or while editing their listing. Maybe they meant to enter a price of $13.46 instead of $1,346.00. I've made mistakes like this a few times, so I don't want to convict anyone without a hearing.
But, there have always been several sellers on Amazon who price books at 10 to 20 times their market price. They do this on all their listings, so it's no accident. They're counting on one dopey buyer out of a million who figures the highest-priced book must be best. Or maybe the seller is hoping Amazon will accidentally cycle off the lower-priced listings, so they get the sale.
These "highballer" sellers probably don't have any books in inventory, they just have a file of ISBNs they upload to Amazon Marketplace after jacking up the prices. When they get a sale, they probably drop-ship through another bookseller.
I guess this is technically legal, you can sell a used book for whatever the buyer pays for it. But it's sleazy, and makes all of us honest sellers look less credible. These scammers degrade the marketplace, just like spammers ruin the e-mail system for everyone else.
But it seems this practice is a lot less common than it used to be, so perhaps Amazon is finally beginning to police its Marketplace. Better late than never.
ANSWER: My hunch is this seller is trying to make a fast buck without really doing anything. This has been going on at Amazon ever since I started selling five years ago, although it's a lot less common now.
It's possible this seller made a typo when they listed their book for sale, or while editing their listing. Maybe they meant to enter a price of $13.46 instead of $1,346.00. I've made mistakes like this a few times, so I don't want to convict anyone without a hearing.
But, there have always been several sellers on Amazon who price books at 10 to 20 times their market price. They do this on all their listings, so it's no accident. They're counting on one dopey buyer out of a million who figures the highest-priced book must be best. Or maybe the seller is hoping Amazon will accidentally cycle off the lower-priced listings, so they get the sale.
These "highballer" sellers probably don't have any books in inventory, they just have a file of ISBNs they upload to Amazon Marketplace after jacking up the prices. When they get a sale, they probably drop-ship through another bookseller.
I guess this is technically legal, you can sell a used book for whatever the buyer pays for it. But it's sleazy, and makes all of us honest sellers look less credible. These scammers degrade the marketplace, just like spammers ruin the e-mail system for everyone else.
But it seems this practice is a lot less common than it used to be, so perhaps Amazon is finally beginning to police its Marketplace. Better late than never.
posted by Steve Weber at 3/08/2006
5 Comments:
Or perhaps, the high priced one is a rare first edition signed by the author. I don't think so in the case of the chemistry book but for other books this could be the case. Just my 2 cents worth.
I've noticed this on half.com also. I was trying to work this out a while back. I did notice that one or two particular sellers were making a habit of this.
My somewhat incomplete theory was that this was some way to "reserve a slot" within the item listing, so that when the book became available, the listing could have its price changed, rather than having to enter a new listing from scratch.
My theory over the years has been that a potential pricing model would be to highball and then automatically lower prices overtime... eventually, the book should find the market sweetspot and sell for maximum possible (or not at all). It could make listing easy because you don't care what the price should be.
Another possibility is that the operation is actually a "front" for some kind of money laundry scheme or maybe pumping up the book value of a business.
I use to most notice this inflated price stuff on Half.com under the seller "abebooks"... always wondered about that... then, later we were on ABE ourselves, and of course ABE is actually hundreds if not thousands of sellers, so, it isn't them directly.
Of course, another theory can always go back to the "some people are just plain idiots" clause. :-)
they list at that high price, and when someone bites, they purchase your CHEAP copy and have you drop ship it to their buyer...laughing all the way to the bank.
A few sellers consistently price books -- "used like new," (not collectible) way over the top. On a book I just listed, prices go from a low of $7.40 up to $19, and then the next seller is at $83!
The published list was $79, dealer price $4.50. They, and a few others, do this time and again -- it sticks out like a sore thumb.
I'd like to buy the book at $4.50 and sell it for $20, or even $29.95, but that seems impossible given the other dealer low prices -- unless the high-price seller is on to something that seems to defy logic.
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