Thread: Venting About Auctions. Feel free to join me.

I hate to admit it, but under certain circumstances, I can be very spiteful.

I'm at the point where I just wont bid on an item with a high shipping cost. I used to bid with the shipping cost in mind. For example, if shipping is $15 and I'm willing to spend $25, I'd bid $10. That works occasionally and I've won a couple razors that way but most of the time, other bidders know this and will bid $10.50 or $11 knowing that they'll beat out those who haven't put much thought into their bid. (this is the case where someone gets outbid by 3 cents because I bid $10.03 a little before you and jump in at the end with $10.00)

Now to be able to win these, I have to bid what I wanted to spend plus one or two increments higher to match the "smarter" bidders and one more to win. Now I'm further into the razor than I really wanted to be and I'm getting a $25 item for somewhere around 30. Five dollars isn't much, I know, but these numbers are just examples. When you get into the more desirable razors you may be pushing an extra 20-50 on your bid just to ensure you win.

So why do I hate high shipping costs? I pay $10-$15 for shipping and it shows up in a flat rate box or media mail which costs about $3-5. A bit unreasonable if you ask me. So now instead of complaining, I just wont bid on an item with anything over $7 in shipping - there's just no way it costs that much if it's not international and no one ships UPS or FedEx.

In the end... and back to what I was saying about bid increments, if I didn't want to pay that much for a razor, I wouldn't. It's just that no matter how much I value or want a razor, there's always someone slightly deeper pockets.


Ok, that's all for now. As you can tell from some of my recent posts, I'm not the biggest fan of eBay or PayPal. Using these sites is like playing golf... very frustrating but for some reason I keep going back.

Originally Posted by ats200

... I have to bid what I wanted to spend plus one or two increments higher ... Now I'm further into the razor than I really wanted to be and I'm getting a $25 item for somewhere around 30. ... When you get into the more desirable razors you may be pushing an extra 20-50 on your bid just to ensure you win.
...
if I didn't want to pay that much for a razor, I wouldn't.

It's just that no matter how much I value or want a razor, there's always someone slightly deeper pockets.

The objective of eBay should not be to win an auction.
The objective should be to get an item that you're happy with for a price that you're happy with.

If you keep getting outbid it's because those items were not worth the selling price to you. Bidding higher than you think the item is worth is the wrong approach. Bid what the item is worth to you. If you win, you got something of value for your money. If you lose, it sold for more than it's worth (to you).

I highlighted and underlined the last sentence, because it's an important point (it just needs to be rephrased):

It's just that no matter how much I value or want a razor, there's always someone who values it more than I do.

This is also a good illustration of why we don't do appraisals on SRP... The same razor is worth a different amount of money to different people.
When you go to eBay, you need to think in terms of what it's worth to you.

I understand and I know others value the items more than I do, it comes down the the realization that there is no set price range for any item.

I used to think eBay essentially sets the fair market value, but it truly doesn't. Each item has a uniqueness and it's rare that two similar items will sell for the same price. As a general example, a NOS Puma might have sold for $200 last week, but if one of the same model comes along next week with some hone wear and rust, someone may think they can pick it up at a bargain. Then someone who "must have it" comes along and drops 250.

I guess that's just the thrill of the auction that brings people to the site, who knows. I think I'm probably just a sore loser.

The person who is willing to bid most gets the item. That is why they call it an auction. But excessive shipping can form a useful alarm signal. The person who did it is likely slip something nasty between your shoulder-blades in ways that aren't detectable in the auction.

I'd expect to see less of this going on, now that sellers pay Paypal fees on shipping charges as well as the price. Plenty of them, even the few who passed on the saving to the buyer in a Buy It Now, used to steal some competitiveness over honest sellers that way. There has been a snag in those changes, though. It used to be easy to report excessive shipping, from the Report Item link on every auction page. You could do it for all a seller's items in groups of ten, if you felt aggrieved enough. Now that option has vanished, presumably because he is cheating nobody but his customer. You can still find your way through to Shipping Related Charges, but I don't know if that applies, and the only way to find out risks finding I've reported an innocent seller while using him to explore the links.

As a matter of principal I don't bid on auctions with excessive shipping costs. I remember seeing one selling something like a DD or Filly for a seemingly reasonable price but with $75 postage on it.

Anything over $15 shipping for a razor (as an Aussie most of my auctions involve international mail) is avoided.

Originally Posted by ats200

I used to think eBay essentially sets the fair market value, but it truly doesn't. Each item has a uniqueness and it's rare that two similar items will sell for the same price. As a general example, a NOS Puma might have sold for $200 last week, but if one of the same model comes along next week with some hone wear and rust, someone may think they can pick it up at a bargain. Then someone who "must have it" comes along and drops 250.

Or how about a razor that sells for say $85 one week comes back with a $160 pricetag the next?
How the same person values the same razor changes all the time. Even if you ignore the 'buying, vs. selling discrepancy in the value' you still have the factor of whether the person's feeling flush, whether he just bought 5 other razors, or didn't win any single one of his auctions and the paycheck just cashed in....

Ebay does set a fair market value for every particular item, but you have to define 'fair market value' extremely narrowly and then there is almost no transferability left.

Eboy just reflects what goes on in the world. Many outfits gain huge profits from large shipping fees and many stores charge huge mark-ups on items which can be found way less at other stores. Some people would rather go into Nordstroms and pay a bundle for an item and be treated like a king rather than go into a discount store and pay way less but get no service and have to mingle with the common folk.

In the end you bid what you want to get an item. It may be a fair price, you may get a deal or you may spend way too much.

It's your decision.

Just for a reference point on shipping guys, I ship one or two razors here and there

For CONUS I charge $6 for 1 razor that is Tracked, Shipped, and Insured that price holds good for up two 3 razors and/or $250 of Insurance, after that I would lose money at $6 this includes my cost for a box as I don't use the flat rates... This does not include any packaging fees or travel fees because in my eyes that is part of doing business... For an e-bay seller I could see them adding a $1-$2 for those costs...

Weight = most any hone larger than a Barber's Hone will push the weight of a package over the 13oz limit so that does require a trip to the PO for most people another variable to keep in mind...

Fragile = ie Scuttles etc: these are expensive to ship and pack in fact the best way is the Medium flat rate box so expect $15 with insurance.

Anyway just thought I would give another perspective on it...

As far as shipping goes .... is it a 'free' flat rate box furnished by the USPS or did the shipper spend $ on a box and packing material ? Is the shipper's time and gasoline worth anything ? When I sell on ebay or elsewhere I keep the shipping charges as close to what it actually costs for postage as I can. OTOH, I take the above points into consideration when I am paying for an item I buy on ebay or wherever.

Use esnipe for the small price items with big shipping charges. It's likely that the people going at the last second are just using an auction service so that they don't have to watch the item. You should use it, too, and put what you'd pay for the item and then forget about it.

I will often not bid on something with high shipping because of principle. I ship and buy a lot of tools, so I know what it costs to ship and insure, so I don't get too down on people who might want to pay for packing and insurance, but when it gets to be double that, I usually don't bid, or if I do, I take it into account that you're guaranteeing that you will not get much money back if you return an item - often you'll get stuck with a $10 item with $12 of shipping on a small FRB and it's almost not worth sending back even if you find out something bad. Sometimes a seller will give you your money back if you send pictures, but it's a time soak, then.

But I always use esnipe, because it can't be worth 10 visits to and staying on a timer to go back to the site 6 seconds before the auction ends. I don't use it to rip off other bidders, but because I used to not bid until an auction's last minute and way too many times, I missed an item that went cheap because I forgot to check back in or did so 2 minutes late.