posted
After years of spending hours a day on the internet and yet some how avoiding ever selling or buying anything on ebay, my desperate quest for Monster in a Box has caused me to register, and now bid on ebay for the first time. Good prices, since I don't want to spend more than 10 bucks total.
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I love Ebay. I buy and sell on Ebay and I've yet to have a bad experience - after more than 100 transactions.
My middle daughter needed a new leotard for gymnastics, and after trial and error we've discovered that cheap ones don't work - they ride up and the fabric doesn't hold up. But, good leotards are expensive - the ones we like usually sell for 38 dollars new.
So Ebay here I come - got one in fantastic condition for $2.99, plus $2.00 shipping. For $5.00 we have a great leotard that will hold up and last.
Before I started school I made and sold some items on Ebay, I didn't make a lot of money, but I did make a small profit and have some extra spending money for Christmas.
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We bought most of Ryan's winter clothes for our ski trip on Ebay. How often is he going to wear snow boots, mittens, water resistant snow pants or a ski jacket before he outgrows them living in Florida?
Next year, we'll put it all back up for sale on Ebay?
Posts: 4625 | Registered: Jul 2002
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posted
I got to sell this windsheild wiper I found, brand new, only 12 bucks plus s and h. I love ebay. It's a great place to get cheap video games and CDs until some dark DINK, some jackhole RAISES THE PRICE on an item by PROXY bidding when they could have got it for super cheap if they had not proxy bid and just waited until the last minute like a good ebay hunter. Goons.
Posts: 9942 | Registered: Mar 2003
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I always proxy bid, so if some dink tries to come in at the last minute and snipe something away from me I'm covered. It's not raising the price, it's paying what the market will bear, which is the whole point of auctions.
Posts: 7954 | Registered: Mar 2004
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posted
Grrr. It's raising the price from 99 cents to 99 dollars. *is cheap and likes getting expensive stuff for mega-cheap* Such as my stereo for half price.
Posts: 9942 | Registered: Mar 2003
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posted
I combine both impulses. I put the item on my Watch List, then proxy bid for as high as I'm willing to pay with about three seconds remaining.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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I actually don't bid right away, either. I watched my bike for several days, and then put in my bid with about 20 minutes left in the auction, for example. I don't like doing it in the last seconds, usually, but that's more because I'm paranoid than anything else.
Posts: 7954 | Registered: Mar 2004
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I love ebay for obscure items. I lost the cradle for my palm pilot in a move a few years ago, and was able to replace it for less than $10. More recently, I misplaced the cable for my digital camera and (yesterday) bought a new one for .99 and $3 shipping.
I sold a set of children's knee and elbow pads for skating/skateboarding that didn't fit my daughter for about $3 last year, but the football shoes I listed didn't sell. I probably posted them too late in the season.
I've bought all sorts of fun things from ebay. Things that I'd NEVER be able to find on Maui. Jewelry, books, cosmetics, hair care items... for my daughter's wedding gift last summer, I bought her a brand new 25 piece set of Belgique cookware for just over $100. My 8 piece set cost almost that much on clearance at Macy's.
posted
I'm not sure what you mean by proxy bidding though... isn't that just where you decide how much you're willing to bid and bid it, then your posted bid is only .50 or $1 above the existing lowest bid? Doesn't everyone do that?
I mean, if the bidding for an item starts at $5, and I'm willing to pay no more than $10, I'll bid $10, but if no one bids against me, all I'll have to pay is $5.
Or are you guys talking about something else completely and I'm just sitting here in the vog?
Posts: 2069 | Registered: May 2001
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Most people do bid that way, but many feel they're better off if they don't bid until the last second - because they believe if they proxy bid right away, the price will go up. And that's usually the case. As a seller, you want early bidding to encourage the price to rise.
Waiting until the last seconds and bidding is called "sniping" Sometimes it works out and you get an item really cheap. Sometimes you miss out because there are other snipers or your connection isn't fast enough to get in there before the bidding closes.
Since I'm too unpredictable in my computer time (depends on what the kids are doing, etc.) I don't usually snipe. I find that if I put something on my watch list with the intention of bidding just before close, I tend to forget and wind up not bidding at all.
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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That's what we're talking about, maui. Some people think that drives the price higher, and wait until the last second to make their bid in hopes that they're the ones that get it. And when there's only one or two people interested in an item, it probably works pretty well, but if everyone does it and puts in their max bid, it wouldn't make the slightest difference, except that if someone outbid you you wouldn't have time to reconsider and up your max bid.
