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Post by helens on Aug 29, 2013 9:21:44 GMT -5
I think what VegasJames was saying is that that outrageous price makes people look at his other listings, which look very cheap relative to the outrageously priced ones, and gives them a comparison for quality.
The outrageously priced ones are sort of like putting a really fancy vintage car at a dealership selling new cars to make people think about cars. It's not a bad tactic, I took a look at his other listings:).
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Post by vegasjames on Aug 29, 2013 10:07:12 GMT -5
I think what VegasJames was saying is that that outrageous price makes people look at his other listings, which look very cheap relative to the outrageously priced ones, and gives them a comparison for quality. The outrageously priced ones are sort of like putting a really fancy vintage car at a dealership selling new cars to make people think about cars. It's not a bad tactic, I took a look at his other listings:). Yes, exactly. The outrageous prices act as a draw to his site as people discuss the prices. And once there the curiosity of the people make them check his other auctions to see if he has done this with all his auctions and if so how he is still even in business.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 29, 2013 12:53:23 GMT -5
vegasjames - you found his listings thru this thread. Are you a buyer? If not, what value is this free traffic? All of his prices are ridiculous. Even the much lower ones. This is a completely different sort of business mentality. I see it regularly. They hope to cash out under the premise "I only need one buyer". There was a guy I knew whom had a decent business importing coral and marine wildlife for the aquarium trade. He did good because he had "good relationships" with the tribal leaders of Fiji. He'd take his bride for a two week vaca in the south pacific twice a year, while she was shopping or sunning he'd visit his colleagues and shower them with "gifts". Then all the permits he needed to buy those organisms were coming forthright. His business was for sale 100% of the time. He'd ask $5 Million (but take substantially less). Someone who had never bought a biz before would give him $100-300K down and agree to payments. Of course, the relationships in Fiji were no longer the same and the new owner would fail. Original guy would "foreclose" (actually just take the reigns of the biz back, he did own the building) and go back to work. In the 7 years I would run into this guy at elementary school functions he'd sold the biz three times. Had cleared nearly $500K for his troubles and still vacationed in Fiji 2x per year, and still had his business. All perfectly legally. All on the backs of naive buyers. I know this story because he bragged about it. These charlatans get us all talking, but it's the naive that they prey upon. In my book that is despicable.
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Post by vegasjames on Aug 29, 2013 19:49:20 GMT -5
vegasjames - you found his listings thru this thread. Are you a buyer? If not, what value is this free traffic? I am not a buyer of turquoise because I don't care much for it to begin with and I have plenty of lag pieces I "poached" from California. That does not mean there are not other buyers of turquoise that are going to see it. And the more people talk about his ridiculous prices the more people are going to see his site meaning more potential buyers. As far as pricing most people have no idea what turquoise value is in large part due to the grading process. What is the general color? Webbing, which is desired in some countries and not in others? Did it require stabilization? What mine did it come from? For example, some people will pay more for Sleeping Beauty turquoise just because they saw a highly overpriced piece on one of the jewelry channels and think it is therefore way more valuable than it should be. Sellers can use all sorts of tricks to get more money out of something than it is worth. I see a lot of this for example in the sales of meteorites. For example, they are generally sold by the gram. But I have seen various sellers use carats instead so they can put a higher number and newbies in particular may mistake it for a larger meteorite. I have also seen them way overprice a meteorite for a while so people get used to the idea of the price per gram and then they put it on sale so people think they are getting a bargain when in fact they are getting screwed. And I have seen multiple meteorite dealers suddenly jump the price big time on common material so people will think the material is becoming scarce and people will jump on the sales before prices go up any further. Gibeons are a great example of this. They should be selling for about $1/g but suddenly they are selling for $5-10+/g. Same with Sikhote-Alin meteorites which have suddenly jumped drastically in price despite there being an abundance of material and the wholesale price not changing. A few years ago I had a dealer tell me that NWA 859 "Taza" was wholesaling for $2/g when he wanted to buy some of my Tazas. Recently when I posted some of my Tazas for sale on a dealer board I was told they are buying Tazas for $0.99/g now. The retail price though on Tazas has not dropped. Dealers are still charging $3-15/g, which is well over standard mark up. So when someone buys a Taza at auction and wins it for anything under $3/g they think they are getting a bargain. The other aspect is that these sellers are in a sea of other sellers they are in competition with. They need to find some way to send up a flag and say "here I am". One way to do that is to post ridiculous things for shock value so people not only talk about that seller but remember that seller. It is like famous people who lack any real talent like Miley Cyrus. When these people lack talent they have to rely on shock value to keep in the public eye because of the publicity their stunts generate.
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