Came across one today selling the various 99p nukeproof chainstay protectors for £18.50, that's near double RRP, Hope rotor spacer £5.75, who the hell is gonna pay that, those Alpine stars trucker caps that were going for three quid selling them at £21.50, plenty more inflated prices, eBay seller Four seasons cycles Abingdon a total rip off merchant.
What's the problem?
Every time there's a liquidation, some of the clearance stock bought at knockdown price will be bought with the clear objective of re-selling at a profit.
Same applies to special offers - some recent examples are Karcher pro-grade pressure washers and KitchenAid food mixers and blenders which were Farmfoods specials; limited availability at prices which were way under the market.
Unsurprisingly, some were immediately listed on ebay at prices which guaranteed a profit.
It happens all the time.
You may think it's unscrupulous or objectionable; it's business.
Naming and attempting to shame just because you don't approve isn't acceptable; seller is doing nothing wrong.
No one is making you buy the stuff at those inflated prices. If you don't like the price walk away.
Why get angry over something you do not have to buy? Go ride your bike or enjoy something else. It's just the world we live in dude.
One of the early Rapha archive sales, I saw a guy just dive into a box of gloves and come out with as many as he could carry. I think they were £5/pair or something.
Within 2 days they were on eBay at £40/pair.
Rapha got wise to that quite quickly and began putting limits on how much stock could be bought.
Naming and attempting to shame just because you don’t approve isn’t acceptable; seller is doing nothing wrong.
If the seller is doing nothing wrong then naming them isn’t a problem.
who the hell is gonna pay that
Whoever chooses to, or not. Who cares?
To be fair its exactly what CRCWiggle did when they bought the (Delayed by the Suez ship?) containers of Santa Cruz frames, forks, shocks and parts, in 2021, and flipped them cheap. I am sure some of their super cheap components were spot buys and not via normal distributors. Also see Planet-X and Giro helmets
I'll be selling some 5-10s for £50 soon 😛
No ones pointing a gun at your head to buy it.
Struggling to care on the small stuff.
E.g. isn't Banana Industries (currently seemingly selling the Ragley stock) part of Dave from Planet-X's empire?
A few usefull bits annoy me, but TBH I suspect some of the resellers might get their fingers burnt on the Vitus and Nukeproof bikes. The 2nd hand market is dead so trying to sell those 'as new' Vitus hardtails for >£450 might prove difficult.
But if someone wants to buy up a hundred Vitus linkage kits for a few quid each and sell them on eBay? Mehh, saves them cluttering up my spares bin uneceserilly.
Okay for one I'm not angry I just think they're cheeky bar stewards with questionable ethics, and there is something wrong with buying stuff to sell at double RRP when stock is no longer available anywhere, it's unscrupulous. Some guy bought up all the older Nukeproof mega gear hangers making them rare as hens teeth now but at least he's not doubling the price to £40 after spending 99p each on them.
Also
noeffsgiven
Free Member
Effs clearly given.
To be expected.
In fact I will go so far as to say calling out a shop for doing it is poor form.
Where they get their stuff from is irrelevant. Now they have it they become responsible for the product they sell, so after sales, warranty etc. Additionally they have all the overheads for posting individually - I note their whole shop shows free delivery. Well that isn't ever free is it?
Don't like the price, don't buy it.
The way I see it is they are taking a risk buying the stock, got to store the parts, list, ship, customer service, ebay fees etc etc. Someone could have just bought all the stock and hoarded it in their garage. At least there are parts available to buy.
rear mech hangers, will likely be available from all the after market suppliers..
check out the Hope tech buy and sell group, lots of brand new wheels for £180-200, i've started to laugh on them,
I wonder how sellers will navigate the tax implications of selling new items at a large markup. HMRC appear to be looking to manage this more carefully but I don't know how it works in practice.
zomg - naming the retailer isn't a problem but attempting to shame them for a common business practice is, in my view, unacceptable.
