Thread: Sniped...

Guys I gotta tell you If I know you want it and I don't really care about it I am more than willing to step aside. But if its something I want or need don't think that just because another member is bidding on it I won't. I mean ebays all about who willing to pay the most. And expecting someone to step aside just because your bidding is silly.

Originally Posted by Dephunct101

Byron,
Is there a way to go about setting up a new forum in which members can simply make it be known that they are really after an item and would appreciate other members not bid? I mean just to simplify the whole process so members know who's after what...and make things cheaper for everyone trying to score on ebay. I know I could just start a thread in this forum but it could get burried...so does anyone else think this is a good idea? or am I alone on this one?

Really there is no way to make sure other's won't bid against you... if I can get a NOS Dorko for $30 I'm gonna bid against you for it And I'd bid against most other people here for the same.

That said in the chat we do tend to share a lot of what we're going after and what our minimum price is, I usually tell people to atch an item and if it goes over my max bit it's fair game (usually done with the badly listed items that wouldn't have been found otherwise.)

All in all the free market is great, I'm not gonna pass up on a great deal because someone else wants it, no matter how close they are to me. On the other hand I often hold the razors I'm bidding on very lose to the vest so others won't find them.

yep - don't expect that others won't bid against you. i pulled out of bidding on the dorko, because i knew i've got no chance agains byron's bid (i wasn't willing to go to 250) and I didn't care of making him spend all his money (and thus have less for further bids). I didn't expect that it'll go for 130 - there are a lot of people outside of SRP that bid on these things. I just thought i'd bail out of it as many others did, as he was gonna win anyways and I didn't mind him spending less.

Originally Posted by ByronTodd

I only take issue with this statement - about other members sniping you.

For one thing, with the new ebay security measures, you have no idea who has bid or where they are in the bidding - it shows that stupid b***d for the names.

Two, as gentlemanly as SRP is, you can't expect that all 4000+ members to check to see if they're bidding against you. The truth is that they probably are.


One, if you really want something, snipe higher than you think it will sell for (and at the price you are willing to pay).

Two, take the risk of letting other SRP members know that you are wanting that razor, tell them how much you want it (what you would snipe for).

I'm willing to bet that you'll get it for less than you thought or sniped because of the gentlemen of SRP.

Byron

Byron, with all due respect, I'm referring to ancient history here, (I've been a member a LOOOOONG time, since before this site existed... do a search for jpfaster1 on the old yahoo site-and you'll no doubt see some of my first posts with complaints very similar to the OP-) and times were different. I've had exactly what I referred to occur. It was good natured ribbing, of course, but no one is going to *let* you have anything they *really* want.
If I do know someone is a member, I will often contact them; after all, it's a bit ungentlemanly (I think) to make someone pay their max price if I snipe just a bit under. I'm all for bidding at the get-go my max price-if it's not much. If we are dealing in wonderedges and the like-it makes more sense to snipe that amount. Otherwise, all an early bid of a maximum price does-is make sure you pay that amount.
Unless you are bidding on something nobody else wants.

Wonderedges, Friodurs, etc etc are not such animals.
Times do change. Wonderedges were going for $35.00 when I got into this mess, but (typical) I wanted none of them, vehemently defended my Simco and Dovo (which used not to be so popular...) and went after W&B choppers.
To each his own I guess.

If you know someone specifically wants a razor you are interested in, I would recommend that instead of listing it on the forum (other people peruse our posts also, some with REALLY deep pockets) that you PM that person; if they want it more, it can be settled before either of you pay through the nose for the thing. Otherwise, it's a good bet that NEITHER of you will win it.
Have fun and good luck.
*you could also just buy a razor or two from members* I've bought a few from Lynn, John Crowley, Dave Wessel and others...never regretted any of them.


John P.


edit: just saw your post, Gugi, it is exactly what I've been rambling to say. I agree. In fact, I recently won a razor that Robert was looking at, after PM ing him about it. I guess I wanted it more, but since I knew he was a member I didn't want to drive his price up.

Originally Posted by JohnP

If I do know someone is a member, I will often contact them; after all, it's a bit ungentlemanly (I think) to make someone pay their max price if I snipe just a bit under.

+1 for that. And I'd like to add that Byron is always quite upfront in the chat on what he's going after and what his max bid is, as exhibited by gugi's post.

Sadly with the new ebay rules we don't know who we're bidding against and will have to revert to more outside discussion of prices. It will probably result in higher prices as auctions will be more visible and some things that would have previously gone under the radar to be brought into full light. Good for ebay, bad for us IMO. But I do stand by informing the friends you learn and work with of your intentions.

JohnP,

Gotcha. I guess what I was trying to say is that part about 4000+ members and with ebay security measures, there's just no way to tell who is bidding. I guess I was taking issue with the "member gloating" part. I would have stated that they were showing off what they got - whether or not they actually intended to gloat at the person(s) who lost.

That said, I told people (about the dorko) in the chat channel and usually as a PM. Further, I backed it up. I did snipe at $301.99 - here's an image from myibay.com which I use to snipe: http://img81.imageshack.us/my.php?image=snipesaw3.jpg

And as I told everyone whom I PM'd: my intention was not to keep them from bidding, my intention was to find out if they were bidding more than I - if so, I would not have sniped at all. I did not ask anyone to not bid. I did not tell them "stay away" and I guess I trusted them that they would not snipe just below my snipe. That trust paid off.

I like ebay in general, but tend to hate it if there's something I want on it. See, the problem with ebay is that the value of something is not just determined by its "intrinsic" worth as a razor, say, but by how much someone else, whom you don't know and have never met before, values it. The value of the razor is one thing - the value that someone else places on it is sometimes quite another.

So you might value a particular razor, not unreasonably, at $60 dollars, put a max.bid on it of $80 (just to be sure), and then discover that someone from the Antipodes valued it at $350 because their great uncle once performed an emergency tracheotomy on the Prime Minister of Australia with one of the same type during the great flood of '62. On his deathbed he charged his great-nephew to find that razor (a map to the greatest treasure Australia has ever seen - a thanks from a grateful Prime Minister - is coded into the scales) and you, poor bugger, simply got in the way of a 20-year quest across 5 continents and involving a bevy of beautiful, but sinister, femme fatales from a rival family bent on avenging a 6-generation feud.....

Next time you bid, think about that....


James.

I could try to defend the reasoning behind what I proposed, but I feel I should just stop posting at this point. You know that guy in your group of friends that says " how about we ...(fill in the blank with some bad idea)?" and every makes a face and just turns and looks at him and someone says "how about we not"...
well I'm apparently that guy in this forum....

Even though that may be one way to look at it, I'm pretty sure there have been plenty of us who have thought the same thing when we've kept being outbid. Plus we've talked about this stuff many times that we've already essentially reached a consensus on the matter. I think you've done a great service to all the new frustrated members by letting the rest of us sound all smart and all knowing

I think eventually everybody gets few good razors and stops worrying too much about the razors that we've missed. I am very happy to say that my best razors and my best deals I have gotten not on ebay, but from SRP members.

Of course I've got my share of great deals that I may have missed on, but there are plenty of good ones I've gotten too and I've been at this just about 6 months.
As long as we're having fun I think we're doing fine.

Prices have risen but I remember a few years ago when I might have had RAD, which never infested me, when a guy on Ebay was a collector. I forget his name. This guy was very wealthy and he bid $1000 on every razor on Ebay. He would win every razor and then throw it into his collection. He had endless amounts of money. The only reason any of us are winning any razors today is because he lost interest. Either that or the ricin powder I shook all over the one razor I sold on Ebay.