Whichever way you do it, obviously, you just have to bid what you're willing to pay and you shouldn't have a problem. I don't understand getting mad about auctions... if I put in what I'm willing to pay, and someone else is willing to pay more, they get it. That's fine, and I'll keep looking for something that's in my price range.
Posts: 7954 | Registered: Mar 2004
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Ebay is successful because an auction trancends a mere transaction. You win an auction. The true winners are those who get item X for much less than they would have paid for it. While a casual shopper might not feel any loss when a particular auction goes past their price range, the true bargain hunter rails against the fiends that thwarted their victory.
Posts: 61 | Registered: Mar 2005
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Boon
unregistered
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Only on eBay are you referred to as a "winner" for being willing to pay more than anyone else for an item.
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My entire family was bidding (collectively) on a rare soundtrack to White Christmas last December. We gave up when it hit $120.
I bought a really nice soprano saxophone off Ebay last year for around $300, it was easily worth three times that. It's risky for higher priced items, you never know what you will get.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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What a coincidence. I just signed up last week and bid on 3 things. The item that pushed me over the edge was the soundtracks to the Silent Hill playstation games. I've already got 2&3, and I bought 1&4, so now I'm complete. Can't wait until it arrives. The ones I have are some of the best CDs I've ever heard, and I've wanted the others for a long time now but I couldn't find them anywhere. Couldn't pass up that deal.
While I was on a roll, I found some decent deals on the piano soundtracks to Final Fantasy 4,5,6,7,8,9,10&10-2. I already have the original 4-disc midi soundtracks to 7,8&9 and the one-disc soundtrack to 10, and I love them. I've heard that the piano arrangements are good, so I took a chance. Hope I'm right. But how can you go wrong with Nobuo?
I was lucky, though. This was all stuff that the sellers had several copies of, and no one was bidding on any of them. So I just entered the lowest allowed starting bid on the ones that were expiring soonest and waited for the time to expire. I don't know that I could deal with the stress of feverish bidding.
By the way, I've never heard of that Spalding Grey movie (although I did like that guy in is role in True Stories). Looks really cool, though. I think I may have to bid against you.
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I went on a book buying bing last month on ebay, and that was the first time I had ever done more than look at the items up for bid.
I bought three hardcover books of an author I had met at Boskone for about $450, plus $4 shipping.....less then $10 for three first edition hardcover books. My wife bought a mantilla comb, something that she has been looking for for years. They usually run about $35-40 in stores....we payed about $20 including shipping. When it arrived 2 of the teeth of it were broken, and when I inquired about the condition prior to shipping the woman who sold it was really upset for us, and issued a full refund without us needing to even ask about it. The comb is still in usable condition, but when I emailed her to tell her that she said to keep it and leave good feedback...which I did.
I just got a copy of Guns, Germs, and Steel in the mail today.....
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Ebay is a life saver (and money saver) for me. I get a lot of the gemstone beads and silver beads I use in my jewelry from there. I also find good deals on faceted gemstones there.
I have expanded my first edition, first print collection of Card, Spider Robinson, and Dune books there. Incidently, last week I saw a signed first edition, first print (the Chilton edition) of Dune. It went for a nice chunk of change. I never planned on bidding on it, but it was cool to see how much it went for.
And.... the laptop I am posting from was won on Ebay just a few weeks ago. I really like it and the seller I dealt with was wonderful.
My bidding strategy depends on the price of the item and the popularity of it. The only time I get truly upset is when I forget to bid on something, which is my own fault. Although, I have been known to curse my connection having been outbid at the last second.
Forgot to add... Welcome to another addiction, Hobbes.
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I'm a born sniper. I've only bid twice on eBay, both in the last minute and both winning. My husband thinks there is something to "positioning" yourself by dominating the bid earlier, and all I can say to that is Pshaw.
Posts: 2010 | Registered: Apr 2003
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posted
I bought other books than the ones I mentioned too, but there have been several things I REALLY wanted and I forgot to check back in time. One of them I lost by a quarter, by less than 1 min. Posts: 15082 | Registered: Jul 2001
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quote: My husband thinks there is something to "positioning" yourself by dominating the bid earlier, and all I can say to that is Pshaw.
Yes, this is ludicrous. That kind of psychological dominance matters in a real auction, but it's meaningless on eBay, where most people don't even think to check who's bidding against them, or in what patterns, until the price starts going too high for them to ignore.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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