Winning on Ebay

Guys, especially new guys, Winning on Ebay is not rocket science, You can place your maxium bid and be done with it, and say, "That's it" I'm not bidding any higher" or you can wait until last minute, the smart way to win. There are actually sniping programs that will get your bid in with seconds to spare if you have no other tools. What I see and is just ridiculous is bidding up items with 5 days left in the aucton. The only one that wins is the seller. Why jack up an item. If you don't want to put the item in your watch list, then place a bid, any bid, Don't jack up the price of a normally 100 dollar item to 300 dollars. It's stupid. Bid Smart. Me, personally, if I see an item I want, I'll get it. I'll wait until last minute and bid what ever it takes to win it. But, I will not get into a bidding war with someone 5 days out.
The best place to buy IMO is the classifieds. I've seen razors worth maybe 75 bucks go for 300 bucks.
I'm thinking, Man, You could buy a Livi NOS or somthing nice. To top it all off, It's so hard to tell from PICS in EBay, I guess as long as you use Paypal you can get your money back. Anyway, What I'm trying to say is, If you bid on EBay as many of us do, Don't jack up the bidding 5 days out, We all lose..

Is there a particular item that prompted this? I don't spend much time on ebay so I'm curious.
But bidding wars is just part of ebay - it will always happen even if all srp members only snipe.
Once I read something about the psychology of various bidders on ebay, seemed to make sense.

If I was to guess I would say that this is the one.

Item number: 250382888328

No, Not one particular item. This is common place on Ebay as Gugi said. I usually look for particular sellers. I don't understand it, no matter what it is, why people bid things up with 7 days to go. it just makes no sense.

No, I saw the reaper. It looked OK, I don't know the seller however, If I wanted it, I'd bid a grand, and be done with it. Case Closed. I doubt it'll go for more than 400 in reality. Even that, why not wait until the last few hours? Doesn't it make sense?

If I put an early bid in it is a token bid. My serious bid is in the last few seconds. The advantage being I don't drive the price up. The disadvantage is that I don't have time to put in another bid if mine isn't enough. Then again , that is an advantage too. :)

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Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

If I put an early bid in it is a token bid. My serious bid is in the last few seconds. The advantage being I don't drive the price up. The disadvantage is that I don't have time to put in another bid if mine isn't enough. Then again , that is an advantage too. :)

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+1 Jimmy, That's exactly what I'm talking about. You think like I do. I'll place any bid just to get in, and then go for the kill in last minute. Why drive up the price....?

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Originally Posted by Shooter

If I was to guess I would say that this is the one.

Item number: 250382888328

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Hmmm... Pushed past $250 by a bidder with a feedback of 3.

A good example of why not to get into bidding wars.

This always makes me a little curious... Why all the anti-seller sentiment?

I remember selling a Butcher on eBay to a guy who turned out to live in the same city as I did, so we just handed the razor off to avoid shipping costs. The razor sold for slightly less than I was expecting. Anyhow, I commented on how he got in just under the wire as I was unfamiliar with eBay. He told me he was using a sniping program that bids in the last five seconds and then sends a load of gobbledy gook to the server in order to try to prevent other bids from landing in the couple seconds after his bid went in.

As you can guess, my reaction was, "What?!"

Why isn't this frowned upon? I understand trying to get the best deal, but why does everyone seem to be out to screw eBay sellers? Is it that we've all been screwed on an eBay razor once too often or something? Why get so upset about bidding going too for you on a razor? There will be another, most likely exactly the same along in a month or less. Why get so angry about a seller doing well you need to rant to other people telling them to pay less?

Fair market value is what someone is willing to pay, right? If someone is willing to pay 250 for a razor, and apparently a couple people feel that way in order to drive the bidding up that high, have you considered that's the razors current value?

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Originally Posted by Cobo

He told me he was using a sniping program that bids in the last five seconds and then sends a load of gobbledy gook to the server in order to try to prevent other bids from landing in the couple seconds after his bid went in.

As you can guess, my reaction was, "What?!"

