Guys... I have been making some serious low-ball offers on eBay items with the "Make Offer" button this week, and a lot of them are getting accepted.
.
Maybe everyone is broke after Christmas and want to clean house, or maybe I am just getting lucky.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
I don't have a specific need for a specific car, roadname, or road number. Many different types of locos and cars will fill a need. I look for the best deals within that spectrum and if I lose a snipe to another sniper or someone who maxxed out 6 days prior, I simply move on to the next item on my watch list.
- Douglas
For software Try auction stealer - three free auctions a week.
Sniping has been the norm on EBay for at least 5 years now. The issue with putting a big bid early and forgetting it is that others will ping off of it and drive the price higher.
While the sniping software won't beat a higher bid, I find that it does result in overall lower prices for items by keeping the bidding fever in check until the last 10 seconds of the auction.
opinions do vary on this,
Guy
see stuff at: the Willoughby Line Site
The fact remains, all the sniping software in the world is not going to beat the guy who is willing to pay more and commits to that early.
And his price will still only be $1.50 more than the bidder who lost.........
Sheldon
Apologize for being late to the party here but I have to add I used too snipe a lot on the more rare items that ended either while at work or late at night. However with Ebay now charging sales tax here in Texas they have taken themselves completely out of my picture. By the time I add sales tax to shipping I can get it cheaper at places like MBK or wait to find it at Train Shows.
I pay enough in local taxes and sales taxes on things I have to buy locally. Texas does not have an income tax but the sales taxes can be quite high. In fact I live just outside of Austin, TX who has the highest in TX at 9.25%.
Steve B
I missed early this afternoon, I need to sight in my scope again.
Mike.
My You Tube
I use ezsniper. I dont feel any shame in doing so. It makes my life easier, i see something I like, set my price I should bid and forget about it. Without ezsniper I missed out on countless items because I forgot and missed the auction.
It still boils down to whether my max bid is high enough and how bad I want it. Still lose my fair share. I have got great deals and have overpaid
Its better then being that guy who bids up an auction a dollar at a time for like 20 bids before giving up, lol.
Never seen the need for sniping software. It is more usefull on high ticket, low start price stuff, not much of that in model trains.
Yep, saw that, and of course, it's still "RARE!" as the seller puts it. Which is good! I hate my diners "well done".
ATLANTIC CENTRALIf you don't know how "rare" it is, or what its value is, maybe you should not be buying it?
The little whistling emoji I placed after my comment was there to imply sarcasm. Tom Stage picked up on it.
I know eBay sellers throw out the rare term in order to generate excitement for their offering.
Ever been to a used car lot? "This baby's a real cream puff!"
Everything on eBay is a cream puff (sarcasm again)
BTW, the Amtrak diner I mentioned (no surprise) has been relisted
Cheers, Ed
SeeYou190 Attuvian , the auctioneer starts with a high price that he knows no broker will pay, then he begins to come DOWN. The first broker to jump gets the lot. . I have received notifications for house auctions that start high and then go lower until someone buzzes in. The auction ends with one bid. -Kevin
, the auctioneer starts with a high price that he knows no broker will pay, then he begins to come DOWN. The first broker to jump gets the lot.
I have received notifications for house auctions that start high and then go lower until someone buzzes in. The auction ends with one bid.
Better know your stuff. There are few to no second chances. As a buyer, not so good to come back to the boss with a pile of money and no product.
John
Attuvian, the auctioneer starts with a high price that he knows no broker will pay, then he begins to come DOWN. The first broker to jump gets the lot.
I have never gone to an auction like that. I tend to think the final price would be about the same, just less bidding, "One And Done".
Maybe this is the ultimate form of sniping.
On-line auctions may provide a measure of thrill - or angst - for some. But not like another type that exists. As my wife was born in Holland, I've found it enjoyable to become acquainted with things Dutch. One of the items that came across my path was the manner in which the Dutch auction off consignments of fresh flowers to be flown out from the warehouses near Schipol airport. As I understand it, the auctioneer starts with a high price that he knows no broker will pay, then he begins to come DOWN. The first broker to jump gets the lot. To me, that takes some real guts!
riogrande5761 gmpullman rrinker Gee, and I thought I made out like a bandit when I got $79 for my AHM/Pocher Lincoln Funeral Car, Aah, but was it RARE? Regards, Ed Half the stuff on Ebay is listed as rare as an excuse to rip people off. That Walthers phase IV diner that finished aroudn $2500 I seriously doubt actually got paid for. So who made out like a bandit? Probably nobody.
gmpullman rrinker Gee, and I thought I made out like a bandit when I got $79 for my AHM/Pocher Lincoln Funeral Car, Aah, but was it RARE? Regards, Ed
rrinker Gee, and I thought I made out like a bandit when I got $79 for my AHM/Pocher Lincoln Funeral Car,
Aah, but was it RARE?
