Why are the mini's so much cheaper on EBay. Are they the real article?

[GoldLdr]

Probably showing my noobness here, but I am curious as to why most of the mini's are so much lower priced on EBay than the MR listed retail.  I would have expected the opposite given MR news about the lucas film license and so many of them being out of production/unavailable from MR.

Should I be concerend when someone with a good reputation (according to ebay feedback) is selling these items for 50-60% of the MR listed retail price?

-GoldLdr

[PRINCESS LEIA]

 ;D Welcome to the boards Goldldr! they probably  Start small price. It is a bidding place.if they start off high .they probrably figure .No one would bite.But be wary sometimes you have to take a chance with anything on e-bay.Once again Welcome!

[GoldLdr]

Thanks for your response, Your Highness  ;D

I understand why they do that for bidding purposes, what caught me off guard were the low "buy it now" prices.  Often prices of $15 - $21 US on items listed as new in box, for something that retails @ $35.  I was surprised so I thought I would check to see if anyone knew if there was a different I should watch out for, or known issues.


Thanks again!
-GoldLdr

[levelnext]

I got all my minis on ebay, except for a few, and had only one small problem:  they sent me a luke ESB for a luke ANH, which was ok cause i didnt have that one neither  8)

I once got two minisabers for $6 + shipping!!!!  that was a great deal!

anyway as princess Leia said, you take chances when buying from ebay, but still you can buy from powersellers on ebay which are actually stores and you reduce the risk a lot.

Welcome to the forum GoldLdr, hope you enjoy it here.  ;)

[SAESEE TIIN]

I do reccomend buying from stores on ebay.  The best person I've had experience with is ltbammers or something like that, so I always have him under my favorites and ebay notifies me whenever he lists new minis.  You can sometimes take a chance with the people with low feedback seeing as how you can live with losing $10 dollars.  I've gotten plenty of sabers like that ($5 for an obi wan, $10 for the gold chase)  You have to realize too that there are always good honest people that have to start somewhere on ebay so that sometimes accounts for the low feedback.

[BIGGS DARKLIGHTER]

You just have to keep your eyes out. Also watch seller feedback like a hawk. Sometimes you get killed on the shipping though.

My best Ebay mini accomplishments:

Count Dooku EP2 - 15$ shipped
Stormtrooper .33 - 17$ shipped
Han .33 blaster - 18$ shipped

I was SO happy about the blasters since the shipping is usually 12-14$ alone on those. Technically I paid 4$ for the Stormie! =)

The only minis I EVER paid more than 20$ for are the Obi-Wan AOTC (paid 65), Qui-Gon (50$ for CS membership), and the Luke ROTJ (paid 25 for)

[BIGGS DARKLIGHTER]

Thanks for your response, Your Highness  ;D

I understand why they do that for bidding purposes, what caught me off guard were the low "buy it now" prices.  Often prices of $15 - $21 US on items listed as new in box, for something that retails @ $35.  I was surprised so I thought I would check to see if anyone knew if there was a different I should watch out for, or known issues.


Thanks again!
-GoldLdr

Second point to make is that MANY of those BINS, even though they are 15$ buy it nows have a 10-12$ shipping charge on them so they STILL end up being 25$ or so shipped. I usually avoid the mini BINS (simply for this reason) like the plague and try to just low bid on items.

[GoldLdr]

Thanks for the comments.  I will continue to plow forward and see what happens.

Now I just have to find a COunt Dooku/Darth Tyranus for low bid $$.

-GoldLdr

[levelnext]

Darth Tyranus Ep 3 = easy shot
Count Dooku Ep 2 = that's going to be a bit harder.

[GoldLdr]

I hope you are right R2!

So far I am outbid on everything I try, but I don't give up hope.  If it meant to be, I'll get it!  I am sure there are enough out there I still have a good shot at many of them.

-GoldLdr

[BIGGS DARKLIGHTER]

Here's a little EBAY advice that may help you.

Do NOT bid early.
Multiple bids on an item tend to drive up interest in an item. Driving up interest in an item tends to drive up the price more quickly.

Try to keep an eye on items that have like 1 or 2 bids on them with an hour or so left.

Try to snipe these items. Do this by bidding with about 10-15 seconds left until auction end. Bid what you would MAXIMALLY want to pay for the item. That way if you miss out on the item it just wasn't meant to be. Do NOT try to make incremental bids over and over hoping to win. This is way too hard to do consistently. The important thing here is that since EBAY will proxy bid for you up to your maximum, if you bid with like 10 seconds left and get the high bid then anyone else bidding behind you (who will tend to bid by small increasing amounts to just get past your max bid and get the item cheap themselves) may or may not have enough time left in the auction to get a bid in that is OVER your max bid you set with little time left. Therefore, you will have a higher chance of getting the items you want at the price you want or lower (since proxy bids will only get as high as the people trying to outbid you).

This is EXACTLY how I got a Han .33 for 17$ shipped and a Stormtrooper .33 for 18$ shipped.

I hope some of these tips help and good luck on the Dooku/Tyrannus!!