Tired of people tossing around the word "Rare"

Post by **peace4myheart** » Fri Jun 20, 2008 12:31 pm

Anayo wrote:Good grief I agree! I'm halfway tempted to email these people and say something sarcastic about just how COMMON some of these "rare" items are. If it's rare, the bids will reflect that fact accordingly, this wishful thinking of labeling everything "rare" doesn't make a lick of difference.

This reminds me of another eBay anecdote of mine. I saw this guy selling a Sega Saturn and the title said, "ALSO PLAYS GENESIS GAMES!" The description said something to the effect of, "I'm including Sonic 2, since the Saturn has a cartridge slot on it for Genesis games." I emailed him and said, "Did you have any luck getting Sonic 2 to fit inside the slot?" He never emailed me back, but I'd sure like to have seen the look on his face when he tried.

I did that a couple of times but decided to stop because I don't want people to thinkn I am anal. Besides, most sellers wouldn't email me back and it probably wouldn't change anything. The most recent email was to someone selling Marvel vs Capcom 1 and 2 for Dreamcast with a 250 dollars starting price. I emailed the seller asking him/her if the price was a mistake when others were listing the games under 20 dollars. He said that the price was correct because those games are really RARE. I wonder if it was ignorance on his part or if he is just trying to get some foolish buyer to bite on his auction.

Post by **pompeyparsons** » Fri Jun 20, 2008 3:19 pm

It's pretty dumb, so many listings especially on eBay include the term RARE, and I doubt it increases sale price at all. I hardly ever use the term rare myself. I just don't see the point. It's not like "rare" in the heading is going to help people find your game either.

Post by **ott0bot** » Fri Jun 20, 2008 3:23 pm

pompeyparsons wrote:It's pretty dumb, so many listings especially on eBay include the term RARE, and I doubt it increases at all. I hardly ever use the term rare myself. I just don't see the point. It's not like "rare" in the heading is going to help people find your game either.

I know!!! Seriously, if you search for something on e-bay and there are more than 5 auctions, it's probably not rare!!! It may be expensive and in demand, but rare? I think Final Fantasy 7 is the biggest example. It's not rare, it's just in demand and people generally don't want to sell it, so when they do it goes for a decent price.

Post by **Scooter** » Fri Jun 20, 2008 3:26 pm

peace4myheart wrote:It's just a ploy to make people think the item is rare, if people are foolish enough to believe it. It's all about how much the seller can rip you off and how much you are willing to pay. Hope people do some research about the game and price before buying.

Well, there's the major flaw in their logic then. Anyone who would be interested in the item would already KNOW if it is rare or not and won't be convinced to pay "rare" prices for a common item.

I'm still trying to figure out why my local used game store still has Dreamcast and Genesis games priced for anything over $5. There are a few "rare" exceptions, but most of the games are either not rare or are not desireable. They could sure sell a whole lot more of them if they priced them accordingly. Their price stickers reflect the date the game was brought into inventory and I can tell you, many of them have been there a looooong time. Better to get $5 now than $15 never.

Post by **opticledilusi0n** » Fri Jun 20, 2008 4:00 pm

it's kinda of like how people use JDM haphazardly on ebay or even company names for something that is obviously not ... such as a listing I saw for a "RARE JDM HKS GREDDY ZEROSPORT PERRIN STYLE" so and so

not only is the piece not rare, it was also not released for the japanese domestic market, and it doesn't resemble anything on any of those companys' product lines .

Post by **RackGaki** » Fri Jun 20, 2008 5:53 pm

opticledilusi0n wrote:it's kinda of like how people use JDM haphazardly on ebay or even company names for something that is obviously not ... such as a listing I saw for a "RARE JDM HKS GREDDY ZEROSPORT PERRIN STYLE" so and so

not only is the piece not rare, it was also not released for the japanese domestic market, and it doesn't resemble anything on any of those companys' product lines .

Car parts on eBay are some of the worst offenders for mismatched titles. I don't buy anything related to cars on eBay as a result... craigslist is a much better bet. "JDM tyte rare Greedy exhaust" my ass.

Scooter mentioned overpriced video games - I have a local electronics pawn shop that prices their stuff ridiculously high. Like, 50% markup over eBay high. A Link To The Past will cost you $30, cartridge only, as will Super Mario All Stars. Don't even ask about their "super rare" copy of a Chrono Trigger cartridge for $80... probably gave the seller $7, if that.

Post by **jjgames** » Sat Jun 21, 2008 10:18 am

Haha, this is a pet peeve of mine. I don't understand it either.

I don't think people search ebay for "rare nintendo 64" just to see a list of rare games and I don't think someone who searches for "ET" for Atari will buy the one that says "rare" when all the others don't.

Post by **Haoie** » Sat Jun 21, 2008 9:12 pm

This happens a lot too, on Trademe [NZ's biggest/best auction site].

Rare is used on the most common games. It gets annoying, but I learn to ignore them.

Post by **Kevman** » Sat Jun 21, 2008 9:27 pm

Too bad it's not on there anymore, but there was an eBay item with a SNES catridge with the label ripped off and a question mark written with sharpie. The description was hilarious, he claimed that if you owned it the FBI would come to your house and it might be a Chrono Trigger 2 proto and nonsense like that. Obviously a scam.

The sadest part is people who don't know better fall for this type of crap, like when the xbox 360 first came out people were selling "pictures" of the xbox and people were thinking it was an actual system because they didn't read the fine print.