Great source for switches and such

[Anonymous]

Hopefully this is allowed here. If not I appologize. First off I have NO connection with this person, just a Satisfied customer. I was going to buy all my control panel switches from the Shack. But My friends here and other forums set me straight. I got 20 DPDT center off switches, and 40 push button momentary contacts for the turnouts for $20 plus shipping. Just (4) pushbutoons were $3.39 at the shack. I would have went broke. The dealer is from Ebay the ID is bobandrus First I thought it was Bob and Rus but I think it is Bobandrus. Got them from Colorado to PA in 2 days. Great source for all things electrical. Dave

[bpickering]

I'm finding good prices on Froogle. For example, I'm getting ready to buy about 30 SPST momentary pushbuttons. Going to Froogle and searching on "SPST Momentary", then choosing "Low to High" gets to the following link:

http://froogle.google.com/froogle?q=spst+momentary&scoring=p

$.40 apiece for these doesn't sound too bad.

<sour_grapes>I'm a little unhappy with eBay right now, given that over the past months I've been sniped just a few too many times. Unless I'm certain I'll be able to observe the "end game", I'm not bidding on things, only purchasing using "Buy It Now." Too bad, since I think the basic idea of the auction is sound.</sour_grapes>

Brian Pickering

[rrinker]

Set yourself up with a sniping service that can snipe for you! I find that if things are getting sniped like that, the price usually goes too high, so I don;t feel bad about not winning. I set a price I'm willing to pay for an item, if it goes above that long before the end, I delete it from my watch list. If it's still below my maximum, I'll throw a bid in. Last minute if I'm around, otherwise, I wait until i have to leave, and put my bid in, up to my max. If I get sniped, then it's for some amount more than I was willing to pay anyway.
Sometimes, I get a pleasant surprise. Like the other week, someone had one of the Woodland Scenics learning kits up, it was at < $2 (and these are $12.95 at the LHS). I was willing to pay $5, but I had to go away 3 hours before the end of the auction, so I stuck in a $5 bid and left, figuring I would never get it. I come back and check my email, Auction Won! For $3.25!

--Randy

[Anonymous]

excuse my ignorance, but could someone define "sniped" in the context of eBay?

Thank-you much!

John

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by johnhaas

excuse my ignorance, but could someone define "sniped" in the context of eBay?

Thank-you much!

John

John, what some people call "sniped" is actually someone bidding at the very end and winning the auction; actually it's more like a live auction where you are outbid by someone else.

I think people think Ebay should be like a "tender" type purchase rather than an auction where you put in your maximum bid once and that's it but actually it's more like a live auction; the only problem is that alot of people can't be around at the very end so they get disappointed when some one out bids them right at the very end.

A "snipe service" is a person/company that watches your auction (what you are trying to purchase) and bids right near the end of the auction up to the amount that you would bid yourself. Most of these services charge a percentage of the purchase price even if they get beat and they do sometimes.

Hope this helps explain it a little better

[rrinker]

Well, ebay does work a bit like the live auction but in an automatic way. If the current bid is $3 and you are willing to pay up to $10, you bid $10, and if no one else bids, you win for $3, not $10. If someone else bids $4, then it automatically ups your bid, up to your maximum. It becomes more critical if you wait til near the end to bid, because you won;t get a second chance before tiem runs out, so you MUST be prepared to go in with your maximum. I think a lot of peopel miss the point that if no one else bids, you do not have to pay what you bid as your maximum, you only pay the winning amount, and so are afraid to put in their actual maximum amount, thinking they will have to pay that much if they win. But that's not necessarily true. If you put in a max of $50 and the item ends at $3, you pay only the $3, the rest was just 'insurance' if someone else bid. And as I said, my philosophy is to know what I can expect to pay for a desired item locally (LHS or one of the many train shows in the area), and bid no more than that (usually a bit less, sometimes a LOT less depending on what the seller wants for shipping and handling. ALWAYS find that out first! Some people put insane shipping costs in, mainly in an attempt to recoup value for the item, but sometimes to recoup the ebay fees, which is technically not allow. Since I sell things on ebay as well as buy, I have a pretty darn good idea of how much it actually costs to ship items, if the person is WAY out of line, I won't bid, PERIOD.). If I win, I win, if not, I move on to the next item.

--Randy

[Anonymous]

For those against the "Sniping service" the new Ebay tool bar will not permit you to access the snipe service with the auction info to place the bid.
Placing a high bid can sometimes back fire. Many HO items are extremely expensive overseas and what we may think is a rediculous price can be a deal in CatManDoo

[Anonymous]

Jar1 - thanks for the description of sniping, and I admit that I've been guilty of it a few times - hitting the "Place Bid" button with two seconds remaining.

Randy - I think people might understand that you won't have to pay your max bid, but still snipe. If you place your max bid early, there's a better chance that someone else will pump up their bid at the end, when they get "emotional" about it. Then you end up getting outbidded by $.50. If you place that max bid, with not time left for additional bidding - you reduce that risk.

There was an auction site up back in the 90's that had a policy that an auction wouldn't end until five minutes after the last bid. So if someone placed a bid with 10 seconds left, the auction would get extened 5 minutes for others to respond with a higher bid. You would still have to be around when the auction was ending, but this seems a little fairer to the seller.

John