Crazy bidders on eBay

[jfugate]

Guys:

Just go to google and type:

optimal bid strategy online auction

You'll get a bunch of "long haired" research papers to read, full of charts and graphs and calculus statistics formulas.

But the upshot of it all is bid your maximum price as late as possible in the auction if you want to pay less for the item yet still win the auction.

[Anonymous]

I see alot of buy it now items at full MSRP. I simply get a discount without paying shipping at the LHS. Who do these folks think the bidders are riding a turnip truck?

Now. If a item is OOP (Out of Production) and I happened to see it on ebay... all bets are off. I carry a "Warchest" and snipe the last few moments of the auction. The happy seller counts the dollars and gets the item in the mail. I use the theory that I carry more dollars than sense and scare competition away for this item.

Strange isnt it?

[BRAKIE]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Todd McWilliam

I swa an idiot pay 122.00 for an Athearn GP35 RTR Reading straight out of the box, no extra details. First hobby sells them for 57.00.

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Todd,That was the type of things I was talking about in my reply.Thats way above MSRP.
BTW..I seen them for $54.99..[:D]

[Anonymous]

Rarely do I not snipe when I bid.

I even did some form of sniping back when I had dial-up.

QUOTE: Originally posted by BRAKIE

QUOTE: Originally posted by Todd McWilliam

I swa an idiot pay 122.00 for an Athearn GP35 RTR Reading straight out of the box, no extra details. First hobby sells them for 57.00.

============================================================================
Todd,That was the type of things I was talking about in my reply.Thats way above MSRP.
BTW..I seen them for $54.99..[:D]

Maybe that's like a guy paying nearly $20 for my CSX MOW flat car(Athearn). Twice I've had that happen to me, and one had two or three missing stirrups.

And I'll take a wild guess and say that I've bid against some of you[:D].

[davekelly]

I don't think it's just on ebay, it's just that ebay makes it possible for the world to view a transaction. Is there anyone that can honestly say "I've never paid too much for anything" or "when I buy something I'm always 100 percent rational"?

[Jacktal]

Did someone ever imagine what it would be like if an item was up for bid with only a minimum bid amount displayed?One would then bid "his" max amount without knowing if he's high bidder or have been outbid.Wouldn't that give snipers a hard day?Winner would still pay let's say a dollar over next highest bidder.Wouldn't this be fair?Just a thought.......

[ham99]

I usually bid as soon as an item comes up if it is something I really want. I seldom watch the end of an auction. It's too easy to get caught up in the excitement and pay too much. I lose a lot of auctions that way, but most things will come up again if you have patience. And many times I get it for my opening bid. The biggest "no-no" for me is an unrealistic shipping charge. No matter how badly I want an item, if the shipping charge is a rip-off, I won't bid on it. I've lost money shipping items I've sold, but not much. I can usually estimate shipping charges to either coast [I live midway] and list them; no charge for my time in packing and shipping. Another "no-no" is the item listed as HO/N/O when it obviously has to be just one -- not a power pack or scenery material, but often vehicles or structures. Or no scale listed, just model railroad XXX.

[davekelly]

ham,

So if a guy is charging $30.00 to ship to a Kato diesel you won't bid on it, even if a bid of $10.00 would win it?

[AltonFan]

QUOTE: Originally posted by davekelly

So if a guy is charging $30.00 to ship to a Kato diesel you won't bid on it, even if a bid of $10.00 would win it?

First of all, I don't typically buy trains on ebay; my experiences have been with other items.

In general, even when buying from a conventional dealer, I prefer to keep the shipping charges to as small a percentage of the total payment as possible. To my mind, it doesn't make sense to pay $5.00 shipping on a item priced at $5.00 or less, especially if the item could be obtained without incurring the shipping charge. (And one needs to be vigilant that discounts are not being eaten by shipping charges.)

Second, an excessive shipping charge on a low-priced item is a "warning flag". Something is out of order right at the beginning; one good way to resolve problems is to avoid them in the first place.

(The specific example I have in mind is a pipe with a $.99 opening bid, and a $99.00 shipping charge. Frequently, the seller is based in a foreign country, and the description is written in very poor English. I just see too many places for trouble to start.)

Finally, especially on a highly desirable item, one has to allow for the possibility that bid price will rise to MSRP, and the excessive shipping charge will still be assessed.

Of course, all of this really means that a bidder has to use common sense, consider shipping costs when placing a bid. Also, it is probably not a good idea to go impulse buying on ebay.

jfugate:

I have to thank you for calling my attention to the www.auctionsnipe.com website. I suddenly don't feel like "a one-legged man in a butt-kicking contest" when bidding at ebay. It certainly has some useful features in addition to the bid scheduling. And it does help curb overbidding.

Thanks again.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by jfugate

With over 100 million bidders on ebay, you can expect a few of them to be irrational.

It's the irrational bidders that blow the proxy bidding model out of the water on ebay. That's why its best NOT to bid on an item until the last possible moment. Otherwise you run the risk of irrational bidders seeing your interest, and then repeatedly incremental bidding on the item, driving the price up to unreasonable levels.

If you snipe bid (as last minute bidding is affectionately called by seasoned ebayers) then you run the best chance of getting the item at a more reasonable price, in the price range you were willing to pay. http://auctionsniper.com enables you to snipe bid automatically so you don't have to physically babysit the item to place your last minute bid.

Your soooooo right about bidding. What I do it "Watch the item" first. It goes into my folder and I watch to see if anyone had bidded on it. If it goes more than 2 bidder, I turn my back on it. Do anyone every ask the seller a question. Some sellers don't know what they have and describe it wrong, but people like me know what they have and they sell it dirt cheap. I saw a couple of Athearns for 0.99 with no bidder's. Why? because the seller said it was a rubber band dirve or so they thought. Look at the pics closely as I don't buy anything without pics unless the seller is certain of what the have and lettting go dirt cheap

[jfugate]

QUOTE: Originally posted by 8500HPGASTURBINE

Yes but would you be willing to give your ebay name & password to auctionsnipe (which they require)?? They would be able to go into your "MY EBAY". Even though it doesn't contain secret info I still think it's a bad idea. I am sure some people have there personal PAYPAL account info the same as there Ebay name & password. Now that would be a real security risk.

Agreed ... bad idea to have your ebay account and your paypal account have the same login and password.

I change the password on my paypal account every few months just to be safe. [:D]

I've had my credit card number stolen, but never paypal. The nice thing about paying with paypal is you don't give the recipient of the payment anything to steal. But to pay with a credit card, you give them your number, expiration date, and the CCV number off the back of the card ... just exactly what they need to steal you blind if they have a mind to.

Further security is to have a special credit card you use just for online purchases. Then if someone steals your card info, just cancel the card and dispute the charges, then get a new card. Meanwhile, your main bank account remains untouched. Believe me, fraud on your main bank account is a *real pain*, so you don't want to use that account to make online purchases!

[Anonymous]

i have some stuff go for outragous prices on ebay people are crazy the latest mellow mike offering went for 810 bucks!!!!!!