Regards, Ed
Half the stuff on Ebay is listed as rare as an excuse to rip people off. That Walthers phase IV diner that finished aroudn $2500 I seriously doubt actually got paid for. So who made out like a bandit? Probably nobody.
If you don't know how "rare" it is, or what its value is, maybe you should not be buying it?
ATLANTIC CENTRAL Well John, I was not referring to you with that comment, but if the show fits? Unlike you or Douglas, I don't buy stuff, keep it a while and resell it. In 50 years I have only sold about a dozen items I later decided were not acceptable or useful. That does not even amount to 1% of my loco and rolling stock fleet. But I think there are too many factors at play to think you can beat the system in any way on Ebay. It is just the luck of the draw. Sheldon
Well John, I was not referring to you with that comment, but if the show fits?
Unlike you or Douglas, I don't buy stuff, keep it a while and resell it. In 50 years I have only sold about a dozen items I later decided were not acceptable or useful.
That does not even amount to 1% of my loco and rolling stock fleet.
But I think there are too many factors at play to think you can beat the system in any way on Ebay. It is just the luck of the draw.
Let me be clear, I rarely buy any train with the INTENTION of reselling it (there have been some projects of turning a sows ear into a silk purse). In the past, any churning of the fleet was more about honing it to a particular focus, and then there was the switch over to DCC/Onboard sound, so there were many models that were just going to sit around the train room and not get used.
Now most sales occur because the new item I buy is a POS, by my standards. And that includes some of the newer more modern designs with recent electronics. And if they are a POS, I won't run it. Selling them certainly wasn't the intent when I bought them, and I have little patience anymore for fiddling with models trying to make them right.
PRR8259 The relatively few items I am hunting just do not turn up very often, but some did around Christmas a year ago, when I was not flush with cash. The list is 20 to 30 models of individual road-specific engines that I either would buy and run as is or would have painted to represent some other roadname. I usually do not appreciate comments like "lives for the hunt". There are items I've hunted for over 25 years and never found again, or not again at a price I felt was "affordable" so I simply do without. If one shows up tomorrow and I have disposable cash, then I'll buy it, but I don't know when tomorrow might be (one example, and only steamer on the list: Max Gray or Westside SP 4-10-2 in excellent to mint condition and/or excellent paint). John
The relatively few items I am hunting just do not turn up very often, but some did around Christmas a year ago, when I was not flush with cash. The list is 20 to 30 models of individual road-specific engines that I either would buy and run as is or would have painted to represent some other roadname.
I usually do not appreciate comments like "lives for the hunt".
There are items I've hunted for over 25 years and never found again, or not again at a price I felt was "affordable" so I simply do without. If one shows up tomorrow and I have disposable cash, then I'll buy it, but I don't know when tomorrow might be (one example, and only steamer on the list: Max Gray or Westside SP 4-10-2 in excellent to mint condition and/or excellent paint).
For many years I sold custom GRAVELY tractor parts, always as "buy it now". For what it was, I stayed pretty busy, custom up grades for 20 year old garden tractors that have a bit of a hobby following.........
When I sometimes took an item down, I never saw any "pent up" demand when I put it back up, in fact I often wondered if I had missed sales?
Virtually everything model train related that I have ever bought on Ebay is "new old stock", never been out of the box.
Recent exception, trying to gather up some Brawa/Eheim trolley buses, some what played with may be all I find.
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
ATLANTIC CENTRAL When it comes to shopping, some people live for the hunt, some don't. I don't. And I hardly ever buy anything you would call "used". So I have no time for all these mental exercises trying to guess the thinking of sellers or other buyers, but I still manage to get lots of good deals, like my two $75 Spectrum 2-6-6-2's..... Sheldon
When it comes to shopping, some people live for the hunt, some don't.
I don't. And I hardly ever buy anything you would call "used".
So I have no time for all these mental exercises trying to guess the thinking of sellers or other buyers, but I still manage to get lots of good deals, like my two $75 Spectrum 2-6-6-2's.....
It really isn't thinking about them on a continual basis. Its just a matter of listing an item differently when Ebay changes the rules.
I freelance and my railroad has no fixed type of loco. I have no needs. I simply swap out different locos from time to time just to watch them operate, mostly four axle diesels. Different locos get acquired and some get sold off, especially new models I'm unfamiliar with and I find out they were not designed or built as I expected, which is happening more and more these days. They're not out of factory specs to return, they're just not up to my standards.
