Quick Ebay Rant of The Day

[1shado1]

QUOTE: Originally posted by MAbruce

QUOTE: Originally posted by 1shado1

QUOTE: Originally posted by MAbruce

QUOTE: Originally posted by chewie8han

I'm not really sure why everyone has so much of a problem. If you put in a bid of $10.00, and someone bids $10.50 with 5 seconds or 1 second left, they beat you. THEY BID MORE. It's not when you bid. It's how much you bid. If you're willing to go as high as $20 in a last second bid, why not just put that in earlier? That's what I do all the time, and that's how I've gotten 80% of my stuff. Yes, I've lost some auctions, but they all went over the amount that I was willing to bid.

So true! Sniping is for those who want to pay too much for things. They might get the thrill of winning, but if often comes at a cost that is higher than what I was willing to pay. Patience and self control is the key to winning auctions at a reasonable price.

WRONG! Sniping is the only intelligent way of bidding on Ebay. It makes far more sense to bid $10 for an item in the last few seconds than it does bidding $10 for the item 3 days before the end of an auction. Sniping is more likely to get you an item at a lower cost.

Jeff

[(-D]Jeff - you crack me up. Thanks for the good laugh.[(-D]

It might be funny if you knew what you were talking about. Unfortunately, you don't. Let's suppose that an item has a current high bid of $8.00, with 3 days left until closing. Let's say the max that I'm willing to pay for the item is $10.00. If I bid my $10.00 with 3 days left, and am shown as high bidder at that $10.00 amount with 3 days left, all my bidding early has done is alerted other bidders that they need to bid higher than my current high bid of $10.00. But by waiting until the last possible second to bid my $10.00 (if the item is still shown below that price), I make it far more difficult for others to bid a higher amount than my last minute bid. By sniping, there is less chance of the price of an item being driven sky high by fools that just need to see themselves as the high bidder with 3 days to go, which counts for nothing, as the high bid at the end is what counts, not who is high bidder with days left. Why is this concept so difficult for so many folks to understand? I DO agree that restraint is warranted in any case, so as not to overbid (value wise), whether sniping or not.

Jeff

[areibel]

QUOTE: Originally posted by cnwfan11

Just a word of "CAUTION" . My fiancee purchase a whole bunch of Suydam kits from Ebay member "JTEN1". DO NOT,I repeat DO NOT purchase a thing from this guy!!!!! The kits that my fiancee purchased totaled over $100.00,and the most expensive one was for the Day and Night Water Heater Company. This clown (JTEN1),stated in his "ad" for this item that ALL pieces were in the kit. BULL[censored]!!!!! I am missing ALL four sides of this kit,the roof tops,as well as the angle pieces to build it. The kit is now worthless,and i am not able to build it.To top it off,this guy forced Ebay to close my fiancee's account,due to that I had a scuffle with this jerk before on some kits that were not full kits. So,what is happening,we are giving this guy till this Wednesday to answer the email we sent(never did respond to others we sent him).If no response has been made,then we are going to call him and find out what is going on. If this guy refuses,then there will be a contact to the District Attorney in his city and state. I dont want to scare the rest of those that buy stuff on Ebay,I am just letting you all know, NOT to buy from this guy,as you may have the same problem we are having.

OK, a couple things- $100 won't get you a District Attorney involved, They'll tell you to go to small claims court. And it will probably cost you more than that in filing fees. OK, you will get them back if you win, but are you both in the same state? Then where are you going to file? Sad, but most of the unscrupulous sellers on Ebay know what it will take to catch them, and they stay just out of reach. You'd have to prove criminal conspiricy to defraud, and this guy's got 99.9% positive feedback- won't happen!
And second- you did this before, with the same seller? He nuked your account so you couldn't bid on his stuff, so you used your fiances' to bid again?
Caveat Emptor, Dude!

