Any Ebay ninjas here // Does the UK sellers hate mainland Europe?

[FramFramson]

Like the rest of you, I snipe as well.

The really crucial trick is to absolutely determine what the very maximum you'll pay is. Don't bid to beat the current bid, but imagine you are paying through the nose. If later you find yourself saying "Well, I could have gone 50p higher..." then you didn't rightly determine your own maximum.

Usually my maximum has me thinking "Ugh, that's a bit of a ripoff at that price... but a few extra dollars will be worth it to stop having to look for this stupid thing". If you're lucky, you won't pay anything close to that price.

[Hammers]

Oh dear. You're talking about me I'm afraid 
I don't buy much off eBay, but if I do, I always bid at the last second.
Seems to me that's the way to get the best possible price, without pushing the price up much earlier in the process. Just seems logical to me.

The downside, of course, is that if you go in with 2 or 3 seconds to go, and don't bid high enough to gazump the existing highest bidder (who may well have already registered a higher bid, in order to stave off such an ambush) you have no chance of winning the item.

The other downside, is that it pisses off people like you, that have placed their bid and assumed they were in a winning position. Not very nice, I admit - but that seems to be the way the thing's set up...

You are working within the contractual framework with people you do not a have a personal relation to. I don't see what they can allow themselves to be annoyed with any one bidder. Frustrated, sure, but it is all fair.

[Conquistador]

No longer... did a bit in the past but I found it is was too much like work.   

Now, I try and compute the max I will pay (way more than I "should," I suspect,) and bid it.  If I lose, C'est la guerre !

Reducing for pending retirement/less storage space has helped me to determine what is important (Der Kriegspieler dwarf and goblin, 1970's Ral Patha dwarf,) and what isn't (eveything else in 25+ mm size.)   

Gracias,

Glenn

[Blue in vt]

I'm one of those evil people that always uses a sniper program...works great for me.  I can set up a snipe as soon as I see an Item I'm interested in and then walk away...either I get it or I don't.  Some feel this takes the thrill out of the "game"....but I'm still often watching an auction when it ends I just know that my bid will only go in in the last 5 seconds...so I find it still exciting....and it works well.

Cheers,

Blue

[Too Bo Coo]

So, it has happened once again - 20 seconds before auction ending, someone raised the bid with 50p.
And once again I find myself in the situation of being a bit irritaded and still baffled.
This might just be me, but if I want a thing, I have a upper price in mind. So, when I bid, I put down my maximum bid directly. Either I have the highest bid, or not. It's rather simple.
However, I seem to be in a minority. Rarely have an item gone through the whole process without being upped and slammed the last five minutes. Usually with me being the highest bidder for five days...
So, my question;
Do you prefer to bid in the end, or are you fine with just putting down your max bid and letting it go on?

I know that a bid war is a classical past-time hobby for oldhammer collectors (or so I have percievef it), but the rest of you lads and ladettes?

Mate, you got snipered.

This is my ebay strategy.  I dont bid until literally the last 30 seconds of an auction.  If I cant I generally pass it up unless it looks like it will have no bidders at all.

I want to pay as little as possible, so if I bid earlier, I show interest, which can really only drive up the price.  Why pay more? 

Bid the last 30 seconds.  Kick it up to 50 seconds if there is competition and your 'top' is negotiable...

That's my best advice!

[cheetor]

I snipe with a few seconds to go.  Any other approach is usually just needlessly driving the price up.

The really crucial trick is to absolutely determine what the very maximum you'll pay is. Don't bid to beat the current bid, but imagine you are paying through the nose. If later you find yourself saying "Well, I could have gone 50p higher..." then you didn't rightly determine your own maximum.

Thats my thinking too.

I dont use a sniping program, but I buy from Ebay infrequently enough for it not to be an issue.

Some feel this takes the thrill out of the "game"....

Some people are in it for the thrill of the chase and the "win" (why else would there be an "ending soon" button?), but I use Ebay as a way to get (usually old) things that I want, rather than as a recreation in its own right.  Whatever turns you on I guess, but I just want the stuff rather than the "thrill".

[black hat miniatures]

When I was buying things on ebay (last things were Britains Guns a few years ago) I used to use Harvex (I think that's the name) sniping software.

What was good was you could link a series of auctions together and if you won one of them it wouldn't bid on the others

Mike (owner of more than 10 Britain's firing guns...)

[fitterpete]

I figure out the max I want to pay for something then bid a extra 25 cents with 9 seconds left.
Its a duel purpose.I don't bid more than I should because there isn't time to rebid if I get beat and it keeps others from bumping the bid in 1 dollar increments till they just barely win it.
Pete

[Centaur_Seducer]

Oh dear, so many people I used to respect

[Too Bo Coo]

 

[Conquistador]

Oh dear, so many people I used to respect

Truth be known... these are just 3D counters (aka toys) we use in games...         

Fancy (and expensive in some cases) counters/toys  but still just...   

Gracias,

Glenn

[Eric the Shed]

Silversixx I am a victim as well....interesting thread

 

[Conquistador]

Ditto - it's why I tried doing last seconds bidding but sometimes the auction would be scheduled to end when I was at work/should be sleeping and it seemed like too much work to set up sniping software.  If I was going to put that much work into it the option of figuring my true maximum bid seemed far more rational and less costly...

Gracias,

Glenn

[grant]

I only have sold on eBay; when I did I was always amused by early high bids, but the excitement really was in the last 10 seconds. Clear sniping going on. Great for a seller!

[Orctrader]

Buying on Auctions.  If I see something I want I calculate what I'm willing to pay for it, including P&P, deduct the P&P the seller is charging, then bid the difference.

I see it, I think it's worth a fiver, P&P is £2.50, I bid £2.50 - it's that simple.

That said, I have no problems with people bidding in the last nanosecond or using sniping software.  I don't care as I will only ever pay what an item is worth to me.