why are ebay bidders so stupid?

[Sepen]

I always try and bid with 10 seconds left. If I score, yea, if I don't then I can grab a steak sandwich at Tullys.

 

[ntshane]

When you snipe an auction, you are supposed to bid the most you are willing to pay for it. Even when you snipe, you are still proxy bidding. The nice thing about sniping is that you know, very quickly, whether you've won or not. Sure, you're not going to win every auction, but you don't want to anyway. There's nothing you can do about the guy who bid way to much in his proxy bid. That's why you go in at the last second and bid what you want to pay. If you're lucky, you'll come in just a few bucks over what the other guy's proxy bid is.

I buy and sell on ebay, and actually, I like the snipers. Just when you think your auction is going to end at $100, it closes and all of a sudden, it's $200 because a LOT of people wait till the last minute to bid.

-shane

 

[mithrandir2001]

<< That's why you go in at the last second and bid what you want to pay. If you're lucky, you'll come in just a few bucks over what the other guy's proxy bid is. >>


Right. You will only enter an amount that you are willing to pay. If the other guy outbids you via proxy, well, hey, you didn't want to pay that much. But if you do outbid them, then there isn't enough time for them to change their mind and decide to outbid you.

Imagine you enter a $100 bid via proxy. Another person outbids you at $100.01. Now you tell me you aren't tempted to enter $101.01...they beat you by a single penny. Exactly. That's why you should wait to bid until the very end. You don't want to give anybody the opportunity to outbid you beyond their original proxy bid.

 

[vetteguy]

The bidding part aside, I want to know why apparently no one reads the description of the item. My mailbox is always flooded with dumb questions that are answered in the item listing. I was selling a MiniDisc player, and I said (in bold) DOES NOT HAVE OWNERS MANUAL. I got at least 2 e-mails asking if I had the owners manual. I put in bold type that I only take Paypal, then after someone wins they send me a note asking where to send the check to. I get dumber just reading their questions.

 

[TallBill]

ugh.. in my last auction i put "will accept paypal (non credit card only if over 100 dollars)"

apparantly that was to tricky for the woman.. and unfortunatly the item went for 120 bucks.. and i BADLY needed money.. needless to say my paypal account is premeire now... when i have money later on im gonna leave some dough in the account to gain some interest... plus i get 1.5% cashback with my paypal debit card now

 

[Maetryx]

<< Ebay is for dummies... i can find a lower price, or a matched price elsewhere most of the time, and don't need to go through the BS of ebay. >>



eBay is great for Alaskans. We don't have ground shipping service from FedEx or UPS. And almost everything is shipped via USPS Priority on eBay. I've saved hundreds of dollars in shipping, and often in actual item prices, by buying on eBay. And I've made hundreds of dollars selling items to eBay's huge market instead of sitting on items that can't possibly sell in the limited market of a remote Alaskan city.

 

[Maetryx]

<< I get dumber just reading their questions. >>



LOL

 

[heartsurgeon]

Ebay is the world's largest garage sale....absolutely great. where else can you find some weird discontinued product you need still shrinkwrapped in the original product box? i have obtained some great stuff at what i considered a reasonable price. i've also sold stuff, mostly for prices i could'nt believe, i guess they thought they were getting a good deal, and i suppose thats all that counts. God bless'em, i love ebay. heck selling stuff on ebay has become a hobby, one that makes me money. how bad can that be?

 

[ggirl]

Real-life scenario:

There was a used Playstation 2 being bidded on and I think it started at $0.99 so I started watching the item. The stupid bidders kept bidding, but there were only about 7 of them and I just let them go at it without actually bidding on the item myself.

When there were only about 3 hours left, the price was up to around $18 and I was still watching seeing as I was going to pounce on it at the last 30 seconds. I began to worry that it would get higher because I only wanted to pay around $25 for it since I am that cheap, but also worried about the quality of the item.

However, the bidders stopped bidding, probably because one of them had probably proxy-bidded and the others gave up. The proxy bidder therefore got comfortable.

I smiled and, as I had promised myself, I came in at the last 30 seconds and proxy-bidded a little ($30 just in case).... I got the PlayStation 2 for $23 and it's quality was great. It came with memory cards and controllers and it was all good with the world.

YHPM

AT Moderator ElFenix

 

[waggy]

I put in the max amount and continue on. if i wan great! if i don't bummer but no big deal.

I have gotten some really good deals.

I have tried proxy bidding and bidding at the last possible second. neither really have been better then the other.

 

[PrinceMyshkin]

Greatest. Thread Revival. Ever.

 

[airdata]

Greatest. Thread Revival. Ever.

^

*golf clap* 11 years is pretty deep, mannnn.

 

[1sikbITCH]

And he/she caught a lurker on her very first post.

 

[sdifox]

The one that blew me away was the Northgate Omnikey keyboard that I sold for $300, paid $100 for it new. It was huge & heavy...

Scary part is I remember those.

holly shit necro.

 

[PingSpike]

I started reading this thread and was for a brief moment excited that I could potentially sell my old worthless 20gb hard drive for $60 on ebay. Of course that didn't sound right so I looked at the dates.

 

[Aharami]

wassup with all these necro threads?

 

[gorobei]

could be worse, it could have been that one thread where some idiot claimed he sniped correctly only to have everyone prove him wrong after he put up faked shopped bid histories. that one went on for like 10 pages.

 

[Hugo Drax]

I prefer using an auction sniping program. I will program the max fair value I feel the item is worth and not one cent more. I don't care if I lose a bid because it got bid higher.

But I have gotten some great stuff cheap, you just need to be very prudent when bidding and be willing to lose several auctions until you get what you want at a good price.

ie: I got these practically brand new, calibrated high serial number current model ludlums for a total outlay of 800 bucks. pennies on the dollar compared to just 1500 bucks for just the scintillation MicroR, and like 800 bucks for a Model 3 with a 44-9

And people were paying a shit load more for beat up older models with no calibration etc..

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

Holy sh*t! Epic necro!

 

[Exterous]

I started reading this thread and was for a brief moment excited that I could potentially sell my old worthless 20gb hard drive for $60 on ebay. Of course that didn't sound right so I looked at the dates.

Ha - same here I was reading along and all of a sudden I realized this couldn't be a current thread when I saw those prices

 

[alkemyst]

Bidding early is great on items that are in volume on ebay. You can usually snag a deal lower than the buy it now price.

It keeps others from being interested.

Rare items and the like it's best to hold off to the end or put in a serious top bid amount.

 

[Arik5405]

20gb for $60 is when I took a glance over at the date. Hello 2001, welcome back!

 

[halik]

I think the last 30 secs bidder are just as stupid as the first day bidder. Ever hear of proxy bidding? Just put down the highest price you're willing to pay on the item, and sit back. The last 30 secs bidding is when people get caught up on the auction and bid more than they are normally willing to pay.

Proxy bidding = noobs. It's a dynamic game - most of the time your proxy bid induces someone else to try bid over you (ie the guy you just overbid). Sniping is far superior, as you leave no time to the other bidders to respond.

EDIT: HOOOLY FUCK it's a 11 year old thread.

 

[n7]

the dead have been woken

 

[A Casual Fitz]

Lol at that dude getting $60 a pop for 20GB 5400rpm Maxor drives.