eBay schmeeBay

[Gregg]

Thought I'd give eBay another try. I probably only tried once before. I'll admit I'm not eBay savvy, but...

I wanted to complete a set of Avon chess pieces my Mom gave me. One lousy pawn got broken years ago. Found pairs of 'em on eBay, and put in a bid. Didn't see any hint of previous bids, didn't see the minimum bid. Turns out my bid was 20X the minimum. But, having placed it, the next screen did not indicate that there were any other bids. I waited for an e-mail that never came.

I finally went back to My eBay, and discovered that there was a prior bidder, and this person outbid me by 50 cents after putting in three bids before mine that were lower. 50 cents!

I tried to contact the seller of another pair. Found out that was not "allowed" by eBay. Quit.

The whole concept just doesn't work for me. I'm not going to sit at my computer as the bidding is about to expire and place a bid for a few pennies more than the highest previous bid, and still not know if I got it. Why do people do this?

Ok, so this isn't much of a rant. I was pretty disgusted by the experience yesterday. I guess I got over it. I doubt if I will ever try to buy on eBay again. I just don't like it at all. It's horrible, frustrating, time consuming, maddening and just plain not fun.

I'm stopping before I get too warmed up.

[Al]

Hey Gregg,  Sorry your experience with eBay was a downer.  Been an eBay member for over 8 years now and still hold a perfect feedback rating for both selling and buying.

But, maybe this would help.  If you go back to your My eBay page and look up Bid Assistant, you won't have to worry about being at your computer until the end of the auction.  Just make an Assistant Group of what your looking for and set a maximum price for that item (not an individual sale, but, an item.  Ex: it would try to bid on any one auction for your chess piece until you win one of them) that you are willing to pay for it and eBay will do the bidding for you.  Another thing you could try is finding a seller that is selling their item as a Buy It Now sale.  That would eliminate all waiting for the end of the auction.

Sniping has been around forever on eBay, guys outbidding someone else in the last minute to get the best possible price for that item.  Personally, I don't like it at all.  And I have been on the short side, like you, many times before.  And the only other way to combat snipers is to snipe yourself, sad huh?

[Paddy]

Like Al, I've been an eBayer for (OMG...9 years!) a long time...and have a perfect record as both a buyer and seller. I've not done much in the last year though, as shipping to Canada or from Canada is a pain, to say the least.

I just figure out what I'm interested in, make a note of the time the auction is ending, and then snipe with the highest price I'm willing to pay in a proxy bid at about 2 minutes or so from the end. I don't wait around, I don't watch things for hours - though I may check back just to see if there is any interest in the item. ALWAYS bid an odd figure...$10.69 instead of $10.50 or whatever. Usually works - and if it doesn't, well, it's because the person who outbid me was willing to pay more than I was. And never beat yourself up about it either - "oh, if only I'd bid a dollar more" - well, guess what? You don't KNOW what the other person who outbid you actually bid as his/her highest proxy bid - it could have been far higher and any attempt by you to outbid the person would have failed, or forced you into spending far more than you had originally decided to bid. I don't bid early in auctions because I think it just drives the price up early on - I'd rather not participate in that and take my chances at the end.

The other thing I've noticed is that sellers who list with a starting price that is too high - though often close to the actual ending price of similar items – often don't get any bids. You can sometimes score nicely that way - I've done that a couple of times. But you have to have done your research and know what is and what isn't a reasonable deal.

Anyway - don't let it get to you. Think of it as garage-saling from home. Sometimes you score, sometimes you come up empty.

[kimmer]

Hey, Gregg. I shop eBay the way Al does. Whatever works.

Just be glad you weren't bidding on that Illinois shaped corn flake ...

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,339172,00.html