im not sure why people post in the tittle of the ad- for a buck. then after your looking at there stupid elvis alive home unit that you would not even take for the tittle price of a dollar- (being its a p.o.s. & not worth the time, fuel, or floor space involved) they spring it on you 750$.
im fairly certain ive seen a few listings like this? am i missing sometthing? some reasoning behind this?
The main reason to list for a $1 is to get people to open the ad to read it. A lot of folks will just skip the ad if the price listed in the title doesn't grab them. However, it's pretty poor form to use $1 and then not list the price in the body of the ad.
thx for the reasoning prev posters, im showing my age some but 1$ must be the new form of "free" back in the old days.
Quoted from jfh:The main reason to list for a $1 is to get people to open the ad to read it. A lot of folks will just skip the ad if the price listed in the title doesn't grab them. However, it's pretty poor form to use $1 and then not list the price in the body of the ad.
i open about every pin post just to look it over at least- but i dont search 1000's a day, maybe these tactics do have there place to get people to at least open the ad up.
my thing is any transaction has to have some degree of trust and the more you flake out in your listing the less i would ever actually respond to the ad. i just get the vib when i got there the price is now not 750, but 1k- and did i mention works great but i cant get it to turn on.
I normally just flag the $1 lies. This is from Craigslist:
Please post a set price, do not solicit bidding, and do not link to auctions elsewhere.
Quoted from underlord:Bait and hook. eBays new rules for sellers have them scrambling back into the local ads.
Just out of curiosity, what are the new eBay seller rules that are causing this?
I will admit to do $1 ads on Craigslist.
There are at least two reasons I can think of right now:
1- I am listing several pins for sale and I have the choice of putting in the price for one of the pins but not the others and also get accused of a bait and switch or just put in a dollar and assume that a buyer knows that will "several pinballs machines for sale" as the subject of the listing they will need to open up the link to find out the prices. Could I put up a few ads, yes. But I often sell several pins to one person, I am in the middle of nowhere and it often helps a buyer to commit if they are able to get more than one pin if they are making the drive to me. Also if I say "look for my other pinball machines for sale" people never seem to find my other ads or they just don't read the ad that well to realize that I have a few pins for sale. They just look for a price and the photos at the bottom.
2- I am open to trades and offers. No way to put this into the price box, only numbers. I don't want to scare off a potential buyer by a high price. I am very flexible, this is a hobby and I am often open to many possible trades/offers. You can't fit all of that into the subject/title bar, so I put in $1 in the price and figure if anyone is interested in the subject line they will hopefully open up the full ad where I can explain all of the possible things I am interested in to make a sale work for both of us.
These may not be great reasons, but they have worked for me. Perhaps some other method would work better for me, I don't know. But not all $1 pinball ads are scammers, bait and switch, or people with stupid high prices that are hoping to you to open their ads.
Quoted from DugFreez:Just out of curiosity, what are the new eBay seller rules that are causing this?
Propensity to always side with a buyer in a "item not as described" dispute.
Seller pays return shipping on said disputes.
"Double dipping" on paypal and ebay fees.
Increased the return window to 180 days.
Seller fees cap raised from $250 to $750.
$1 is the default amount to put when CL won't let you provide all the info you want in that box. Pinball machines aren't ever $1 so open the ad and read it. Price should be contained within. If no price is listed I ignore and move on.
Quoted from DugFreez:Just out of curiosity, what are the new eBay seller rules that are causing this?
Increased eBay percentage up to 10% of selling price fees now, compared to 2.5%
Quoted from chuckwurt:A lot of people search in price ranges too. This will keep your advisable if they filter by price.
Knowing that the $1 ads are never actually a dollar, when I search by price, I usually don't even start to look at ads til I get to about $50. I do agree there are times that you cant put an exact dollar amount on a listing. A trade or barter for example. I find that in those cases, I tend to trust the seller who leaves the price blank more than I trust a $1 ad.
Quoted from RustyLizard:$1 is the default amount to put when CL won't let you provide all the info you want in that box. Pinball machines aren't ever $1 so open the ad and read it. Price should be contained within. If no price is listed I ignore and move on.
Agree 100%
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