E-bay question..

[StreetHawk]

Why do people bid on items with 9days 23hours left to go?

All your gonna do is push the price up for yourselves and everbody else, don't do it!!!!

That is all..

:shaking:

[on yer bike]

I do it if its 99p or something, just the one bid. it lets you know when theres another bidder, and seems to give better email alerts than when watching an item

[tigersaw]

the seller cant pull an item with less than 12 hours to go, and since they often do, I don't bother bidding until then.

[philbut]

I just won a set of Exhausts for the ZZR like that. I put on a bid, forgot about it, and then a few days later got an email telling me I'd won! not bad - set of carbon can co. ovals for 100 beans. :-)

[ricky]

i agree dont waste your time bidding till the last min

but then if you want the item to stay on ebay and it has no bids and only silly money for what it is then ill bid but only once

[muffles]

It's all in the psychology for me! I put a bid on if there's none on there, tells potential bidders to "sod off, I've got this one" if they thought they'd get it on the cheap and no-one else had noticed :D

In fact I tend to just bid the price I'd be willing to pay - I know, it's novel! - and leave it and see if I win. Too easy to get caught up in bidding wars.

[Lozzo]

I outbid in the last dying seconds if I really want something and there's been previous bidding activity. When I bid it's always for silly amounts, like £27-51, never a round figure.

[phil24_7]

Same as Lozzo on that!

Sometimes I bid early if I know I wont be able to get to the PC but that's only so mI can find it easier on eBay mobile!

[dirtydog]

All your gonna do is push the price up for yourselves and everbody else, don't do it!!!!



I don't get how it's going to push the priceup? surely it makes no difference whether some one bids with 9 days 23 hours left or with 1 hour left? It'll still be worth the same will it not?

[fizzwheel]

I put in an early low bid just to get my name on the bidders list. I snipe things I really really want and I read somewhere if two people bid the same price, the person that wins is the person that bid first on the item.

[arenalife]

I put in an early low bid just to get my name on the bidders list. I snipe things I really really want and I read somewhere if two people bid the same price, the person that wins is the person that bid first on the item.

Only if the first bid was to that finishing price.

[Tiger 55]

Hey that's me! If the opening bid is the amount I'm willing to pay then I bid as soon as I can.

If somebody bids higher - pushing the price up as you call it - than they can have it.

If nobody else bids then I win because I haven't forgotten to bid...

If somebody else bids the same, I win as first bidder.

All bases covered :)

[dirtydog]

Tiger that's exactly what i was thinking

[Tomis]

If you want something for the cheapest price possible you have to snipe. don't forget
he who bids early allows all other potential bidders to see his bidding profile and work
out a strategy to beat them. Ebay is a mind game.

[GastonJ]

I almost aways try bid in the last 30 seconds and always with a penny over the ?, so like ?25.01 so if someone has bid ?25 I get it. Most people bid early and rely on the outbid emails, since I bid in the last 30 seconds then the oubid email won't reach 'em in time. :smt045

[dirtydog]

If you want something for the cheapest price possible you have to snipe. don't forget
he who bids early allows all other potential bidders to see his bidding profile and work
out a strategy to beat them. Ebay is a mind game.


Who can honestly be bothered with checking other bidders profiles etc? I know i certainly can't. If i see something i want i put a bid my maximum bid on it and that's it, i just leave it. If i win it then great if not then i'll wait for another to come up.

[muffles]

If you want something for the cheapest price possible you have to snipe. don't forget
he who bids early allows all other potential bidders to see his bidding profile and work
out a strategy to beat them. Ebay is a mind game.

Sniping only works if the other bidders are manually bidding though. If I want something I bid what I'll pay for it - sniping won't stop that unless the sniper pays more.

I almost aways try bid in the last 30 seconds and always with a penny over the ?, so like ?25.01 so if someone has bid ?25 I get it. Most people bid early and rely on the outbid emails, since I bid in the last 30 seconds then the oubid email won't reach 'em in time. :smt045

Again, I don't rely on outbid emails. If I've been outbid it's because someone wants to pay more than I'm willing to. I can use the penny over - or several pennies over - trick as first bidder in case someone wants to try that, e.g. I bid 25.03 so if someone guesses (or tests the water by steadily increasing the bid) that I'm maxing it at 25, and they bid 25.01, it won't work.