I'd quite like a pair of the Crank Brothers Mallet shoes (Uk12) if anybody bought some at £28 and wants to make a little profit 🙂
I went to Tesco and it turns out they've just bought a load of stuff and are trying to sell it for more money. Disgusting.
People hate profit they can see, but that's just how many businesses work. If they ask too much no-one will buy it.
@homatron, essentially, sell more than 30 items or 1800 euros in a calendar year (from 1stjan2024) and the platform will send seller information to hmrc (from 1st Jan 2025). hence this year will be the first trial year of this process ebay have stated when you approach this limit funds may be placed on hold until you provide ebay your NI number. once self assessments are setup digitally from 2028 [?] it'll be much slicker.
tax allowance is technically £1000 income per year unless you are deemed to be trading
likely to mean more people will need to submit self assessments
But to put it a different way.
You walk into your lbs,
Have you got x?
Yes we have sir.
Excellent, you've saved my weekend riding. I really appreciate your service. Btw how much is it?
Twice RRP, sir.
Oh.
I wonder how many wouldn't see a problem in that?
Plenty regretting buying the 'cheap' XT Ebike 165mm cranks a few weeks back - loads on Ebay for what they paid for them.
Just wait until all the cheap Hope Wheelsets everyone bought start popping up on eBay.
Twice RRP, sir.
Oh.
I wonder how many wouldn’t see a problem in that?
Depends on whether it were on their shelf at twice rrp, or if they inflated the price because of how much it was needed (so save a weekend riding) at that time.
One is shop doing shop things, the other is fully taking advantage of a desperate buyer.
But to put it a different way.
You walk into your lbs,
Have you got x?
Yes we have sir.
Excellent, you’ve saved my weekend riding. I really appreciate your service. Btw how much is it?
Twice RRP, sir.
Oh.
I wonder how many wouldn’t see a problem in that?
Has this ever happened?
Basic supply and demand economics in a free(ish) market economy ; the RRP is meaningless. We're quite happy to pay half the RRP so once in a while it's a bit more. Some you win, some you lose.
Just wait until all the cheap Hope Wheelsets everyone bought start popping up on eBay.
They are already there. I'm just going out means that the other second hand wheelsets go cheap now
nealcFree Member
But to put it a different way.You walk into your lbs,
Have you got x?
Yes we have sir.
Excellent, you’ve saved my weekend riding. I really appreciate your service. Btw how much is it?
Twice RRP, sir.
Oh.
I wonder how many wouldn’t see a problem in that?
See also Motorway services, airport departure lounges, festivals/gigs/any large event etc etc the list is large. 🤷♂️
Supply and demand/captive market innit.
This is all an ultra-cunning stealth ad, right? 🙂
Meanwhile, I'm still sore at those unscrupulous barstewards who bought up Picasso paintings when they were cheap back in the 1930s and are now selling them off for millions...
The problem is we should all care, just like ticket touts buying up all the tickets to resell for profit these people all potentially stopped someone from buying and using the item as expected. This kind of profiteering only harms which ever industry it occurs in. Note I don't have an issue with arbitrage but this isn't that
I've no issues with bulkbuy eBay business selling on stock, the prices will be over inflated as they have to take on the stock, store and be prepared for a slow sell.
FB marketplace being flooded with 5-10's when the 'sale' stock @ Frazers is still available pisses me off a little.
Life's not fair.
That's what I keep reminding my kids. Same applies here.
I want there are people would take the same attitude if somebody went into their local Sainsbury's and bought up all of the meat, eggs, cheese, flour, etc. And stood outside selling it for twice the retail price....
Yes you could go to another supermarket but imagine if a gang of people did exactly the same thing at all of the supermarkets that you could visit to get to. Not adding any value to the process. Just taking a profit..
There is a very fine line between the capitalism and this
Thing is Sainsbury's will refill the stock, making that investment worthless. CRC won't be.