[davekelly]

QUOTE: Originally posted by cnwfan11

Just a word of "CAUTION" . My fiancee purchase a whole bunch of Suydam kits from Ebay member "JTEN1". DO NOT,I repeat DO NOT purchase a thing from this guy!!!!! The kits that my fiancee purchased totaled over $100.00,and the most expensive one was for the Day and Night Water Heater Company. This clown (JTEN1),stated in his "ad" for this item that ALL pieces were in the kit. BULL[censored]!!!!! I am missing ALL four sides of this kit,the roof tops,as well as the angle pieces to build it. The kit is now worthless,and i am not able to build it.To top it off,this guy forced Ebay to close my fiancee's account,due to that I had a scuffle with this jerk before on some kits that were not full kits. So,what is happening,we are giving this guy till this Wednesday to answer the email we sent(never did respond to others we sent him).If no response has been made,then we are going to call him and find out what is going on. If this guy refuses,then there will be a contact to the District Attorney in his city and state. I dont want to scare the rest of those that buy stuff on Ebay,I am just letting you all know, NOT to buy from this guy,as you may have the same problem we are having.

I bought two structure kits from JTEN earlier this summer (checked my records to make sure) and had no problems. I did a quick check and this guy has over 4500 positive feedbacks with a percentage of 99.9 - many of those leaving feedback have hundreds of feedbacks themselves, so I don't think it's all from shills. Hopefully this will be squared away to everyone's satisfaction.

[Anonymous]

Hey guys there are always lottery tickets, bigger payoffs and less chance of being snipped or disapointed with the "winnings".
"And the rant beat goes on, on, on, on"
I have to ask why I have read this far in this rant?????!
Will [banghead] OH the joy the joy when I stop ... here!

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by MAbruce

QUOTE: That has nothing to do with it.

Huh??? Sounds like you have too much gas in your turbine...

That was uncalled for.[tdn] Let's not turn another legitimate post into yet another flame-fest.
uspscsx

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Koorstag

I just started ebaying and won all three items i bid on.....I think I better not bid on anything else for a while =). and no, I didn't overpay on any of them. got a Kato Mikado for $65, and 2 Atlas FA1s for $12 and $19.25. I am pretty happy =)

Martin

Congratulations on your first eBay wins! Be careful, it's addicting...

uspscsx

[Anonymous]

I've gotten nooked only twice on eBay. The first time I bought a rare Athearn/Walthers covered hopper. I got it, and the top hatches and the bottom...uhh...(I'm having railfan black-out..oh yeah!)bays were literally drenched with glue.(Dried of course) Nowhere in the description did the guy mention anything about glue residue. I e-mailed him and naturally he was an [censored] about the whole deal. So I ended up leaving him negative feedback and resold it, with an accurate description, for more than he got! And he didn't leave me negative feedback. Another time I sold a locomotive to a guy. He got it and claimed the chassis had been painted. He also said the handrail had been broken in one place, and that it didn't run. He continued on to scream at me because I had advertised it as "like-new." So, being the nice guy I am([8D]), I refunded his money, including shipping. Oh, and he was in Canada, so shipping was steep. I got it back, and it was not painted a different color and it did run, just like any other Bachmann.(Rough as heck) But about the handrails...well, They were broken completely off in three or four areas, much more than just one. It also had a broken horn, which he failed to mention. I was to believe that he "vandalized" the locomotive before he returned it, so I contacted the guy, but he had conveniently disappeared. No feedback was left from either party. I try my best to maintain my perfect feedback score for both of my names. But I'm afraid that one of these days I will run into some jerk whom I will pay and he will leave negative saying I didn't and disappear.

eBay is FULL of idiots, morons, jerks, you name it.(Insert any word you please) You just have to be careful.

Now, about the whole bidding situation. Yesterday, something un-explainable happened. I set my timer for 1 min. and started it no less than with 1 min. five secs left. I submitted a bid with 4 seconds left, meaning, more or less, 9 seconds cushion time. I got the old "Sorry, but the bid cannot be submitted because the auction is over. So I quickly go back to the auction page, and refresh. 1 second remaining. My bid was not submitted. I dunno how, but there's something fishy... So I was pretty ticked for a while.