The sniping, bidding late, etc only affects people who use it differently to the above - there are plenty though. For me, it doesn't, as the price I'm willing to pay is not influenced by the presence of other bidders, or the amount they are bidding.

[Tomis]

Who can honestly be bothered with checking other bidders profiles etc? I know i certainly can't. If i see something i want i put a bid my maximum bid on it and that's it, i just leave it. If i win it then great if not then i'll wait for another to come up.

That won't work if what you want is a one off. You won't get much in life
if you just can't be bothered to go for it.:confused:

[dirtydog]

If it's a one off then i'd be willing to pay more for it, but either way it still has its value.

[Tiger 55]

If you want something for the cheapest price possible you have to snipe.
No, you don't.

The cheapest possible price is the starting bid. If that's the price you're willing to pay then waiting till the last 3 seconds just invites somebody else to bid that price first and then you lose.

As for not getting much out of life if you can't be bothered to go for it, thanks, I'll keep that in mind.

[Richie]

If the bidding ends on a weekend or after work then I usually wait till the last few seconds, if it end whilst I'm at work then I'll bid early with what I would pay plus 0.57p, then there's the postage charge...! You have to take into consideration.

[Tomis]

No, you don't.

The cheapest possible price is the starting bid. If that's the price you're willing to pay then waiting till the last 3 seconds just invites somebody else to bid that price first and then you lose.

As for not getting much out of life if you can't be bothered to go for it, thanks, I'll keep that in mind.

OK you guys I give up on you !

I hope to meet you round the Poker table some time, I just know you will show me your hand!

I have been buying and selling on ebay for six years and have nearly 400
positive feedback so believe me I do know what i'm talking about (don't
want to give too much information away though).


gonna play with my SV now and get back to motorbike talk.:cool:

[dirtydog]

OK you guys I give up on you !

I hope to meet you round the Poker table some time, I just know you will show me your hand!

I have been buying and selling on ebay for six years and have nearly 400
positive feedback so believe me I do know what i'm talking about (don't
want to give too much information away though).



You give up on us? or you just don't get what we're saying?

I'll try again...

Example; There's something on ebay i want to me it's worth £50 so I put my maximum bid of £50 (+/- a few pennies as suggested above) whether i put that bid on with 9 days or 9 seconds remaining it's still nly worht £50 to me. To the next person it may be worth£60 so they're going to get it. They're only going to find what my highest bid is if they bid over it so in which case it still doesn't matter as it's more than i wanted to pay for it anyway so it's hardly showing my hand

I still don't get how bidding early pushes the price up?

As for checking peoples bidding profiles, I couldn't give a monkies butt how someone else bids for it as long as i win it for the price i want to pay

I've been buying and selling on ebay for 3 yrs and have 200+ positive feedback so my way obviously works as well

[Tiger 55]

I give up
Quitter...

Anyway, no way you give up on us, we give up on you!

C'mon Dirtydog, let's bid!

[dirtydog]

Hold on Tiger, let me find something with at least 9 days to bid on ;-)

[kitkat]

i love ebay. i didnt know it was so technical. if i want something I see I place my maximum bid and leave it at that. Ive just sold ?150 worth of sh.ite. there was a bidding war at the end on my tent. I had it on for 5 days at ?5 opening bid. I had 289 viewers, 18 watchers and had 11 questions and nothing happened until 11 hours before it ended. It went up slowly from ?5 to ?17 then in last hour it went up to ?39.50 woohoo. sold to guy who came in at last few seconds and had not asked any questions. Its just all a bit of a laugh really

[Tomis]

You give up on us? or you just don't get what we're saying?

I'll try again...

Example; There's something on ebay i want to me it's worth £50 so I put my maximum bid of £50 (+/- a few pennies as suggested above) whether i put that bid on with 9 days or 9 seconds remaining it's still nly worht £50 to me. To the next person it may be worth£60 so they're going to get it. They're only going to find what my highest bid is if they bid over it so in which case it still doesn't matter as it's more than i wanted to pay for it anyway so it's hardly showing my hand

I still don't get how bidding early pushes the price up?

