E-bay, Will Not Honour Sale:

I've been using Ebay professionally for about 7 years. It paid the bills for three of them and there are lots of things that Joe public users aren't aware of.
I've put together a "formula" from buying and selling 1000's of items and watching 10's of thousands and I use it all the time when Ebaying. There are ways of grabbing those bargains. (and reselling them at a profit, I've lost money on only 5 ebay items in 5 years and that was my fault.)

I usually win things by as little as 12p even on items with a minimum bid of say £2. Its not impossible. You just had to know how to do it.

And no, I'm not going to share it but I will give you two general hints that is quite accurate and also useful.

1) Whatever the price is, with one hour to go, it'll generally go up 30% from that price at the end.

2) No one buys on ebay the week before Christmas and the week between Christmas and New year. Buy a years worth of bargains at this time and resell them later.

C

Originally Posted by Berlin

IIRC, you can't cancel an Ebay item within 12 hours of the end of auction if it has bids on it. If you had a bid on it he couldn't have ended it within 12 hours of the end of the auction. So you were watching it, not buying it.

Only had it on watch for about 15 mins actually, was waiting for Mr VT to come and give the approval that it was the right thing.
Seems once they saw it had someone watching it they ended the listing, so not my fault I didnt get to bid.

Originally Posted by Berlin

He listed it trying to get some interest at the lower amount but this didn't happen so he relisted it at a higher price

Great logic!
If someone isnt interested at £250, then why would upping the price by £200 cause a rush of interest, besides it wasnt a simple relist, the seller actually ended the auction early and relisted it shortly after I put it on watch....?

Originally Posted by Berlin

Why do people expect to get something for way less than its "Worth" on Ebay?

Ummm because that is human nature!!
If you came across a bargain would you, out of the goodness of your heart, say to the seller, 'well actually, this is worth about £100 more so Im adding it to the Paypal payment'?

[Edit] just seen post above that has answered my own question:

Originally Posted by Berlin

There are ways of grabbing those bargains. (and reselling them at a profit

Originally Posted by Electro

There is a big difference between watching an item and it being removed and winning one. If you wanted it you should have bid.

Never had a chance to bid, see above.

Without getting into a big "Worth" debate (can't be bothered) If the item belongs to the seller then it is worth what it it worth to him. If he can find someone that agrees its worth then they buy it and he sells it.

If the seller can't find a buyer that agrees its worth then the item is unsold. The seller may reconsider its worth and drop the price if he's inclined.

Worth is an agreement between buyer and seller and not purely the opinion of the prospective buyer. If a buyer has and opinion on its worth that isn't agreed with by the seller then that doesn't mean the prospective Buyer's opinion is correct.

Sellers that have listed an item at 99p have left the opinion of worth entirely to those that are buying and only then do the buyer(s) get to completely decide its worth.

But even then, the decision of worth is limited to those who find the item so its up to toe seller to advertise it at the optimum time so that more people are involved in that decision of worth.

I'm done

C

[yorkie_chris]

Originally Posted by Von Teese

Great logic!
If someone isnt interested at £250, then why would upping the price by £200 cause a rush of interest, besides it wasnt a simple relist, the seller actually ended the auction early and relisted it shortly after I put it on watch....?

Sometimes things too cheap make people thing there must be something wrong with it!



TBH I don't understand peoples righteous indignation at it, eBay is great but it's only like autotrader or something, a means to put you in touch with a buyer/seller. If someones had money off you then fair dos, may their balls turn square and fester on the corners... if not then stop getting in strop over a very minor inconvenience

If I put something on eBay that I could sell on here for £300, and it goes up to £400 I'm laughing, if it goes for £2... well f*ck that for a game, obviously I'm not going to sell it.

And while I'm at it, things you "won" on eBay... for f***s sake, you bought it, you didn't win it, it's not a game of tennis, there's no competition in it, you just thought it worth more than the other guy.

Originally Posted by yorkie_chris

And while I'm at it, things you "won" on eBay... for f***s sake, you bought it, you didn't win it, it's not a game of tennis, there's no competition in it, you just thought it worth more than the other guy.

Had to chuckle at this...hehe!
Very good YC

[Biker Biggles]

Was it just me that thought the Akrapovic that didnt quite fit properly and was damaged aint worth anything like the price on either of those auctions?

Originally Posted by Biker Biggles

Was it just me that thought the Akrapovic that didnt quite fit properly and was damaged aint worth anything like the price on either of those auctions?

Ohhhhh! (just shows I should stick to making animals well and not interfere with anything mechanical/electrical/non-flesh related!!)

Originally Posted by yorkie_chris

And while I'm at it, things you "won" on eBay... for f***s sake, you bought it, you didn't win it, it's not a game of tennis, there's no competition in it, you just thought it worth more than the other guy.

You don't win the item - you win the auction!

Don't have ebay in NZ; instead we have tradme which is just NZ sellers. Fewer auctions than ebay, but it is actually quite good! One thing they do (which can be good or annoying depending on your point of view) is if a bid is placed in the last 2 mins of the auction, then it will automatically extend by 2 mins! Just gives people a chance to counterbid and no point in last second snipes.

[tigersaw]

Originally Posted by lukemillar

if a bid is placed in the last 2 mins of the auction, then it will automatically extend by 2 mins! Just gives people a chance to counterbid and no point in last second snipes.

Exactly how a real auction works - I've not been to any car auctions where a clock is ticking down.
How yahoo auctions used to do it (before ebay muscled them out).

What about single bids as well, you put in the max you wanna pay and thats it, no other bids allowed, would stop the last ditch bidding that really fooking annoys me, albeit i beat a tossa last week for a rack for my drz, i held the highest bid for days then 30 secs to go a higher bid, but i was prepared this time, my bid ended up being 50p more and i got it in with 4 secs to spare, ha, knobber.
Wasnt even that bothered to have that particular one, just pleasing to finally get my own back