Bidding on Ebay

[stianw]

I am going to start buying super 8 stuff on ebay and i am total new to this so anybody got any good bidding tips? any little secrets? 8)

[chachi]

yes, don't bid on anything I'm bidding on.

[reflex]

1. There's no point in bidding until the end of an auction. It drives up prices and gets you involved emotionally.

2. Use "swiping" sofware. See http://www.snipeswipe.com -- it allows you to choose the maximum price you'd bid for the item, and then places your bid when there are only a few seconds left in the auction. It works exactly the same way as if you were to sit waiting 'til the last second to bid, without requiring you to waste your time.

3. If possible, find a couple of the same camera that you'd like to bid on. That also helps you not to get caught in the "I must have it at any price" bidding frenzy.

4. Ask questions. If you don't get answers or you don't like the tone of the answers, don't bid.

5. Bid on items sold by sellers with a decent amount of strong positive feedback. Avoid sellers with single digit feedback, or more than one or two negatives. Be careful with sellers with 1000+ feedback - they're probably brokers who are shoveling merchandise through the door without really knowing what they're selling.

6. Bid on items by people who seem to know what they're talking about, and who have tested the item. The excuse "Untested because I don't know how this works" is sometimes a coverup for selling broken items.

7. If a deal seems too good to be true, it probably is.

8. Items with large pictures are helpful. They allow you to see scratches, missing or chipped parts, and other possible problems. A tiny photo can hide a lot of imperfections.

9. Start small. Better to learn the ropes with a few 20EUR items than blow hundreds on a bad learning experience. Look for bargains. They are there to be found, especially on eBay.de.

10. Items listed as available "Internationally" do not always show up on the various national sites, because the organization of the sale categories are sometimes different - for example, movie cameras on eBay.com are categorized differently than on eBay.de, where they are split out by format. If you're willing to pay international shipping, it makes sense to check out the USA, German, and other local versions of eBay.

11. Check shipping costs. Some shippers are very fair and charge exact shipping costs, others pad the price with handling fees or really high international shipping. A good seller will estimate the cost to ship to you if you're serious about bidding.

[Uppsala BildTeknik]

Is there any difference in using a "sniping service" or using Ebays "highest bid service" ?

[audadvnc]

In four years of auction bidding I've never been totally burned on eBay, so perhaps my outlook is a bit rosy. I think some people can get overly paranoid over the prospect of being taken.

I disagree with reflex on sniping software - I bid what I'm willing to pay early or late, and if somebody else wants it worse than I do, they're welcome to go for it. I win about 20% the auctions I seriously bid on, and don't worry about the rest.

As reflex says, don't get auction fever (especially as the clock counts down to the final minute); don't bid yourself into the stratosphere. You've lived a whole lifetime without that $4000 camera, you can wait a little longer for a better deal.

"Untested" gear may be somebody clearing out an estate or a crook moving broken stuff. Use your brains and your gut to tell you when the deal seems fishy.

As super8man says, S8 is supposed to be cheap. And it's all 30 years old by now, so don't spend too much.

[Uppsala BildTeknik]

I have read about sniping software in the past, am I the only one using Ebays "maximum bid service" (or whatever they call it)?

[mattias]

I bid what I'm willing to pay early or late, and if somebody else wants it worse than I do, they're welcome to go for it.

that works, but it also mean you always have to pay more than you should have. it's a famous anomaly in economic science called the winner's curse. sniping minimizes the effect of it and is thus good for all buyers. the longer the auction the better for the seller.

/matt

[mattias]

am I the only one using Ebays "maximum bid service" (or whatever they call it)?

no, everybody does whether they want to or not. except if you always enter the minimum bid possible but even then you are in fact entering your maximum bid. what sniper software does is wait to the last minute to place the bid, thus avoiding bidding wars.

/matt

[reflex]

I have read about sniping software in the past, am I the only one using Ebays "maximum bid service" (or whatever they call it)?

As Matt said, everyone has to use it, whether they swipe or not. Swiping is a good strategy because it doesn’t give others much opportunity to beat your price.

Swiping software is *exactly* like hovering at your computer until the last moment before placing your maximum bid, without requiring you to waste your time. It’s especially handy if you’re bidding on items that were listed in different time zones; I use it to bid on German auctions.

[reflex]

In four years of auction bidding I've never been totally burned on eBay, so perhaps my outlook is a bit rosy. I think some people can get overly paranoid over the prospect of being taken.

I've been burnt a couple of times, but it was cheap (under $20) gear. In one case, the seller refunded the purchase price.

You're right - if you follow super8man's "keep it cheap" credo, you minimize your risk and get some fantastic bargains.

[Evan Kubota]

"sniping minimizes the effect of it and is thus good for all buyers. the longer the auction the better for the seller."

Yes. If people act according to the common interest rather than completely self-interested, prices will go down and all the buyers will benefit, assuming a continuous supply of merchandise. I frequently think there should be some kind of 'bidder's cooperative' that would maintain waiting lists for certain items, then when the item is listed people can buy them in that order at a much lower price than if everyone was foaming at the mouth to get it. Of course it goes against the concept of the free market and is completely against eBay's rules and terms of service, but it's a good idea.

Some more tips - check the completed items to get an idea what the item usually goes for.

[hassan]

hovering at your computer until the last moment before placing your maximum bid

I rather like doing that. At 30 seconds I enter the maximum that I'm prepared to pay for the item and sit back and wait. I know that some people who have their heart set on an item and have been bidding for days find this annoying, but then it's an auction, and that's how they work.

[audadvnc]

That's part of what makes auctions interesting, the "game". It's like gambling versus going to the shoe store.

I've never heard of the "winner's curse". Does early bidding tend to raise the final price of items statistically?

[hassan]

It's like gambling

And addictive, but I have a very understanding credit card company!

[Evan Kubota]

"I've never heard of the "winner's curse". Does early bidding tend to raise the final price of items statistically?"

I can almost guarantee it would, especially on eBay. As an example of how short-sighted people become, I've seen cameras with a buy it now price of around $150 sell for over $200 because someone thinks they can
'get it cheap', places an early bid, and then no one can buy it at the $150 price so the winner ends up paying more. If you wanted and had enough time/discretionary income, you could act as a 'spoiler' by going into heated auctions and bidding up the price (shill bidding) without carrying it out far enough that you actually won the item. The interesting thing about eBay conceptually speaking is that you directly have the ability to affect the amount others pay for an item, even if you contribute no money - just the promise of more money is enough to make them raise their bid in return.