bloody ebay

feel

3 days to go - £39 ... mmh i could really do with that, will check it later

2 days to go - £39... might just have a little bid on that

12 hrs to go - £39... I reckon that's worth at least £60+ probs more like £70


3hrs to go - £41... no problem still a real bargain



10 mins to go - £41... heartbeat quickening. will bid £50. no its worth more. don't want to lose it for a couple of quid. i'll bid £55





5 mins to go - £41... this is good. wait til the last moment





2mins to go - £41... heart fast hand slightly shaky don't crash laptop





1 min 10s - £41... this is good calm down hit refresh




59s to go - £41... enter amount hand shaky hit the right keys refresh




48s to go - £41... bid now and 5 4 3 2 1 CONFIRM






Sold... £122 .... 4 bids in the last 45 seconds. see title :evil:

alfablue

There is a method being used by some ebayers, don't wish to publicise it, but personally I would never bid earlier than 3 seconds to go.

feel

i reckon i'll keep away from the "bargains" :roll: and go for the ones that get bid on early at least there is less chance of these mass ambushes/snipe attacks.

alfablue

but you'll just be part of the bidding war. I just snipe at low bids, bide my time and eventually I get the item I want at the price I want. It means I miss out on a lot but I have the patience to wait.

Another tip is to search for mis-spelled listings, there are web sites to help find them

GavH

The OP answered his own fruitless question at the 5 minute point - "Wait til the last momnet"

Thats what anyone with half an ounce of ebay experience does, why does he think it'd be any different for something he wants.

redddraggon

I find just bidding what you are willing to pay works - I rarely do the last second bidding thing.

If someone is willing to bid more than me fair enough,

Mister W

So you're complaining because someone was prepared to pay more than you for an item in an auction :roll:

blackworx

Yeah mate, you were beaten at your own game. At least it went for way over what you were willing to pay, not one or two quid, as often happens.

Speaking of bloody eBay... Bought a pair of 105 levers 2nd hand last year and it turned out the front shifter was completely f*cked. No way the guy selling them couldn't have known about it. I'd stupidly left positive feedback before actually fitting them too. Nnngh. That was the last time I bought anything worth more than a fiver from the online tat bazaar.

GavH

Really gotta know what you are looking for on ebay. I'm quite into watches as well and whilst I scored an absolute bargain on ebay in getting my Omega Speedmaster for less than half its high street cost, I recently thik I got done on a set of front forks. Seller listed them as Carbon with alloy steerer, less than half the weight of the all metal ones I had on. Right enough, they are light and I've noticed a comfort improvement in my ride, but they don't actually feel like CF and make a different noise when 'flicked' from my carbon seatpost. Maybe that I don't know my @rse from my elbow when it comes to this stuff or it may be that because they 'look' like CF, the seller thought he could list them as such and mugs like me would buy thinking it was CF.

bill57

GavH wrote:

I recently thik I got done on a set of front forks. Seller listed them as Carbon with alloy steerer, less than half the weight of the all metal ones I had on. Right enough, they are light and I've noticed a comfort improvement in my ride, but they don't actually feel like CF and make a different noise when 'flicked' from my carbon seatpost.

So what are you suggesting they're made of? If, as you say, they're half the weight of the metal ones you've tried, what else can they be but CF? Aluminium with a carbon wrap? Even alloy forks aren't particularly light.

spanielsson

I was bidding in a similar way at the start of the year, I lost out on an S-Works Roubaix frameby a tenner, gutted.

I very rarely buy from ebay now to be honest, I just sell stuff on there. I think the days of real bargains are over, mind you I did miss out on a Campag Record rear mech that sold for £49 two days ago

robbarker

I always decide the maximum I'm prepared to pay, set a snipe up and then forget about it.

Monty Dog

I'm amazed that people think they're the only ones watching items - I sold an old Gios frame the other day - £50 starting bid and up until the final day, people were making silly BIN offers - what they couldn't see was thet there were nearly 100 people watching - in the end it went for £225 to a guy in Taiwan. Whilst there are occassional bargains - I got a Paul Hewitt frame for £38, or a Gios Aerodynamic frame - one of only 200 built - for £100 complete with various old Campagnolo bits - generally most stuff goes for market value - watch a few items beforehand and learn to adjust your expectations and just enjoy the experience.

meagain

Varies I think - some good buys still there, especially if quite "niche" stuff and - for complete bikes - "collect only". I recently got a rather nice Giant mtb running as a s/s with new carbon rigids for 113 quid. The forks cost the guy more than that - and would probably fetch 50 sold separately. Expensive tyres also - if I could be bothered could split it and sell on for a small profit!
And a pair of never laced IRO track hubs - 36 quids had to be a bargain.

sicknote

What does make me laugh about ebay ( I have had a few good deals off there but some have been tools).
Is that people will bid more than you can buy it for new or almost the price. :shock:

Ken Night

robbarker wrote:

I always decide the maximum I'm prepared to pay, set a snipe up and then forget about it.

