Are Pins really being exploited for profit on Ebay?

Are Pins really being exploited for profit on Ebay?

Hey everyone,

I am wondering about ebay prices on pins. I have seen a few forum topics about pin prices being radically changed like the Tangled for $20 and the 4 Parks super jumbo for $400. I am wondering if it is just people getting lucky to get pins for cheap or someone really wanting a pin and not really searching for it well.

I finally gave in with advice from Amy and listed pins on my Hubbys ebay account and i have seen very little bidding wars like there used to be in the old days. most sold for first bid and o few sold for 2-3 bids. I am happy to sell them for whatever they get since i named the price and noone bid hundreds on my pins lol. So i dont think that people are in the economic higherarchy to be spending alot on pins.

Does this mean that people are creating fake auctions on ebay to try and adjust the prices?

I sold the 4 parks Jumbo at auction and it sold for $85 so i cant see that someone made hundreds on one. I dont care for tangled so i dont know much about them but i heard they sell for hundreds. Would someone list a fake auction to sell for $20 to try to make them start losing value?

I kind of feel that it may be true. I think it is a good idea for the tangled because you are crazy if you think a pin is worth $400. I mean, i waited 8 years for an entire pin set diorama because i would never pay $400 for it and i finally got it for $48.00. That was a real auction and i got an amazing piece for pittens.

I dont know what to think but would love to know what others think

I do not know why anyone would try to devalue a pin. Sellers lose by doing that.... The logistics involved, just to make sure a friend clicks BIN instead of someone who has the search set to alert them asap... not worth the risk of losing your pin, or having to explain you do not have it.

The lowest completed sale in recent history on ebay for a tangled marquee was 69.99 +3.00 shipping. nothing about a $20.00 sale. In fact, I am seeing tonns of Tangled pins that have NOT sold at the crazy prices previously seen. Even the PODM's are not selling for more than 50-60 except for the scenes with all 4 characters.

I do however feel there is some shadey shill bidding occuring to drive up prices on certain pins. Also, remember that spending in any recreation or hobby dramatically drops during late august through beginning of october. People are focused on end of summer vacations, and back to school.

Psycho Pixie said:

The lowest completed sale in recent history on ebay for a tangled marquee was 69.99 +3.00 shipping. nothing about a $20.00 sale.

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There was another sale for $18.95 for Tangled Marquee on 08/25.

As far as sale prices on Ebay ... It depends from pin to pin, and seller to seller. Depending on listing time, seller's reputation, the way a seller presents a pin, the sale price for the same pin changes a lot.

This Ariel pin sold for $33.61 on 09/02 and for $63 on 09/04. Both were sold auction style and there is another one listed on Ebay for $140 BIN/OBO.

Why are the prices so different ? Who knows really? Listing title, picture etc ... different things capture people's attention. Was there any shill bidding involved ? I have no idea. This is just an example I have seen, so there is really no way to tell. I try to avoid preferred sellers while buying as their pins usually capture more attention and the bids go higher.

And you do not have to go as far as Ebay for pins being exploited. We have some pretty insane asking prices here on DPF sometimes :lol:

i think what ever the seller decides, i geuss, its there choice...

I could see a seller trying to devalue a certain in demand pin.
Once the price is low enough, buy up as many as you can at the low price, and than wait for the market to rise again. Profit

And other pins are just put on there for a super high price. No one pays that much for it, but it still sits there at that price. And when someone else puts the same pin up, they tend to list it at the same high price.

Are pins being exploited by ebay sellers? - IMHO, absolutely. ...and I do suspect that some sellers are having someone bid to keep the price up.
As for the pins going for surprisingly low prices, I can't imagine any seller being motivated to devalue pins. I think, though, that dumb luck occasionally sends us deals - like a seller cleaning out a garage of old stuff without researching the values, or an auction that just doesn't happen to get noticed by the right buyers, or an auctioneer who didn't have someone else bid up the price. I've bid on items where clearly there were at least 2 other bidders and the price went beyond what I was prepared to pay, then I get the same item the following week for a great price because no one else even bid.
Just my 2 cents.

Merryweather said:

There was another sale for $18.95 for Tangled Marquee on 08/25.

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It did not show up when I searched while typing the reply....? so I hunted more.. They did not have "disney" in the title. perhaps that error caused the price?

I don't believe people are tampering with prices to affect the value of the pin as a whole in the hobby (i.e. lowering the "value" to corner the market or artificially inflating the "value" to sell off multiples they have) but I do believe and have seen proof that shill bidding does happen on particular auctions to increase the value of that auction.

