Here is the key to getting a good price on Ebay;

[benburch]

1. Decide the maximum you will pay and never get into a bidding war.

2. Bid only in the that two minutes of the auction; Place ONE bid for the price decided in #1. If you get the goods, great. If not, go find another similar item to bid on.

Simple, no?

Paying retail price for anything gives me a rash.

[William Seger]

1. Actually, bid only in the last 10 to 20 seconds

Bring up your clock (with the second sweep hand), and don't give the second-highest bidder time to think about rebidding.

[CatWoman]

you've got it, William

:thumbsup:

[benburch]

6. Sometimes it takes longer than that to get the bid in, though.

Thought sometimes I do cut it short if I expect rebidding.

[VOX]

16. There is some excellent *free* "sniping" software that works great...

hammersnipe is one:
http://hammersnipe.auctionstealer.com/home.cfm

You get three free "snipes" per week. I have never had a problem with any outages, and I've won every auction I've participated in when using this tool.

But the key is to enter a bold dollar amount for your bid, if it's something you really want/need. The software will automatically place your bid a few seconds before the auction's close.

Once you enter your bid amount, you can go off and live a "normal" life without being glued to your PC for the auction's end. :thumbsup:

[WePurrsevere]

19. As a buyer I snipe now and then... as a seller I'd rather have snipers....

then no bids. :evilgrin:

Although when I'm going to try and snipe an item I know will probably go up further I still will sometimes place a very low "place holder" bid since I dislike the "Watch" feature as a seller.

[benburch]

20. I just use a timed Quickeys Macro.

No need to be glued to the computer.

[Mr.Green93]

17. You darned snipers

Boo!

[William Seger]

26. I started doing it in self-defense

For a long time, all I did was to make my maximum bid whenever I first saw an item, and just wait to see what happened. But what happened was, I hardly ever won an auction -- not without getting into a last-minute bidding war, anyway, and if I won that, it was usually because I ended up spending more than I intended to. This way, I win a lot more auctions, and if I don't win, then I don't have a chance to just keep bidding, either.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

25. I am a professional seller on eBay & buy all the time. I do something

almost the same. I put up two screens with the auction. I bid and confirm (with 30-15 seconds to go) on one screen with my maxixmum bid. On the other screen I keep refreshing it to see what the bidding has become and how much time left (I have broadband). If the auction goes higher that I want to pay, I walk away. Period.Unless it's a one of lifetime antique, you can always find a similar or even the same item again with a bit of patience.

[henslee]

2. What do you think of this site that tracks mispelled Ebay items....

http://www.typotracker.com/

helps you find items that get lost in the void.

[benburch]

4. Fascinating! nt

[Dave Reynolds]

29. Nice.

But I must wonder about the person who spelled "spelt".....

[henslee]

3. dupe deleted.

http://www.typotracker.com/

helps you find items that get lost in the void.

[DUHandle]

5. Another one is to

not buy anything.

How much more stuff do you really need?

[benburch]

11. The stuff I don't need...

I SELL.

Sometimes, on EBAY.

Or I give it away;

http://www.freecycle.org/

[Kali]

7. and PAY ATTENTION to shipping and handling costs!

can you say RIP-OFF?

[CatWoman]

8. sometimes when I see outrageous figures for S&H

I email the seller, asking him does it REALLY cost that much to mail the item.

Would you believe I've never received a response?

[benburch]

10. It's cuz they are scamming Ebay...

See response below.

[laheina]

31. I was looking at books today,

And I couldn't believe the crazy S&H costs. I know that they're gonna ship the damn thing to me media mail, which is really cheap, and the book is really little and skinny, yet they wanted $8 or $9 for shipping. :rant:

[benburch]

9. That goes without saying.

And those guys are ripping off Ebay too. Sometimes there is an item with a $5 buy it now price and $50 S&H. That is because Ebay commissions exclude the S&H cost.

I won't buy at all from somebody that dishonest.

If he/she will rip off Ebay, they will rip off ME.

[seemunkee]

12. I saw one item with an outrageous shipping cost

I believe it was posted in the lounge but the seller was asking for a several thousand dollar S&H for a jacket and would not refund the S&H if the buyer was not satisfied.

