Ebay Advice

I've bought a few things on Ebay. Somtimes I do OK. Other times, I've ended up paying too much.

I'd like to get some hints from you out there in newsgroup land, and maybe learn from you.

I'll also share what all I've learned.

Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus

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Reply to
Stormin Mormon
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maybe if you pray enough jesus will help you. sorry, couldnt resist.

you already know the problem. you said it yourself. you pay too much. the only way to stop doing that is to stop typing higher numbers in and bidding. what this requires is patience and discipline. use ebay completed items searches to help determine a fair price, and stick to it. if current market value is more than you want to pay be prepared to wait or not get one at all. come up with a total price you will be happy with including shipping, find an item and bid that amount minus what the seller wants for shipping.

if you dont bid too much you cant pay too much. and i know its easier said than done...

randy

Reply to
xrongor

wellll duhhhh , donn bid sow much

Reply to
m Ransley

-snip-

Download ebaybuy.pdf from the Guru's Lair --- Link on this page;

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Don Lancaster is an entertaining writer. He also has some definite opinions & I agree with a lot of them. [If you're wondering if he's the same Don Lancaster that wrote for Popular Science in the 60's -- yes it is.]

He has a wealth of info for buying and selling on that site-- Also check out news:alt.marketing.online.ebay where he is a regular.

If you like to start out knowing something about an author-- his "unauthorized autobiography" is at

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.

Jim

Reply to
Jim Elbrecht

Do research on the item to determine a fair price and stick to it. I know it's easy to get caught up in the bidding. This takes discipline and a willingness to let the item go if the price is not what you want. Otherwise, you will pay too much.

The Wobulator

*Please REMOVE the obvious for my correct email address*
Reply to
The Wobulator

bid the maximum amount you are willing to spend during the last 20 seconds or so of the auction. There are no unique items on ebay. I have seen an item sell for 100.00 one week and thru searching I have later on purchased the same item for pennies.....well dimes on the dollar.....

bid only once.......and like I said bid what you are comfortable paying for the item.

Reply to
cornytheclown

Good advice. I normally just keep bidding my price and usually end up finally winning the item eventually at my price. It just takes patience and persistence.

Bobby

Reply to
BGBevill

this is just my opinion, but i think the whole last 20 seconds of bidding is a fallacy. if i bid my full amount the first day of the auction ill still outbid you if you dont bid higher. if the auction is still really low in price near the end, what is gonna happen is 3-4 people are gonna bid low on it in the last few seconds thinking they will steal it, and my bid will top them all. since they waited so long they cannot rebid and in the end i will get the low price, not the last 20 second bidders unless they outbid me in which case it wouldnt matter.

ive tried to 'steal' auctions before, it never works.

but im sure someone could write a whole thesis on when and how to bid. everyone has their own style.

randy

Reply to
xrongor

Okay, I've read a lot of posts on this topic and some are getting very close to getting it right.

Let me give you my perspective on bidding.

First and most important, find out what the going price is for the item. Look at retail prces. On eBay, search the completed auctions.

Next, be honest with yourself. How much are you willing to pay. If you are honest, you will not be in the situation of "I could have bid a dollar more".

Then when you bid be aware of proxy bidding. Look it up on eBay. You bid your maximum amount. eBay will put in a bid for you that will make you the top bidder without exceeding your maximum. It will only increase your bids by the amount required to be top bidder and will not divulge your maximum.

Now you don't have to babysit the auction to guard against that last minute hotshot who is trying to snipe.

There is an interesting set of auctions that are ending today. They are for a software manual. One is a straight forward auction. Tthe shipping is $2.25. The other is a "buy it now" sale wher the seller has 6 copies. He wants $16 plus $4 shipping or $20 total. The first one listed also is ending first.

I want that book. I placed a proxy bid for $17.75. That would give me the same $20 total as the later buy it now deal. Maybe I could catch a bargain.

So what happened. I just checked on eBay and some fool has a top bid of $20.50 + the $2.75 shipping for the auctioned book and I bought one of the books in the buy it now sale for $20 total.

And that in my opinion (humble or not) is the sane way to to survive on eBay.

Try it, you'll like it. Charlie, usually a buyer but sometimes a seller.

Reply to
Charlie Bress

JMO also,

Well, it helps if one has a broadband connection :-) Sniping works very well as long as one follows the "rules".....bid your (previously researched)_maximum_ bid _one_time in the last minutes/seconds of the auction.

That's true, but I bet you've seen quite a few of your "high" bids get out bid _days_ before the end of the auction. Snipers will watch an auction, and if it goes over their previously researched max bid that they had in mind, they just move on. It's quite entertaining to watch an auction go _way_ over the "Buy It Now" price days before it ends.

Not always. That why this sniper isn't a lowballer, _those_ are the kind of people most snipers are trying to avoid. A sniper will bid his/her _max_ bid _one_ time during the last minute/seconds of the auction. At least he/she won't see their bid nibbled away by lowballers and nibblers.

That's just it, snipers do _not_ rebid. They place their high bid _one_ time within the last few minutes/seconds of the auction. Since I'm placing my high bid, I could care less if I'm out bid. Again, at least I don't see my bid nibbled away because there is no time for that.

Probably because you tried to lowball. One doesn't "steal" an auction, the highest bid wins, or in the event of a tie, the earliest high bid, period. People who complain about being sniped obviously didn't place their highest bid....i.e., they were lowballing.

And they have.....all one needs to do is check the ebay discussion boards for websites on how to bid.

SNIPE ON!