How close to the finish do the snipe bids happen? Do you have a "sniper" to recommend?

feel

GavH wrote:

The OP answered his own fruitless question at the 5 minute point - "Wait til the last momnet"

Thats what anyone with half an ounce of ebay experience does, why does he think it'd be any different for something he wants.

Wasn't aware that i asked any questions at all :roll:
Nothing more than anecdote to show how i wasted 60 mins of my life and get others to share there experiences as there was nothing on the telly

feel

Mister W wrote:

So you're complaining because someone was prepared to pay more than you for an item in an auction :roll:

I must read my own posts more carefully, or maybe you should. :?

System_1

Sicknote wrote:

What does make me laugh about ebay ( I have had a few good deals off there but some have been tools).
Is that people will bid more than you can buy it for new or almost the price. :shock:

I know someone who sold a book on ebay. They supplied a link to Amazon.com to show how much it could be bought for new and it still sold for about £15 more than it could have been bought from the link they supplied. :?:

sicknote

When people pay more or almost as much as it would cost new, I find it hard as it would not take long to have a look on the internet for a price check :roll:

I most start to sell on there

Justpush

System wrote:

Sicknote wrote:

What does make me laugh about ebay ( I have had a few good deals off there but some have been tools).
Is that people will bid more than you can buy it for new or almost the price. :shock:

I know someone who sold a book on ebay. They supplied a link to Amazon.com to show how much it could be bought for new and it still sold for about £15 more than it could have been bought from the link they supplied. :?:

Had several recent similar experiences on comet clearence.
Many times nutters bid more for scratched /damaged / returned items than they could have bought brand new elsewhere.
Have they never heard of google?

cougie

Ssssshh - i have some kit I need to flog...

Wappygixer

I sell a lot on Ebay but only do Buy it now.Auctions take to long and most people want it now.
I rarely buy of Ebay now though but I have found that Sunday evening tends to be quiet and have have scored the occasional bargain.I once got a brand new and packaged Shimano flightdeck head unit with fitting kit for £1.04.I sold it a few days later for £30

fluff.

Ken Night wrote:

robbarker wrote:

I always decide the maximum I'm prepared to pay, set a snipe up and then forget about it.

How close to the finish do the snipe bids happen? Do you have a "sniper" to recommend?

I don't use ebay alot, but after going through the sitting at the pc and hitting refresh thing, I do the set a snipe and forget too now. If it goes for more than that, then fair enough.

www.myibay.com

add https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5571 if you use Firefox, stress free ebay.

snakehips

I find it difficult to bid manually at the last minute , my browser just seems to go in to a coma. Has anybody else experienced this ?

Mark_K

Are there any FREE and TRUSTED sniper app's that ppl have used cos i tend to suck at manualy sniping somthing allways goes wrong or i forget to log on lol

GeorgeShaw

I got my Garmin 305 on eBay, but it took about 3 months. They were selling 3 a week, so I spent a few weeks seeing what the going price was, and then set a price I wanted to pay. Then it was a question of bidding that price until I won.

Bidding before the last few seconds is a waste of time and money, as all you're doing is setting the start price of the auction. There will always be people who will bid a couple of quid above whatever price is there.

fluff.

If the start price is set with less than 3 seconds left, say, then there isn't time for the price to get high if people are doing incremental bidding. It's pretty much the same as just bidding your maximum price off the bat otherwise. Mark_K see my post above for a free sniper tool that works.

sicknote

fluff. wrote:

If the start price is set with less than 3 seconds left, say, then there isn't time for the price to get high if people are doing incremental bidding. It's pretty much the same as just bidding your maximum price off the bat otherwise. Mark_K see my post above for a free sniper tool that works.

Thanks for the sniping tool but have had some real bargains off ebay but most of them have been tools for work.

The tool will help when I cant be at the pc

GarethPJ

Patience is the thing. Bargains do come up and a lot of stuff goes for silly money. You have to wait for the bargains to come a lot and spend time searching for the things you want.

Sometimes the best bargains are to be had when people list things in the wrong category or spell the title incorrectly.

I got a reasonably good 501 Raleigh Critrtium 12 for £5.50. A week later I saw a virtually identical bike go for £70! A few weeks later an absolute minter went for £25. Somebody without patience looking for a decent eighties Raleigh could have ended up paying £70 for a bike in need of a general cleanup and service, whereas the patient bidder could have had a mint bike for £25.

There's no accounting for how bidders will to a listing. However a well listed item where the seller has put some effort into the description, photos and presentation will tend to sell well. I look for the items where the seller just can't be bothered. That's how I got the Crit for £5.50. There was one badly exposed photo and about twenty words of description.

nicensleazy

Ah, yourr talking about the killer bid!