My thoughts on this....these items in the BB Auction are the same items being auctioned off on many other auction sites at the exact same time. They are definitely taking advantage of the low starting prices to entice people to bid.
I've bid (and won) on a few items. I won a really nice bass 10" Klipsch. Brand new. My winning bid was $100. With shipping I think it came to $150. Not a bad deal for that bass.
I also won a George iPod Docking Remote Control Stereo/Charging System for my daughter. I looked all over the place. Found them consistently for $250 and not below. This was back in September, 2010. Things could easily have changed as we all know they do with electronics prices. It cost me $130.
While I was bidding on these items I was checking out the other bidders. They were bidding and buying every single one of those items they could possibly lay their hands on. They were immediately flipping them to ebay. They reminded me of a businessman called a jobber. These were guys/gals who went to closeout or failing businesses and offering them, for instance, $.10 cents on the dollar for buyout value. They in turn just flip the goods to someone looking for a good deal. Similar to the proverbial stereo that 'fell off the truck'. Not stolen, but cost wise they stole it from BB for cheap.
Now this is where they can get away with this. Their accounts are in good standing, and they will bid just a bit more than the average guy will bid who wants to get the item for a steal. Once the steal is no longer available and you stop bidding, he's able to go one bid higher and still get the goods for a price he can flip it for. Sometimes he does great and buys real low, other times he pays more, but the average price he pays falls into the 'stolen' category, where we'd all like to pay those prices every day of the week.
I was getting so freakin' pissed off that I couldn't get what I wanted, I played the spoiler and just bid on numerous items against those guys to bump up the price for them.....I never got stuck buying any item I didn't want.....but be careful, because I could have had to 'eat' my high bid. I just wanted him to make less money because it felt like he was doing his $hit to me directly. I know he had to get pissed at me too.
Anyway, I got the two things I was looking for. My Klipsch Bass and George iPod Docking Stereo for my daughter. I saved a bundle of money, but it did cost me time in research and learning, and effort to do all the bidding when I finally decided what I wanted to bid on.
Lesson.....due diligence, and due diligence real thoroughly because you can easily pay MORE than retail if you don't know what you're doing. However, with good research and doing your homework, you can score some sweet things.
Have patience
Russ
