I usually go for "Buy It Now" items these days, after I do some research and work out what the "real" price is.

One thing that surprised me when I started using Ebay was that the model shops use it and advertise brand new items as buy-it-now, at shop prices. You can see the same model listed by multiple suppliers at sometimes wildly varying prices. Who on earth is going to pay the top of the range price?
Rod

Quote from: Rod on June 06, 2011, 09:53:01 AMCertainly most activity is usually at the end but any bid pushes the price up. I don't see the harm in bidding early. It will be a low bid, but at the same time you set the maximum you're prepared to pay, a bit like a commissioned bid at a live auction. That way you don't have to watch it at the closing stages (exciting though that can be) and you know you're not going to be tempted to pay silly money. What other people are prepared to pay should be irrelevant.

Exactly. There's no harm. It hardly matters 'when' you place your bid; your maximum is not disclosed until another bidder offers the same amount. If your offer is over trumped early or late it's still blown out. It's best to put a 'value to you' on the item and stick to that maximum and then you'll not end up paying over the odds. If someone (some 'fool' as some say) wants to pay more than you are prepared to, then let them; another similar item, possibly in better condition, is likely to be along soon.

H.

Quite agree with H, I set a price and stick to it, if I get outbid, like he says, guaranteed another will come along soon enough.

Also as Les says, do some research, find out what others (inc retailers) are selling it for!

Ebay is no longer the bargain hunters playground it used to be, with all the fees you have to pay, sellers racking up postage charges and unscrupulous buyers reporting non delivery so they can have their cake and eat it, I use it less and less these days.

At least with a proper on line retailer you have some comeback, eBays' system is horrendous and protracted even when you do finally get a reply.  Hmmm, maybe I should hit the angry thread now 

Quote from: Rod on June 06, 2011, 10:23:22 AM
One thing that surprised me when I started using Ebay was that the model shops use it and advertise brand new items as buy-it-now, at shop prices. You can see the same model listed by multiple suppliers at sometimes wildly varying prices. Who on earth is going to pay the top of the range price?
Rod

A lot of businesses use ebay to offer stuff at higher prices than you can get it elsewhere (even their own online store). They don't neccessarily want to sell it - ebay stuff not selling happens to be very cheap advertising !

Quote from: EtchedPixels on June 06, 2011, 11:54:57 AMThey don't neccessarily want to sell it - ebay stuff not selling happens to be very cheap advertising !

But not particularly effective if they just get a reputation for being expensive.

H.

Quote from: lesmond on June 06, 2011, 10:14:05 AM
I usually go for "Buy It Now" items these days, after I do some research and work out what the "real" price is.

I have N gauge Buy it Now saved in my favourites with the newly listed setting. You get some great bargains this way.

Quote from: Elvinley on June 05, 2011, 09:38:48 PM
I have an SDJR one which is now on Ebay - I will report what it goes for.

Those are genuinely rare as Graham Farish withdrew SDJR and CR liveried items in the late 80's if I remember rightly.
Before everything else anyway.

Otherwise Ebay = 'Rare' items that you can still buy new!

And over £80 for a GWR coach?  Would someone show the winning bidder the way to the nearest asylum!

That is just crazy - no two ways about it.

There are four problems with bidding early. It leaves you open to shilling from an unscrupulous seller.

Shilling. Seller has two or more accounts and bids against you which puts the price up.

Shielding. The shiller bids up till he finds out what your maximum bid is, then withdraws his bid. Meaning you pay more than you should have.

Bidding wars. The nibbler doesn't put in his maximum bid first, but keeps putting in small bids which put the price up.

The sniper. That would be me.  I watch an item and note the high bid, then put my maximum bid in when the clock has around 8 seconds left. If someone has put in a higher bid earlier I'm not bothered because they were willing to pay more than I think the item is worth. It leaves no time for someone, who hasn't put their maximum bid in, to put in a higher bid.

"unscrupulous buyers reporting non delivery" How do you know the item has been delivered unless the item is signed for? I've had to complain to Royal Mail a few times because they have delivered my items to the porter in the next block of flats to mine instead of attempting delivery to my address. I've had parcels take two years to be delivered because they got lost in the bottom of the posties Xmas sack.

I must have a 99% failure rate on e-bay, but what I do is occasionally put in a very silly low bid. You will be surprised at what you can get. I have a couple of loco's that including postage cost less than £12!!!

Quote from: elmo on June 06, 2011, 02:33:53 PM
I must have a 99% failure rate on e-bay, but what I do is occasionally put in a very silly low bid. You will be surprised at what you can get. I have a couple of loco's that including postage cost less than £12!!!

c'est exact !
accept that you will not be the high bidder, a very high percentage of the time -  and you will always be thrilled when you are the high bidder with your modest or even absurdly low bid !!

conversely, the more you try to "win" the more you will feel you have been "had".

Quote from: poliss on June 06, 2011, 01:43:57 PM
There are four problems with bidding early. It leaves you open to shilling from an unscrupulous seller.
Shilling. Seller has two or more accounts and bids against you which puts the price up.
Shielding. The shiller bids up till he finds out what your maximum bid is, then withdraws his bid. Meaning you pay more than you should have.
Bidding wars. The nibbler doesn't put in his maximum bid first, but keeps putting in small bids which put the price up.
The sniper. That would be me. 

Shill bidding is illegal - and should be reported. There are lots of scams in life and it's a matter of being aware, doing your best to avoid them and minimising risk.

If someone withdraws a bid (assuming the seller allows it) and you pay your maximum valuation (I'm not sure if ebay works like that) then why would you be upset if your maximum bid is what you consider to be a bargain. If you get it for less then its double bubble. If you suspect you've paid max because of a scam then report it.

If a sniper pays more than your max then they're the mug. So too is a sniper who missed out at the last ditch because they fail to match your earlier top bid. And if a nibbler misses out because they failed to make their top valuation bid then they're also a mug.

When you bid doesn't really matter especially if you win. Just make sure that if when you do bid and someone has already offered higher don't offer more. The point is not to be suckered in to bidding more than the max that you set yourself – then you shouldn't get too disappointed.

H.

I'm a sniper..But always watch and if it goes too high before the end I just don't bother.

If it's lower than I'd pay I have a go at the end.

Win some and lose some but never get drawn into spending more than I want to. 

Cudders

I have reported what I suspect is shill bidding. Nothing happened. A bid shielder is a shill bidder who is clever enough never to win their own auctions.
I minimize the risk by never bidding early. If a sniper puts in their maximum bid they can never lose out.