By the way, I was bidding on Aggro's BN box car. Obviously someone's clock was off. I doubt it was mine.

uspscsx

[Anonymous]

I just started ebaying and won all three items i bid on.....I think I better not bid on anything else for a while =). and no, I didn't overpay on any of them. got a Kato Mikado for $65, and 2 Atlas FA1s for $12 and $19.25. I am pretty happy =)

Martin

[csmith9474]

QUOTE: Originally posted by cnwfan11

Just a word of "CAUTION" . My fiancee purchase a whole bunch of Suydam kits from Ebay member "JTEN1". DO NOT,I repeat DO NOT purchase a thing from this guy!!!!! The kits that my fiancee purchased totaled over $100.00,and the most expensive one was for the Day and Night Water Heater Company. This clown (JTEN1),stated in his "ad" for this item that ALL pieces were in the kit. BULL[censored]!!!!! I am missing ALL four sides of this kit,the roof tops,as well as the angle pieces to build it. The kit is now worthless,and i am not able to build it.To top it off,this guy forced Ebay to close my fiancee's account,due to that I had a scuffle with this jerk before on some kits that were not full kits. So,what is happening,we are giving this guy till this Wednesday to answer the email we sent(never did respond to others we sent him).If no response has been made,then we are going to call him and find out what is going on. If this guy refuses,then there will be a contact to the District Attorney in his city and state. I dont want to scare the rest of those that buy stuff on Ebay,I am just letting you all know, NOT to buy from this guy,as you may have the same problem we are having.

I hope you negged him straight to he**, although it looks like you didn't!!!!!!! I belive you can stick 'em on mail fraud too, if you did not already know that. Hopefully you can get this guy NARUd if it is deserved.

[Anonymous]

Just a word of "CAUTION" . My fiancee purchase a whole bunch of Suydam kits from Ebay member "JTEN1". DO NOT,I repeat DO NOT purchase a thing from this guy!!!!! The kits that my fiancee purchased totaled over $100.00,and the most expensive one was for the Day and Night Water Heater Company. This clown (JTEN1),stated in his "ad" for this item that ALL pieces were in the kit. BULL[censored]!!!!! I am missing ALL four sides of this kit,the roof tops,as well as the angle pieces to build it. The kit is now worthless,and i am not able to build it.To top it off,this guy forced Ebay to close my fiancee's account,due to that I had a scuffle with this jerk before on some kits that were not full kits. So,what is happening,we are giving this guy till this Wednesday to answer the email we sent(never did respond to others we sent him).If no response has been made,then we are going to call him and find out what is going on. If this guy refuses,then there will be a contact to the District Attorney in his city and state. I dont want to scare the rest of those that buy stuff on Ebay,I am just letting you all know, NOT to buy from this guy,as you may have the same problem we are having.

[steveblackledge]

I got out bid on some boxcars Aggro had on Ebay, *** and blast it i wanted the BN one so much, but i could not watch the last two hours so got out bid

[MAbruce]

QUOTE: Originally posted by 8500HPGASTURBINE

So true! Sniping is for those who want to pay too much for things. They might get the thrill of winning, but if often comes at a cost that is higher than what I was willing to pay. Patience and self control is the key to winning auctions at a reasonable price.


Were did you read that??? I have never bought anything off of Ebay that didn't cost more from any hobbie shop.

1. Didn't read it anywhere. Anyone who sniped me on an auction simply paid more than I would have for that item. What's so hard to understand about that?

2. What does getting something that didn't cost more at a hobby shop have to do with what I originally said? I doubt most people (including me) would bid more on something that they could get cheaper at a hobby shop.

QUOTE: Patience and self control,

That has nothing to do with it.

Huh??? Sounds like you have too much gas in your turbine...

[MAbruce]

QUOTE: Originally posted by 1shado1

QUOTE: Originally posted by MAbruce

QUOTE: Originally posted by chewie8han

I'm not really sure why everyone has so much of a problem. If you put in a bid of $10.00, and someone bids $10.50 with 5 seconds or 1 second left, they beat you. THEY BID MORE. It's not when you bid. It's how much you bid. If you're willing to go as high as $20 in a last second bid, why not just put that in earlier? That's what I do all the time, and that's how I've gotten 80% of my stuff. Yes, I've lost some auctions, but they all went over the amount that I was willing to bid.

So true! Sniping is for those who want to pay too much for things. They might get the thrill of winning, but if often comes at a cost that is higher than what I was willing to pay. Patience and self control is the key to winning auctions at a reasonable price.

WRONG! Sniping is the only intelligent way of bidding on Ebay. It makes far more sense to bid $10 for an item in the last few seconds than it does bidding $10 for the item 3 days before the end of an auction. Sniping is more likely to get you an item at a lower cost.