Why isn't this frowned upon?

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I've never heard of that (trying to overload the system) and I think 99%+ of ebay users would frown upon it.

If I was the seller and he had told me that before I'd handed over the goods I would tell him to shove off (only less politely), then reported him.

I do nothing to cheat sellers, I just follow good tactics to get the best bargain I can.

If everybody placed a simple bid of what they think the item is worth and let the proxy bidding system do its stuff there would be no need for any of this nonsense.

Maybe it's time for eBay to let us place blind bids on all auctions. I think a seller can already choose a blind-bid auction, but few if any use it. Not much chance of them a making such a drastic change I think.

well, trying to overload the servers is definitely against ebay's policy (i like to read such things before i click the accept button) and they'll likely suspend your account if they catch you.
when i win on ebay it's quite often around my bid, on few occasions it's been half of it and i was pleased with that no doubt, but as long as the item matches the description i'm happy if i win it even at my maximum bid.

actually once i played a trick on another buyer and bought something for 1c over his bid. I noticed he was the second high bidder on something i just won and he had the highest bid on another very similar razor from the same seller. i thought he may have had bid the exact same amount and placed a bid for 1c over that on the other razor. when i won it i thought it was really funny :) But that was just a one time experiment - i got the opportunity and it was too hard to resist.

i have personally witnessed few great razors sell for way under what they should be selling for (30+ watchers and no snipes too), and worse razors with worse pictures and descriptions sell for more before and after in the same week. i'm always puzzled at such behavior, seems like ebay bidders actually don't want a fair deal, but a wild gamble.

i don't mind paying high prices for good stuff, on ebay and in the classifieds. but i've noticed that i'm sometimes prone to taking gambles on ebay and they rarely end up well.

as far as sellers go i think they have plenty of tools at their disposals to get the price they want. there is a reserve option and there is a buy-it-now option, to say nothing about the opening bid. if a seller starts an auction at 0.99c and free shipping i'm willing to take this at face value, that they are actually willing to complete such transaction. but it seems the sellers are gamblers too....

I don't like the term 'win' in an ebay auction. When I email the seller I never say I 'won' the auction. To me that would imply that I would be getting the item for free. I always say I am the high bidder.

There are two (maybe more) schools of thought on starting an auction at no reserve with .99 cent opening bid as opposed to a reserve or a high opening bid. On the one hand if it is no reserve but a high opener many may watch it .....or ignore it. A very low opener people are more likely to throw in a bid as they are not feeling threatened should they end up the only or the highest bidder.

If a seller knows his product and is selling something like a reaper or a clean Wonderedge he can start it low with no reserve and be confident that it will bring a good buck. OTOH, someone like Artifacts100 prices his stuff ridiculously high. How he ever sells anything is beyond me.

I have two friends who sell tobacco pipes on ebay on a regular basis. One uses a low opening bid with a reserve and sells his pipes at ridiculously high prices. The other starts at 0.1 cents or something like that and gets high prices anyhow but he has developed a following and sells consignment pieces usually.

Presentation is everything on ebay. Good pictures with the enlargement feature and a complete description go a long way. Both of the fore mentioned sellers have their auctions end on Sunday at around 8PM USA central time. They feel that at that time more people are home and perhaps on there PC then at other times.

[I am going to bed at 3 AM almost every night to follow auctions on ebay.com :rant:]

To be honest, I don't use a sniping program. I'm way to cheap for that. Bob Keyes aka Altima55 told me about them. I speak to him quite a bit, He's a great restorer and a pretty nice guy once you get to know him. He's retired and uses Ebay as a supplement to his meager retirement. If you bid your max, Then, No Worries. My point is simple, Why in the Hell, bid up an item 5 days out. surely, you must agree, this makes no sense. When I started Ebaying, long ago, for Harley Parts, A friend told me who's very good at it, Don't get into a bidding war with someone, you'll just jack up the price. wait until the auction is just about over and place the maximum you want to spend. Sounded good to me. No one's arguing about what an item is worth, or what someone is willing to pay. It's just smart shopping. Why are people stupid enough to jack up prices a week out. Like that reaper that Ray is talking about. Don't you know someone is gonna place a nice juicy bid on it with less than 30 seconds left on the clock.:hm

I had a few nice catches on the Bay - swore more often for the seller was not shipping to the other side of the pond ;-) - but I refuse to enter outrageous bid to be sure to won the auction (too dangerous... you could find another bidding idiot doing the same and, while asleep, bid up to 500 bucks for a common piece).

