Am I the only one who avoids these auctions?

[Nes]

And by these auctions, I mean any that has the word "WOW" or any variant thereof in the topic. It just has the word "lame" written all over it and bidding on the items encourages such behavior.

Here's another somewhat funny exchange with an auctioner which is leading me to consider avoiding auctions with the word "rare" in the title or any that use exclamation points.

"ULTRA RARE N64 NINTENDO 64 SUPER MARIO 64 GAME MINT!!!

Dear gameguy2000,

What makes the most common N64 cartridge ever produced "ultra rare"? Is it a prototype?

"The most common games for N64 do not sell on ebay for
even $1.00 It is because this game sells for an
average of $10-$20 that it is recognized as a rare
game. Only 13% of all n64 games ever produced bring an
average of more than $10.00 when sold. Hope this
answers your question. Gene Perkins"

[suppafly]

What an asshole. LOL

[howdoin]

I do use !!! and rare in some of my auction titles because:

- Having !!! at the beginning and end of your titles makes it stand out.
- "rare" (when justified even the least- i.e. not for Mario 64) does also encourage some people to bid higher amount - Just look at the recent Resident Evil GC price jack on RE2 and 3 or the Spikeout fiasco just a month ago.

What I do care about is how the person makes its description of the item and I usually do not bid on auctions:

- selling high values items where the seller cannot provide picture.
- no description at all (e.g. : you are bidding on a used copy of Mario 64 for N64) - sorry but I want to know a little more (condition, box?, manual?...
- auctions that are too good to be true.
- people overcharging on shipping.

[imanerd0011]

I really could care less what someone says in the description of the auction, as long as the item is quality and I can get a good deal.
Some people hate it when people use "rare" or "mint", no matter if the game is rare or mint. If the game is actually somewhat rare (r6 or above), I think they should use rare in the title. If the game is in mint (no flaws at all) condition, then I think the seller should use the word mint in the title.

I don't like it however when a seller says the game is mint, and when you receive it, it looks like absolute shit.

[Griking]

I do use !!! and rare in some of my auction titles because:

- Having !!! at the beginning and end of your titles makes it stand out.

Yeah, as being annoying.


- "rare" (when justified even the least- i.e. not for Mario 64) does also encourage some people to bid higher amount

And encourages other to think you're an idiot :roll:

[MarioAllStar2600]

I do use !!! and rare in some of my auction titles because:

- Having !!! at the beginning and end of your titles makes it stand out.

Yeah, as being annoying.


- "rare" (when justified even the least- i.e. not for Mario 64) does also encourage some people to bid higher amount

And encourages other to think you're an idiot :roll:

The guy is trying to get cash here. Let him do what ever he can as long as hes being honest....
When I sell soemthing on ebay I put tons of extra stuff in the title that doesn't need to be there. There just trying to draw attention to there item, make a few more bucks.

I don't understand what the big deal is. It's annoying seeing rare next to a 2600 ET, but I am not gunna make a thread about it complaining. Or flat out call a seller who uses that to make some extra money an idiot, that's just ignorant. You my friend are the idiot.. If you were selling something you would do whatever you can to attract more people and make extra cash.

[Griking]

I do use !!! and rare in some of my auction titles because:

- Having !!! at the beginning and end of your titles makes it stand out.

Yeah, as being annoying.


- "rare" (when justified even the least- i.e. not for Mario 64) does also encourage some people to bid higher amount

And encourages other to think you're an idiot :roll:

The guy is trying to get cash here. Let him do what ever he can as long as hes being honest....
When I sell soemthing on ebay I put tons of extra stuff in the title that doesn't need to be there. There just trying to draw attention to there item, make a few more bucks.

I don't understand what the big deal is. It's annoying seeing rare next to a 2600 ET, but I am not gunna make a thread about it complaining. Or flat out call a seller who uses that to make some extra money an idiot, that's just ignorant. You my friend are the idiot.. If you were selling something you would do whatever you can to attract more people and make extra cash.


Like it or not the fact is that I DO avoid auctions with "WOW" RARE, OMG, or any other BS in the subject line. And from the looks of it, I'm not even the only one in this thread who feels this way. I'll also immediately close an auction as soon as I hear the first note of music play or see any sort of animated garbage jump across the screen. Your right, it's their auctions and they can do what they want with them but it just doesn't seem like a good business practise to annoy and chase away potential customers.

[shai hulud]

i also tend to stay away from these auctions, usually because the people that put it in there dont know what they are selling or are selling something that i dont want.


what i cant stand is when people load their item descriptions with lists of words just to get more people to stumble across their listing.

