AHHH the horrors of EBAY! im sad..

[PeeMonkey]

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Outbidded in the last 10 Seconds, I thought it was MINE MINE MINE!! I got outbidded by 5$. Im gonna rip my hair out!! Now the long search for a new amp!

 

Well I was bidding on a Carvin MTS 3212 COMBO!!

I was about to get it for 400$ then some guy comes in at 10 seconds and bids 5$ higher, for 405$ winning the bid. Ahhh the pain!

 

Heres the auction!

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3734051080&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT

[EmptinesOf Youth]

yea i won some dvds 10 days ago...still havent recieved them...although i did see the guitar i bought sell for 20 bucks more than i paid for it...

[BiC]

A couple tips for EBAY shopping:

 

1. You NEVER want to be the high bidder before the auction ends because people always swoop in at the last minute to place their bids.

 

2. You always want to place your high bid the last minute of the auction.

 

This is what I do- I keep on refreshing my screen until there is only 1 minute left, then I count down 45 seconds before I place my high bid.

 

This works the majority of the time for me, unless the high bidder's proxy bid kicked in and outbidded me. BUT, that's OK- BECAUSE the bid I placed was THE HIGHEST I was willing to pay. So, If I still get outbidded, I'm not mad.

 

Peace

[Salyphus]

Shhhhh

[BiC]

Originally posted by Sunny.:

Shhhhh

oh yeah ... sorry... I meant to say make your highest bid RIGHT AWAY, and keep on refreshing the last minute to make sure no one outbids you... yeah, that's what I meant to say... hehe

[A String]

E-Bay sucks!

crummy bastards

[Caevan O’Shite]

Next time around, bid something like $407.99; I understand that many an auction is won by odd-numbered quantities of singles 'n' change.

 

Never yet e-bayed, m'seff! Gotta try that someday soon.

[A String]

Originally posted by Caevan O'Shite:

Next time around, bid something like $407.99; I understand that many an auction is won by odd-numbered quantities of singles 'n' change.

 

Never yet e-bayed, m'seff! Gotta try that someday soon.

Just watch them! They have been giving me the run around for over a year now! I can't use E-Bay untill they sort out there mistake. I hate E-Bay.

[Caevan O’Shite]

Originally posted by A String:

"Just watch them! They have been giving me the run around for over a year now! I can't use E-Bay untill they sort out there mistake. I hate E-Bay."

What happened, A'?

[Hendmik]

Originally posted by BiC:

A couple tips for EBAY shopping:

This is what I do- I keep on refreshing my screen until there is only 1 minute left, then I count down 45 seconds before I place my high bid.

You're doing it the hard way. Use www.auctionstealer.com and let it snipe for you automatically in the final 10 seconds while you go out to dinner.

 

I know it's frustrating to get sniped, but I refuse to bid early and end up eventually driving the price up for me or whoever ends up winning the item. Sniping is fair and the only way to ensure you get a good deal.

[DIAMOND DUST]

Originally posted by A String:

E-Bay sucks!

crummy bastards

Man, E-bay has had me so mad I almost kicked in my monitor on more than one occasion. But I got lucky a few times.

[Funk Jazz]

www.hammersnipe.com

 

otherwise, bid your highest $$ like they recommend... it's an auction for chrissakes. then if you get outbid, it's your fault for going too low.

[Chad Thorne]

E-Bay is a snare and a delusion. Prudent people will avoid it like the plague it is.

[Dak Lander]

Originally posted by Peemonkey:

Well I was bidding on a Carvin MTS 3212 COMBO!!

I was about to get it for 400$ then some guy comes in at 10 seconds and bids 5$ higher, for 405$ winning the bid. Ahhh the pain!

 

Heres the auction!

 

[url=http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3734051080&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT]http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3734051080&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT[/uR L]

In reality, that bid winner could have placed a bid one hell of alot higher the the $405.00 that won the bid. What eBay's system does is act as a proxy bidder, using your top bid as a cap and in a bid comes in that's over your existing bid but under your cap it will increment the bid increase by the current increment. So, if your max bid would have been $400.00 and the other guys's max was $500.00 it would only bid the price up the increment, $5.00. Had your max been, say, $426.51 and his was still the $420.01, you'd have won the bid at $425.01. See?

Also, if your max bid was the $400.00 and you got beat you didn't lose anything anyway because it was over your maximim price, thus out of your range anyway so don't feel bad.

[Caevan O’Shite]

Then, I guess my previous post was in error! Sorry; thanks for the clarification there, Dak!