As for checking peoples bidding profiles, I couldn't give a monkies butt how someone else bids for it as long as i win it for the price i want to pay

I've been buying and selling on ebay for 3 yrs and have 200+ positive feedback so my way obviously works as well

Still can't work out how early bidding pushes the price up :smt017.

You must be the person I saw at a local auction walking round with a board
saying " I'm going to bid £50 for the next Lot".

I love winning Items from bidders like you.

Ebay would love to ban last minute bidders because they want an early
bidding war to push the price up for the seller and them. As yet they have not found a legal way to do it.

[dirtydog]

I love winning Items from bidders like you.


Really? Why's that then? Does it make you feel like a big man or something?

I think we'll have to agree to disagree on this one

[muffles]

Tomis, what you are talking about only works on people who don't know how much they are going to bid. E.g. they start bidding and if someone else beats their max, they will think "hmm....maybe a little higher then".

You might think those people are pushing prices up for you when they bid early, forcing other people's hands (into bidding). However in reality, although they didn't know it, they had a maximum amount they would bid, and they did it. When you all bid at the end, basically those people are disadvantaged as it takes other people's bids and/or time for them to realise their maximum bid is in fact higher than what they've put in. By that time, they've left it too late and you've won the auction.

In a way, they are pulling the wool over YOUR eyes and beating your "bidding strategy" by bidding early!

Your strategy consists of trying to make people bid so late that you win purely because they didn't have time to think about how much they wanted the item and what maximum they were really willing to pay.

[Tomis]

Muffles

Thank you for posting without an insult.

I agree with most of what you say.
The thing is we all want the item at the best price, most people don't know what they
will bid they just base it on the current bid. so if the bidding war starts in the last few days it should help to keep the price down for all prospective buyers.
This is not good for the sellers though, so when i'm in the other camp I want the war to
start as soon as possible

[arenalife]

I don't understand why anyone would bid early, it's like giving money away.

Bid once, bid late.

[Tomis]

I don't understand why anyone would bid early, it's like giving money away.

Bid once, bid late.

Can you please explain to the Forum I have tried but can't seem to get
it accepted.

[muffles]

See my last post for answers ;) I think that explains it. You are potentially giving money away by bidding early - it depends on the type of bidders you're up against. I think most people on this thread that took offence, was due to the way they were being compared to idiots for not attempting to lower the price this way, but most actually do it on purpose - to save the hassle - and (possibly) end up paying a bit more.

Actually I've heard one of the best ways to get cheaper stuff on Ebay is to look for mis-spelled/mis-categorised items that aren't picked up by most people's searches.

[21QUEST]

Can you please explain to the Forum I have tried but can't seem to get
it accepted.

What is there to explain? When you bid once/ bid late, do you bid your maximum?

Answer that and maybe you'll come to realise that, you are not actually saying anything clever ;)



Ben

[dirtydog]

That's what i've been saying, I workout what the item is worth to me and then place that as my maximum bid and won't bid above that i don't base my bid on what the current bid is on the item

[dirtydog]

I don't understand why anyone would bid early, it's like giving money away.

Bid once, bid late.

I normally bid just once but i normally do it when i see the item be that 9 days or 1 hour left on the auction. I put in my maximum bid somethmes it goes for what my maximum is and some times it goes cheaper and sometimes i don't win it at all in which case someone wanted it more than i did and had a higher value (to them) for it

Can you please explain to the Forum I have tried but can't seem to get
it accepted.


I do accept what you're saying I just don't agree with it

[StreetHawk]

Blimey, didn't mean to start this bickering!!

Original point was that if someone bids with days left then others will try to beat that bid so they are the highest bidder which pushes the price up.

I'll set my price and bid with under 10 seconds left. If I get it then great , If I don't then nevermind.