Jeff

[(-D]Jeff - you crack me up. Thanks for the good laugh.[(-D]

[Anonymous]

I get outbid on eBay over 50% of the time. As a matter of fact if I don't, I know I am bidding too high. Sniping is OK if you can stand the strain but I have found that I win often enough by just honestly entering the maximum I'm willing to pay for an item and waiting for the outcome. If you get into a bidding war you will usually pay more for an item than you could have through other means. Most everything that I have wanted and bid for on ebay has eventually come around again and eventually I have won the bid without esceeding my max. target bid. One hint, watch for items that end at odd times of the day during the middle of the week (odd times for US bidders).

Bob DeWoody

[1shado1]

QUOTE: Originally posted by MAbruce

QUOTE: Originally posted by chewie8han

I'm not really sure why everyone has so much of a problem. If you put in a bid of $10.00, and someone bids $10.50 with 5 seconds or 1 second left, they beat you. THEY BID MORE. It's not when you bid. It's how much you bid. If you're willing to go as high as $20 in a last second bid, why not just put that in earlier? That's what I do all the time, and that's how I've gotten 80% of my stuff. Yes, I've lost some auctions, but they all went over the amount that I was willing to bid.

So true! Sniping is for those who want to pay too much for things. They might get the thrill of winning, but if often comes at a cost that is higher than what I was willing to pay. Patience and self control is the key to winning auctions at a reasonable price.

WRONG! Sniping is the only intelligent way of bidding on Ebay. It makes far more sense to bid $10 for an item in the last few seconds than it does bidding $10 for the item 3 days before the end of an auction. Sniping is more likely to get you an item at a lower cost.

Jeff

[Anonymous]

Ebay is a fools game. Use auction sniping software or you will be very frustrated and waste alot of time.

[MAbruce]

QUOTE: Originally posted by chewie8han

I'm not really sure why everyone has so much of a problem. If you put in a bid of $10.00, and someone bids $10.50 with 5 seconds or 1 second left, they beat you. THEY BID MORE. It's not when you bid. It's how much you bid. If you're willing to go as high as $20 in a last second bid, why not just put that in earlier? That's what I do all the time, and that's how I've gotten 80% of my stuff. Yes, I've lost some auctions, but they all went over the amount that I was willing to bid.

So true! Sniping is for those who want to pay too much for things. They might get the thrill of winning, but if often comes at a cost that is higher than what I was willing to pay. Patience and self control is the key to winning auctions at a reasonable price.

[Anonymous]

And the rant beat goes on , and the rant beat goes on and on and on & on......
Will

[1shado1]

QUOTE: Originally posted by icmr

This is fun.



ICMR

Happy Railroading.[swg][swg]

Very helpful. Thanks for your input.[:p]

[underworld]

Don't forget to check train shows. Obsolete kits turn up there too....sometimes for less than retail.

underworld

[:D][:D][:D][:D][:D]

[underworld]

Keep checking, those are pretty common kits on eBay.

underworld

[:D][:D][:D][:D][:D]

[csmith9474]

QUOTE: Originally posted by jeffshultz

Forget sniping - simply bid the highest amount you are willing to pay about an hour or so before it closes.

If you win, yippee. If you don't - well, you still have the money to try again with.

If you start bidding too early, that can drive up the winning amount. I would never bid on anything within the first few days of an auction, especially with the nibblers. If you are going to bid, then make it good. Don't sit there and bid $2 at a time until you just make the high bid. That kills an auction quick for buyers.

[jeffshultz]

Forget sniping - simply bid the highest amount you are willing to pay about an hour or so before it closes.

If you win, yippee. If you don't - well, you still have the money to try again with.

[dgwinup]

QUOTE: Originally posted by chewie8han

I'm not really sure why everyone has so much of a problem. If you put in a bid of $10.00, and someone bids $10.50 with 5 seconds or 1 second left, they beat you. THEY BID MORE. It's not when you bid. It's how much you bid. If you're willing to go as high as $20 in a last second bid, why not just put that in earlier? That's what I do all the time, and that's how I've gotten 80% of my stuff. Yes, I've lost some auctions, but they all went over the amount that I was willing to bid.