[webe123]

Well I made a previous post about this, but I just bid what i was willing to pay and hoped for the best! It all comes down to how much you are willing to pay for an item. The highest bid wins, period. I won my auction by just $4.99!

 

http://offer.ebay.com/ws3/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewBids&item=3732299649

 

As you can see, for some reason I only had 3 bids including mine, but the point I am trying to make, is that no matter how you increment your bids, the highest one will win in the end.

 

It is all about how much you are willing to pay. As you can see, I put a wierd number $498.99 for my bid and won the auction. Sniping is OK, but if the person that is bidding against you has a higher cap, then you will lose no matter what. So don't feel bad. We have all lost auctions on ebay...and yes, sometimes they were only by a few dollars.

[Dave da Dude]

Originally posted by Caevan O'Shite:

Next time around, bid something like $407.99; I understand that many an auction is won by odd-numbered quantities of singles 'n' change.

I've won a number of auctions like that. It happens when a auction has $0.50 incremental bidding and someone sets their max bid as say, $426.51. Your max bid is $427.06. You get it for $427.01. If you max bid had been $427.00 you would not have been able to overbid the $426.51.

 

FWIW, it works for me

 

Dave the GASeous

[BiC]

Originally posted by Hendmik:

Originally posted by BiC:

A couple tips for EBAY shopping:

This is what I do- I keep on refreshing my screen until there is only 1 minute left, then I count down 45 seconds before I place my high bid.

You're doing it the hard way. Use www.auctionstealer.com and let it snipe for you automatically in the final 10 seconds while you go out to dinner.

 

I know it's frustrating to get sniped, but I refuse to bid early and end up eventually driving the price up for me or whoever ends up winning the item. Sniping is fair and the only way to ensure you get a good deal.

Cool! Never heard of it. I'll keep that in mind. Thanx!

[Blue Strat]

Originally posted by Caevan O'Shite:

Next time around, bid something like $407.99; I understand that many an auction is won by odd-numbered quantities of singles 'n' change.

Yep, and what I do is use the maximum bid feature. I enter what I'm willing to pay, then check back after the auction is over. If it went for more than what I entered, that's fine with me. I'll just bid on something else that catches my eye.

[tiger85]

Well darn all this heah high falootin; tech nol o gee. Sounds like what we have heah is a failure ta communicate!

 

What ever happened to the good ole days when somebody'd just grab the guitar you dearly wanted to buy off the shelf when you went home 10 minutes before the music store closed? With the intention of returning first thing in the morning with your cash!

 

Yep, I know........" No that's okay, no need to hold it for me, if I decide to get it I'll be back first thing tomorrow!"

 

Famous last words, based on true experiences....

 

TRUE TALES OF GAS HESITATION...

 

ITS USUALLY WISE, but not always!

 

( sound of gunshot offstage)

[A String]

Originally posted by Caevan O'Shite:

Originally posted by A String:

"Just watch them! They have been giving me the run around for over a year now! I can't use E-Bay untill they sort out there mistake. I hate E-Bay."

What happened, A'?

About six years ago, I signed up with e-bay. They sent me an e-mail stating that I would recive one free post. Being new to the whole thing, I rushed around the apartment looking for something to sell. I finally found some stupid, trivial item and posted it with a really high minimum, not to get rich, but just for fun! (I knew it would not sell, and it didn't.)

 

A few weeks later, I lost my job and had to cut off the internet.

 

Almost 1 year ago, I reestablished my internet connection and tried to make a bid on e-bay. I got a screen saying my account was frozen due to non payment. I wrote an e-mail asking what it was for and they said I owed $3.00 for making the post. They claimed there was no promotion offering "your first post for free".

 

After a lot of back and forth, (about 8 months of it) They finaly found someone who was around back then and remembered the "free first post" promotion. I said "Great!", but then they sent me another e-mail stating that, because it was so long ago, there was no proof that I recived the offer. I said How would I know about it if I didn't??!!

 

Anyway, it has now been a year and I'm still waiting for them to figure out what happened and fix the problem. I know it's stupid to hold out for a lousey $3.00, but I'm a man of principle. I'd rather be banned from E-Bay forever then give in and pay them that measly $3.00!

[Dave da Dude]

How are they "proving" that you are the one who made the post?

 

Dave

[A String]

Originally posted by Dave th Dude:

How are they "proving" that you are the one who made the post?

