Any 'ebay' pro's out there? need tips

What do you mean suggestions?

Just bid on everything last second. I sometimes try to get the seller to end the auction early if the item is really popular.

 

Bidding last second definitey helps. And I am talking waiting till the absolute last moment possible. Maybe with 6-7 sec to go in the auction.

Some people say it makes no difference, but hell yes it does. I have a habit of bidding more then I can if its something I truly want. So I used to bid 100 on something and used to tell myself that its the max I can afford to pay for something. This would be with a couple fo days to go in the auction. Now lets say someone outbid me with a few days to go. I then get all antsy and start bidding more and more. Bidding last second helps keep the price slightly lower throughout the auction and you dont ever pay more then you can afford.

Some seller's will always end early because they want the payment as fast as possible.

 

They are called snipers.

People who wait on an auction till the very final second to win the bid. They'll push it to see how high it is at, then wait to 'steal' it away at the last second. Good if you're looking to just toss in an extra dollar for what you want.

Some people have been known to sit by their computer with stopwatches to try and win. Others have used programs meant to keep track and bid at the last second.


People try and say the best way to counter it (since many of us can't be at our comps every second) is to make sure you're bid is the ABSOLUTE HIGHEST you are willing to pay.

Which I guess is true, but it's still an annoyance if you'd have ponied up the 50 cents you ended up getting beat by.

 

i just won a Hakeem retro jersey with matching shorts for 46.00.



the auction was around $41 dollars for two days. I put in a maximum of $55.00 two minutes before the auction ended and won it for $46.

 

I have won over 100 comics off eBay since May and spent way too much money.

Here is what I have found helpful:

1) Know your sellers by looking at their feedback! I can't stress how important that one is! I learned the hard way that there are some assholes on eBay who are only interested in tearing you a new one. As a result, I don't bid on anything now in which the seller has less than 98% feedback UNLESS it is someone that I know personally in dealing with in the past.

2) What others have said about snipers is true. I have lost about 5 to 6 books (at least) in the last seconds to people who wound up outbidding me by a nickel in some cases, dollars in others. You can do several things to get around that:

a) Look for auctions that end at weird times, like at a 2:00 P.M. on a Tuesday or some other weekday. Trying to win auctions that end on a Saturday or Sunday around 9 or 10 P.M. is hard to do as many people seem to bid on these and a lot of them like to bid at the last second. Holidays are also bad.

b) As others have said, determine a max price that you are willing to pay for a book and stick to it. There have been a couple of times that I went over my max, but it has been balanced out by the times that I found incredible deals in which I paid way less than what a book was worth.

c) Take advantage of eBay's "Items I Am Watching". If there is an item that you are interested in, put it in your items that you are watching. Then, when there is like 5 minutes left to go in the auction, check on it and see if the max you are willing to spend has been eclipsed. I have done this many of times and I have found great success with this method.

d) If there is 5 minutes left in an auction and you see that your max has not been eclipsed, get ready to bid on the item! It helps if you have a high speed cable modem because you will need to hit refresh on your browser A LOT in the waning minutes of an auction. What I do is place a bid with 3 to 5 minutes left and see if I can obtain the current high bid. Sometimes it takes a minute or two to figure out the bid to beat. Once I have the top bid, I then play the game of hitting the refresh button. If I notice that the bid price is changing but I am still the high bidder, then I know that there is a sniper trying to beat me for the book. So, what I do is raise my max bid (if I am not over my set max to begin with). What this does is cause the sniper to keep spending (and wasting) time in trying to figure out what bid to beat. As he is figuring that out, time is running out on him and is definitely an ally for you. Since doing this, I have NEVER lost an auction to a sniper. I feel like that I might have overpaid, but it has been rare that I felt like that.

e) Consider auctions that have "Buy It Now" prices. If you think the BIN price is reasonable, you can SAVE yourself all kinds of headaches and trouble if you use that feature. I know that it seems that many people want to try to get an item as low as they can, but doesn't it suck to get outbid in the final seconds? Well, you don't worry about that if you use the BIN option. However, you have to be careful about this. I use this option on one of the first eBay auctions I ever won and there is no question that I overpaid for the books I received.

Hope these tips prove useful.

 

1. Listen to Manny.

2. Bid right before the auction ends (final minute or so).

 

Do not bid at the last second if you are determined to win the auction at any cost.

If you are bidding on a once in a lifetime item or something you want or need immediately, don't bid at the last second.

If you are bidding on an item that is always for sale and you don't have to have it right now, then bid at the last second.

The key to being a sniper is setting a price and sticking to it because you won't have time to adjust your bid.

With about 5 minutes before the auction closes, log in and open up your bid window and put in your maximum price. Fill in all your information but don't hit the final confirmation button. Minimize that window.

Bring up another window and keep refreshing. When it's down to about 30 seconds, bring up both windows. Hit refresh until about 8-10 seconds left. At that time, go ahead and confirm your bid.