Just my little rant, got over it now :-)

[kitkat]

if you can afford to spend time on ebay waiting til the last 10 seconds fair enough some of us have a life or job or just cant be bothered sitting waiting for it to end. Ill go on ebay and have a look for whatever it is im interested in. If I find what I want I will decide what my maximum price is. I will then put that bid in and walk away. Next time im on ebay, next day, week whatever Ill check how item is going or get email telling me I have won.

[StreetHawk]

if you can afford to spend time on ebay waiting til the last 10 seconds fair enough some of us have a life or job or just cant be bothered sitting waiting for it to end. Ill go on ebay and have a look for whatever it is im interested in. If I find what I want I will decide what my maximum price is. I will then put that bid in and walk away. Next time im on ebay, next day, week whatever Ill check how item is going or get email telling me I have won.

No need to wait, just log on with a minute to go ;-)

I have a life and 2 jobs!

:rendeer:

If that system works for you then cool. For me, when I can't be online when the auction ends then I would put my maximum bid in. I've rarely won the item doing it like that.

[yorkie_chris]

If you want something for the cheapest price possible you have to snipe. don't forget
he who bids early allows all other potential bidders to see his bidding profile and work
out a strategy to beat them. Ebay is a mind game.

No it isn't. You're still just buying stuff for a price.

IMO there's no "beating" another bidder ... if I bid £40 for something worth £40, and someone else bids £41, congratulations, you win, but you've still paid a pound over what it's worth.

[dirtydog]

YC that is the point i've been trying to put across for most of this thread but it falls on deaf ears

[StreetHawk]

No it isn't. You're still just buying stuff for a price.

IMO there's no "beating" another bidder ... if I bid £40 for something worth £40, and someone else bids £41, congratulations, you win, but you've still paid a pound over what it's worth.

I agree. People say they 'won' the item on ebay but it's not winning, they were simply prepared to pay more than anybody else or nobody else was interested in it.

[arenalife]

if you can afford to spend time on ebay waiting til the last 10 seconds fair enough some of us have a life or job or just cant be bothered sitting waiting for it to end. Ill go on ebay and have a look for whatever it is im interested in. If I find what I want I will decide what my maximum price is. I will then put that bid in and walk away. Next time im on ebay, next day, week whatever Ill check how item is going or get email telling me I have won.

Not too much of a life to have 1975 posts in a year ;)

[Tiger 55]

I think most people on this thread that took offence, was due to the way they were being compared to idiots.
Actually I took offence at this point
You won't get much in life
if you just can't be bothered to go for it.
But then I am notoriously easily offended :p
Blimey, didn't mean to start this bickering!
Please Sir, I wasn't bickering, I was insulting Tomis for sport!

Meanwhile, back on Ebay, just 1 day 10 hours left on an item I bid 1p on a week ago. Will another bidder win the mind game? Will another ebayer win the bidding war?

Nick, I apologise unreservedly if you want the same item as I have pushed the price up to 6p by bidding early :D

All still friends?

[Tomis]

Actually I took offence at this point

But then I am notoriously easily offended :p

Please Sir, I wasn't bickering, I was insulting Tomis for sport!

Meanwhile, back on Ebay, just 1 day 10 hours left on an item I bid 1p on a week ago. Will another bidder win the mind game? Will another ebayer win the bidding war?

Nick, I apologise unreservedly if you want the same item as I have pushed the price up to 6p by bidding early :D

All still friends?

Wow 6p you big spender ! ! ! :rolleyes:

[Tiger 55]

Wow 6p you big spender ! ! ! :rolleyes:
Negative. My max bid is 1p, but if Nick wants it he'll have to bid 6p! See how I pushed the price up?

Of course, if he's only willing to bid 1p then I've beaten him to it and no amount of sniping can help him now. Mwaaaahaaahahhaaaaaa:D

[StreetHawk]

Negative. My max bid is 1p, but if Nick wants it he'll have to bid 6p! See how I pushed the price up?

Of course, if he's only willing to bid 1p then I've beaten him to it and no amount of sniping can help him now. Mwaaaahaaahahhaaaaaa:D

Erm... Not really the point I was trying to make. But... Have a flower instead..

:flower:

:smt003