been surfin ebay all day and all I got was this stupid mouse clicking blister..

I have lost THREE 8/8 blades today.. I even use ebay countdown for my bidding.. What's worse is i missed out on a perfect W&B wedge because I was off on the time... sad thing it there were NO bids on it and it was at 9.99... plus the shipping.. I looked at the picture and it didn't seem to need much TLC at all... the sellers reviews were at 100%..

Does anyone think a lot of these guys Shill bid their own stuff? had one that I lost and almost immediately got a second chance offer on it... I thought it was hokey to send that almost immediately after the auction was over..

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i missed out on a perfect W&B wedge because I was off on the time... sad thing it there were NO bids on it ...

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If there were no bids, you were just too late man

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Does anyone think a lot of these guys Shill bid their own stuff?

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I have never thought they did. If they want a minimum price they could set it at auction start. Ebay is a huge market, and there usually are more than one watching the auction as it ends. If there is an object you want, bid only once, but as high as you are comfortable going. I've seen many objects go from zero bids to regular sale price during the last few seconds. Like, zero bids and 10 seconds left, enter bid, discover 5 ppl had placed bids after that. The good news, there will be other nice items out tomorrow, or even right now.
Best of luck :tu

Yea I know it was late.. I figured the person would just relist but no go on that one.. it's sad too because it was a decent looking work piece..

Oh believe me I have seen the prices blast off.. The only bad part is the good ones always seem to end when I am putting my little one to bed... guess an itouch or something would come in handy.. hahahaha..

As to the one you missed, set up a standing search with notification on "razor" from that particular seller. He might wait a while, or change the title, in hopes of a higher price. You should also scan the pictures, the description, auction conditions and his feedback, to see if anything put other bidders off.

The rest of the problem is a matter of how much you were prepared to pay. It was less than someone else was. Perhaps you should consider looking for a slightly narrower razor, for the really wide ones seem to attract prices that are hard to justify. If the buyers have noses as usually constituted, it sounds like they are only collectors.

I use Auctionsniper, a website which puts in your last-moment bid for you, regardless of time zone or the quality of your own connection, and charges about 1% commission for the service. I thginjk it has paid for itself many times over, by avoiding the competitive feeding frenzy which is sometimes triggered by bids placed late, but within human reaction time.

There are also sniping programs to download on your own computer, but these are dependent on how well connected you are at auction's end. The websites will do it in the middle of your vacation if you need them to. Auctionsniper also allows you to set up a bidgroup, or list of items for which it will place bids until you have won the number you chose, most often one, and then leave off. If you want to bid the lowest prices you can imagine items going for, you can do it this way, and eventually one will.

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Originally Posted by Nervin

Does anyone think a lot of these guys Shill bid their own stuff?

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Naw , they can't do that . They get their friends or relatives , to do it for them . I wouldn't feel too bad about losing some auctions . At least you didn't end up winning , and paying too much .

In this age of information, you can go to bidders, see who is bidding, look at their activity with the seller. Use your instinct from there. I sometimes think I have paid a premium this way, but HEY! it's my own fault! Besides, there is nothing wrong in paying a premium, as long as you get what you pay for! Schill bidding is somewhat detectable, but is hard to do. I say bid what you are willing to pay. There will be more razors along!

If something gets passed in you can contact the seller directly for a private sale. I've done that before. Worst that can happen is that they tell you to sod off.

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Originally Posted by sharptonn

Schill bidding is somewhat detectable, but is hard to do.

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First , let me say that I've never sold anything on ebay , and I've never been involved in shill bidding of any sort . But it can be done easy , and be virtually impossible to prove . I would give an example of how , but I don't want to give unscrupulous people any ideas , so you'll have to take my word , for it . I think the majority of sellers are honest , but you'll always have some bad apples . As long as you don't get carried away , and bid past your max , you can snipe without worries .

+ what Dave said.

I've been involved in an e-bay auction that involved shill bidding. Certainly leaves a bad taste in the mouth. But you don't have to be an Einstein to come up with less obvious ways than how it was done to me.

I guess shill bidding is when I see the same user apparently bidding against themselves?

I do the trigger finger thing 15 Secs before expiry, but you need fast browser and 12 Mb/sec broadband connection. I fill in my bid and wait as the seconds go by before pulling the trigger. Lost a nice Bismarck last week by $1 and 2 seconds but got a nice Frederick's ($19) and a Thiers-Issard with a small chip ($12).