Reply to
volts500

the best way to bid can be endlessly debated.

in any case im sure we both do fine cause we do the homework and dont bid too much

randy

Reply to
xrongor

Actually, the high bidder wins - but at the second highest bidder's maximum price (plus some incremental bid amount).

The winner never pays more than the second highest bidder's maximum, plus the small incremental amount.

i.e. if I put a maximum in at 150.00, and the second highest bidder's maximum was 98.00 - I win the auction at 99.00 (not 150).

Because of this, I think it is better to wait until the last coupla seconds to bid (or snipe). If anything, waiting until the last few seconds makes it appear that there is less interest in the item (at least one less buyer interested). For auctions with just a handful of interest, one less interested party can significantly influence the final price.

People are influenced by the current bid price when they type in their maximum bid amount. So, as the current bid amount rises so do people's maximum bid amounts. Waiting until the last seconds of an auction to bid keeps the current bid low thereby keeping the maximums low as well.

If I want to win an auction, I wait until the last few seconds of an auction, then I bid double or triple the "current bid" of the last few minutes. I win the auction at just over the highest amount anyone else in the market is willing to pay. Of course, I don't do this if the maximum in the last few minutes is over what I'm willing to pay.

mikey.

Reply to
mikey

That's true, but there is only _one_ way to bid :-)

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And win more auctions with sniping

Reply to
volts500

And your point is ???????????????

By the way, I quit using Ebay several years ago. Sooner or later everyone figures out there are few, if any bargains on Ebay. I guess you still got to learn that.

Reply to
spamfree

There are bargains to be had on Ebay, it's just a matter of WHAT you're looking for and what you're willing to pay for it. I just completed 4 "buying" auctions on Ebay and, conservatively, I paid altogether less that 20% of the actual retail values for the items I bought, all of which were "NIB".

As with ANY auction, patience is a key ingredient. If one "misses" out on a particular item today, chances are that a similar item will show up on Ebay in the immediate future, at least in most instances I have found that to be true.

So, one can make "blanket" statements all day long, however, they may or may not hold to be true except for that particular individual. And what it boils down to is simple, one either likes or dislikes Ebay. It's no different then going to a flea market. I've seen people pay above retail for an item at a flea market, thinking that since they got it at a flea market they got "such a deal"...

Well, enough said, each to their own I reckon...

Dr. John Ivy

Reply to
Drivy19

Fool is the right word. I stopped buying books on eBay a long time ago, after someone put in sky high bids on the same book in two auctions, won both, and then contacted me trying to weasel out of the second auction since I was the next highest bidder. Had already given up and bought one elsewhere.

With books, as long as you have an ISBN you're better off looking on Amazon, or even eBay's sister site, Half.com. Also avoids getting gouged on shipping, another eBay "issue."

Reply to
Michael S. Trachtenberg

Yeah, but there is a big difference at a flea market. At least you get to touch, hold and see the item, not just a photo and some words. I HAVE gotten a few bargains on Ebay, even after the bloated shipping costs. But I have gotten some real trash. I paid over $100 for one item that was nothing but junk, and not sold as advertised. I have also gotten several other items that were junk. In the end, I never saved one cent. The defective and incomplete items made up for any savings I got on other items. Add to that the hours wasted on Ebay, the hassle of writing letters to the seller, mailing payment, the cost of money orders, or cost to use Paypal (which I also no longer use), and I come out on the losing end.

I'd rather spend a few bucks on gas, and go to a second hand store, or just buy new items right from the store.

I guess everyone on the internet eventually gets sucked into the Ebay game. Some stay, and really believe they are getting bargains, because they never look at the WHOLE picture. It's the same with people that spend $50 a week on lottery tickets, and after doing that for one full year, they win $1000. They think they are big winners. If only if they realized that they spent $50 times 52 weeks = $2600 to win that $1000.

Some of us look at the WHOLE picture regarding Ebay, and we grow up, and stop using Ebay. Others never bother to to look at the WHOLE picture, and compare everything they bought, and hence only consider the GOOD bargains, and never take into account the BAD ones. These people never grow up, and will continue to lose money by shopping Ebay. If they are real lucky, they might break even in the end. There are no winners on Ebay, except some of the sellers, and the Ebay company is the BIG WINNER !!!!

Reply to
spamfree

For used books, let me recommend

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which is a network of used-book stores. I've tracked down all sorts of rare gems there.

Mary

Reply to
Mary Shafer

Mary, I must reply. First, the book I was looking for generally comes bundled with the software and is not offered for sale as a stand alone item. Secondly, I have a book on order with abebooks that was done via Amazon.

The order was placed 4/11. When I tried to track the order, abebooks reported a shipping date of 4/13 When it was slow coming, I sent abebooks an email asking for verification that the book was shipped and the date. That email was not answered. On 5/3 I sent another email asking for the same information. This time I got an answer on 5/4 stating that the book was shipped on "Friday'. That would be 4/30. So there they were caught in a blatant lie.

As of 5/8 the book has not arrived. It is only a day or two away from being a whole month.

When Amazon sends me the request for feedback, I will not be kind.

Charlie

Reply to
Charlie Bress

That's quite a different matter. Although it's possible a secondhand bookdealer might have a copy, if anyone would.

That's all very annoying, I know, but it's also very odd.

Abebooks.com doesn't sell books. The individual booksellers sell the books. You should have been dealing with a particular bookstore, not abebooks, because it's just a web site that the bookstores connect to.

I've always gone directly to abebooks.com, not through Amazon. I've never had any problems with buying books through abebooks.com; every book has arrived quickly and in the specified condition. I've been buying through them for six or seven years now. I can't help but wonder if your problem is Amazon.

Mary

Reply to
Mary Shafer

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