While I have to agree, people bidding on e-bay may be crazy, I've found lots of reasons people go higher than what you or I could get it for.
Lots of this is the macho 'nobody out bids me' or the 'didn't do the research' or even the common 'thought it was the next model up' bidding.
However, there are some legitimate reasons for 'over bidding'.
As mentioned before, some countries, such as Canada, put tariffs, surcharges, etc. on 'new' stuff bought from vendors, thus buying used saves 10-80%. I've sold to people on those terms, shipping as used, and having to mark it as such.
Another interesting reason to not buy from retail vendors that I've seen a LOT is no credit card. You can't buy from many new item vendors unless you have a credit card.
Some are now taking paypal, which still is not available to a lot of people
. Most vendors on e-bay take money orders.
As an example, try to buy from Sears on E-bay. Master or Visa only.
So if you don't have those two cards, you pay more from the scratch and ding who take paypal or a money order.
I sold a number of car parts to people who had no paypal, no credit card, etc. They pay with cheap money orders.
So they get it from vendors on e-bay, or they don't get it. Being poor costs more...