All the remaining CRC/wiggle stock could be sold by the administrator to one buyer who could do the same thing and stick it all on eBay. The buyer just takes on the element of risk and reward as well as selling fees and increases prices accordingly.
I want there are people would take the same attitude if somebody went into their local Sainsbury’s and bought up all of the meat, eggs, cheese, flour, etc. And stood outside selling it for twice the retail price….
I would primarily be concerned for their sanity tbh... it sounds like a poor business model.
Bit of a silly example; supermarkets would immediately apply quantity limits and there are legal/licensing requirements to be considered.
Do you have any more realistic hypotheticals?
What point are you trying to make?
Agree with op.
Happy they're named and shamed.
Will avoid them if possible in future.
As bad as ticket touts.
Bare in mind that hope space is free postage, that puts it at the same level price wise as 99% of shops on the internet 🙄
I want there are people would take the same attitude if somebody went into their local Sainsbury’s and bought up all of the meat, eggs, cheese, flour, etc. And stood outside selling it for twice the retail price….
Yes you could go to another supermarket but imagine if a gang of people did exactly the same thing at all of the supermarkets that you could visit to get to. Not adding any value to the process. Just taking a profit..
What about if 5 or 6 people went round all the farms buying up the food, then selling it in their own shops for a profit?
Not only could they charge whatever they liked for the produce, they could mandate to the farmers and producers what they were prepared to pay in order to drive down the price paid to unaffordable levels.
99p nukeproof chainstay protectors for £18.50, that’s near double RRP, Hope rotor spacer £5.75, who the hell is gonna pay that, those Alpine stars trucker caps that were going for three quid selling them at £21.50, plenty more inflated prices
functionally similar items are available elsewhere from other retailers for you to purchase, there is no obligation to purchase from this ebayer. To my mind, not profiteering, merely taking their chance in the free market.
(paying tax on their income, a separate issue)
Profiteering in the bike industry is speccing an unobtainable and uncopyable wear or consumable part, and then charging a ridiculous amount as you know users have no choice.
Or if you had every 27.5 inch mtb tyre in the country, in your garage. then charging £500 a tyre, as you know the only alternative for the user is getting a new bike.
What if someone bought up all the righteous indignation on this thread then sold it on eBay at massively inflated prices along with a selection of contrived theoretical scenarios with not very much grounding in any sort of reality? I for one would be furious... 😉
Bunch of cry babies in here. How is what this shop doing any different than CRC? CRC probably able to manufacture those items for pennies and sell them on for good profit. This shop takes a risk in buying the stock. Makes it available for people to buy. Means you don't have to hold onto these parts yourself for something you might not even need anyway! Besides all the prices include shipping. On some websites you think you're getting a good price only for them to charge £5 for something that can get posted in a large letter making the price higher than what he is charging anyway! Not forgetting the 12%?? eBay fees and then the buyer is always right guarantee. Shipping supplies to actually post the item in. All adds up.
I bought an NS Bikes frame from CRC a few weeks back dirt cheap. There are used frames on pinkbike/ebay etc for far more than what I paid... Was going to build it up but realistically I don't think I'll ride it so send it back vs flog it for a decent potential profit on eBay... No brainer surely.
It's a lot better the Nukeproof/Vitus spares are available on eBay even if at inflated prices than in a skip, headed for landfill. One way, they're there if anyone ever needs them without having to buy it "just in case" and the other , they're gone forever and you're looking at getting that bit made as a one off at vastly more than it it costs off the eBay seller and probably at inferior quality because it's been reverse engineered from an old part. Either that or it's very expensive new fame time.
I doubt he's selling to those that have followed the Chiggle story. They'll have mostly invested already if needed. It'll be the unaware who are just happy they've found the part they're after.
I'd be interested to know when he starts to see a profit.
Selling on eBay is not what it once was anyway so that £20 will soon look like £10.