[benburch]

13. Dear God.

What sort of jacket was that???

Sounds like that goes way beyond scamming Ebay for their commission, though.

[seemunkee]

24. Funky multi colored leather/suede job

looked like an MC Hammer nightmare.

[benburch]

27. So not a designer original and worth the S&H price then?

That would be the only (weak) justification.

I'm not sure I would pay 2000 S&H for the Holy Grail

[Quakerfriend]

15. Ditto that! I must say that I

:loveya: ebay! I use it to buy back my family heirlooms- books written by my great uncles and great, great grandparents. Even found a book written by my great,great, great grandfather in 1804! Maps made by another uncle in the mid 1800s. Patents by my grandfather. Pictures of our family homes, postcards etc.

All these things I would never have seen if not for ebay! Of course, my hubbie is getting a little tired of this!

[uppityperson]

18. my thought also

scammers, I hate cheaters.

[hyphenate]

34. I've reported some sellers who charge exorbitant S&H

because it's what's called "fee avoidance" and they mark the S&H up high because they have to pay eBay a percentage of the final selling price, and some don't want to do it. So there's this one dealer who puts an item up for 95¢ and sets the S&H at $79.95 is a scam artist and I've sent in his name. He evidently was warned to some degree because he's done the opposite on his "shop" items, making them the fairly normal price and charging more reality based S&H. The thing I noticed is, some of the items he's selling are SO overpriced in general that it's idiotic to get them from him. I researched other sellers selling the identical stuff and this guy's at the top of the price chain.

I try to charge (when I'm selling) a reasonable amount for S&H, but some items are of such an odd size or shape that it's next to impossible to get postage that is worth charging.

[WePurrsevere]

14. Also... shop during the Summer when it's usually very slow. I've been

buying & selling on eBay for about 8 years, most of my experiences (doing both) have been very good. I've gotten some great deals, found some hard to find items I was thrilled to get and sold my art and family estate stuff for okay to "wow" prices. As long as you play it smart and careful you probably won't get burned. B-) One of the most important thign a buyer needs to do is read the description/terms and look at any pics (you would not believe how many don't). If you have ANY question about condition, shipping costs, color, etc write and ask the Seller.. if they don't answer, don't buy from them unless you don't care about potential poor customer service if something does go golly wonkers.

One of the things I thought might not be too bad an idea is to have a sort of "buy blue eBay" or an eBay Users DU group here. There are quite a few DUers (and other Progressives) that make ends meet or make a living selling on eBay and some could use any help they can get. :)

[Jade Fox]

32. Thanks for the advice....

I just (!) started going to eBay a few months ago. I've made some mistakes (like not asking shipping cost cuz the bidding was ending. I won, and paid exorbitant shipping) and I've gotten some great deals.

Nice to know that about summer. I've gotten a couple of my best deals on Sat. night, and I wondered if that was just a coincidence.

I do find myself wishing I knew the political persuasion of some of the sellers. Maybe this makes me petty, but I'd rather not buy stuff from Republicans/Fundies etc.

[laheina]

33. Buy Blue eBay is an awesome idea!!

I know that there are several people that make a living via eBay around DU, and there are many, many customers!

[China_cat]

21. I did that with one item I really wanted

was the only bidder...and then the seller extended the auction for an extra 9 hours and I lost out.

I was really pissed. He had a 100% feedback rating, too.

[benburch]

22. Oh that sucks.

I don't think they should be allowed to do that.

But if they do, I think that you really shouldn't do business with them anyway.

[China_cat]

23. When I saw the auction time had been extended

I didn't bid again. Wasn't going to waste my time or money with someone that nasty.

[Dangerously Amused]

28. I'm guessing

...s/he didn't want to lose it to (what s/he thought was) your too low bid, so extended it and bought it him/herself with another account, or had a friend buy it. And then gave him/herself a positive rating to boot!


Betcha anything it goes up for sale again in a month or so.


Bastids! :mad:

[Jazz2006]

30. Yep - sniping works!

And your thread just reminded me that I still haven't received a book I bought on eBay more than a week ago. Time to email the seller :(