posted
So I got my tax return back, and used part of it to buy some books and DVDs on magic off of eBay. And I'm not quite getting the terrific deals I was expecting.
What are your tips & tricks for getting deals on online auctions?
Posts: 1894 | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
Yeah - I hate those last minute bidders. They always beat me. An item will stand with zero bids until 30 seconds before ending and then there will be a war. My connection's too slow.
Posts: 9538 | Registered: Aug 2003
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It's like the old saying, "You can have it fast (or convenient), cheap, or good. Pick any two."
In this case, if you want the item before the end of the auction, then you have to put in a bid that is higher than anyone else is concieably willing to pay (Which, in essence, means more than I'm probably willing to pay). So you can bid at a time that's convenient for you to get the good item, but it won't be cheap.
If you want the good item cheap, it has to be inconvenient--you have to show up when the bidding is ending.
Posts: 1894 | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
Also, be very wary of shipping costs. My brother in law is a big eBay seller, and he often severely undercuts his price and makes it up in shipping.
For instance, if he wants to sell something at a starting price of $15, he'll list it for $0.01 with $14.99 shipping. eBay only charges it's "final value" charge on the price of the item, not the shipping costs, so he ends up saving money in eBay fees that way. Also, people will gravitate toward the low price enough to click and see what it's all about.
You just have to be careful, though, if the price has already gone up to $10 or so, and the shipping started at $15.
Posts: 3960 | Registered: Jul 2001
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posted
Pick odd numbers for the change portion of your bid if you're doing automatic bid. For example, instead of setting the bid limit at $8.50, set it at $8.78.
The busiest time seems to be during the work day. And up through the evening after.
The problem with bidding early(especially putting in a really high bid) is that all it does is drive up the price really fast.
Posts: 8741 | Registered: Apr 2001
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posted
In my experience, an off hour ending time would be rush hour on a weekday for the east coast (which would be mid-workday on the west coast). The east coasters are in their cars driving home from work, and the rest of the country is slightly slowed because eBay is often blocked at work.
I'd also venture 3-5 am on a Sunday night/Monday morning, too, as people need to sleep before work, but generally don't want to get up at 5 am to bid immediately on something.
I've been told that Friday nights can sometimes be considered "off" hours because a lot of people are out of the house and away from computers.
Just some thoughts.
Posts: 3960 | Registered: Jul 2001
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posted
You can also "value bid" items - which I've worked to my advantage in the past (just this week, actually).
I knew that two books cost $25 each, so together they would cost me $50 retail (if I could even find them). The first time the two books came up, I bid $30+$8 shipping because I knew that was at least saving me some money. The bid ended at $75+$8 shipping - more than I was willing to pay. The second time the two books came up, I bid the same thing. I won the books for $15+$5.50 - far less than they would go for in a store.
If you're only willing to pay a certain amount, and there's a reasonable supply of the item you're looking for, bidding early won't kill you - you just have to be persistant.
Posts: 3960 | Registered: Jul 2001
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posted
I'm actually a fan of the Buy It Now option. I've almost only used ebay to buy cell phone, so they are always much much cheaper than anything retail, and the difference between bidding and using the Buy It Now is often somewhere around $5 or $10. So for me, it's worth it to just click once and not have to worry about some jerk with a faster connection outbidding me.
Posts: 2827 | Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
If you sell, be very observant. I listed a PSP and had someone try to pay with a fake PayPal account.
The person wanted to pay for the item to be shipped to his friend in Nigeria. (Nigeria, really. Anything in Nigeria coming in an e-mail makes me suspicious) Then this person paid a lot more for the item than what I quoted with shipping to Nigeria. (Red flag number two) Finally, the link to the PayPal e-mailed about this payment did not match the real PayPal. When I went to my real PayPal account, the funds were not there. Obviously, they were just trying to get my username and password.
I called e-bay and PayPal and they took care of everything, removed that user and killed the link.
posted
I usually win by bidding on things that have not had much activity in the last day or so, at least, in the last minute, and bidding my ABSOLUTE highest price (because you won't have time for anything else at the last minute.) It usually works and if it doesn't, it's more than I would have been willing to pay, anyway.
For CDs and books, though, I've found I have better luck buying used through Amazon. But we just bought a dishwasher for $105.50 that's $550 new, and even counting the $30 we're spending to rent a U-Haul cargo van and pick it up, it's a great deal-- better even that what we found in the Recycler. Some things are great to buy on Ebay, some are not.
