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Scalping or fair deals?

We all know that an item is worth only as little or as much as someone is prepared to pay and, on that basis, auction sites would seem to be the best way to sell something for the fairest price.

However, there are occasions when you really have to wonder whether the prices being asked, and sometimes obtained, are more than slightly out of whack with commonsense.

Here is the perfect example of an optimist when it comes to setting a start-price for your item.

I wonder how many Apple Mac fans will rush to snap up that baby?

Somehow I think bids will be few and far between -- in fact the computer in question has already been listed earlier this week and was passed in without any bids being registered.

Is an early-model MacIntosh really that valuable?

Apparently there were about 200 of these machines made in the same batch as this one, which means that although it may be a rarity, it's by no means unique.

Worth US$99,995? Not to me and, I suspect, not to anyone except perhaps the seller.

Then there was a Raspberry Pi from the first batch which has sold on UK eBay for the princely sum of 205 quid -- that's nearly seven times the retail price!

Clearly someone was willing to pay a heap of money to get their Pi a few months before supplies become more abundant.

Closer to home there are plenty who chance their arm on our own auction website TradeMe...

Take this example for instance. Is this a product worth $295 (the buy-now was $325)?

Based on the bids registered (ie: none), clearly not. In fact, here is that very same product which can be had for US$53 plus shipping -- which makes the total price around NZ$95 to your door.

So clearly, just as with concert tickets, there are plenty of folks out there who are keen to buy-low and sell-high. What is surprising is that in some cases (such as the Raspberry Pi), there are also people who will pay outrageous prices for these "deals".

I wonder how much these would/will sell for on eBay once they're hauled up and restored. Now that's something I would be interested in bidding on, if I could afford it.

Readers are invited to share the best/worst deals they've seen recently on auction sites or the web in general. Any shockers you'd like to mention?

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