I just bought a brand new MSRP $250 loco that has a yellow-glow headlight, but bluish cool-white ditchlights. What a cheap, unthought out, ugly and distracting design (just grabbed what they had in the parts bins?). Not going to fiddle with swapping out the lights, so it might get recycled to the secondary market as "Like New". Now I know never to buy that vintage loco ever again.
As far as sniping, if I want an item, I'll make time to check the bids on the auction once in a while. I don't think sniping matters much because the winner pays no more than just a dollar or so above the next bid, so placing it 6 days or 6 seconds before the end yields the same results most of the time.
tstage Doughless So to offset, I suppose a seller should set a BIN now price higher than they really want, then send out discounts to the watchers at the real price. That's called "marketing". Online and b&m stores, as well as "infomercial" stuff that is sold on TV have used this tactic to sell merchanise for years. They tell you what the MSRP or going price is for an item then discount it to give you the [false] notion (aka "the hook") that you're getting a bargin. Asking price and "worth" are two totally separate things. You also have to watch out for S&H cost that a seller might use to recoup some of the loss they are taking for selling an item or items at lower cost. I think the automotive and residential services (window replacement, carpet cleaning, etc.) use marketing tactics the most often. Ask 10 people on the street which offer sounds better: 25% off all tires or Purchase 3 tires and get the 4th one FREE I'd be willing to guess that more than 50% would say the latter. (In fact, they're both exactly the same.) It's just a numbers game. Folks hear the word "free" and they lose all sense of reasoning. And there's "the hook" for selling someone four new tires for their car, or replacement windows for their house. Tom
Doughless So to offset, I suppose a seller should set a BIN now price higher than they really want, then send out discounts to the watchers at the real price.
That's called "marketing". Online and b&m stores, as well as "infomercial" stuff that is sold on TV have used this tactic to sell merchanise for years. They tell you what the MSRP or going price is for an item then discount it to give you the [false] notion (aka "the hook") that you're getting a bargin. Asking price and "worth" are two totally separate things. You also have to watch out for S&H cost that a seller might use to recoup some of the loss they are taking for selling an item or items at lower cost.
I think the automotive and residential services (window replacement, carpet cleaning, etc.) use marketing tactics the most often. Ask 10 people on the street which offer sounds better:
25% off all tires
or
Purchase 3 tires and get the 4th one FREE
I'd be willing to guess that more than 50% would say the latter. (In fact, they're both exactly the same.) It's just a numbers game. Folks hear the word "free" and they lose all sense of reasoning. And there's "the hook" for selling someone four new tires for their car, or replacement windows for their house.
Tom
Yeah, but if a store does that, the buyers will just pass by the store every day of the year until the sale happens, rendering the other days of the year a waste of overhead expenses.
All I meant was that buyers simply wait for how much discount you offer. I used to be able to put something on BIN for 7 days, IIRC. Now the minimum listing is 29 days. So they watch and wait, like I'm a store with inventory on the ebay shelves. All it does is force the sellers to raise the BIN price to above market value. I'd think the process slows down the number of items sold and raises the amount of listed clutter than if the BIN price was simply the bottom line like it used to be.
This is all a big game that I have no interest in playing. If I want a locomotive (or bike part or ham radio) I check prices and buy. If it is not worth market price to me, I don't buy it. If I do buy on eBay, which is rare, it is usually as BIN.
Genesee Terminal, freelanced HO in Upstate NY ...hosting Loon Bay Transit Authority and CSX Intermodal. Interchange with CSX (CR)(NYC).
CP/D&H, N scale, somewhere on the Canadian Shield
I don't get the whole "snipe" bit.
Last purchase, I set max bid, sniped last 1 second by $1.
Same item was listed by another seller, with a $10 higher shipping cost. I put a bid $11 lower than the other sold for, and won. So, I still got my item, at what I thought was a fair price.
Ricky W.
HO scale Proto-freelancer.
My Railroad rules:
1: It's my railroad, my rules.
2: It's for having fun and enjoyment.
3: Any objections, consult above rules.
Yes, on those BIN listings there are "dealers" out there who are watching or tracking the price. If I get in a hurry and drop the price too much, they pounce and buy the item and then relist it for their own stock. Some have even been so brazen as to re-use my uploaded photos when they relist the items for sale.
With brass items in particular, there are 6 or 8 brass "dealers" (using that term loosely) that watch many if not all auctions. I have tried offering them a "deal" at a lower price point, as discussed above, but if it is close to the item's actual value, they never take the deal. They are clearly looking for the steal.
The offers I've been receiving have typically been from people thinking either I'm stupid or desperate to sell as they are typically below dealer net (or on Overland Models brass, below the dealer net cost from 20 years ago.)