I've found that my best seller is girls' leotards. I have a good source for getting them cheap, in good condition, and almost always make a profit on that item, so it's become kind of my specialty.
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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posted
And if you're looking for DVD's, check out www.deepdiscountdvds.com instead of eBay... killer deals, especially around Christmas-time. They were selling box-sets of Buffy for $25, and offering buy-one-get-one-free deals. I got four seasons for $50. Posts: 3960 | Registered: Jul 2001
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quote:Originally posted by FlyingCow: My brother in law is a big eBay seller, and he often severely undercuts his price and makes it up in shipping.... eBay only charges it's "final value" charge on the price of the item, not the shipping costs, so he ends up saving money in eBay fees that way.
I thought this was prohibited practice, no? (Not trying to challenge your BIL, just could've sworn I saw an eBay page directly addressing artificially hiked shipping fees.)
Posts: 14017 | Registered: May 2000
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posted
CT, I know it's not encouraged, but I don't know that it's prohibited. Ebay policy that I know of is "make sure you check the shipping before you agree to buy."
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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posted
Hmmm, let me go look. We were trying to list a 2003 Saturn Ion, and we went through the "don't do this!!!" list pretty thoroughly.
Posts: 14017 | Registered: May 2000
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posted
It's a prohibited practice and the community works to stamp out people who do it whenever they can be caught. eBay's policy on inflated shipping is sort of nebulous, allowing them to selectively enforce it.
Ultimately, people who charge as much as 100% extra on shipping are rarely caught. The policy exists primarily to get at people who will do things like sell a $129 cell phone for $59 with $70 shipping.
Undercutting your prices and shifting the money into s/h is a very dishonest practice. Dishonest sellers using roundabout methods to avoid paying fees are a major part of why the costs of selling on eBay continue to rise.
Posts: 4313 | Registered: Sep 2004
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quote:Unreasonable shipping or handling costs - The seller may add a reasonable shipping and handling fee to the final price of the item, but may not charge excessive shipping and handling fees, excessive required insurance fees, or excessive (or not applicable) taxes in an effort to make the item appear artificially inexpensive, to avoid eBay fees, or for any other purposes. A shipping and handling fee may cover the seller's reasonable costs for mailing, packaging, and handling the item. Shipping and handling fees may not be listed as a percentage of the final sale price. Please see the complete "Excessive Shipping and Handling" [link to same page as in above two posts] policy for more details.
I understand it may be hard to police, but it does seem to violate the TOS for eBay.
Posts: 14017 | Registered: May 2000
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posted
eBay has, in the past, sided with sellers who have included warehouse employee wages, packaging materials, fuel surcharges, etc. in the cost of their shipping & handling. I tend to agree with this, as I feel the seller is entitled to try and recoup the expenses of the shipping & handling process by passing the costs to the customer. I don't necessarily agree that it's a smart idea, but I appreciate that eBay will allow sellers the option.
On the other hand, it's precisely that attitude that makes it so hard to catch people who deliberately inflate shipping & handling charges.
Edited to add: eBay has also recently revamped their UI so that search results now show the current bid / BIN cost, but also have the shipping & handling cost displayed immediately next to it. I'd imagine this helps illuminate the s/h costs for people who would otherwise remain unaware.
Posts: 4313 | Registered: Sep 2004
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posted
Wow - well, I'll be sure to let him know. That's crazy. From what I understand, he does it to avoid eBay's seller fees.
Still, though, it is something important to be aware of. Always pay attention to shipping costs!
From my own sales in eBay (always done with Buy It Now), I generally charge more for shipping and handling than it costs me to ship the item. I consider "handling" to include the fees eBay and PayPal are charging me for the transaction, for instance.
As an example, on a $15.00 shirt, eBay charges a $0.75 final value fee. If it costs $3.35 to ship the item, and $18.35 is deposited into PayPal, they take $0.83 in fees. So, essentially, that would mean I only got $13.42 from the shirt. To balance it out, I throw an additional $1.65 onto the shipping (bringing it to $5, and a total of $20). Now, PayPal takes out $0.90 and eBay takes their $0.75, but it's offset by the handling fee.
posted
Try searching for things by misspelling the name. Sometimes when people list things, they make simple spelling mistakes and no one finds it or bids on it becuase it won't appear during a regular correctly spelled search.
You type in what you want, and it will generate a list of possible misspellings for the word and then automatically enter them in the ebay search window.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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posted
I think my biggest pet peeve about eBay are people who don't leave feedback - especially when you're starting out.