[esquire]

Personally, I don't see the sense in it all. Most of the people doing the complaining here would not even bid on these auctions in the first place (when is the last time someone here bid on a SMB/Duck Hunt, Combat, ET, etc. regardless of whether it was marked as "RARE" or "HTF"?), so why even complain about it? Because someone else may be attracted to it because of the seller's description? Why do you even care? Last time I checked, ebay has no policy against "puffing" or "inflating" an item's description. If you are so concerned about it, maybe you should petition ebay to formulate a policy against it. Otherwise, just let it go and move on to the next auction, sort of like with threads you have no interest in......wait a minute.....aw crap...too late. :/

[Nesmaster]

i also tend to stay away from these auctions, usually because the people that put it in there dont know what they are selling

which is why you wont find a rarity nestled in a lot of junk for cheap :P.

i dont care how the item is listed, as long as it has a real picture(or detailed desc.) and shipping upfront, and i want it, i may win it/throw a bid at it :)

[tylerwillis]

what i cant stand is when people load their item descriptions with lists of words just to get more people to stumble across their listing.

This is known as keyword spamming. You can report it to eBay and sometimes get their auctions cancelled and the seller threatened with suspension for further violations.

For what it's worth, I don't care if they say "rare" in the title and it's not an R7. People have different definitions of rare.
But on the different colored backgrounds, animation, music, etc... yeah that's just stupid. It also blows my mind when someone takes 10 pictures of an item at hi-res and dumps them all on the auction page - I'm on broadband and if I have to wait for a page to load because it's d/ling 3 MB of pics... that's just pathetic. Use a thumbnail and link, or just shrink the photo.

[Griking]

Personally, I don't see the sense in it all. Most of the people doing the complaining here would not even bid on these auctions in the first place (when is the last time someone here bid on a SMB/Duck Hunt, Combat, ET, etc. regardless of whether it was marked as "RARE" or "HTF"?), so why even complain about it? Because someone else may be attracted to it because of the seller's description? Why do you even care? Last time I checked, ebay has no policy against "puffing" or "inflating" an item's description. If you are so concerned about it, maybe you should petition ebay to formulate a policy against it. Otherwise, just let it go and move on to the next auction, sort of like with threads you have no interest in......wait a minute.....aw crap...too late. :/

It's annoying because at one time you were able to include the word "rare" in eBay's search engine and actually get hits for rare games. Nowadays you get 90% garbage in return because people have to say that their Super Mario cart is "WOW, OMG RARE!!!" It just makes it harder for people to easily find things that they're looking for.

This also hurts other sellers as well because now it's more difficult for them to advertise their legitimately rare games and not get caught in a spam filter. And while i'm sure that someone will soon tell me that they've perfected their search techniques to single out only truely rare games, the majority of us really don't have the time to invest into this and this ultimately leads to lower bid prices for sellers because less people can find their items.

[THXII38]

I use auction sieve to search for games I need.

I've set it to filter out wow, WOW, W@W, L@@K and MEGA RARE!

[boredashell]

i tend to avoid them too or the ones that also say L@@K i hate that for one look is not spelled with "@" symbols and second it just looks stupid. if anything make it bold or something it'll likely sell rather than putting wow or great or l@@k or watever

[crazyjackcsa]

I've used "MINT and RARE" Before, only on games that I've checked in the Rarity guide and come up as at least an R5. Or a lot of R4's I hate the ones like "Panzer Dragoon NOT Saga" that really bugs me

[Vectorman0]

They are all really annoying. I doun't discount them though, as you never know where you will find a deal, but I surely pay much less attention to them.

[Bluteg]

I can't stand when a seller list an item like "PS2 with ten games and accessories NOT Xbox Game Cube Nintendo" I swear I will not buy a really cheap BIN if it has a shitty listing like that.

[boatofcar]

"The most common games for N64 do not sell on ebay for
even $1.00 It is because this game sells for an
average of $10-$20 that it is recognized as a rare
game. Only 13% of all n64 games ever produced bring an
average of more than $10.00 when sold. Hope this
answers your question. Gene Perkins"

At least you got a well thought-out response. You can't knock his line of reasoning....after all, rarity is so often equated with desirability. I would be happy to get such a coherent response, but that's just me.

[kelma66]

so you dont think that was a complete misrepresentation then?

His response sounded like complete gibberish to me actually.
Well-thought-out gibberish is still gibberish. I would be even more offended by him trying to blow smoke up my a$$

it certainly isnt an ultra-rare game (remember, not just regular-rare but ULTRA-rare) and I dont see how quoting some baloney statistic about what other games are sometimes worth makes it rare. forphteeth percent of all people know that.

Maybe, if he wanted to convey that it was highly desirable, then that is what he should have said, along with the phrase 'common as dirt'