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Price Gougers on Ebay taking advantage of lockdown

SuperStroke
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hughwp

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Has anyone noticed the huge hick in prices for used golf clubs on ebay during lockdown taking advantage of the boom in people playing golf working from home or on Furlough.
People are asking £300 for a 20yr old set of Irons you could have picked up for £50 a few years ago at an auction on ebay

Has anyone else noticed this or is it just in the UK?
 
Sold set of irons for 200 aud , didn’t even make eBay , but the demand worldwide is quite strong for golf gear and manufactures have delays with manufacturing hence the used market mark up .
 
Seems everywhere with the influx of new golfers.
 
At least you can actually find a push cart (trolley) for sale in retail stores now. There were a two guys in my club who had their push carts break down last Spring. One of them went on eBay and paid nearly 2x the retail price for one and the other guy used a borrowed one for six months until the pro shop could finally source them again from the manufacturer.

My SM SpeedCart is several years old and been pretty heavily used. The front wheel axle thingy has gotten pretty wobbly and I was paranoid it might die on my during the Great Push Cart Shortage Of 2020-2021 but the situation seems to be resolving somewhat now (at least in USA).
 
You should have seen exercise equipment last year.

Supply and demand can be a**holes.
 
I’ve noticed a little uptick in eBay prices but nothing crazy. I definitely watch clubs I am interested in and can still test clubs at break even and or flip them even for a little profit. For example paid $380 for a set of used G400 irons and sold them 3 weeks later for $480.

Amazing what a new set of $20 grips and a little touch up on the paint fill can do for value.
 
Tywithay said:
Used market value is based on what someone is willing to pay, not necessarily the actual value. If I can sell a set for 5x as much, and someone will actually pay it, I'd do it too.
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Agreed.
If people are willing to pay a price for something that essentially sets the new market value.

my wife is a big fan of Rae Dunn items to decorate the house with. Items that cost say $14 at Marshals routinely go for $40+ on eBay. I know I’ve paid the premium to find a piece for her.

in my mind that lady who makes that stuff has undervalued her products.

One of the Marshals employees told my wife ladies sit outside waiting for the store to open to buy all the Rae Dunn stuff that comes in so they can resell it.
 
I mean, good for them, no? The goal is to make a profit for sellers on there, and they definitely are right now. Strike while the iron is hot.
 
The last few years my morning cereal has been Grape Nuts Flakes. Last year that particular product vanished from the shelves as soon as the whole COVID panic started so I had to switch to something else. But for a while you could order Grape Nuts Flakes from a few sellers on Amazon. At one point the prices got up to nearly $100 a box. I mean it's an OK cereal but c'mon who can get $50 or $75 worth of good out of a box of cereal that only has like a dozen breakfasts in it?
 
Jman said:
I mean, good for them, no? The goal is to make a profit for sellers on there, and they definitely are right now. Strike while the iron is hot.
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I see what you did there:cool:
 
There will always be those that work the economy and milk the consumers for everything they can. IMO it borders on various levels of dishonesty, but then that is simply my opinion and I am sure many would disagree with that. We, the consumers, are ultimately the ones that must decide whether or not to pay the prices.
 
hughwp said:
Has anyone noticed the huge hick in prices for used golf clubs on ebay during lockdown taking advantage of the boom in people playing golf working from home or on Furlough.
People are asking £300 for a 20yr old set of Irons you could have picked up for £50 a few years ago at an auction on ebay

Has anyone else noticed this or is it just in the UK?
Click to expand...
Laws of supply and demand?? People are also looking to make money when they are out of work so buyer beware when purchasing used equipment.

I am guessing you haven't looked at how much the cost of Weight equipment skyrocketed during the lockdown.
 
I also think alot of it is because so many OEM's are backed up right now that eBay is the place to go for wanting something immediately
 
PatsFan said:
Laws of supply and demand?? People are also looking to make money when they are out of work so buyer beware when purchasing used equipment.