I also stopped sniping; I find that this not useful for me. Indeed, I know always how much I am going to bid for an item... so it is of no use for me to bid the right amount 5secs before the end of the auction, when I know my price at the beginning of it.... and if somebody overbid me... that's it... like - I think - Lynn said: don't be sad, you'll always find another catch sooner or later.

And I also refuse to bid more than 70-90 bucks for the common ebay piece that needs to be sanded, cleaned, rescaled and sharpened (I have a few restoration projects - waiting for time and place - and none of them costed me more than 40 bucks)... when I can have in the classifieds or from other sellers, members of this very forum, nice restored razors with beautiful scales for 100 to 140 bucks, and even sometimes less (there has been very nice razors sold lately in the Classifieds for around 60 bucks!) But this is maybe why I am not winning many razors any more on the Bay ;-)

I don't use a sniping program either. I like the adrenaline rush of hitting the return key in the last few seconds. I agree with Ockham as to deciding what my maximum bid will be. That is one reason I snipe at the very end. I am not tempted to go above whatever my max is should someone outbid me.

The other thing is that if my max is say $110.00, and I bid early, the other guy may be of a mind to outbid me whatever it takes. If,OTOH, I send it in at the last few seconds the same guy may not have gone that high and I end up the high bidder. Lately when I get outbid at the end I am glad. :shrug:

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Originally Posted by Rajagra

Hmmm... Pushed past $250 by a bidder with a feedback of 3.

A good example of why not to get into bidding wars.

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Ray,

What's a feedback of 3 mean? I'm not up on al the Ebay stuff...

Rich

Zip, I also share your frustration. Why do people bid up stuff with 6 days left on an item. I sometimes think they just wanto to see there name up there as "high bidder"

I dealt with a guy like this for years when I was buying Weatherby gun items.

ok this is how I feel about placing your highest bid on ebay. I have found that if you place your highest bid for what you are willing to pay for an item, You just open yourself up to paying exactly that much for that item because some one will come along and just keep bidding because they want to see themself as the high bidder.Some people may not even want the item that much but get so caught up in bidding and seeing if they can get it, I have done that myself and it's a rush, but the prices of stuff on ebay has gone out of control of this. I now watch items untill the last few seconds , and use a sniping program, I dont get aggraviated over this anymore .

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Originally Posted by zib

Ray,

What's a feedback of 3 mean? I'm not up on al the Ebay stuff...

Rich

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Not to put words in Ray's mouth and then quote him.... but I think he is saying that with a feedback of 3 you have little or no experience in the ebay techniques of sensible bidding.

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Originally Posted by zib

Ray,

What's a feedback of 3 mean? I'm not up on al the Ebay stuff...

Rich

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Feeback of 3 means that the bidder has probably won a total of 3 auctions on eBay (I guess that number could also include feedback on items he has sold as well).

So like Jimmy said it could just be someone new to eBay and maybe more susceptible to getting sucked into the thrill/rush of bidding war.

Or.

always the possibly of a "shill" account directly or indirectly connected to the seller in there solely to run up bids. (eBay does an ok job of looking for this but it's out there).

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Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

Not to put words in Ray's mouth and then quote him.... but I think he is saying that with a feedback of 3 you have little or no experience in the ebay techniques of sensible bidding.

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Or possibly even a case of shill bidding - the seller opens a new account and bids on his own items to jack the price up.

Feedback of just 3 implies a new or inactive account, raising my suspicion.