I caught a seller who had the same person bidding on all their auctions, but this bidder did not bid on any other auctions ever. I reported it to eBay. Never heard what happened but the guy I spoke to at eBay said the seller was clearly involved in shill bidding.

The single worse thing that eBay did was hide the identity of the other bidders. It makes it much harder to see if you are getting artificially bid up on an auction.

But as with all auctions, there is dumb luck involved. It depends on who's looking at the auctions, how the auction is listed. and other things like that.

I think it also has to do with how good people are at using eBay. I saw an Eeyore Pin Trader Delight sell at auction for over $50 when there was one listed for like $40 buy-it-now. But the person that listed the buy-it-now didn't put the exact wording correctly. I think if you are savvy with how to search on the internet, using asteriks, parenthesis, minus signs, etc. you can find pins cheaper by finding pins listed a bit differently than most expect or do.

I need to get someone to bid on all my ebay items! Unfortunatley they would probably be the high bidder lol since i get like one bid per item.
I wont get into DPF members asking crazy prices since I have a sale post up and someone could think i have a pin priced high.
I dont think it is people bidding to lower prices and then resell, I think if it is true it would be people who want the pin that cant afford the prices and want them to get lower so they can buy one.

In my little niche, I see a lot of pins at artificially extravagant prices. Things that wouldn't seem to be worth $50-$100 being marketed as that (including single pins that are being priced to more than the whole set they were a part of originally), and nobody buying them. I suspect it's a case of what they talked about on Cracked recently, where everybody thinks everything they have is worth top dollar on the auction sites when really it's not.

GhostTrains said:

I need to get someone to bid on all my ebay items! Unfortunatley they would probably be the high bidder lol since i get like one bid per item.
I wont get into DPF members asking crazy prices since I have a sale post up and someone could think i have a pin priced high.
I dont think it is people bidding to lower prices and then resell, I think if it is true it would be people who want the pin that cant afford the prices and want them to get lower so they can buy one.

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No one could say your prices are too high, Kirk!
I've been poking around ebay a lot lately, and Haunted Mansion pins don't seem to be doing as well as some others - even on this site I get the impression that we HM lovers are in the minority. I've noticed a number of sales with 'buy it now' prices that are about the same as prior auction results, but no one is buying, and I was very surprised that no one bid on your auctions. I suspect that a gloomy economy, apart from reducing demand for everything, leads to less appreciation for the macabre, and prices will rebound somewhat eventually (I have no real basis for this, just a feeling...)
BTW: For what it's worth, I watched your auctions but decided not to bid unless someone else did so first - if I was going to pay the reserve price, I'd rather pay you directly and at least save you some fees.

Well, I'm one who actually has to buy some pins from ebay due to the fact I live so far away from Disney parks. I also buy from mail order from the disneypins.com site plus I've bought off of the forum here. I've seen unbelievalbe prices on some of the harder to get pins. Especially, soda fountain pins. I understand sellers trying to get extra for their pins. They are the ones who wait in the LONG lines and takes time out of their day to travel there etc. As a buyer, I don't mind having to pay extra for something like that. However, 400.00 for a 12.95 or 14.95 pin is ridiculous! Of course, all of those listings for those VERY HIGH priced pins are still there and have not been bought. I love pin collecting but don't want it to become so difficult to find good pins at a decent price that it forces me to leave the hobby that I do love. I do feel there are some sellers on ebay and other places that are just about making that dollar that they will do whatever tactics needed to get their pins to sell. I'm very lucky to have a handful of saved sellers from ebay that I've talked with via email and confirm their purchased directly from the parks and that they do make money on their pins but they are not trying to rip you off and make it so its unreachable. I'm thankful for those I can trust to sell me real and afforable pins.

This is the worst time of the year to sell on Ebay, but also the best time to buy. Prices are always down around the start of school.

Actually..the added part is that it is also the big pin event in Florida -the biggest pin event of the year, where all the major players are; and many others are saving their money for purchasing items at the auction or just bought a ton of merchandise.

pargani said:

I've been poking around ebay a lot lately, and Haunted Mansion pins don't seem to be doing as well as some others - even on this site I get the impression that we HM lovers are in the minority.

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I love the Haunted Mansion and would love to start a collection of those pins, but there are SO many of them that it's daunting. If the HM has limited popularity on Ebay, it sure doesn't in real life. Disney keeps cranking out lots of them, and I can't afford to buy 'em.