I am guessing you haven't looked at how much the cost of Weight equipment skyrocketed during the lockdown.
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Or lumber, or appliances, or pretty much anything else. You nailed it, supply and demand.
 
It's not price gouging if people will pay it. Just because it's not worth it to you does not mean it's priced too high. It means you aren't going to buy it.
 
I work for a retail Branch on the Government. Last year was crazy for sure and there were Manufacturers of food products that cut thier product availability as the people who work there fell ill, ingredients they used were unavailable, many reasons. Major food suppliers were offering only a small portion of their product line to curb production as they were hurting for people just like everyone else.
We were told that as the Government Extended the time line for unemployment to be available to workers, the workers were staying home and collecting instead of going back when it was available to work.
 
erock9174 said:
Agreed.
If people are willing to pay a price for something that essentially sets the new market value.

my wife is a big fan of Rae Dunn items to decorate the house with. Items that cost say $14 at Marshals routinely go for $40+ on eBay. I know I’ve paid the premium to find a piece for her.

in my mind that lady who makes that stuff has undervalued her products.

One of the Marshals employees told my wife ladies sit outside waiting for the store to open to buy all the Rae Dunn stuff that comes in so they can resell it.
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Until your post I'd never heard of Rae Dunn... out of curiosity I went to their website. The stuff looks handmade.
 
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Scorpion12 said:
Until your post I'd never heard of Rae Dunn... out of curiosity I went to their website. The stuff looks handmade.
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I’m not positive of their manufacturing process. All the stuff my wife gets is usually the clay pottery looking type. Coffee mugs, canisters, butter dish etc.
 
I'm not sure I'd put golf clubs in the category of price gouging. It's taking advantage of the increase in demand to make more money for a hobby/pleasure item. That's simple economics. IMO price gouging is more when someone does this with something that's a necessity. Like the a-holes who went around buying clearing out stores of tp and hand sanitizer with the express goal of artificially creating a shortage then selling it online.

The bump in the market was nice though. The used club market has been horrible for sellers for the last decade. It was a bit of a throwback to actually get a decent return on used clubs. It used to be a lot more fun to buy/sell used clubs as you could try a lot of things without losing a lot of money. Between used prices cratering and shipping costs skyrocketing, became a different ballgame.
 
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I keep looking for every reason not to use Ebay to sell clubs. Their new payment system (not using Paypal) is a joke to me. Not that it doesn't work, but that it takes so long to process.

I guess maybe I should sell there if prices are that high.
 
mantan said:
I'm not sure I'd put golf clubs in the category of price gouging. It's taking advantage of the increase in demand to make more money for a hobby/pleasure item. That's simple economics. IMO price gouging is more when someone does this with something that's a necessity. Like the a-holes who went around buying clearing out stores of tp and hand sanitizer with the express goal of artificially creating a shortage then selling it online.
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This 100%. It's actually nice to see used golf equipment go up some. Hell, if I pay full retail for clubs and hit them on the range one time, I am going to take a loss on those clubs. Don't know how this is an issue when people are bidding on these items. Seems that only insanely rare golf stuff (circle Ts, Swag etc) go for over retail anyways. Selling anything golf related reminds me of computers/phones as there is always something new and you can never get back what you paid. Also, Ebay takes like 10% plus almost 3% payment fees and then the seller has to ship.
 
Nappy said:
I keep looking for every reason not to use Ebay to sell clubs. Their new payment system (not using Paypal) is a joke to me. Not that it doesn't work, but that it takes so long to process.

I guess maybe I should sell there if prices are that high.
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I don't like that they won't use paypal anymore. It's stupid.
 
I am in the camp of get what you can for your gear. If people are willing to pay more for it, good for me. No one is forcing them to buy it.
 
I look at pricing from 2nd Swing for used equipment and in some instances, you can buy a new one for $10 more.
Makes me scratch my head a little bit.
 
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