I've all too often seen items sell over the original retail price, and these items are often readily available. For items with different prices at various retailers, many sellers name the highest price as the "retail price," include tax in their retail price quote, or simply make up an MSRP. Ebay sellers are NOT the only ones guilty of this. Some websites like overstock . com have some very wild MSRP's as well (once overstock had a PREowned Cartier love bracelet in gold --buy new in Cartier stores for $3000 -- and listed it as "Compare at "$5500"! If you don't believe me, google: "cartier love bracelet" overstock). Another recent example: Bluefly listed the balenciaga day as $1295 MSRP, bluefly price: $996, when in reality the MSRP is $995!)

Items whose original retail prices are most commonly inflated:

• Jewelry: 

• Diamond Jewelry, especially, is prone to outrageous MSRP's claimed by the seller. I've seen a seller claim his blue diamond solitaire was worth $300 in stores, only to revise it to $1100 and $1800 in the span of weeks. (I was watching the item, and each time he relisted, the MSRP would go up.) A good place to get a sense of a real retail price is bluenile . com
  
• Designer Jewelry, especially designers who have several lines. For example, Judith Ripka has 3 jewelry lines, Couture, JR2, and QVC. A couture ring is in the $5000 range, JR2 in the $1000 range, and a QVC ring is in the $100 range. Some sellers try to pass off a lower priced item as one in the higher tier.  Another thing is many designers have the same design in different metals, sometimes with an extra diamond and the prices are drastically different.
  
• Watches. I feel like the sellers in this category are just making up MSRP's. Don't get me wrong. Once you get to know a seller, you're the better judge.Yes, often a certain model watch comes with many different prices depending on metal, material of watch face, and accessory diamonds, but please do not take for granted that you are getting a deal. A good place to get actual retail prices is tourneau . com
  

• Handbags:

• Seasonal/LE bags: Louis Vuitton handbags have their prices up at Eluxury . com and at Louisvuitton . com so there is not so much of an issue there. The issue is with the limited edition bags. I have seen messages like "Croc LV cherry bag, bought for $9k" when in reality the bag sold for around $5k. Please go to forum . purseblog . com for great people to verify info with.
  
• For your reference, some handbag prices as of 6/9/2008 (few months after price increase for Chanel, and a 2  months after price increase for LV, month after price increase for Balenciaga so should stay a while. Balenciaga recently started to offer online shopping within the US, so you can go to balenciaga . com for prices.
• Louis Vuitton
• Speedy 25, 30 in monogram canvas or damier or damier azur, respectively: $660, $685
• Speedy 30 mini-lin: $745
  
• Speedy 25, 30 epi, respectively: $955, $1000
• Speedy 30, mini-lin croisette: $810
• Speedy 35, 40 monogram: $710, $735
• Multicolore speedy 30: $2170
  
• Neverfull PM, MM, GM respectively: $635, $685, $735
• Gallieria PM: $1220
  
• Nimbus PM, GM respectively: $2100, $2760
• Palermo PM, GM respectively: $1050, $1300
• Manhattan PM, GM respectively: $1620, $2100
• Pochette Accessoires: $315
  
• Chanel
• Classic flap S,M,Jumbo respectively: $2295, $2395, $2650  ($100 more for lambskin)
• Reissue 2.55
• 224 $1795
• 225 $2250
  
• 226 $2695
• 227 $2850
  
• 228 $3495
  
• Balenciaga
• City, regular hardware: $1295
• City, giant hardware: $1595
• Office (work), regular hardware: $1495
• Office (work), giant hardware: $1725

• Electronics

• Game systems: Actually US prices are following
  
• Wii $249.99
• PS3: 40gb model: $399.99, 80gb model $499.99, 60gb (discontinued and has better backwards compatibility so may sell for more): $499.99
• Xbox 360: Arcade console: $299.99, Premium console: $399.99
  
• Games for the above consoles are ever-changing in price, so look them up. Amazon is a good place to look up these prices.