(OT) I'm confused - regarding Ebay

One needs strong self control and patience shopping on eBay. Otherwise may spend too much money by impulsive buying or reckless bidding. Next follows buyers remorse. For some items eBay price is quite higher than else where.

I used to get a lot more warning emails from ebay than I do now. There was an intervening period when I got the emails but some were late.

That happens to me too, but really, one should not be tempted into bidding more just because someone has outbid you. You should know when you start how much it is worth to you, bid that, hope you get it for less, but not bid more just because someone else is bidding more.

People, including to a small extent me, don't follow this advice because they get caught up in the spirit of an auction. When I was in college I would go to the police bicycle auctions in Chicago, and I saw people bidding more than the bike cost retail. Either they didn't know, or they got carried away.

(I bought about 4 bikes over the years and sold 3 of them for a profit.)

That's you, but other people use the Watch list for the same purpose. and that was your quesiton.

I don't remember if the watch count increases instantaneously. I think it happens quite soon, like when I reload the page, even if that's immediately. Try it in the middle of the night, and with something no one would ever buy, and you can see the watch count go up.

Watch something that no one is watching and you can see the watch count go to 1.

That should convince everyone.

Yes, you can see it in the bidding. I don't pay attention to others' bidding, unless it has exceeded what I'm willing to pay. I only snipe items (5 seconds and less), bidding my maximum price. If you're not willing to snipe, almost always somebody will "test" your bid, costing you money. Never had regrets. If you're willing to pay more than me, it's yours. And yes, I've seen items sell for much more than retail price. People "watching" an item is a reflection of how many people have it on their "Watch List."

How true! Secret in bidding is set a limit and exercise self-control to stick to it and/or use sniping software to post your max bid at the last possible second to keep from driving up the price.

I've been an avid "eBayer" for years and gotten excellent bargains over those years. In recent years, however, there are sellers there that post "Buy It Now" prices that are easily three to four times suggested retail. Nothing wrong with that since it's all open and up front. I figure their market has to be the clowns who don't have enough sense to come in out of the rain but have heard there are great bargains to be had on eBay. Amazing!

You bookmark it? You're doing it the hard way, dude. This is what the watch list is designed for. When you're interested in an item on ebay, add it to your watch list so you can monitor it. You can add other listings for the same item by other sellers to the list, which makes it simple to compare prices/shipping. It's also a good way to monitor price changes by certain sellers.

That's how I use it. If I see something I might be interested in, I add it to my watch list. Then it's there, easy to find again. Seems very natural to me. Also from both buying and selling stuff on Ebay, I see no indication that it's being manipulated by Ebay to increase interest. Some sellers might try to do it on the theory that more watchers would cause some people to figure they better buy it. But Ebay has some fairly sophisticated systems in place to detect shill bidding and similar, so I'd think they would catch up with you and boot you before long if you tried to do it regularly.

Maybe you can just scroll past my posts if you don't like what I have to say . The point was that we have both things Jerry complained about NOT having , and in a small isolated community .

Yeah , like the seller who jumped the price of the camera I was watching by a hundred bucks the day before I got the money in hand to buy it .

Fot the bidding auctions I usually wait for the last day or two to see what the bidding is. If more than I think what it is worth to me, I don't bid. If still under, then I put in a bid for the maximum I am willing to pay. Sometimes a winner,sometimes not. Usually within a month or less the same type item will show up again and I will have another chance at it. I did get a couple of things that I did not really want by putting in a low bid and no one else out bid me. Sold some of them at a local flea market for more than I paid. It is interisting to go back and look at the bidding history. I have seen the automatic bidders sent the price way up in the last minuit or so.

I learned a lot about the auctiions when I was in junior high school A company ws going out of business near where I live. A friends dad was the manager of the company. So I went to watch. On a set of kitchen knives the price got bidded up and the auction people whispered to each other that the set only cost about $ 15 and the bid was about $ 20. The man in charge said if they were dumb enough to bid that much, that is what it would cost them.

The purpose of an auction is to sell items at the highest possible price, yet a lot of people think it is to get bargains. If you get a very competitive person bidding, they will go high just to win even though the value went by the wayside 5 bids ago. Some people get caught up in the frenzy.

I do occasionally buy some BIN stuff if it is something I need at a good price. I had an air compressor down due to a bad solenoid valve. It is a $250 item through the dealer, but was $100 for one with a blemish on the label from an eBay dealer. Could I have bid and got it cheaper? Maybe, but I had a piece of equipment down and could not wait.

Hi, It is getting tougher and tougher to find bargains at eBay these days. Some sellers gouge buyers with shipping charge too. Being in Canada now exchange rate sucks.

I agree the purpose of the auction is to get the highest price.

Ebay seems to be more of a place just to buy items for me. I can call up a certain item that I want now and have it to sort by price and then pick the least expensive one that the seller has good reviews. There are lots os small things on ebay that is difficult to find at other places. I wanted a water valve and the local Lowes did not have it, Used the BIN and had one in less than a week. At the cost of gas and where I live, the shipping for small items pay for the item. I have ordered some small electronic items from China for less than $ 5 including shipping. When gas was over $ 3 per gallon, I could not even drive to get the item evenif the local store had them.

I am not sure how the Pay Pal would work on a disputed charge as I have never had to use that part. I would assume it would be a good layer of protection from fraud.

Over the years it's shifted to a larger percentage of Ebay stuff being BIN. Which works for many things, like a part that you need now. Auction works good for used, second hand, things.

Another thing that's changed is Ebay's fees have gotte outrageous. The final value fee is now typically 10%. The when you pay for it via paypal, they get a nice cut of that too. Ebay is like the perfect business. It's pretty much a big server, no inventory, no carrying costs, no involvment in actually selling it. You make the ad, you handle the questions, it sells, they get a nice chunk of cash. I've seen sellers bitching and saying they are moving to other venues, eg Amazon, but Ebay is hard to ignore.

Personally I don't think using a credit card online at a reputable site like Ebay is any more risky than using it to pay for dinner at a restaurant, in shops, storesm etc. I use a CC and paypal online a lot and haven't had a problem yet. And if you do, the CC companies almost always are going to make good on it, if it's really fraud. Under law, you're limited to I think $50 liability and the major CC companies even cover that.

Some CC now have a virtual account number feature. You can go online and create a new number that has a spending limit of $X and expires in Y months. Takes about a minute. That can come in handy if you're dealing with any vendor that you're concerned about.

Sounds like a real estate business. No inventory and all service. Last house I sold I did it myself and saved the 6 % they charge.

I guess they raised the fee to 10 % as the PayPal has a credit card that gives 2 % back. Up to about a year ago I had two credit cards. My credit union that I quit using and one from Chase that gives a precentage back. Now I have 3 or 4 more. Differant ones give back a differant percentage depending on what I buy and also some gave $ 30 to $ 50 back just for taking out the cards and using them. I always pay off the cards and am old enought not to worry about my credit rating. Probably the only thing I will buy on credit and take a while to pay off will be a car or something else that is high dollar and has either zero or a very low interist.

I don't have any problem using a CC online or calling them in to what I think is a reputable business.

If I did , I would set up an account at my credit union similar to that, but do it on line. I can transfer money from the computer and have it done right away.

At least with the real estate agent, they typically do have some actual personal involvement in getting the listing, helping figure out a selling price, taking pics, advertising, doing open houses, taking phone calls, answering questions, drawing up a sales agreement, etc.