Wednesday, November 04, 2009

Puzzlement

The Dancer has started taking violin lessons at school this year, and she seems to be enjoying it, so I want to get a violin for her American Girl doll for Christmas. I may not like the direction the company is going, but I must admit the products they make for the dolls are lovely. Other stores for 18" dolls offer a violin, bow and case. American Girl's set also includes a pretend block of rosin, two music books and a music stand. I thought about checking out eBay to see what I could get there. Oddly enough, incomplete sets are going for only a dollar or two less than you can buy the set for from American Girl. What's up with that? Granted, the last auction I watched *said* that the set was no longer available in stores, but a quick check of American Girl's online shop would refute that. Back in the old days when bulletin boards reigned, people would buy things from stores and sell them online for a profit, with the argument that some people didn't have a Wal-Mart or a Target close by. Nowadays when you can get everything online, I don't understand why people are willing to pay so close to retail for sets that don't even have all the pieces. Do people not search online, or do they not want to buy directly from American Girl? Those are my only two thoughts.

3 comments:

Pauli said...

Barb, it simply doesn't make any sense. People bid things up because they never learned how to bid at an auction. Wbay has become the worst place to buy certain things for that very reason.

Elephantschild said...

Yep. People get caught up in the competitiveness of bidding and don't stop when the price approaches the new, store price.

Either that, or people are just that stupid. Which is possible, sadly. I see it happen on eBay all the time.

Barb the Evil Genius said...

I suppose some people are stupid. Maybe I'm jealous of people who can spend money without worrying about overpaying. Too bad I don't know a better place to get second-hand American Girl stuff than eBay.