Ive won several auctions with about 1-2 seconds left. I know this because as soon as my bid was accepted, the auction ended.

Snipers often lose auctions because they refuse to overpay for an item. If you're disciplined just wait for the next one to come up.

 

I don't use ebay, but can you be logged into two screens at once? If so, would it make sense in the waning minutes of an auction to be hitting refresh on one screen while having your next bid queued up and ready to submit on the other screen? If that is not possible using one username, can you have multiple ebay usernames?

 

Whoops, it looks like RIET answered my question as I was typing.

 

Very good advice from Manny - most ebayers follow all those rules.

And if you promise to not use it against me I'll let you in on "my secret" which really isn't a secret. 1 word - esnipe. Their servers will do the sniping for you (for a fee - .25 for items up to $25 to $10 for items over $1000) and manage your ebaying. You can set up folders so that if you don't win 1 auction it will bid on another in that folder and keep doing so until you do win. It keeps you from going too high as well as keeping others jacking up your price. I've been very please with their service and I've only had 1 bid not go through because of technical difficulties. You don't have to babysit the auctions any more and it allows you to change your mind about what you want to bid or if you want to bid (up to the last 5 minutes I think). And they don't charge you if you don't win.

 

i heard of this program on the net that outbids the highest bidder for you with a second left...anyone else heard of it?

 

To get it cheap.

Open up 5 windows. Use one window to keep an eye on the time by refreshing. In the other four windows have a price your are willing to bid typed into the box. For example use.

$5.00 $15.00 $30.00 $45.00

Hit each bid in the final 20 seconds one by one. This gives you a chance to beat out the one time bidders and possibly keep the price low. For example. Someone might bid 4.00 to bump you. You bid 5.00 to bump him. Then he bids 6.00 thinking he won. But you bumped him again to 15.00 while he was bidding. Then it's too late and it's over. but still keeps the price low. Where as if you bid 45.00 straight up he'll take the bid to 46.00 right off the bat.

If you use this process, justbe sure to hit all four bids just in case he's doing the same thing. You may have to go to 45.00, but you still get a chance to stay low if your up against a quitter or against a slow computer. It's psychological.

 

I was wondering about EBay too...

Has anyone been cheated....for example.....didn't get your item or got some crap or was charged like $50 for shipping?

And has anyone bought any wholesale stuff off of Ebay?

Also.....do you use PayPal or pay them with checks or money orders?

 

Some someware runs on your computer and uses your computer time vs ebay time which is very risky since you must maintain a connection at bid time and your computer time must be somewhat in sync with ebay's. esnipe uses their servers to snipe (so you don't have to be logged on or can be using your bandwidth for something else) and their server's time is perfectly in sync with ebay's. You can snipe with 1 second left but they don't recommend it - they recommend 4 to 8 seconds since ebays servers may be slow in responding and 4 seconds will not give another sniper enough time to refresh and get a higher bid in. It does save you money by keeping you from sniping wars and going over what you should spend.

And no I don't work for esnipe or have any friends that do. I just love the way it manages my ebay purchases.

 

Never cheated but I have received some cards that weren't in the Mint condition like stated. Last month I bought a card that was supposed to come in a screwdown and he shipped it in toploader - probably because it went too cheap (sometime I'll throw a little extra in if I'm feeling guilty). I left positive fb and told of the good things but pointed out his failure (I would have sent him an email first if was a big deal) Anyway, he shipped me a screwdown with a very nice card in it and an apology and thanks for keeping him honest. Most people are honest but pay close attention to their feedback and read through the negatives and be wary of those who don't have feedback or only have a couple positives on some small purchases.

Watch the shipping and figure that into you final price you are willing to pay. If they don't say, ask - if they don't answer, be wary. Some people recoup the ebay fees in the shipping cost which I don't have a problem with that. My final price is price +s/h so a higher s/h means a lower price I'm willing to pay. Also factor in a stamp and any MO fees you might have to pay on the lesser items that do not take paypal.

Paypal is the way to go from a buyer's perspective. Fast, easy, free and traceable. From a seller's perspective it does cost (especially for credit card transactions) but you final price can be higher if you allow paypal - some buyers don't want to fool with money orders (which reminds me I do have to get one for an ebay transaction that was MO only - his auction ended at $1.04 instead of $10+ where it should have) - and you don't have to worry about a bounced check.

 

Feedback, feedback, feedback....

Don't make the mistake that I made in buying from someone with less than 98% positive feedback. If you do, then you are asking for trouble.

 

the most important thing about this method is to make sure you are already logged in to ebay on all windows... I had 2 windows open and had my bid set on the second window... when i noticed someone had bid with like 15 seconds left... i went to my other window and placed the bid, BUT... my password wasn't entered... I wasted those 10-15 seconds typing in my password, wrong at first, then right then missing the boat altogether!! argh! i was so pissed.

lesson learned.