I have found that almost regardless of what you bid, someone is willing to bid more. I do not bid high at the start. If I bid high and my $20 turns out to be the highest, maybe I could have gotten it for $9? Why pay more if you don't have to? It doesn't make sense. Even if I am willing to bid $20, I still want to get it cheaper if I can. If someone else wants it more than I do, they will bid it up regardless of what I bid and I will lose anyway.

I use eSnipe for sniping. There is a small charge on successful bids only. If you bid and lose, there is no charge. eSnipe allows me to bid with as little as 1 or 2 seconds left, and I am not relying on MY computer connection to make the bid. (I have tried using two screens, etc., and I usually wind up watching my computer inexplicably slow down just when I want to bid!) eSnipe will place the bid for me at the time I specify in the amount I select, and will continue to bid up to my pre-set limit or the end of the auction. I win a lot of auctions this way for a LOT less money than any other method. Yes, I lose a bunch, but that's because someone else is STILL willing to outbid me, long before the auction is CLOSE to being over, which is why I don't bid high 6 days before the auction ends ! ! ! Let them spend their money, I'll wait for the next auction.

If you like to bid your maximum at the start of the auction, you are only running the prices up and are contributing to what you are complaining about - people paying more that what an item is worth. Either change the way you bid or quit complaining about it. The only way to win an auction is to have the highest bid WHEN THE AUCTION CLOSES, not at the beginning of the auction. You will be outbid almost every time!

Now, since I also sell on eBay, I hope you will ignore my advice if you are bidding on my auctions. I'm VERY happy to accept a final bid much higher than the item is worth! Please, go ahead! Bid high, then bid HIGHER!! PLEASE?

Darrell, biding my bid, quietly...for now

[AntonioFP45]

I think I saw that same bid, but I'm uncertain.

More of these kits will pop up on ebay, though. Several months ago I won a Walthers Car Shop for $34, which was a pretty nice deal. I wanted a Walthers Back Shop, but then realized that I actually like the Car Shop kit as a locomotive Back Shop building since visibility of the inside from the outside is better than the Back Shop kit. I plan on adding detailing and lighting to it once my layout is up.

I plan on getting another Car Shop kit and splice it together with the kit I now have to make it a nicely sized engine shop.

As an option for those of you that are looking for an engine shop, the Bachmann Plus locomotive shop kit also shows up on ebay from time to time. It's very nice, though it only has two stall instead of the Walther's three.

[Anonymous]

I think the LHS has a few of those kits yet to be sold.. I suggest going to walthers.com and finding the kit in question. Then clicking the link to "Hobby Shops who have recieved this item in the past " Whew..... then emailing each one of them and ask if they do have the item.

Be prepared to wait a day as all the responses come flooding in. Many will offer a price and shipping. Usually it will be a bit less than MSRP. I do this from time to time to acquire some really OOP items.

Regarding the sniping.. 5 seconds tells me that this buyer may have been on Cable or Fast DSL. I can do 4 seconds with preloaded bid confirm screens but that is extreme. The server needs just a bit of 3 seconds to record and send results.

The auctions isnt over until the fat lady sings. So line up your target decide what to spend max and enter it at 4 seconds to go. You need a good stopwatch synced to the Ebay LOCAL time... NOT your desktop, computer, house clock or anything else.

Dont use software to snipe.. ebay is working to make it somewhat illegal. And... dont worry... some chumpith will pay far more than resonable in really hot wars. Let em fight over it.. the seller will win.

[csmith9474]

I heard that eBay is going to make sniping software "illegal" if they haven't already.

[areibel]

http://www.hammersnipe.com/

Then it's only a matter of how much you want to spend!

[icmr]

This is fun.



ICMR

Happy Railroading.[swg][swg]

[Anonymous]

I'm not really sure why everyone has so much of a problem. If you put in a bid of $10.00, and someone bids $10.50 with 5 seconds or 1 second left, they beat you. THEY BID MORE. It's not when you bid. It's how much you bid. If you're willing to go as high as $20 in a last second bid, why not just put that in earlier? That's what I do all the time, and that's how I've gotten 80% of my stuff. Yes, I've lost some auctions, but they all went over the amount that I was willing to bid.