 

Dave

They claim the computer froze my account way back when and now they have no way of proving whether it was valid or not. I know how pety it seems, Belive me, I realize it would be much easier to just pay it, but I just can't bring myself to do it. The funny thing is, I think I would pay it if I owed $10 or $20 because I could see why they were giving me such a hard time. But this is $3.00!!!!

[Hendmik]

Originally posted by daklander:

Originally posted by Peemonkey:

Well I was bidding on a Carvin MTS 3212 COMBO!!

I was about to get it for 400$ then some guy comes in at 10 seconds and bids 5$ higher, for 405$ winning the bid. Ahhh the pain!

 

Heres the auction!

 

[url=http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3734051080&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT]http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3734051080&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT[/uR L]

In reality, that bid winner could have placed a bid one hell of alot higher the the $405.00 that won the bid. What eBay's system does is act as a proxy bidder, using your top bid as a cap and in a bid comes in that's over your existing bid but under your cap it will increment the bid increase by the current increment. So, if your max bid would have been $400.00 and the other guys's max was $500.00 it would only bid the price up the increment, $5.00. Had your max been, say, $426.51 and his was still the $420.01, you'd have won the bid at $425.01. See?

Also, if your max bid was the $400.00 and you got beat you didn't lose anything anyway because it was over your maximim price, thus out of your range anyway so don't feel bad.

The proxy system is exactly how people get screwed and eBay gets rich. If an auction starts at $20, but two people proxy bid with a maximum bid of $150, the computer automatically conducts a bidding war and drives the auction price up to $150 in a matter of minutes. All it takes are two proxy bidders. 3 or more makes it even more fun.

 

Then someone jumps in at the end and snipes anyway, making the two proxy bidders bitter and angry and the sniper mad that someone else drove the auction price up rather than waiting patiently, while eBay counts the cash they just made off the auction.

 

Proxy bidding may seem like a convenient way to bid, but in reality, it's a HUGE money making tool for eBay.

[Major Tom]

It can be aggravating. What I have done is resign myself to the fact that I'm only going to win a certain percentage of auctions - you cannot get too excited about any one, 'cause there are a lot of people looking at these things. Maybe that last minute thing works, I don't know, but soooo many people use that technique. I have tried it on a couple and still came up short. There's even a company that has software to snipe auctions at the last second - they charge you per snipe! I try to look at each potential purchase and decide what my top bid is going to be - how much am I willing to pay for that item. I will usually just go ahead and put it in. If I get it great, if not, another item like it will come along and I may win that one for less than my bid amount. The winning bid amounts for the same items vary quite a bit.

 

It seems like many of the auctions I have lost were just an insignificant amount, but like what was stated earlier, just because the item sold for 5 bux more than you bid does not mean that the winning bidder only bid 5 bux more, he could have bid 100 more...you never know.

[Dak Lander]

Hendmik, You're absoulutely correct about the proxy bidding. It is, however, the only viable way to bid via the internet unless you have an actual "LIVE" auction unless you expect those interested to stay glued to the screen, watching and bidding. That would be fine if all were on the same speed connections but, alas, 'tis not so. So, the next viable alternative is proxy bidding.

Understand one major thing. eBay makes their money from the sellers, not the buyers, so anything they can do to assist the sales price increase will affect their profit. That's fair game. Liken it to a real auction where the auctioneer works the crowd to get a higher price. It ain't for the customer, it's for the auction house margin.

As to your scenario though, if you make a bid of $150.00 you're being foolish anyway. It's to the point that the .01 isn't as good a bid as before either. you have to watch what's going on and bid accordingly. You'll only bid too much if you don't pay attention and at that, it makes more money for the seller and they are the ones who make the money for eBay, not the buyers.

 

Really a simple concept if you think about it a bit.

[Guitarzan]

when i bought my pacifica 721 on ebay it had a "buy it now" of 110.00 bucks. i had watched several 921's and pac 721's go for 200.00 to 300.00 bucks. i was going to wait but decided my best option was to go for it and just use the "buy it now" button. sometimes that isn't an option, but when it is i like it.

[Hendmik]

daklander,

 

EXACTLY! It all comes down to the buyer must look out for themselves. No one but yourself has your best interests in mind. I've seen people pay more for a used item on eBay than it costs, new retail all because they're too lazy to do the research.

 

Which leads me to Guitarzan's point, know what the item is worth, what it typically sells for on eBay, and bid accordingly. Even though Buy It Now auctions tend to sell it a little more than what the auction would normally sell for, that's what you pay for the convenience. And often the seller will throw in free shipping for Buy It Now transactions. Just do your math and know exactly how much you're paying for that convenience.