Is crack a common drug for ebay bidders?

[Mat A]

I can't for the life of me believe the bidding that goes on on ebay for lie nielsen tools. I'm now seeing planes going for more than LN sells them for on their website. Are people that stupid

[Edwin Pawlowski]

Yes, they are that stupid. I collect fountain pens. I've seen brand new retail $30 pens go for $50 on eBay. I've seen antique pens worth $100 go for $20. Probably because they are old.

There are bargains, but you have to know what things are worth and know when to stop bidding.

[TWS]

The worst is consumer electronics, I've given up looking for a bargain in those categories. Too many ignorant people with auction fever.

TWS

[AAvK]

People get rediculous on eBay. They get extremely competetive because there it is, something they can actually "win" because they got the money. It is too wierd some- times. I've seen a 9 1/2 Stanley go for around $100 in semi-poor, user condition and then one in much nicer condition go for around $30. Just where does that "heat" come from?

Alex

[mac davis]

for sure on the knowing when to stop! I bid on a lot of Shopsmith stuff on Ebay, so when something comes up, I go to the SS web site and price it... Obviously, most folks don't, because I see a lot of used stuff going for more than the new price.. bidding fever? caught up in the moment?? dunno...

A friend bought a sears router template kit for letters and used it quite a few times... bought it for $19.95 and sold it for $21 plus shipping on ebay...

[Silvan]

Or sometimes you just want to WIN the fscking auction and get on with your life. I paid grossly too much for a trumpet because I was shopping for that kind of trumpet, this one was in much better than average condition, and I wanted to WIN IT ALREADY, so I could stop having to juggle the watchlist. I got sniped, sniped again, sniped a third time, sniped a fourth time... All of this took me over two weeks, because I didn't want to have two bids out at the same time. I don't bid more than I can afford.

I decided to jack up the price on the last one so ridiculously high that I would win it once and for all. Tracking auctions is a bitch when you're on the road. You have to try to juggle it so you can be there for the closing minute, which is where almost all auctions anybody cares the least bit about are won or lost. I was tired of getting sniped by someone without a job. (Or someone who sucked enough to actually use sniping software. Loser.)

Little did I expect that I would only win it by $0.51. Ouch. I didn't think anybody would be insane enough to come anywhere close to my final, completely absurd bid.

Then of course one better looking came along the next day, and went for $75 less.

Oh well. Like I said, it was a combination of factors. In this case, the item in question is more like an old Stanley. Lots of old planes, in lots of stages of disrepair, and the cheap ones are almost always in pretty seriously crappy condition. This was something like finding a 1950s vintage #5 in 98% condition. Tons of #5s listed every day, and not exactly the cream of the crop, but how often do you find one this pristine? So I paid waaaaaaaay too much.

Screw it. I enjoy playing my trumpet, and I'm glad I finally won the damn thing after nearly three weeks of being sniped by people with no jobs.

[Andy Dingley]

Go look in the ebay newsgroups. Clearly people in auctions Are Just Barking Mad

[David Hall]

I have been bidding on a few things for my brother who recently bought a used Shopsmith 500. One item, the front table extension, sells regularly from Shopsmith at $49.99, I have seen several go by at from $50 to $80 in the last few weeks. Others have gone by at around $35 to $40, which is still too much (esp. given that they are on sale now at shopsmith at $42.50).

Dave Hall

[Bob Schmall]

It's quite common to find telescopes going for more than retail on eBay. I'm an amateur astronomer and keep watch on the stuff. Aside from the sheer junk being offered--want a 525-power 2" paper weight?-- a Chinese company sells its not-quite-sheer junk on eBay and AFAIK uses ONLY eBay to market. I'm also told that a number of retailers and OEMs are bidding or selling under false names. OTOH, I just bought a used tail light assembly (don't ask) for 1/5 the price of new.

Bob

[Wes Stewart]

|I can't for the life of me believe the bidding that goes on on ebay for lie |nielsen tools. I'm now seeing planes going for more than LN sells them for |on their website. Are people that stupid

Maybe this is why:

[mac davis]

but used musical instruments are slightly different from mass produced tools or parts...

[Mark]

Hot Damn!

I've always known shilling was illegal, glad to see something being done about it.

OTOH, if someone bids "too much", well, is it really too much? Nobodies putting a gun to their head and making them bid. If the item isn't worth what their bidding then why are they bidding?

Maybe it's that I've been going to real auctions for twenty years that I think people ought to take responsibility for their bidding, and that if one gets caught in a frenzy, well, isn't that too bad.