I recently sold a bunch of Rutgers Football-themed T-Shirts I designed on eBay, and only about 60% of those who bought them responded with any feedback. For some, it's been two months since they received their shirt, but still no feedback posted.
It's hard when you have a low sale count (22) and are trying to build it up, if people don't leave feedback.
posted
I just put the max price I am willing to pay in (factoring in the shipping cost) and let it ride. I rarely need what I get off ebay quickly, so I'm willing to stick with a lower bid on the off chance one of the auctions will stay lower than the others. I recently saved about $10-15 on a motherboard and processor I wanted like that.
I *did* snipe the processor somewhat, but only because I saw a very low price with 2min left when I did the search. I barely got the bid in on time.
Posts: 5422 | Registered: Dec 2001
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quote:Originally posted by FlyingCow: I think my biggest pet peeve about eBay are people who don't leave feedback - especially when you're starting out.
I recently sold a bunch of Rutgers Football-themed T-Shirts I designed on eBay, and only about 60% of those who bought them responded with any feedback. For some, it's been two months since they received their shirt, but still no feedback posted.
It's hard when you have a low sale count (22) and are trying to build it up, if people don't leave feedback.
[/rant]
The best way I've found to avoid this is to include a note somewhere in your communication with buyers that you are happy to leave feedback but due to too many unreciprocated feedbacks you've left, you will only leave feedback once it's been left for you.
Or, quite simply, "Please remember to leave feedback, and I will do the same."
It actually had a significant impact on the amount of feedback I was receiving.
Posts: 4313 | Registered: Sep 2004
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posted
That's a really good tip - I'm going to start doing that.
You know, it would be a neat feature if eBay withheld counting feedback for you until you left feedback in response. For instance, it would tell you that you had positive feedback waiting, but it wouldn't apply it to your account until you left feedback in return.
I don't know if that would work at all... it's just a thought.
Posts: 3960 | Registered: Jul 2001
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posted
Maybe they could just publicize the tally of all the feedback an eBay member *hasn't* left... or at least hasn't left within a timely manner. Say, a cutoff of 30 days from time of sale. It could keep a percentage of how often someone leaves feedback within 30 days - whether it's positive or negative not mattering so much to that statistic.
So, you could see that a person has 98% positive feedback and leaves feedback within 30 days 97% of the time. Or, contrarily, they may have 95% positive feedback and leave feedback within 30 days only 70% of the time.
If that statistic was tracked, I think people would be more likely to remember to leave feedback.
posted
On a related note, does anyone have any experience buying/selling musical instruments on Ebay? We're trying to sell my piccolo, but can't find interested buyers on my own. And I'm looking into buying a guitar, and noticed that the one I want I can get realtively unused on ebay for four hundred dollars cheaper than retail. Is it worth it?
Posts: 1591 | Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
I've bought two instruments off ebay before.
You have no guarantees that what you're getting is what they advertise. However I bought a soprano sax on there for probably $800 cheaper than it should have been, and while it's not a GREAT instrument, it's good enough for playing at home for fun.
I also bought a violin, which again, wasn't the highest quality, but was good enough for fiddlin' around with.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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posted
If you're going to buy an instrument, I would say go for it-- if they have a decent feedback rating, offer a return policy (not so important for, say, clothes, but important for something like this), and make sure that the shipping is insured.
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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posted
Re: FC's idea, I think it'd make a big difference. It's actually a really, really good idea - one I haven't seen suggested in the community prior. Maybe you should suggest it to them?
Tinros: it really depends on what kind of instrument you're talking about. For relatively new instruments of a major brand, it's pretty reliable: just follow the advice KQ offered.
For antique, vintage, unusual instruments, or any instrument where small quality details are an unusually large factor in determining value, eBay is a scary place. The only advice I can offer is: any knowledge you have about buying and selling in the real world will be completely applicable to buying and selling on eBay.
Posts: 4313 | Registered: Sep 2004
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posted
I was looking into a Fender Stratocaster. Fender's website lists average retail, as of February 2007, as $550. I saw one on Ebay, with pictures(it's almost entirely unused) for $100. Quite a discount... do I trust it?
Another guitar player friend of mine recommended a Gibson SG, Goddess or Menace. I'm not entirely sure, though.
Posts: 1591 | Registered: Jul 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Tinros: I was looking into a Fender Stratocaster. Fender's website lists average retail, as of February 2007, as $550. I saw one on Ebay, with pictures(it's almost entirely unused) for $100. Quite a discount... do I trust it?
