The Energon Pub

I recently tried to purchase a transformer from a seller called TOY-MONKEY, his listing said buy now or best offer so I made an offer, he then made a counter offer, so once again I made an offer so after all was said and done I said I would buy it for the counter offer price, but he changed his mind and said I could only buy it at the buy it now price.
The reason these **** make money is because we buy there over priced merchandise I say enough brothers lets bring these assholes down by boycotting them and making them lower there outrages prices.

De4ormer wrote:The reason these **** make money is because we buy there over priced merchandise I say enough brothers lets bring these assholes down by boycotting them and making them lower there outrages prices.

While I agree with that in princple, I don't see how it would work for two simple reasons:

1. Difference in Desperation

Firstly, as we saw with the movie line, lots of people were buying figures that had been inflated up to 5 fold and up, just because they were impatient. Look at the number of people who are buying Allspark figures right now! They can't wait. In the case of toys like BB09, they can't wait, but in that case the unusual aspect was there was a genuine fear that there would be a shortage. As we see now, Ebay BB09 prices have plummetted way down. All my preorders for BB09 are in (late 4 months of course). And trickles are showing through at TRU.

No one is going to withhold purchase to "teach those mofos a lesson" because it would work only if ALL play ball. there will always be someone who won't. Or worse, pretend to agree, then spike the rest by being the only one to pay for an item for far cheaper than if more people had bid on it.

2. Difference in Valuation

Still different people value different things. Someone hates minicons and won't pay more than $x for it. Another has been searching for it to complete his collection and imagines lots of other people are too, so he bids $5x. Someone wouldn't spit in powermaster prime's brick forming lower legs. Another would kill his cat to get one.

Simply put, while Unicron at SGD$180 might be considered a horrendous amount of money to spend on a toy, to me that's really good value for money and i'd click the Buy It Now in a heartbeat in case someone else has bright ideas.

3. Difference in Wealth

We also have another difference in perception: that of cost. If a guy is paid easily 3 to 4 times my salary, his take home pay might be a few thousands more. To him it'd be nothing to spend $200-500 bucks on a toy because to him it's cheap. In fact I've spent ridiculous amounts of money on yahoo auctions for books that I wanted simply because I didn't want the grief and trouble of going through the bidding process, or even take a bus to a shop I KNOW has the item at cost. To me saving all that is in fact cheap, not so to another person.

In my opinion, he's only screwing you if you buy it and it is somehow less than what he advertised it as, or there are unexpected hidden costs.

Other than that, it's a voluntary exchange that both of you enter into. Both parties have to feel they are getting a satisfactory deal. If he ultimately declines, how have you lost? You can take your money elsewhere. If nowhere else is prepared to offer you the same item for that price, either you'll have to pay more, or you simply can't afford it. That's just business my friend.