I wish someone would frenzy on MY auctions . :(

[toller]

It is not just eBay; it is all auctions. I have seen 10 year old generators go for over retail at traditional auctions, and the buyers don't even know if they start.

eBay is particularly bad because it is so big.

[Slowhand]

No kidding. I needed an XD card for my camera. I thought, I bet a good deal can be had from ebay. Wrongo! I went to costco and paid $20 less than ebay. SH

[TWS]

On Tue, 9 Nov 2004 10:03:01 -0800, "Slowhand" > in those categories. Too many ignorant people with auction fever.

I've gotten some really good deals on eBay but mostly on niche items or items where the auction expires at a really weird time like 2AM Pacific Time. It seems the prices tend to increase rapidly in the last 5 minutes of an auction so if you can find one that expires at a weird time (and you're willing to stay up/get up at that hour) you might be able to get a bargain.

I've bought everything from a $1 legal size digital scanner to a boat and two cars on eBay but I'm disciplined enough to bid what the price I'm willing to pay and I don't bid twice.

Some categories I won't even bother with - consumer electronics is one of them.

I've gotten some decent wood on eBay but not at bargain prices. The advantage of eBay for wood purchases is the ability to quickly look through a huge 'stack' of wood and find something that you like for a specific project. In most of these cases price is not the issue (within reason of course ;-) Saves on gas (petrol for our friends across the sea) too...

TWS

[Leuf]

Shame, because sniping software is perfect for the situation you were in. You can group a set of similar auctions together and it will snipe until it wins one of them and then stop. That way you can go after multiple items without worrying about ending up with more than one. Sniping, with or without software help, also protects you from shill bidding.

I would review the bidding history on the item, as something like that raises a red flag for me. Sometimes it just happens like that though, I had one a while back where someone outbid me by exactly 1 cent in one try.

-Leuf

[Silvan]

Not really that much, no. I think old (mass produced) instruments vs. old (mass produced) planes is an apt comparison. Perhaps what you're getting at is that used, old, out of production stuff is a different market from buying something that's still on sale new. In that case, I agree completely. People paying more than retail for items that are currently and readily available is pretty nuts.

[Dave Hinz]

Sniping, with or without software help, is good only to pay less for something than it's worth. It cheats sellers out of getting a fair price.

Look at it this way - in a "real" auction, the auctioneer doesn't say "I'll listen to bids until (time)", he takes bids until nobody else is bidding. Some online auction houses have an optional "15-minute rule" - if someone bids within 15 minutes of the end of the auction, the auction end time is bumped out an additional 15 minutes to give someone else a chance. More fair to the seller, more fair to the guy honestly trying to buy it, and makes sniping software ineffective.

That would inconvenience people trying to snipe and pay less for an item than a fair auction would bring, but I'm OK with that.

Dave Hinz

[TWS]

I'm curious about your notion of 'fairness' in this respect. eBay in particular allows everybody to bid what they are willing to pay for the item. The fact that it ends at a fixed time makes it purely a matter of awarding the item to the person willing to pay the most without prolonging the auction to allow the 'fools to rush in' and avoids the 'auction fever' that develops when your 'highest' price has been outbid. I'm not sure I would participate in an auction that could go on as long as people were willing to bid. Too many ignorant people in the world, it would be a waste of time and even more unlikely to get a 'fair' price on an item you were buying. Certainly great for sellers though...

TWS

[Dave Hinz]

Yes, but has a mechanism to inform a bidder that their offer has been exceeded by someone else, yes?

See, and there's the thing. If I'm _selling_ an item, I _want_ the "auction fever" to kick in. If two guys want it bad enough, let 'em fight it out fairly to see who wants to buy it. Don't sell it to the first person to download scumware to cheat me out of my potential sales amount.

Now, let's look at it as a buyer. I really want that widget, but I want to pay as little as I can for it, but I _really want_ to buy it. I bid what I think it'll go for, and seconds before it expires, someone snipes it for slightly more than I bid, not giving me a chance to make another offer. It's an unfair advantage for those willing to resort to sniping software.

See, but that's the thing. A millennium of precident has been set for auctions to run that way. It is done that way in real auctions because it works for all concerned. Given an option of selling something with the 15-minute rule, or without the 15-minute rule, I'd prefer with. Likewise, if I'm buying, I'd rather buy in an environment where sniping is ineffective as a result of said 15-minute rule. You're always free to stop bidding if you get tired or the numbers go too high, after all.

An auction should be about finding the buyer who is willing to pay the most money for an item, not about who has the fastest web connection or the most feature-rich sniping software. Works best for buyers, and for sellers.