Another guitar player friend of mine recommended a Gibson SG, Goddess or Menace. I'm not entirely sure, though.
quote:The best way I've found to avoid this is to include a note somewhere in your communication with buyers that you are happy to leave feedback but due to too many unreciprocated feedbacks you've left, you will only leave feedback once it's been left for you.
Or, quite simply, "Please remember to leave feedback, and I will do the same."
It actually had a significant impact on the amount of feedback I was receiving.
It REALLY bugs me when sellers do this. I feel that once I've paid what I agreed to in a timely manner, I've done my part and the seller should leave feedback. When the seller refuses to leave feedback until after I do, I will leave a non-committal "positive" feedback (if I get my item and it's as described, etc), but will never again deal with that seller.
When MY feedback is held back to "make sure" that I'm leaving positive feedback first, it just seems very junior highish to me.
Posts: 2069 | Registered: May 2001
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posted
I understand the reasoning, though, maui babe. I have a rating of 25 - granted, that's not very high. But I've had 33 eBay transactions.
That's 8 people out of 33 who haven't left me feedback. And of the 25, 5 of those were people I specifically emailed and requested that they leave feedback.
So, a little less than 25% of the people I've dealt with have left no feedback, and almost 40% who wouldn't have left feedback had I not sent out reminders.
I can see how people would be willing to use whatever they could (i.e. their own feedback) to ensure that some feedback is left.
I think I will email that idea to eBay, though. I don't know how much work it would take to do, but I think it would be a nice addition to their site.
Posts: 3960 | Registered: Jul 2001
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posted
maui babe, as a seller, I've found that a lot of my buyers are newer, not familiar with the whole ebay "thing", etc. I've also found that it is commonly accepted practice that the buyer leaves feedback first, then get their feedback. So when I buy, I leave feedback when I get the item. When I sell, I leave feedback after I get feedback. And I send out the same e-mail to everyone, telling them their item has been shipped, thanking them for their payment, and asking them to leave feedback, whereupon I will leave feedback, too. It has significantly improved the amount of feedback I get, especially from people who are fairly new ebayers. I try to be polite about it, and would never want to cause offense. If someone wrote that they had a problem with that policy of mine, I would have no problem leaving feedback for them first. But it helps me keep on top of what items have been received and such that way. If you don't mention to the seller that you would prefer to receive feedback before you give it, they don't have a chance to discuss with you why that is what they normally do or to give you your feedback first. Also, just because payment has gone through doesn't mean that you (and I don't mean you, but a generic "you") won't be a problem buyer-- one who leaves negative feedback because the post office crushed the box after no attempt at communication with the seller, or something.
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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posted
I don't mind being reminded, but I do mind having feedback held over my head - which has happened more than once. I've only sold a couple of things on eBay, but I've bought quite a lot (Living on a remote island, I LOVE having actual shopping oopportunities). But I'm old enough that I have very little patience with games, so I just refuse to play.
Basically, I leave feedback once I am satisfied with my purchase, not to placate someone into giving me good feedback.
Posts: 2069 | Registered: May 2001
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posted
What I'm saying is that if you don't like someone telling you their policy, try e-mailing and telling them that, and they may be happy to make an exception for you.
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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posted
I've been thinking about it, and I think the reason I feel so strongly about the seller leaving feedback first is because the buyer is really the one taking the risk. I'm sending you (generic, of course) my money and trusting you to then send me some merchandise. If you take my money and for whatever reason I don't get my stuff in good condition, what recourse do I have, really? If you don't get my money (assuming of course that you wait until everything clears the bank as most/all sellers do), you still have your stuff.
Posts: 2069 | Registered: May 2001
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quote:Originally posted by maui babe: I've been thinking about it, and I think the reason I feel so strongly about the seller leaving feedback first is because the buyer is really the one taking the risk. I'm sending you (generic, of course) my money and trusting you to then send me some merchandise. If you take my money and for whatever reason I don't get my stuff in good condition, what recourse do I have, really? If you don't get my money (assuming of course that you wait until everything clears the bank as most/all sellers do), you still have your stuff.
To be fair, provided that you retain records of your payment, you can take action against sellers who don't send items. Sellers also have significantly more to lose, feedback-wise, than buyers do.
Buyers are also very rarely the victims of fraud, compared to sellers.
Posts: 4313 | Registered: Sep 2004
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My connection's too slow.
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I barely got the bid in on time.
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