I finally gave up and sent some good brass items to Brasstrains.com. One of my engines sold in only 4 days at the price I set, which makes the consignment fee at least worthwhile. The kicker is it may take up to 90 days for the listings to go live, because they have so much to list for sale. However, their inventory sells and much sells fairly fast, so they are doing a lot right.
Bottom line: I have a few last items to go on the evil auction site, and my intention is then to keep all the trains I buy and never list any more for sale again. The hassle that it has become recently, within the past year, is frankly not worthwhile. I also don't appreciate the complaints about shipping charges when I don't set the shipping rates and I eat all shipping materials costs and don't charge a nickel more than the shipping costs me.
I am using Ebay to find a few relatively rare brass models (preferably unpainted) that I want for my railroad, but my days of horse trading or selling are rapidly ending.
gmpullman rrinker Gee, and I thought I made out like a bandit when I got $79 for my AHM/Pocher Lincoln Funeral Car, Aah, but was it RARE?
Ed, I don't think they were even well-done...
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
rrinkerGee, and I thought I made out like a bandit when I got $79 for my AHM/Pocher Lincoln Funeral Car,
gmpullman Then, every once in a while, you get to witness one of these Budd_diner by Edmund, on Flickr This just ended a few days ago. Fun to watch. Oh, and don't forget — this diner is RARE! I've always had good experiences with my eBay purchases. Just lucky, I guess. I bid at the last few seconds when possible but I don't use any kind of software. Sometimes I use an ordinary kitchen timer to remind me when an auction is nearing the end. Recently I've had several "make offer" requests emailed to me on items that I either have saved in my watch list or items that I've browsed. Sometimes these are pretty decent reductions on the original asking price and I have taken advantage of the offers at times. It always helps to place items in your "Watch" list as eBay will frequently let you know when similar items arrive. I also look at "See Sellers Other Items" and right away you know if you are dealing with a big on-line seller such as Trainz or if it may be the mom & pop trinket shoppe who just happen to have a few train items on hand. It also helps to use the advanced search options and you can choose to be notified when items arrive that fall into your search category. As the line in The Music Man says, "You gotta know the territory". BigDaddy My experience is similar to Tom, bidding high early starts a bidding war earlier. I've also seen cases where an item had a reasonable "Buy-it-now" price but someone will make a low-ball bid which cancels out the BIN, then the bidding will go way over what the buy it now price originally was. C'est la vie. Overall, eBay has been a great source for me for books, electronics and model "stuff" for many years. Good Luck, Ed
Then, every once in a while, you get to witness one of these
Budd_diner by Edmund, on Flickr
This just ended a few days ago. Fun to watch. Oh, and don't forget — this diner is RARE!
I've always had good experiences with my eBay purchases. Just lucky, I guess.
I bid at the last few seconds when possible but I don't use any kind of software. Sometimes I use an ordinary kitchen timer to remind me when an auction is nearing the end.
Recently I've had several "make offer" requests emailed to me on items that I either have saved in my watch list or items that I've browsed. Sometimes these are pretty decent reductions on the original asking price and I have taken advantage of the offers at times.
It always helps to place items in your "Watch" list as eBay will frequently let you know when similar items arrive. I also look at "See Sellers Other Items" and right away you know if you are dealing with a big on-line seller such as Trainz or if it may be the mom & pop trinket shoppe who just happen to have a few train items on hand. It also helps to use the advanced search options and you can choose to be notified when items arrive that fall into your search category.
As the line in The Music Man says, "You gotta know the territory".
BigDaddy My experience is similar to Tom, bidding high early starts a bidding war earlier.
I've also seen cases where an item had a reasonable "Buy-it-now" price but someone will make a low-ball bid which cancels out the BIN, then the bidding will go way over what the buy it now price originally was. C'est la vie.
Overall, eBay has been a great source for me for books, electronics and model "stuff" for many years.
Good Luck, Ed
Gee, and I thought I made out like a bandit when I got $79 for my AHM/Pocher Lincoln Funeral Car, which still had the original $1.99 price tag from when we bought it.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
I have won many eBay auctions by sniping (and I have lost many as well). eBay auctions go to the last bidder, not the highest bidder. For most auctions, many potential bidders say to themselves "I would have paid that for the item". But alas, the auction has ended. Rarely, if ever, does the high bidder get an eBay auction. I laugh at those who bid in the first day of a 7 day auction, and even more so than those who counter-bid on the first day. Why don't we all wait until the last 30 seconds and put our best bid in and let the highest win? Bidding early only raises the price for last bidder.
That's a smart strategy, Kevin. On more than one occasion I ended up being the only bidder/buyer on a few auctioned items and BINs because the description "missed the mark".