(Positive feedback= how many times you've traded on ebay and the other party was happy with how it went.)

EDIT> Oops, already answered by others, but that's what I was thinking anyway.

I snipe !!!!
and I win most auctions I go after....
I like the ability to pull a snipe up until 6 minutes before it fires off...

And I agree with Jimmy, Artifacts 100 is way, way, way, off base he buys, jacks in $100, and lists the same razor again.... But somebody is dumb enough to keep buying there....

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Originally Posted by gssixgun

I like the ability to pull a snipe up until 6 minutes before it fires off...

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Great advantage, eh :) I've used it many a time....

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Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

Not to put words in Ray's mouth and then quote him.... but I think he is saying that with a feedback of 3 you have little or no experience in the ebay techniques of sensible bidding.

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Thanks Jimmy, I really had no idea...

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Originally Posted by gssixgun

I snipe !!!!
and I win most auctions I go after....
I like the ability to pull a snipe up until 6 minutes before it fires off...

And I agree with Jimmy, Artifacts 100 is way, way, way, off base he buys, jacks in $100, and lists the same razor again.... But somebody is dumb enough to keep buying there....

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How does that work exactly. Say the item is currently at 100 dollars. Do you set your snipe for a specific amount. If you set it for say, 200 and my max is 300, it doesn't work, right?

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Originally Posted by Rajagra

Or possibly even a case of shill bidding - the seller opens a new account and bids on his own items to jack the price up.

Feedback of just 3 implies a new or inactive account, raising my suspicion.

(Positive feedback= how many times you've traded on ebay and the other party was happy with how it went.)

EDIT> Oops, already answered by others, but that's what I was thinking anyway.

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Ya know Ray, I've wondered about that. Couldn't a seller have another system set up and list himself as a buyer too? Like stacking the deck?

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Originally Posted by zib

Ya know Ray, I've wondered about that. Couldn't a seller have another system set up and list himself as a buyer too? Like stacking the deck?

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Yes that's how they do it.

with any sniping software you give it your ebay username and password, then the auction number, the amount of your bid and sometimes how long before the end of the auction it should be placed.
then you go do your business and sometimes you get an email that you won an auction and need to pay for it.
the software just logs on ebay as you and places the specified bid at the desired time (if you can do that) - everything else about bid precedence etc works just the same.

and on few occasions the software didn't place my bid, so nothing is 100% guaranteed, so if you must have an item to ensure your bid is in you really should place it as soon as possible.

there is no way to avoid shill bids either - a seller can always ask a friend to bid and even though that's not allowed by ebay there is no way to prove it's not a genuine interest from the bidder. plus ebay doesn't really care as long as they get their fees, and since they are based on the final amount shill bids are good for ebay. only non-paying bidders are bad for them as then they don't get to charge the seller.

I'm with Glen on this one. I usually have a watch-list of 10-20 razors at any given time. When I get the email telling me I have items ending soon, I re-evaluate my interest, and if I decide I want to bid, I'll set a snipe for the maximum amount I'm willing to pay, and on on about my day. Sometimes I win, and sometimes I don't, but I don't get all bent out of shape about it when I don't, cuz I'm usually bidding on cleaner-uppers in the $20 range.

However, I also don't understand why anyone would bid on an item sooner than about 24 hrs (at most) before auction end time. I've noticed that razors (and other items) with early bids, no matter the amount, seem to generate a sort of "well that other person must want it, so I have to want it" kind of reaction, and these items usually sell for well over what I'd be willing to pay.

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Originally Posted by gugi

plus ebay doesn't really care as long as they get their fees, and since they are based on the final amount shill bids are good for ebay. only non-paying bidders are bad for them as then they don't get to charge the seller.

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Which is why it wouldn't surprise me if eBay trys to ban or block sniping programs (if it was detectable). Rational bidding can only drop overall prices.

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Originally Posted by Rajagra

Yes that's how they do it.

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Wankers.....! Did I spell that right?

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Originally Posted by zib

Wankers.....! Did I spell that right?

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Spot on.
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